Posted on 03/05/2003 3:45:11 PM PST by MadIvan
MILLIONS of peace shirts, from slinky rainbow vests by the Italian designers Dolce & Gabbana to baggy, mass-produced sweatshirts, have been sold to protesters worldwide.
Peace paraphernalia, once relegated to market stalls in Camden Town and Greenwich Village, has become a booming global industry as the anti-war movement gathers pace.
Printing firms across Britain and America have reported huge increases in sales and are struggling to meet the demand for anti-war apparel.
In London, a tiny firm of printers founded by radical punks in the 1970s has become a market leader.
Fifth Column, which started out making T-shirts for the Clash and Johnny Rotten, is now making thousands of anti-war tops from its scruffy base in Camden, North London.
Spike Naughton, its director, said: “We would not like to think we are profiting from possible war in Iraq, but we have seen a big increase in business.
“We have taken a massive order from CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) and a lot of individuals are ordering batches of T-shirts and selling them on at marches.”
In America, another small printing firm is scrambling to meet huge orders in a barn in the backwoods of eastern Connecticut. Donnelly-Colt Progressive Resources is one of the oldest suppliers of peace merchandise in the United States.
Kate Donnelly, the owner, said: “T-shirts were selling slowly, about five a week. Now we are selling thousands. We saw a rise in the first Gulf War, but nothing like this. This is the biggest increase of sales ever and it’s not just T-shirts — we are making anti-war bumper stickers, buttons, and lawn signs.”
Designers have also jumped on the bandwagon: Dolce & Gabbana appropriated the rainbow “Pace” flags hanging from Italian balconies and turned them into stylish vests, and Katharine Hamnett, the British designer, launched an anti-war top at London Fashion Week. The Stop the War Coalition said that it has sold 20,000 of Hamnett’s “Blair Out — Not In Our Name” T-shirts.
The New York-based International Answer Coalition, which runs the global anti-war movement, said that millions of peace T-shirts had been sold worldwide. Hundreds of thousands were printed in America, including “Regime Change Starts at Home” and “International Terrorist” (with a picture of President Bush).
As for ANSWER, their selling t-shirts reminds me of what Lenin said about the capitalists selling the rope to hang them with. They are profiting off of a system they hate, in order to destroy it.
Regards, Ivan
You hit the nail right on the head.
Actually, that's the conclusion I came to at the February 15 rallies here in NYC. Most of them seemed utterly clueless as to just what they were protesting or why, and while walking among them and listening to their blathering on the way to our pro-America FReep, I got the distinct impression that many of them were there just to be able to say that they were there.
Well, I live in NYC -- a mere few blocks from the site of the former WTC -- and I have yet to see any of that anti-war clothing and other crap down here. I don't think that would go over too well here.
Wasn't there a Seinfeld episode that parallels this topic... something about wearing an AIDS ribbon because it was 'supertrendy'?
It's true! And they even admit it. Week before last, some leading Hollywood Leftist (Jeannette Garofalo?) answered a question as to why she had not spoken out during the Clinton years, and she answered that "It wasn't very hip" to criticize Clinton.
So there you have it! It's "hip" to scream against war when the GOP is in the White House, but not "hip" when a Dem is in.
BOTTOM LINE: Think of "anti-war protest" as the equivalent of making a serious Fashion Statement. (PS: Garofalo article)
Oh, the irony is so thick you could carve out a baseball abt-sized chunk and bludgeon a hippie with it. :-)
BTW, does this mean that wearing a "Hippies STILL Stink" shirt will mark me as terribly unhip?
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