Catalogue Number
NMLH.2023.62
Object Name
Poster
Title
There flows from Latin America
People
General Pinochet, General Videla
Events
Chilean coup d'etat
Date
1972-1982
Description
The Poster Collective was a collective formed in 1971 at the Slade School of Art,  a group formed to initially produce posters in response to the miners strike and on the wars in both Vietnam and Ireland. It was formed on the basis of developing a coherent visual style, which addressed the political issues of the time. This included the armed struggles against colonialism in Africa, the struggle of women for equal rights and the continuing struggle against racism. The collective was active in the 70's and 80's, producing posters on a wide range of issues, including for educational purposes. The group was not-for-profit and used a variety of hand-printing techniques to create their posters. This is a blue poster with purple borders at the top and bottom. It features aphotograph of general Pinochet and general Videla of Argentina saluting together above a car. Text on the poster reads: " There flows from Latin America to the United States a constant / torrent of money some $4,000
dollars per minute, $15 million / a day, $2 billion a year, $10 billion each five years. For each / $1,000 which leave us one dead body remains, a $1,000 per / death, that is the price of what is called imperialism. (In top black part of the poster.)
Everything around us, everything we consume in our daily lives / betrays the omnipresent foreign invasion. We are diapered at birth / by Johnson & Johnson. We survive on Nestle or Gloria milk. We / dress in synthetic clothes produced by French, British or North American / Firms. We brush out teeth with Colgate toothpaste and Tek / brushes. We wash with Lever and Palmolive soaps shave with Gillette / and Williams. We defy the summer sun with US ice cream and / Coca Cola; and now even the biggest producer of cachaca, the national / white rum drink, is owned by Coca Cola. We ride in Otis elevators, / drive Volkswagens and Fords and ship our goods on Mercedes-Benz / trucks fuelled by Esso and Shell. We roll on Pirelli tires, we talk on / Ericson telephones, type on Olivetti machines and communicate by Siemens... [rest of text obscured by photograph] (In blue section of poster)
I saw them bury a dead child / In a cardboard box / (This is true and I don't forget it) / On the box there was a stamp / "General Electric Company / Progress is our Most Important Product" / Luis Alfredo Arango (In black, in the blue section of the poster)
With adequate profit, capital is very bold. A certain 10% will ensure its employment / anywhere, 20% certain will produce eagerness; 50%, positive audacity; 100% will / make it ready to trample on all human laws; 300%, and there is not a crime at which / it will not run, even to the chance of being hanged. If turbulence and strife will being / a profit, it will freely encourage both. / quote in Capital from a Quarterly Review (In bottom black section of poster)" This poster is campaigning to end capitalism in Latin America.
