Insurgent Images: The Agitprop Murals of Mike Alewitz

The most prolific U.S. labor muralist since the 1940s, Alewitz follows the traditions of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Siqueiros as well as the early painters of the Russian Revolution. With a demonstrated blend of artistic integrity and political commitment, Insurgent Images combines grand historical themes with enlivening detail, to illustrate the interplay between personality and event. Alewitz brings to this tradition his own rich sense of irony, humor, and fantasy to illuminate the hidden spaces where connections between the workforce of the U.S. and its extended relatives across the planet are to be found. Insurgent Images contains murals for the Teamsters—their “Victory Mural” after the United Parcel Service (UPS) Strike of 1998—the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers, the Communications Workers, United Electrical Workers, the United Farmworkers, as well as the Highlander Folk School and other labor institutions.

Other works respond to dramatic events such as the 1984 strike of P-9 workers in Austin, Minnesota, the 1991 rebellion in Los Angeles, and the tragedy at Chernobyl. Altogether, this collection presents an inspiring artistic reading of our epoch, sometimes poignant and yet full of promise.

Contents

Foreword by Martin Sheen

Introduction

Visual Radicalism in the United States and the Mural Art of Mike Alewitz

1. The Education of a Radical Artist
2. P-9, The Austin Mural
3. Labor Solidarity (for Artists Too!)
4. Lit by LAMP
5. Visions of a Different Future

Postscript

Notes

Acknowledgments

Selected Muralography

Index

Mike Alewitz is a renowned muralist and labor activist. For three decades he has been active in movements for peace and social justice. He teaches mural painting at Central Connecticut State University and is the artistic director of the Labor Art and Mural Project. Paul Buhle teaches history at Brown University and is the author of A Very Dangerous Citizen: Abraham Lincoln Polonsky and the Holllywood Left. His previous books include Taking Care of Business: Samuel Gompers, George Meany, Lane Kirkland, and the Tragedy of American Labor, Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist, The Encyclopedia of the American Left, and C.L.R. James’s Caribbean.