(IMMENSE THANKS TO OUR THREE PRE-PUBLICATION SPONSORS*)
1. *Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley
2. *Dodd Humanities Library at the University of Connecticut
3. *Charles Young Research Library of the University of California at Los Angeles
 
OTHER COLLECTIONS:
1. Art Build Workers archive, Milwaukee, WI
2. Carlos Rogel,(SPARC), Los Angeles
3. Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles, CA
4. Interference Archive, Brooklyn, NY
5. National Education Association, Washing D.C., (archive copy)
6. Oakland Education Association, CA
7. United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), CA
 
“I think like a murmuration of birds there is an emergent intelligence amongst organizers and artists recognizing that we need art and culture to win a better world for our communities and the planet. I think there is a growing ecosystem of arts and culture work within social movements.”
David Solnit, Artist Organizer (All interview quotes are from the accompanying When We Fight We Win catalog.)
 
This Box Set specifically highlights the movement culture of the January 2019 United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and the February 2019 Oakland Education Association (OEA) teachers’ strikes. It is a substantial visual archive that amply illustrates the movement culture of these history-making and successful strikes and the groundbreaking recent and crucial integration of Art Builds into the strategies of union organizing. But it is also a teaching tool. It teaches labor history and how to fight back during a time of mass inequality. Through extensive photography by activist and union photographer Joe Brusky, and with material examples of organizing and protest materials, this box set is a step-by-step intensive interactive manual explaining how to use art to both amplify and accelerate successful social justice and union organizing campaigns. An accompanying catalog provides an inventory of the box set and also features interviews with organizers to provide ample historical context and first-person testimony, (including Cecily Myart-Cruz, President of UTLA, Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, OEA union organizer and teacher, Carlos Rogel, Executive Director at SPARC, David Solnit, art organizer, Nate Gunderson, union organizer at the National Education Association, Joe Brusky, Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association union photographer and social media coordinator).
 
The Box Set contains inkjet, offset, risograph, and screenprints on paper, screen printed picket signs and patches on muslin fabric, digital prints of parachute banner designs, and 30 photographs by Joe Brusky that documents the art in action that document the January 2019 Los Angeles teachers strike led by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and the February 2019 Oakland teachers strike led by the Oakland Education Association (OEA.) Both strikes were historically successful and part of the larger framework of the #RedforEd movement.
 
“Humanity, humanity. And that is what I feel like UTLA learned, that you and the Art Build crew were able to distill the humanity in our union, right? We did have posters that were from our print shop, but that art that was made at the art build, people have in their homes right now! Well, I think we are going to need to do round two.”
Cecily Myart-Cruz, President of United Teachers of Los Angeles
 
PUBLISHER: Booklyn, Inc.
 
TOTAL ITEMS: 80
 
ARTISTS:
Jeanette Arellano, Judy Baca, Jesus Barraza, Micah Bazant, Aise Born, Joe Brusky, Melanie Cervantes, Kim Cosier, Mara Gerson, Jennifer White Johnson, Paul Kjelland, Carolyn Knight, Nicolas Lampert, Josh MacPhee, Claudio Martinez, Daniel Martinez, Ernesto Yerena Montejano, Eric Norberg, Favianna Rodriguez, Carlos Rogel, Miriam Stahl, David Solnit, Dewey Tafoya, Nisha K. Sethi, Vy Vu, Erin Yoshi, and others.
 
ORGANIZERS: Art Build Workers (Kim Cosier, Joe Brusky, Jeanette Arellano, Claudio Martinez, Nicolas Lampert, Josie Osborne, Paul Kjelland) and Booklyn, Inc., Booklyn producer and project manager: Marshall Weber
 
BOX: general design by Marshall Weber and Eliana Perez, final design and fabrication by Eliana Perez; the box label was designed by Dewey Tafoya and was printed on the risograph by Monica Johnson.
 
CATALOG: organizer: Nicolas Lampert, editors: Kim Cosier, Josie Osborne, designer: Claudio Martinez
 
An instructive PDF of the catalog that accompanies this box set is available here.
A full PDF description of the Box Set is available here.
 
Special thank you to Marshall Weber for his vision and support for producing boxsets that gather movement culture from so many key movements of our time.
 
Over the last decade, K-12 public school teachers have become the vanguard of the labor movement. They have gone on strike in red states (West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Indiana), as well as in Blue states in cities such as Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Oakland. These California strikes mirrored the root causes of all of these actions: teachers striking for the schools their students deserve and organizing against the negative impact that charter schools and funding cuts have had on public education. These teachers have fought back and they have won significant victories. As Arlene Inouye notes (the Secretary of UTLA), “People have seen that we have real power, that we can win. Now’s our day.”
 
In January of 2019 over 30,000 teachers, staff, and members of UTLA went on strike in Los Angeles for the first time in thirty years demanding more resources for their classrooms, nurses and librarians in every school, smaller class sizes, higher wages, and a cap on charter schools. This action essentially shut down the city. LAUSD (the Los Angeles Unified School District) represents the nation’s second-largest school system with over 70,000 students.
 
The Oakland teachers’ strike in February 2019 followed a month later and echoed many of the same calls for education justice as their counterparts in Los Angeles. OEA called for smaller class sizes, more resources for their students in a district with 36,000 students and 87 schools, and pay increases to allow teachers and staff to live in a city that has become unaffordable to most people.
 
“And those strikes became national stories. The images around those strikes were not your typical manufactured images. They were not the mass-produced ON STRIKE signs from a union printshop with text-letters only. They were large banners that said “Teachers: We Work for the People” that were designed by local artists. Those images were so powerful. It became an “a-ha” moment to see that type of art in the strike.”
Nate Gunderson, National Education Association Organizer
 
All Activities and Events
Photographs by Joe Brusky:
30 photographs, of art build, community art production workshops, demonstrations, and other events led by UTLA or OEA / examples of the art in action. Printed on archival HP Premium Photo Paper with archival inks, 18” x 12”, 2018-2019.
 
UTLA strike
Offset prints:
1. UTLA offset, We Stand with LA Teachers”, 13” x 19”, 2018
2. Nisha Sethi, “Maestros: Trabajamos por el Pueblo”, Spanish language version (ESP), 13” x 19”, 2018
3. Nisha Sethi, “Teachers We Work for the People”, English language version (ENG), 13” x 19”, 2018
4. Ernesto Yerena, “Stand with LA Teachers” (ENG), 13” x 19”, 2018
5. Ernesto Yerena, “Estamos Con Los Maestros de Los Angeles” (ESP), 13” x 19”, 2018
 
Large screen print:
1. Nicolas Lampert, “When We Fight, We Win”, screenprint, 19” x 25”, 2019
 
Pickets signs printed on muslin fabric:
1. Nisha Sethi, “Teachers We Work for the People”, (ENG), 23” x 42”, 2018
2. Nisha Sethi, “Maestros: Trabajamos por el Pueblo” (ESP) 23” x 42”, 2018
3. Aise Born, “Stop Starving Our Schools”, 23” x 42”, 2018
 
Patches:
1. Judy Baca, “Cesar E. Chavez quote”, 10” x 10”, 2018
2. Nisha Sethi, “Teachers: We Work for the People” (ENG), 10” x 10”, 2018
3. Kim Cosier, “Safe Schools for Everyone”, 10” x 10”, 2018
4. Daniel Martinez, “Austin Beutner dollar bill”, 5” x 10”, 2018
5. artist unknown, “Teachers fight for Student Rights”, 10” x 10”, 2018
 
Digital prints of parachute designs:
1. Ernesto Yerena, “Stand with LA Teachers”, 16” x 16”, 2018
2. Erin Yoshi, “Fight for the Schools Students Deserve”, 16” x 16”, 2018
3. Claudio Martinez, “Teachers We Work for the People”, 16” x 16”, 2018
4. Claudio Martinez, “Fight for the Schools LA Students Deserve”, 16” x 16”, 2018
5. Carolyn Knight, “Schools We Need, Not Wall Street Greed”, 16” x 16”, 2018
6. Nicolas Lampert, “Fund Our Schools”, 16” x 16”, 2018
7. Carlos Rogel / SPARC, “Community Schools Build Democracy”, 16” x 16”, 2018
 
OEA Strike
Offset prints:
1. OEA, We Stand with Oakland Teachers, offset, 8.5” x 11”, 2019
2. OEA, Oakland Teachers Are Fighting for the Schools Our Students Deserve”, offset, 8.5”. x 11”, 2019
 
Pickets signs printed on muslin fabric:
1. Favianna Rodriguez, “Keep Teachers in Oakland”, 23” x 42”, 2019
2. Melanie Cervantes /Jesus Barraza, “Keep Teachers in Oakland”, 23” x 42”, 2019
3. Miriam Stahl / Eric Norberg, “Fight for the Schools Students Deserve”, 23” x 42”, 2019
4. Micah Bazant, “Public Schools Are the Heart of the Community”, 23” x 42”, 2019
5. David Solnit, “Ready to Strike for the Schools that Students Deserve”, 23” x 42”, 2019
 
Patches:
1. Miriam Stahl / Eric Norberg, “Fight for the Schools Students Deserve”, 10” x 10”, 2019
2. Melanie Cervantes /Jesus Barraza, “Keep Teachers in Oakland”, 10” x 10”, 2019
3. Micah Bazant, “Public Schools Are the Heart of the Community”, 10” x 10”, 2019
4. Favianna Rodriguez, “Keep Teachers in Oakland”, 10” x 10”, 2019
5. Mara Gerson, “Public Schools Build Democracy”, 10” x 10”, 2019
 
Digital prints of parachute designs:
1. Micah Bazant, “Public Schools are the Heart of the Community”, 16” x 16”, 2019
2. Kim Cosier (based on an Emory Douglas image), “Education Justice Now”, 16” x 16”, 2019
3. Favianna Rodriguez, “Keep Teachers in Oakland”, 16” x 16”, 2019
4. Claudio Martinez, “Fight for the Schools Students Deserve”, 16” x 16”, 2019
5. Jeanette Arellano / Paul Kjelland, “Ready to Strike”, 16” x 16”, 2019
 
NEA Houston Representative Assembly Conference, July 2019
Offset posters:
1. Josh MacPhee, “Red for Ed”, 13” x 19”, 2019
2. Melanie Cervantes / Jesus Barraza, “Fight for the Schools All Students Deserve”, 13”x19”, 2019
3. Claudio Martinez / Paul Kjelland, “Educators: Serving the Needs of All Students”, 13” x 19”, 2019
4. Ernesto Yerena, “Teachers: We Work for the People”, 13” x 19”, 2019
5. Favianna Rodriguez, “Education Justice is Racial Justice”, 13” x 19”, 2019
6. Nisha Sethi, “Build Schools, Not Walls”, 13” x 19”, 2019
7. Jennifer White Johnson / Vy Vu, “Our Democracy, Our Responsibility, Our Time”, 13” x 19”, 2019
8. Art Build Workers, print descriptions, 8.5” x 11”, 2019
9. Carlos Rogel / SPARC, “UTLA Contract Victory”, digital print, 13” x 19”, 2019
10. Micah Bazant, “OEA”, digital print, 13” x 19”, 2019
 
Digital prints of parachute designs:
1. Nicolas Lampert, “Red for Ed”, 16” x 16”, 2018
2. Claudio Martinez, “Fund Our Schools: Students, Parents, Teachers