[POSTERS / PEACE / ALGERIA] Poster of the 9th World Festival of Youth and Students for Solidarity Peace and Friendship, July 28-August 7, 1965

ÉVORA, TONY (Artist) (1937-2017).

The International Union of Students (IUS), [N.p.], 1965.

Original colour lithographed poster. 82x58 cm. In English. Repaired verso by restoration strip, folded traces. Otherwise, a good print.

The very rare poster of the 9th World Festival of Youth and Students for Solidarity Peace and Friendship, the event was planned to be held in Algeria in the summer of 1965, but the date was postponed due to the military coup in that country and Bulgaria became the new venue for the festival. This attractive poster was designed by Cuban artist Tony Évora (1937-2017).

The poster depicts students of various races, such as Far Eastern, Mexican, Arab, and African, coming together in peace and friendship, sprouting from a flowerpot.

Tony Évora is an artist and printmaker, musicologist, writer, and educator from Cuba. He lived and worked in Exeter, England, where he became director of the Visual Arts, Music, and Publications Department at Oxford Brookes University before moving to Spain in the early 1990s. Since then, his work – artistic and literary - has revolved around Cuban music and its relationship to santería. HIs books include Orígenes de la música cubana, El Libro del bolero and Música cubana: Los últimos 50 años. (CINTAS for Visual Arts, 1978-79, 1980-81).

ON THE EVENT

The 9th World Festival of Youth and Students was held from 28 July to 5 August 1968 in Sofia, the capital city of the then People's Republic of Bulgaria. The festival attracted 20,000 people from 138 countries. Initially, the event was planned to be held in Algeria in the summer of 1965, but due to the military coup in that country the date was postponed, and Bulgaria became the new venue for the festival.

The festival took place at the height of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and due to the Sino-Soviet split, no Chinese delegates were invited to Bulgaria. However, a group of German Maoists attended. They disrupted the opening ceremony of the festival, shouting the name of Chairman Mao and waving his portrait.

The Beatles offered to play at the festival, but the band was turned down by the organizing committee.

THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS

The poster was published by the International Union of Students, a worldwide nonpartisan association of university student organizations until the 2000s. The IUS was the umbrella organization for 155 such student organizations across 112 countries and territories representing approximately 25 million students. This was recognised by the United Nations granting the IUS a consultative status in UNESCO. The primary aim of the IUS was to defend the rights and interests of students to promote improvement in their welfare and standard of education and to prepare them for their tasks as democratic citizens. It collapsed in the 2000s due to an unreliable membership system and a lack of grassroots engagement.

The aims of the IUS were spelled out in the 1946 preamble to the organization's Constitution: The purpose of the International Union of Students, which is founded upon the representative student organizations of different countries, shall be to defend the rights and interests of students to promote improvement in their welfare and standard of education and to prepare them for their tasks as democratic citizens. According to the IUS's entry in the UNESCO Non-Governmental Organization list, the priority work areas of the IUS were: "Exchange of information, defense of students' status, peace, environment, development, human rights". (Wikipedia).

As of May 2024, TriCollege Library has the sole copy of this rare print.