Political craft history andlessons for today’s craft

movement

Rayna Fahey

The Fabric ofResistance

We live, dance, sleep, work,craft and play onAboriginal Land

Industrial revolution

• Mass shift from handmade cottageindustries to machine based manufacturing

• End to mutual-aid based subsistencecommunities

• Concept of work moved out of homes andfarms and into centralised factories

• Mass unemployment in fabric and textilebased craft industries

Luddites

• Direct action movement

• Started with lace and hosieryworkers near Nottingham

• First attacks in 1811

• “Machine breaking” made acapital crime in 1812

• 17 men executed under this law

• Countless men transported toAustralia

Luddites

• Agriculture workersfollowed lead

• Rural riots lead tofoundation of the TradeUnion movement

Banners• Began in the Trade Unions inBritain in the 1840s

• Used iconography to portraylives of workers, historicalinfluences and visions for thefuture

• Use spread to many differentpolitical movements

• Use of banners continues tothis day in diverse forms

Flags

• Most effective form of creative resistance

• Used to symbolise united visions and goals

• Usually handmade by women active inmovement

Bulgarian Uprising Flag

Sewed by Rayna Knyaginya for theApril Uprising in Bulgaria 1876

Text reads ‘Freedom or Death’

Eureka Flag

• Created in 1854 in Ballarat

• Sewed by Anastasia Withers, Anne Dukeand Anastasia Hayes

• Flag continues to inspire and unite workingpeople today

Suffrage Movement• First major political movement to use craftsas a form of subversive communication

• Major utilisation of clothing, banners,painting, ceramics, knitting and other fabriccrafts as communication medium

• Suffrage Atelier - group within Suffragemovement dedicated to producing visualmaterial

• Produced at least 15o banners

Suffrage Ceramics

A Militant Movement• The British Suffragettes served over acentury of collective time in prison

• Tactics included:

• throwing bricks through windows

• marbles under police horses hooves

• defacing portraits in parliament

• burning mansions and churches

• Some died for the cause

Signature handkerchief sewn bySuffragette Janie Terrano in HollowayPrison, 1912

Greenham CommonWomen’s Peace Camp

• Home of controversial military basethat housed nuclear warheads

• Greenham Common Women’s Peacecamp was the longest peace camp inhistory 1981-2000

• Creative resistance was the main formof activism

• NVDA, fence art, poetry and song,banners and costumes

Global SolidarityQuilt Project

• Quiltscontributed frommany countries

• Attached to thefence as creativepresence fromwomen all over

Woven Woolen Webs

• Challenged theoppressive existenceof the security fences

Craftivism“…based on the idea that activism + craft =craftivism. That each time you participate incrafting you are making a difference,whether it's fighting against uselessmaterialism or making items for charity orsomething betwixt and between.It's about the not-so-radical notion thatactivists can be crafters, and crafters can beactivists.”

From www.craftivism.com

Lisa Anne Auerbach

Lisa Anne Auerbach

lisaanneauerbach.com

Stitch for the Senate

stitchforthesenate.us

Sara RahbarIranian-bornfabric artist

Uses flags to makestatements aboutAmerican-Islamicrelations andnationhood

myspace.com/sararahbar

Melbourne RevolutionaryCraft Circle

• Community based collaborativearchive project

• Compiling historical andcontemporary craft action, activistsand theory

• radicalcrossstitch.com/wiki

Fabric of ResistanceWiki

LessonsThe Craft Movement is part of a longstruggle for social and political change.

In this time of increasing political andenvironmental volatility, craftersshould embrace our revolutionary pastand use our creative skills to make andinspire change.

Direct action and solidarity actionthrough craft will save our planet andall the communities that live on it.

love and rage

radicalcrossstitch.com