Reinvention of Everyday Life
has published various uncopyrighted posters, leaflets, signs, songs and booklets under the Reinvention of Everyday Life name since the 1970s.
Ideas in these works are intended to encourage change – in a fun, provocative, revolutionary, intriguing manner. If they succeed or not is left up to you. But if a few folks find them inspirational or useful, or if they can evoke a smile of understanding here and there, then maybe they contribute a drop or two toward a global revolutionary change in our lives.
The rise and passage of the 99%ers / Occupy movement has sparked a new interest in many of these ideas and created a new need for reflections on the history of these ideas and speculations on their future directions. In other words, it’s a new, fun context for the stuff...
So the purpose of this site is to distribute (for free) printable/viewable files of various signs, leaflets and booklets for 99%ers and other revolutionaries to express their feelings about or to expand their own understanding of the reinvention of everyday life.
This stuff is mostly one-page works, designed to be printed on a single sheet, either 8½" x 11" or 8½" x 14". (Or... enlarge to poster-sized sheets, or fit to A4.)
so, here’s the stuff ...
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● It’s Up to Us (The 99%)
This is a song version of the “100 Years / 100 Words” sign, below.
A century ago, we were Wobblies...
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● 99%ers: 100 Years/100 Words
A very brief history. This was the original version of “It’s Up to Us” – before it became a song.
A century ago, we were Wobblies...
.PDF .PDF [print-area] .JPG [print-area]
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● 1%/Zinn, Large Bumper Stickers
1% of Americans own half... ... I’m part of the 1%.
bumper stickers, 14" wide (2 up, on 14"x8½")
.PDF .PDF [print-area] .JPG [print-area]
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● 1%/Zinn, Medium Bumper Stickers
bumper stickers, 11" wide (5 up, on a poster-sized sheet)
[also makes an interesting poster... Anyone remember “pop-art”?]
(PDF is for 11" x17", image is for 11"x 16½-")
.PDF .JPG [print-area]
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● 1%/Zinn, Bumper Stickers Print Shop Master
● 1%/Zinn Bumper Sticker Master for Use by a Print Shop
Get some professionally-printed Zinn bumper stickers to give away. (Bookstores could give them to customers who buy Zinn’s books.)
Send this JPG with the following instructions to your union print shop.
(I recommend Dr. Don’s Buttons.)
Printing Instructions for the “Zinn” Bumper Sticker:
Artwork file (linked below): zinnBSmast.jpg. Final sticker size is 11¾" x 3½".
Bleed on all sides.
Have the union label placed at the bottom about ⅓" below the space between “of” and “the”.
.JPG
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● 1%/Zinn, Bumper Stickers + Bookmark
If you plan to print and make your own bumper stickers, here are some suggestions:
Use 4 strips of a narrow double-stick outdoor carpet tape (5 to 6" long) in the corners on the back of each bumper sticker.
Options for weatherproofing (before applying double-stick tape):
• 1> Don’t. Just laser print and re-print as needed. (Not the best environmentally.)
• 2> Use vertical strips of clear package-sealing tape on both sides.
• 3> Laminate two slightly-separated stickers in a light-weight laminating pouch.
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● 1%/Zinn, Sign
sign (14"x8½")
.PDF .PDF [print-area] .JPG [print-area]
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● 1%/Zinn, Poster
poster ( large: PDF is designed for 16+" x 10½+", image is designed for 17" x 10½-" – print either on 17" x 11" )
.PDF [print-area] .JPG [print-area] .PNG [print-area]
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● Plutocracy No!
small sticker (12 stickers on an 8½" x 11" sheet )
.PDF .PDF [print-area] .JPG [print-area]
You may be familiar with a certain news broadcast (democracynow.org). I don’t really expect them to change the name of their show immediately, But “Plutocracy No!” does seem to be a bit more to the point – and perhaps somewhat less ambiguous.
Print on full sheet label stock (e.g. Avery 5165 / 8165). Weather-proof the front using strips of clear package-sealing tape across the short length of the sheet. (Shorter lengths of tape are easier to control.)
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● Bottle Against the Wall (The Energy of Everyday Life)
lyrics and chords, plus info about playing the song on guitar:
.PDF .PDF [print-area] .JPG [print-area]
lyrics and chords, plus info about playing the song on fretted dulcimer:
.PDF .PDF [print-area] .JPG [print-area]
A song based on part of:
Raoul Vaneigem’s The Revolution of Everyday Life. (Traité de savoir-vivre à l'usage des jeunes générations).
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● Life Passes By (La vie s’écoule, la vie s’enfuit)
During decades of writing/rewriting/singing (or having a musician friend sing) “Bottle Against the Wall” [above] based on Raoul Vaneigem’s writings, I hadn’t ever heard about a song with lyrics he’d written himself – a song which is apparently now fairly well-known in Europe! (Also, unlike my efforts on “Bottle,” Vaneigem even had the sense to keep it short and make it rhyme...)
Vaneigem supposedly wrote the lyrics to “La vie s’écoule, la vie s’enfuit” in 1961, but parts of it might’ve been a bit later. The music is by Francis Lemonnier. The song was on the 1974 album “Pour en finir avec le travail” (For the End of Working) – now reissued as “Les Chansons Radicales De Mai 68” (Radical Songs From May ’68).
A number of French musicians have recorded covers of it in various styles. (The PDF below has some YouTube links [i.e. this and this] – you can search for others.) I found singable (scanning/rhyming) translations in Italian, Esperanto and German, but not one in English. So I created one myself (with some help from notbored.org).
The backing chords for the song are shown in the key of Bm, and there are also alternative chords shown for the key of Am. (And if you happen to play fretted dulcimer, there are two different arrangements shown for the fingering positions to use for those keys.) [Jim, the musician who helps me create lyrics and chords PDFs of my songs [see below] talks about the song before he sings it. His introduction is shown on page 2 of the PDF, and the opinions expressed there are his own...]
The party of Reds, the party of Grays, our revolutions are betrayed.
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Burn down the priesthood’s hiding holes, the nests of cops and CEOs.
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lyrics and chords:
.PDF .PDF [print-area] .JPG [print-area]
· Life Passes By – on YouTube:
Jim tuned down to play in the key of Gm for these videos. (These takes were done before he settled on the arrangement currently shown on the lyrics / chords sheet.)
youtube.com/watch?v=dzPIFoKyo1I (solo)
youtube.com/watch?v=s_IsMmJnJeQ (Peoples’ Park 49th anniversary concert, ~50 years after May ’68)
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● Of interest to this site’s visitors: Songs and a leaflet at the JimBStuff site
Jim Burrill is a musician I’ve worked with on lyric/chord PDFs for three songs here. He performs “It’s Up to Us” and “Life Passes By” in YouTube links above. On his own site (sites.google.com/view/JimBStuff , [songs page]), he posts songs, leaflets and signs – many with an activist perspective, but rather less revolutionary than my own. (Some folks have even speculated that I know him about well as Superman knows Clark Kent, based on a silly theory that the symbol I use for my name could be his initials.)
Here are three of his postings which I find interesting:
Mathematics by Jim Burrill (meter-shifting chant based on part of Lautréamont’s Maldoror)
Factory Girl traditional, an updated version by Rhiannon Giddens
History of Racial & Economic Segregation, Desegregation and Resegregation in American Public Schools
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● Hurricane Sandy: “Occupy Wall Street!”
sign / poster
.PDF .PDF [print-area] .JPG [print-area]
When Sandy visited NYC in 2012, she closed the NY Stock Exchange for two days in a row for the first time since 1888. If you listened closely you could hear her cry “Occupy Wall Street!”
...OK, this image associating Sandy and OWS is not meant seriously. The Occupy Sandy Relief effort’s success, though, does deserve mention. I’ve long thought the American Red Cross far less effective than the International Red Cross / Red Crescent. But it was a new level of ineffectiveness when they couldn’t provide relief because roads were closed, while a spontaneous group of volunteers – whose main focus was not asking for money – was already there helping victims. http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/ (But while this sign’s association of OWS & Sandy is not serious, there’s actually no evidence that Occupy Sandy Relief provided any assistance to the NY Stock Exchange...)
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● Santa’s Suicide Note
Hanging himself by the chimney with care.
An older work. (Anyone remember typewriters?) Thanks to LC for the art.
Will I soon post a cleaner new version with digital text...?
How could the Christmas season I loved become the greatest pageant of an induced mass addiction to pointless commodities?
poster/leaflet/Christmas card (14"x8½")
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● The Secret World of Duvbo
First published by CrimethInc. Republished by Reinvention of Everyday Life after the CrimethInc edition went out of print.
This is a multi-page booklet. The .ZIP file wil contain .PDF files with page order designed for printing. Other files needed for printing will also be included, such as a .TXT file with info on how to print and assemble.
for printing: .ZIP [coming soon]
for on-screen view: .PDF
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● Occupy Wall Street Signs
● Old Shoes/Billionaires
Dance barefoot!
sign/poster (14" x 8½")
.PDF .PDF [print-area] .JPG [print-area]
An OWS variation on an old slogan from May ’68, Paris.
● Old Shoes/CEOs
text sign/poster
.PDF .JPG [print-area]
Another variation on the old slogan from May ’68, Paris.
● Old Shoes/Billionaires – bumper stickers
A .PDF .PDF [print-area] .JPG [print-area]
Print on full sheet label stock (e.g. Avery 5165 / 8165), or use double-stick carpet tape. Laser printing recommended. If it’s not perfectly weather-proof, just print more as needed...
● Old Shoes/CEOs – bumper stickers
.PDF .JPG [print-area]
Print on full sheet label stock (e.g. Avery 5165 / 8165), or use double-stick carpet tape. Laser printing recommended. If it’s not perfectly weather-proof, just print more as needed...