ART WORK
Left: Workers Must Have A Say in Their Working Conditions and Wages
Right: Capitalism = Death
Pages from New Demands? Part II in Counter Signals 4, 2021
Workers Must Have A Say in Their Working Conditions and Wages is from the Make LA Sweatshop Free campaign organized by the Los Angeles Garment Worker Center/El Centro de Trabajadores de Costura: “Garment workers must have a say in their working conditions and wages by having the right to negotiate directly with employers and the brands that profit from their work.” The Center organizes low-wage, mainly immigrant women workers in LA’s garment industry, many of whom are excluded from coverage under the federal National Labor Relations Act. Worker centers are worker- led and are often more inclusive and democratic than traditional labor unions.
Capitalism = Death is inspired by the SILENCE = DEATH poster created in 1986 by Silence = Death Project collective members Avram Finkelstein, Brian Howard, Oliver Johnston, Charles Kreloff, Chris Lione, and Jorge Soccarás. The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) used the poster as a central image. This work connects the AIDS and Covid-19 pandemics by highlighting government responses to both, characterized by racism, xenophobia, homosphobia, victim-blaming, corporate greed, and the lack of meaningful national action and access to affordable health care. Download the full essay at: lvinebaum.com/pdfs.html