For a quarter century Northland Poster Collective has strategized with unions and social justice organizations and designed and produced posters, buttons, tee shirts, mugs, and other organizing materials to advance a more peaceful, just, sustainable and witty world.

The collective celebrates this landmark anniversary Saturday. Click here for more information on the celebration.

The story starts in 1979 when 11 artists associated with a number of social movements in the Upper Midwest got together in a Minneapolis basement to make political art. As the posters they produced began to pile up, a few of the artists took on the challenge of distributing them. They compiled a pamphlet and sent it off to independent bookstores across the country. Thus began Northland Poster Collective and its national recognition as a place to find smart ideas about progressive organizing and progressive art.

Northland is well known for founding member Ricardo Levins Morales' logo designs for such groups as Union Summer and the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice and his art in the Troublemakers' Handbook.

But the collective is better known and appreciated for the intellectual and creative force it adds to the labor movement. Among other things, Northland is responsible for popularizing labor slogans such as "Unions: The Folks who Brought You the Weekend," "Friends Don't Let Friends Cross Picket Lines," "Beware: Keep Hands Off Benefits," and "Unions: the Anti-Theft Device for Working People."

The Art of Organizing
The fulfillment room, from which Northland ships its products at a rate of 8,000 to 15,000 pieces each month, is abuzz with Pacifica radio or punk music, the ringing of the phone, and the banter of witty, bumper-sticker-worthy quips. It's more than the energy of social justice commerce: it's the energy of building the movement.

For longtime activists, the collective is a place to discuss strategy as well as a one stop shop for beautiful political art. "Our activism is rooted in movements," says Levins Morales. "We're not a graphic design business. We're a part of the movement." Often, people call with an order in mind?say, "Danger, Educated Union Member" tee shirts?and end up brainstorming ideas and talking about their struggles.

Collective members like it best when they're brought in early, as happened with a St. Paul United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) local.

"We had a campaign at Rainbow Foods," recalls Bernie Hesse, organizing director at UFCW Local 789. "Ricardo drew a series of cartoons about a management program to get workers to rat on other workers. If you turned someone in, you got a reward. Ricardo's cartoons defused the situation. People were laughing, and it drove management nuts," Hesse recounts.

Encourage the Living, Remember the Past
Mentoring others, and providing a space for them to do their work, is an important part of the Northland project.

"I work here because it's an environment where I can combine two of my life interests, politics and art," says Janna Schneider, an artist and employee whose work is included in the Northland catalog. "It's exciting to know that others find their own expression in my work."

Janna is one of four production workers at the collective (out of a total of seven employees) who design and produce the posters, buttons, tee shirts, and other organizing materials. All are members of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Local 880.

Levins Morales estimates that since the original group of 11, some 50 people have come through the collective. Former members have spread out all over the country to lead unions, staff environmental groups, and create art in many venues.

New and younger collective members have brought fresh insight and energy to the enterprise. "By the mid-90s, we started having staffers who weren't born when the collective started," Levins Morales reflects. "There's a great multigenerational interplay. Lunch breaks are often lively discussions about the issues of the day."

"I like to hear about the past?civil rights, labor rights. It adds to my perspective on my own activism," states Qamar Saadiq-Saoud, 23, a Northland collective member. "I can see how everything is connected better, because so much of what matters to me matters to so many other people."

Saadiq-Saoud first came into the store looking for a pro-union sticker for his bicycle because he and his coworkers were organizing a union. He walked out with a "Will Strike if Provoked" sticker for his handlebars. They won their union, and three months later, Qamar began work as a "collectivista."

Connecting folks with their history and the history of others has always been an important component and inspiration of Northland's art. From the store walls, Mother Jones, A. Phillip Randolph, Joe Hill and Cesar Chavez stare out at customers; one can almost hear their exhortations to organize.

It's not only people who are remembered and celebrated. Posters commemorate the 1888 Haymarket Massacre, the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934, and the Great London Strike of 1768. There is a whole series on Asian America history, and several celebrating Native American pride and rights. Recent history is just as important.

Perusing the catalog collection is a pictorial lesson of progressive losses?and lots of wins. Posters calling for the liberation of Nelson Mandela don't carry the immediacy of a current struggle, but since those posters were printed, Mandela was freed, elected president of South Africa, and now serves as a world elder.

Northland and Labor's Historical Connections
Integral to Northland's history are events from the last 25 years of the labor movement. Flipping through their product catalogs, one can see artwork and materials chronicling the increasing opposition of labor unions to U.S. military involvement in Latin America in the 1980s. Levins-Morales credits that opposition with cracking open the Cold War anti-communism of the labor movement.

As companies began to ship jobs overseas, close plants, reduce benefits, and otherwise target workers, Northland's art, with its organizing potential, reached an increasingly receptive audience. They've produced posters dedicated to shop-floor action, picket line solidarity, as well as a renewed interest in labor's untold stories.

In the last decade, as the labor movement has worked to build solidarity with communities of color, faith communities, immigrant communities and other allies, Northland has been perfectly positioned to further those efforts by drawing on its own roots in multiple communities and organizing experience.

"It really feels like we're a nice nexus of movements," says Betsy Raasch-Gilman, the collective's bookkeeper. "We hear from a lot of people doing a lot of worthwhile stuff. It is very exciting to be in touch with so much good grassroots action going on in the country at large."

Northland didn't start out labor focused, but it has always been pro-Union. Before coming to Minneapolis, Levins Morales had participated in an unsuccessful SEIU organizing drive as a hospital worker in Boston. (The hospital is still non-Union.) And Northland's first labor-oriented catalog was hugely successful. "We realized that there was a great thirst for labor culture that was not getting quenched," remembers Levins Morales. "It got us to turn our attention to what was happening on the shop floors and front lines of the labor movement."

Levins Morales gives an emphatic "yes" to the question "is the Labor movement more receptive to art and other creative organizing techniques now?" "But," he notes, "there is still a lot of education needed. Some unions have really integrated humor and artistry into their processes and some unions haven't. Usually, though, once they start, few go back because it's so much more fun?and effective!"

Does the recent news of divisions in the labor movement diminish the import of Northland's work? "Not at all," responds Levins Morales. "All unions must be about organizing, inspiring, and building alliances if they are to grow. We're here to help them."

In addition to buying Northland art, Levins Morales encourages Union members to make their own. "Tapping into the creative genius of members works its magic in a number of ways to transform the power dynamics of a workplace," he notes. "It helps dissolve the atmosphere of intimidation, builds a sense of community, encourages member involvement, and helps bring the workers' stories to the public or the media in a sympathetic way."

Merchandise, Workshops, Information
Posters, bumper stickers, mugs, buttons, tee shirts and personal appearances by Northland collective members at workshops and conferences all advance workers' rights, among other causes. Merchandise honoring labor heroes, May Day and Labor Day is available at www.northlandposter.com. All materials can be customized for a Local's campaign. Northland's office can be reached toll-free at 1-800-627-3082.