Silent Agitator
For the High Line art 2019, Ruth Ewan presents a monumental-scale clock on the park at 24th Street that you can also see from street level. The clock is a tribute to the round-the-clock organizing work of the people who once struggled to bring justice to the workplace.
The clock is based on an illustration originally produced for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) labor union by the North American writer and labor activist Ralph Chaplin that reads “What time is it? Time to organize!” The illustration was one of many images that appeared on “stickerettes,” known as “silent agitators,” millions of which were printed in red and black on gummed paper and distributed by union members traveling from job to job. The stickers were advertised through publications such as Solidarity and the union’s newspaper Industrial Worker, and through events such as national “Stickerette Day” on April 29, 1917 and May Day of the same year.
I like to think that Ewan's intention for her clock was to provide a public park gathering space where we can reflect on the history of the labor movement and what it has given us. A place to remember how workers were once labeled "communist" by the government in order to prevent overtime, an eight hour work day, compensation for people injured or killed on the job and child labor laws. A place to recall that factory owners once hired private security to shoot and kill workers as the government turned a blind eye. Perhaps this is just the place to reflect on the history of capitalism and to think about who is on your side.
Is reclamation ever possible? The words of the English trade union leader Robert Crow come to mind "If we all spit together we can drown the bastards."
Silent Agitator
For the High Line art 2019, Ruth Ewan presents a monumental-scale clock on the park at 24th Street that you can also see from street level. The clock is a tribute to the round-the-clock organizing work of the people who once struggled to bring justice to the workplace.
The clock is based on an illustration originally produced for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) labor union by the North American writer and labor activist Ralph Chaplin that reads “What time is it? Time to organize!” The illustration was one of many images that appeared on “stickerettes,” known as “silent agitators,” millions of which were printed in red and black on gummed paper and distributed by union members traveling from job to job. The stickers were advertised through publications such as Solidarity and the union’s newspaper Industrial Worker, and through events such as national “Stickerette Day” on April 29, 1917 and May Day of the same year.
I like to think that Ewan's intention for her clock was to provide a public park gathering space where we can reflect on the history of the labor movement and what it has given us. A place to remember how workers were once labeled "communist" by the government in order to prevent overtime, an eight hour work day, compensation for people injured or killed on the job and child labor laws. A place to recall that factory owners once hired private security to shoot and kill workers as the government turned a blind eye. Perhaps this is just the place to reflect on the history of capitalism and to think about who is on your side.
Is reclamation ever possible? The words of the English trade union leader Robert Crow come to mind "If we all spit together we can drown the bastards."