![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766835050_604_ML-Fundraising-2025-3-930x620.png\")
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Mission Local will never have a paywall.<\/strong> All our articles are free for everyone, always. Help us keep it that way \u2014 donate to our end-of-year fundraiser<\/strong> to make Mission Local free for your neighbors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The San Francisco Poster Syndicate<\/a> was busy this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n A collective of some 20 active screen-printing artists, the syndicate was everywhere: at Civic Center to protest<\/a> President Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration, at Dolores Park for the \u201cNo Kings\u201d<\/a> protest, at Balboa High School for San Francisco teachers\u2019 near-unanimous strike vote<\/a>, and at dozens of other actions across the city.<\/p>\n They gather in the back of the crowd and roll up their sleeves for \u201clive\u201d printing. They lift and lower a metal screen, and push ink through a stenciled design made by syndicate members, and repeat.\u00a0<\/p>\n Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.<\/p>\n In 2025, the syndicate distributed at least 10,000 free posters, an estimate based on the amount of paper used.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are always surprised. \u2018Oh, it\u2019s free? Do I need to pay for it or something?\u2019\u201d said Logan, an artist with the syndicate. \u201cBut we are doing this in community, for the community. It feels like we\u2019re putting out there the world we want to see. Not everything has to be about money.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The goal, Logan said, is that \u201cif we make something beautiful, you may want to hang it on your fridge.\u201d<\/p>\n The San Francisco Poster Syndicate started in 2014, when adjunct instructors at San Francisco Art Institute<\/a> were forming a union<\/a>. Art Hazelwood<\/a>, one of the syndicate\u2019s founding members, taught screen-printing there and was part of the bargaining team.\u00a0<\/p>\n He and his students started printing posters using salvaged \u201cslop ink\u201d \u2014 everything leftover from a day of art classes, mixed together in a bucket \u2014 and put them all over campus. The posters of that era were all gray, Hazelwood, now 64, recalls.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Hazelwood and other artists kept on making posters for student and faculty issues, and collaborating with unions across the Bay Area.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2016, the syndicate became involved with the \u201cFight for $15\u201d campaign to raise<\/a> the minimum wage in San Francisco. Hazelwood brought in fast-food workers to talk with students, who came up with designs based on their working conditions and demands. <\/p>\n The process became the syndicate\u2019s model for working with other movements.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were not trying to impose our views,\u201d Hazelwood said, \u201cbut work with different groups to put a graphic face on what they\u2019re fighting for.\u201d That movement set another precedent: The group began printing posters on the streets for the first time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Logan, 35, first encountered the syndicate at a \u201cProtect the Vote\u201d protest in November 2020. <\/p>\n As a graphic designer, Logan was fascinated,\u00a0but there was no time for chit-chat. Only three people were printing that day, with a long line of people waiting for posters. <\/p>\n \u201cGet an apron,\u201d Hazelwood said, seeing Logan\u2019s interest. \u201cHelp us do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That kind of invitation is not unusual. Last year, when the group was printing in front of City Hall as the Supreme Court heard the Grants Pass case<\/a>, which would decide whether cities can punish people for sleeping outside, a bridesmaid volunteered to help. She threw an apron over her dress and got to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re kind of a street theater,\u201d said Hazelwood, \u201cbecause the posters have more value when people see them being made.\u201d<\/p>\n It invites conversation. Logan compared making posters to being at a party: \u201cSometimes you\u2019re the type of person holding a drink. Or you can be the one helping clean or set up,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve actually had more conversations making posters with people at a protest than being at a protest.\u201d<\/p>\n Those interactions are \u201caddicting,\u201d Hazelwood added. \u201cIt\u2019s modeling kind of an ideal society where not everything is transactional.\u201d<\/p>\n None of the posters are credited to a single artist. That protects members from prying eyes, like those of university leadership or the Trump administration\u2019s surveillance<\/a> on political dissent.\u00a0<\/p>\n Every poster is a collective effort: Different members might create a design, do a drawing, or, at the action day, take on the physical work of printing. When people ask who made a poster, \u201cthe syndicate made it\u201d is always the answer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The posters have come to document a history of Bay Area movements.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people who do the actual fighting on the street, the actual activists, they disappear,\u201d said Hazelwood. \u201cThe posters become the symbol of what was done.\u201d<\/p>\n The history-making is in rapid swing today.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you think about where we were at the beginning, when everybody was caving in, and where we are now, where people are fighting back,\u201d Hazelwood said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great time to make posters.\u201d<\/p>\n Keep Mission Local free by making a tax-deductible donation today!<\/p>\n We have a big year-end goal: <\/strong>$300,000 by Dec. 31. <\/p>\n It’s more important than ever that everyone has access to news that reports, explains and keeps them informed. Paywalls don\u2019t serve anyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n Your support makes it possible for Mission Local\u2019s content to be forever free \u2014 for everyone<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t![\"Mission](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766835052_547_mission-local-logo-300x300.jpg\"){kind=logo}
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On Valencia Street, the San Francisco Poster Syndicate hangs free posters that advocate for sanctuary city. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Poster Syndicate. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sfps_sfai-481x640.jpg\")
The San Francisco Poster Syndicate started in 2014 at the San Francisco Art Institute during its adjunct professors\u2019 unionizing efforts. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Poster Syndicate. <\/p>\n![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sfps_fightfor15-433x640.jpg\")
Artists at San Francisco Poster Syndicate started printing on the streets for the first time during the \u201cFight for $15\u201d campaign. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Poster Syndicate. <\/p>\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sfps_water2-512x640.jpg\")
Artists created a poster in protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo courtesy of San Francisco Poster Syndicate. <\/li>\n![\"Black](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sfps_nodapl-476x640.jpg\")
Artists created a poster in protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Poster Syndicate. <\/li>\n![\"Poster](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sfps_water-512x640.jpg\")
Artists created a poster in protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Poster Syndicate. <\/li>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sfps_mural-480x640.jpg\")
At Clarion Alley, the San Francisco Poster Syndicate artists created a mural after President Donald Trump won the 2024 election. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Poster Syndicate. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sfpd_350bayarea-853x640.jpg\")
The San Francisco Syndicate creates a poster in collaboration with the environmental group 350 Bay Area. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Poster Syndicate. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n