Anonymous Comrade submits:
Greetings, fellow office-workerbees, from the Beehive Design Collective in
Eastern Maine! We are pleased to report that our Hive is finishing up some
fantastic revisions to our FTAA and Plan Colombia graphics for a massive
upcoming print run! We're also excited to announce the opportunity for
groups to collaborate on this print run, as a means to share these
effective popular education, outreach, and fundraising tools with others
working to build awareness and mobilization against the upcoming FTAA
meetings in Miami this November! So. for the first time ever, we're
offering at-cost beehive posters!So WHAT you say?! Haven't heard of us? The Beehive,
www.beehivecollective.org, is a collectively-run, all-volunteer,
decentralized non-profit political graphics workshop, most widely known
for it's intricately illustrated educational posters and banners that have
sought to raise awareness about international issues such as
Biotechnology, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, Plan Colombia, and
soon, the U.S. Prison System, and Plan Puebla Panama. This series of
graphics, which have received international acclaim, illustrate the
effects of globalization in the scale of the "bigger picture" of the
entire Western Hemisphere, while illuminating how each of these "plans,"
and the "single issues" they affect, are different versions of the same
"story," and are all
interconnected.
Last year, we embarked on a seven month tour across the United States,
giving over 160 "picture-lecture" presentations in high schools, colleges,
and community centers about Plan Colombia and the FTAA. Surprisingly, we
were able to freely speak about the devastating effects of "War for Oil"
in public school auditoriums during the past year's warmongering months,
because of our creative approach of using art, and the age old method of
storytelling that employs metaphors and discussion, instead of heady
speeches that spark debate. Almost all of these presentations were given
for free and were able to reach many, many thousands of people normally
outside of activist circles.
These graphics serve as "self-replicating" springboards for discussion and
inspiration, and are used in an abundance of ways, by all sorts of
people... with many using the posters as group coloring projects. An
important aspect of the Hive's mission is that all our work is anonymous
and anti-copyright, for free use as popular education tools. We host a
lending library of banners and slide shows for people to borrow for their
own events, to help this type of communication strategy replicate as a
model and tactic. We are trying to dispel the tradition of activism that
is based on books, experts, speeches, and "hoarding knowledge", by
creating organizing tools that are more holistic, accessible and invite
participation. inspiring action, instead of passive listening or absorbing.
Us Bees are hurridly gathering collaborators and honey for a major
reprinting of of these newly revised posters. We are currently
collaborating with the Comite Latino Anti-FTAA working group in Miami,
Jobs with Justice locals, United Students Against Sweatshops, United for a
Fair Economy locals, Genetic Engineering Action Network, Latin America
Solidarity Coalition, SOAWatch, and the Campus Greens to spread the word
that local groups can chip in to this print run, in exchange for bulk-rate
(only $1 each!) posters that can be used as not only popular education
tools to build awareness of protests against the FTAA this November, but
as a fundraising mechanism to be able to offset travel costs for fellow
ants, especially Latin@s, and students, to get to Miami! Yahhoo! Sellin'
em
like girl scout cookies! Neat, huh?
So there's lots of interest, but little time to patch together the many
small chunks o' change before the posters go to the printer on the 13th of
September. So if your group is interested, you'll have to act fast! We
need to pull together $14,000 by that date!
Costs: We are passing on our discounted print rate of $1 U.S. each, for
either the FTAA (28"x50")or Plan Colombia(18"x6') super-size posters.
They are being printed on 100# 40% recycled stock with soy-ink. Because
of their size, the posters usually receive donations of $10-$20. That
means that 100 posters, has potential to generate between $1,000 to 2,000
for your group.
Us Bees ask that any funds generated from the sale of these posters be put
solely towards travel, outreach, and related expenses of mobilizing your
constituency to join forces in Miami, or simultaneously protest or educate
in your local area. We also ask that your group prioritize sending
representatives that reflect the populations that will be most affected by
the impacts of the FTAA, working class, people of color, especially
Latin@s, if possible.
There is a $100 minimum order, simply because we can't handle a zillion
small requests. Also, we are aware that many of you are in students
groups or organizations that are unable to cut a check that fast. We're
hoping to find a loan to cover these situations, so please contact us if
this is the case.
Timeline: Your group should contact us ASAP to get counted as interested.
Your payment into the pool is due by Sept. 10th. Your posters will be
shipped out on Sept. 25th.
The posters have accompanying explanation booklets that function as a 'map
key' of the images, for free download off our website to make your own
copies for distributing them alongside the posters. They are available in
Spanish, English and French. (FTAA explanations currently under
construction, please see the Colombia ones as an example of their format)
For presentations, our banner printer has also offered us a discounted
rate in support of this effort! The FTAA banners are $2 a square foot
through the end of October, and are printed on recycled soda bottle
fabric. They're great to hang on campus' with a dispenser of explanation
flyers next to them. We recommend the 8' h x 16'w size that we use, which
is $250. Or your group can borrow one from our lending library for only
the cost of postage! We also have "clip art" cd's of these images for you
to use in your outreach materials, and power point version, slide, and
transparency kits.
Our swarm is wicked anxious to get these tools out there to build for
Miami's protests! Our hope is that sharing this resource will enable
thousands more people to use the graphics for their ultimate intention.
education, and mobilization, on mass, ANT-STYLE!
Please contact us with any questions you might have. your groups
collaboration on this rapidly approaching print run will surely have our
stingers waggin' with excitement!
Solidaridad,
Las Abejas de la Colmena Colectivo
p.s. Our swarm is hitting the road in our new veggie-oil powered
pollination unit starting at the beginning of October, giving
presentations of the FTAA graphics all the way down the east coast, headed
to Miami! Let us know soon if you'd like us to stop in your town!
p.p.s. the revisions to the FTAA poster are SOOO fabulous! It has a lot
more contrast, so that you can see it easier, and from farther away,
there's lots of ant banner hangs of about Miami's events, it's now
bilingual, and there's a lot more resistance, actually, a huge fiesta of
resistance happening, since we're winning and all. The new versions will
be viewable on our website around the 5th of September.
the beehive design collective
www.beehivecollective.org
Email: graphics@beehivecollective.org
3 elm st, machias, maine 04654
207.255.6737 or 800-374-6477, pager #0241"
