1969
Untitled, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. This design adapts a photograph of Argentinian radical Ernesto (‘Che’) Guevara by Alberto Korda. The photograph was used as the basis of several OSPAAAL poster designs.
Day of Solidarity with the Afro-American People - August 18, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. They also criticised the foreign policy of the U.S.A. and supported the Black Power movement.
Content warning: weaponry
angola - Day of Solidarity - 4 February, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL. Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. This poster commemorates the beginning of the Angolan War of Independence on 4 February 1961.
Content warning: weaponry
July 26 - Day of Solidarity with the Cuban Revolution, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL. Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. This design promotes 26 July as a day of solidarity with the Cuban Revolution. The revolutionary 26th of July Movement led by Fidel Castro took power in Cuba in 1959.
AFRICA, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. Many OSPAAAL designers combined images of Indigenous art and craft with weaponry. Their aim was to argue for the right to self-determination and support liberation movements opposing colonial and imperial powers. However, the designers did not always know the meaning or origin of the iconography they used.
Content warning: weaponry
Untitled, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. Alfredo Rostgaard’s poster depicts Jesus Christ carrying a rifle on his back. On the reverse of the poster is a quote from Camilo Torres, a Roman Catholic priest and guerrilla who fought with the revolutionary Colombian National Liberation Army. Torres combined his religious faith with Marxist politics and believed that “If Jesus were alive today, he would be a guerrillero”.
Content warning: weaponry
Untitled, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. They also criticised the foreign policy of the U.S.A., particularly in relation to Cuva. Alfredo Rostgaard was OSPAAAL’s creative director from 1966 to 1976. His began his career as a caricaturist for socialist children’s comic Mella. For this design, he created a caricature of a United States Special Forces soldier, combined with a shooting target map.
Content warning: weaponry
INTERNATIONAL WEEK OF SOLIDARITY WITH LATIN AMERICA - APRIL 19 TO 25, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. Many OSPAAAL designers combined images of Indigenous art and craft with contemporary weaponry. Their aim was to argue for the right to self-determination and support liberation movements opposing colonial and imperial powers. However, the designers did not always know the meaning or origin of the iconography they used.
Content warning: weaponry
DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF LAOS (OCTOBER 12), 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL. Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. This design encouraged solidarity with Laotian people on the same date as the founding of the nationalist movement Lao Issara (‘Free Laos’) on 12 October 1945.
Content warning: weaponry and religious iconography
FOR THE PEACEFUL AND INDEPENDENT REUNIFICATION OF KOREA, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. This poster advocates for the reunification of the Republic of Korea (known as South Korea), represented by the child on the left, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (known as North Korea) represented by the child on the right. During the 1960s, the governments of Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea formed close ties based on a shared opposition to the U.S.A. OSPAAAL’s designers regularly used adapted photographs from the organisation’s news desk. Photographs were sometimes used out of context, with the same photographs appearing in posters and magazine illustrations to represent different themes. The identity of the children in this photograph is not known.
DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF PUERTO RICO (SEPTEMBER 23), 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. In this design, a three-point cemí figure breathes fire in defiance of the U.S. corporations operating in Puerto Rico. For the Indigenous Taíno people of the Caribbean, a cemí is a representation of a deity, and at the same time a living being with its own vital force. Many OSPAAAL designers used Indigenous imagery to argue for the right to self-determination and support liberation movements opposing oppressive powers. However, the designers did not always know the full meaning or origin of the iconography they used.
TRICONTINENTAL CONFERENCE - 3rd ANNIVERSARY, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL (the Organisation of Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America). Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. OSPAAAL was established after the Tricontinental conference held in Havana in 1966. Representatives from 82 governments and national liberation movements discussed their positions on politics, economics, development and culture. Fidel Castro summarised their unifying aim as “the struggle against colonialism, racism and imperialism.” This commemorative poster uses three characters to represent Africa, Asia and Latin America as united by a common purpose.
Content warning: weaponry
Untitled, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL. Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. Alfredo Rostgaard was OSPAAAL’s creative director from 1966 to 1976. His began his career as a caricaturist for socialist children’s comic Mella. Rostgaard’s vampire-like US Air Force soldier is being driven like a machine. His design was used by OSPAAAL to criticise US military action.
Content warning: weaponry
Untitled, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL. Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. They also criticised the foreign policy of the U.S.A. Alfredo Rostgaard was OSPAAAL’s creative director from 1966 to 1976. His folded poster of US president Richard Nixon unfolds to gradually transform him into a demonic figure.
DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH ZIMBABWE - MARCH 17, 1969
Between the 1960s and 1990s, more than fifty designers worked at OSPAAAL. Based in Cuba, they made magazines and posters that were sent around the world. Their aim was to promote radical political ideas. Many of their posters celebrate socialist revolutions and liberation movements from the Global South. Many OSPAAAL designers combined images of Indigenous art and craft with weaponry. Their aim was to argue for the right to self-determination and support liberation movements opposing colonial and imperial powers. However, the designers did not always know the meaning or origin of the iconography they used.
Content warning: weaponry
