Oppressed, Resistant, and Revolutionary

Abstract

This article analyzes the Third Worldist project of the Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAAL) by focusing on its graphic production. OSPAAAL was founded during the Tricontinental Conference in 1966 and existed until 2019, based in Havana. I argue that the organization played a prominent role in the dissemination of images about the so-called Third World, allowing a certain interpretation of its meaning – associated with the notions of oppression, resistance, revolution, and solidarity – to be visualized at an international level. Different strategies used by artists who worked for OSPAAAL to visually approximate different contexts, in order to sustain this narrative, will be examined. This study is part of the so-called new Cold War historiography and aims to highlight the role played by actors from the Global South in the (re)elaboration and circulation of narratives about the world order in the second half of the twentieth century.

Keywords

• Political graphic design
• Solidarity
• Third World
• OSPAAAL
• Cold War