Margaret McCarthy: 2! 4! 6! 8!

The art of protest

“The 80’s and 90’s are often portrayed as decades of greed and apathy when social activism vanished. In fact, those times spawned vigorous and committed opposition to a rapidly escalating nuclear arms race and U.S. activities in Central America. A military draft threatened to unfairly target black and inner city youth. Frustration over the treatment of women and same sex couples reached a slow boil as the AIDS crisis hit and abortion rights were continually attacked. We realized the environment was in trouble. A sea change occurred then: the awareness of how all these issues were connected. Occupy Wall Street was preceded by large-scale demonstrations in opposition to the Iraq War; those were historically connected to the activism of the 80’s and 90’s. The anti-war movement of the 60’s eventually evolved into a peace movement, which birthed a consciousness of how all the important issues we face are related.” Margaret McCarthy, February 2012