YOUTH INTERNATIONAL PARTY MIAMI BEACH 1972 POSTER

This poster by the Youth International Party announces “ten days to change the world” and then simply lists dates, July 10-14 and August 20-24, and a place, Miami Beach.  Seemingly incomplete, it’s a study in understatement with an easy explanation.

The Youth International Party, whose members were known as "Yippies," was organized by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin as part of the anti-war movement of the late 1960s. They played a high-profile role in the protests in Chicago during the 1968 Republican National Convention.

The dates on this poster for “ten days to change the world” happen to be the dates of the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention, both held in Miami Beach in 1972, just four years after the Chicago convention.  Richard Nixon was again expected to be the presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention.

Following their arrests in Chicago in 1968, Hoffman and Rubin were convicted in 1970 of crossing state lines to incite a riot.  These convictions were reversed, but not until  November 1972, several months after the Miami Beach conventions. 

Clearly, as the 1972 conventions approached, the Yippies were not going to make any public statements, in a poster or otherwise, that could be interpreted as inciting a riot; hence this poster does not mention conventions or protests.  Nonetheless, those to whom the poster was directed knew exactly what was being said: join our protests during the Miami Beach conventions.

This poster, significant for what it says as well as for what it neglects to say, makes an interesting addition to every poster collection.

Condition: A