The Madame Binh Graphics Collective (MBGC) was the propaganda arm affiliated with the May 19th Communist Organization in the United States. It was active from 1977 until the MBGC faded away in 1983.

Organization and actions

Within a structure of collaborative authorship, the all-women collective made a stylistic range of posters, prints and street art on anti-racist subjects and in support of national liberation movements. It also taught classes in drawing, design and silk-screening. One of the collective's main goals was to provide "material aid" (as opposed to just visibility or propaganda) to the international movements it supported, so the collective often sold its work or used art to advertise its allies' meetings or actions. Much of the collective's archive was bought in 1981, before the collective was raided by the FBI. Many of the purchased posters were donated to the Hampshire College Archive in 1991, as part of the Karen DiGia Collection. One of its best-known posters is a photograph of Assata Shakur with the text "Assata Shakur is welcome here" below. It is signed with the pseudonym "The Republic of New Afrika". The MBGC Assata Shakur poster influenced the design of Micah Bazant's 2017 poster "Refugees Are Welcome Here". The MBGC was named after Madame Nguyễn Thị Bình, a signatory of the

Paris Peace Accords The Paris Peace Accords, () officially titled the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet Nam (''Hiệp định về chấm dứt chiến tranh, lập lại hòa bình ở Việt Nam''), was a peace treaty signed on January 27, 1 ...

in 1973 on behalf of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam. The historian Lien-Hang Nguyen has argued that the MBGC was one of many US radical left groups which looked to the

Vietnamese Revolution The August Revolution ( vi, Cách-mạng tháng Tám), also known as the August General Uprising (), was a revolution launched by the Việt Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam) against the Empire of Vietnam and the Empire of Japan in ...

as a source of inspiration and solidarity — as an exemplar of a functioning communist politic. Members included

Mary Patten Mary Patten (born 1951, Evanston, IL) is a Chicago artist and activist. Her works combine writing, video installation, performance, artists' books, drawing, photography, collaboration, and activism. Her writing, lectures, videos, and artwork de ...

Laura Whitehorn Laura Jane Whitehorn (born April 1945) is an American activist who participated in the 1983 United States Senate bombing and was imprisoned 14 years in federal prison. In the 1960s, she organized and participated in civil rights and anti-war mov ...

, Margo Pelletier,

Wendy Grossman Wendy M. Grossman (born January 26, 1954) is a journalist, blogger, and folksinger. Her writing has been published in several newspapers, magazines, and specialized publications. She is the recipient of the 2013 Enigma Award for information secu ...

, Lisa Roth, Eve Rosahn and Donna Borup.

Organization and actions

References

Further reading