THE WORLD SAYS NO TO WAR
Awareness from the Forth Position Archive
On February 15th 2003, an estimated 15 million people in 60 countries around the world said
No to War. The largest of these demonstrations took place in countries that were part of the Bush administration's
coalition of the willing: with 2 million marching in Rome, 1.5 million in London, 1.3 million in Barcelona.
In January of 2003, after much discussion on the relative merits of
positive / negative messaging, the slogan
The World Says No to War was
agreed upon. Forth founder Thomas Gallagher took part in this discussion
as volunteer coordinator of the United for Peace & Justice Arts
& Culture Working Group.
Forth proposed 14 banners
with languages selected from two groups: countries on the UN Security
Council that could veto a use of force resolution, and communities
specifically targeted or being more directly affected by the policies of
the war on terror. The four languages on the march signs were chosen to
symbolically represent the three major cultural / religious communities
at the center of the conflict. The
banners and signs were created with two objectives in mind, to visually
show solidarity with people outside the United States while empowering
members of those communities / cultures living here to represent their
sisters and brothers in their country of origin. Forth also designed a
series of t-shirts mirroring the four language signs. The designs were
based on prior Forth signage for
Stand Up New York. A 10' x 24' stage banner created for the FEB 15 rally was based on the drawings of a
young graffiti artist from Philadelphia and painted, quite literally,
overnight by members of the Arts & Culture Working Group.
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| Photo by Fred Askew |
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| New York Times photo |
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| Photo by Diane Greene Lent |
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| Photo by Diane Greene Lent |
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| Associated Press photo |
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| El Diario / La Prensa photo |
Language (Solidarity) Banners from top:
English, Tagalog, Korean, Spanish, German, Arabic, Hebrew, Swahili, Russian, Japanese, Urdu, Italian, French and
Chinese. Main Banner 3' x 20'. All others 2' x 7-10'
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| T-Shirt Front |
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| Back – March Version |
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| Generic Version |
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| Spanish Version |
Over the subsequent months Forth designed other UFPJ banners, signs, mobilizing and issue specific flyers, and even produced a radio announcement for a UFPJ organized
New York Says No to WTO rally.
June 23, 2004 Bush Fundraiser Protest (in solidarity with Planned Parenthood) Signs x2 – Front / Back. Bombs Drop Bush Profits small type reads
Carlyle – Halliburton – Bechtel. Who Profits From War? small type: same
plus The Bush Campaign. Bush Lied About WMD small type:
and everything else.
