No Business as Usual!" Original 1971 Vietnam Moratorium Day Protest Poster by the Vietnam Peace Parade Committee
- 1971
1971. [Counterculture][ Social Activism] This striking 1971 protest poster was issued by the Vietnam Peace Parade Committee to promote national participation in Vietnam Moratorium Day, observed on Wednesday, October 13th, 1971. Designed in bold agitprop style, the poster combines militant typography with an urgent visual motif that reflects the escalating tone of the antiwar movement in the early 1970s. New York: Vietnam Peace Parade Committee, 1971. Bold white typography with circular graphic emblem at top.
Below the emblem, centered white text declares: "we will observe / moratorium day / wed., october 13ᵗʰ / by" followed by a large white blank space, left intentionally empty for local groups or individuals to fill in their planned action or statement of protest. The poster concludes with a defiant and unequivocal call: "no business as usual! / end the war now!" At the bottom, the issuing organization is credited: Vietnam Peace Parade Committee, 17 East 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10003.
The poster is a vivid artifact of the Vietnam Moratorium movement, which began in October 1969 as a coordinated nationwide effort to halt everyday activities in protest of the war. Unlike previous marches and rallies, Moratorium Day called for civic refusal and general strikes, encouraging walkouts from schools, workplaces, and public institutions. By 1971, in the wake of the Cambodian incursion and the publication of the Pentagon Papers, the antiwar movement had taken on a more urgent and radical tone. This poster's slogan-"no business as usual!"-reflects that shift, asserting that complicity in everyday life was untenable while the U.S. continued to bomb and occupy Southeast Asia. As a piece of protest ephemera, the poster is emblematic of the era's graphic culture of resistance: minimalist yet commanding, visually direct yet ideologically expansive. Light handling wear, otherwise very good.
Below the emblem, centered white text declares: "we will observe / moratorium day / wed., october 13ᵗʰ / by" followed by a large white blank space, left intentionally empty for local groups or individuals to fill in their planned action or statement of protest. The poster concludes with a defiant and unequivocal call: "no business as usual! / end the war now!" At the bottom, the issuing organization is credited: Vietnam Peace Parade Committee, 17 East 17th Street, New York, N.Y. 10003.
The poster is a vivid artifact of the Vietnam Moratorium movement, which began in October 1969 as a coordinated nationwide effort to halt everyday activities in protest of the war. Unlike previous marches and rallies, Moratorium Day called for civic refusal and general strikes, encouraging walkouts from schools, workplaces, and public institutions. By 1971, in the wake of the Cambodian incursion and the publication of the Pentagon Papers, the antiwar movement had taken on a more urgent and radical tone. This poster's slogan-"no business as usual!"-reflects that shift, asserting that complicity in everyday life was untenable while the U.S. continued to bomb and occupy Southeast Asia. As a piece of protest ephemera, the poster is emblematic of the era's graphic culture of resistance: minimalist yet commanding, visually direct yet ideologically expansive. Light handling wear, otherwise very good.
Details
Title
No Business as Usual!" Original 1971 Vietnam Moratorium Day Protest Poster by the Vietnam Peace Parade Committee
Author
Vietnam Moratorium Day Protest
Condition
Unknown
Date
1971