Political graffiti in Milan photo gallery, 2012

Just a few comments to explain some of the pieces above:

First thing to say is that Milan is not a particularly left-wing city. Its not right-wing, but its not a lefty 'stronghold' like some of the cities in Tuscany or Emilia Romagna. That said, there are a few areas around Milan that are and have been traditionally very left-wing.

**Related to this: if your city also has any radical graffiti then definitely take some photos and upload a gallery to libcom!**

There are loads of pieces dedicated to Dax (the guy with the mohican). Dax aka David Cesare was a militant anti-fascist who was stabbed to death by fascists in 2003. When friends of his went to the hospital to see him, they were blocked by carabinieri (who also mocked them as they told them he was dead). This led to a night of rioting and fighting between anti-fascists and carabinieri (which was played by the media as a continuation of 'anti-globalisation' violence - it was not long after the G8 protests in Genova)..

There's lots of stuff about the No Tav struggle. TAV = High Speed Train and is a project they have to connect Turin to Lyon which would involve displacing thousands of people from their communities, I think mostly in Val di Susa (Piemonte). The area is heavily militarised and there has been a lot of struggle between locals and the government.

Last thing, there's a photo above declaring solidarity with Basque nationalism. I didn't put that in coz I support Basque nationalism but because its on the same street as loads of the other stuff and I felt it would be airbrushing a bit to leave it out.

There's some great stuff here... I'm really interested in the idea of street art (as opposed to art stuck in a gallery) as a type of propaganda - and why it's so well and widely used in some places across Europe (you can't walk down the street in any town in Catalonia without some kind of mural or poster) and not at all elsewhere (when's the last time you saw anywhere in the UK declared an anti-fascist zone?). Is it something to do with our culture and collective history? Or something as banal as vandalism laws?

Anyway, enough esoteric rambling, I have fair few photos of stuff like this from around Spain - how do I upload em?

First things first, S-J, if you want to upload some image galleries, then just click here and get adding.. it was my hope that others would come forward with their own pictures, hopefully we can get a nice collection of political graffiti around the world!

Not got time to answer much about the other stuff but I suppose the reason is just that, in general, the UK is just much less explicitly political than a lot of places in Europe. If you think of the histories of countries like Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, France etc.. they're all countries where you can think of massive social upheaval within living memory. In comparison, the UK has been a fairly politically stable country. That kind of politicisation is gonna come out in all kinds of ways like music, films, even language (like, in Italy, where we would describe a person as a bit 'alternative', in Italy they'd say they're 'a lefty type'!).. graffiti would be another one..

Anyway, again, it'd be great to see the pics you've got.. give us another shout if you have any problems..