Over the next few weeks, the Party for Socialism and Liberation will publish a series of articles on PSLweb.org profiling revolutionary women and their essential roles in shaping working-class history.
Painted portraits of 10 women serve as the inspriation for the series. The original portraits were painted with acrylic colors on 2 x 3 foot
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The women featured are widely recognized for their tireless efforts to organize for progress, equality, national liberation and, in some cases, socialist revolution. Their lives and work contain lessons for all people working to overthrow the system of exploitation, racism and greed that plagues most of our world today.
The artist behind the portraits, Carlito Rovira, a PSL member in New York City, said about the paintings:
“We always encounter the promotion of capitalist rule and justification for class oppression in forms which glorify conquerors, exploiters and racists throughout history. From the most affluent institutions like the Guggenheim Museum to images on the currency, oppressors are projected as gallant and dignified.
“It is knowing that art is propaganda in its most poetic form that inspires me to produce it and make it utilizable to our cause. And because portraiture has always been for the exclusive use of the socially privileged, is the reason why I painted the series of revolutionary women. I advocate for the ruling class’ doom by painting the images of those who devoted their lives to revolution and who are traditionally excluded of such grandeur.”
The first article published profiles U.S. revolutionary Mother Jones. Click here to read the article.
Subsequent articles will cover: Assata Shakur; Leila Khaled; Harriet Tubman; Gabriela; Mama Tingo; Rosa Luxemburg; Jiang Qing; Lolita Lebron and Yuri Kochiyama. Each article will be published alongside Rovira’s portraits of the subject.
We hope you enjoy this special series and are inspired to action by the lives of these great women revolutionaries. Check PSLweb.org regularly for additional articles in this series.
