The COVID-19 pandemic hit us in the middle of a presidential election in which health care is a central issue, so it’s an opportunity to review some of the images that the labor movement has produced. In 2002 my colleague Tim Drescher and I surveyed dozens of archives and collections for the first comprehensive book on posters of the American labor movement, Agitate! Educate! Organize! American Labor Posters. Some of these are from the important Los Angeles collection of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, the rest from my own physical and digital archives at Docs Populi (Documents for the Public).

For the current crisis, I’ve pulled some of those, and more, for this brief display of health care images. 

Some of these [Photos 1, 3, 8] are the polished products of large

international unions, others [Photos 2, 4, 5, 9] are spirited local media

supporting community-based programs and labor actions.  Artists and cultural workers have lent their skills to this messaging – [Photo 10] is by a

member of the decentralized artist’s cooperative Justseeds, and [Photo 6] is

admittedly a stretch for health care, but a great safety mask graphic. It’s an homage to the classic 1975 labor book Detroit: I do mind dying: a study in urban revolution, updating it to be a more inclusive “WE.” The artist explains: “It’s a portrait of myself or anyone as an industrial worker. The mask is about worker protection today, same as it was 40 years ago.” 

 And a huge shout-out goes to New York’s SEIU District 1199, the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees. During the late 1970s and early 1980s they committed resources to the Bread and Roses Project, perhaps the most comprehensive labor arts program ever in the US, supporting art exhibitions, Labor Day street festivals, poster art, and theater [Photo 11].

Progressive labor unions aren’t shy about taking on broad health care policy issues, such as national health insurance (sound familiar?). Fred Wright (1907-1984) the prolific labor cartoonist pits the embattled insurance industry Kong against waves of UE pilots [Photo 3]. And when a previous virus was ravaging the world, the role of frontline healthcare workers was honored in print [Photo 7].

Posters may not make us healthy, but they certainly can help the workers and unions that do. Support our frontline staff. Support our health care institutions.

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