His birthday party. We played frisbee later.

Draft Dodgers and Art Directors
Vancouver was ready for the politically-fuelled punk rock ethic. This region's radical perspective comes from the very active labor movement of the 1920s and 30s (logging, fishing and longshoring). My grandfather, an immigrant from Scotland, was involved with the Industrial Workers of the World (known as Wobblies); he played a horn in the IWW band, and travelled around the Pacific Northwest organizing unions. In the 60s, the counter-culture flourished as Americans dodging the war in Vietnam arrived in Canada. Political concerns and cultural events were expressed in Vancouver's underground paper The Georgia Straight.

Punk Rock Hits
In the late 70s, when punk rock hit, I was the art director at The Straight – which was by then turning into a more conventional entertainment paper. I put the PMT (photomechanical transfer) camera to use in my designs for gig posters.

Emma Goldman Centerfold
From 1976 into the 80s I worked on the collectively-run international anarchist newspaper Open Road. My artwork – color portraits of anarchists Mikhail Bakunin, Sacco and Vanzetti, and the anarcha-feminist Emma Goldman -- were featured as pull-out posters.

The Politics of Punk Rock
Vancouver’s original punk rock scene coincided with a wide-spread opposition to the right-wing government of the day. In 1983, the erosion of labor rights culminated in a dramatically staged, province-wide general strike. The labor-funded Solidarity Times began publishing, and I was hired as its designer.

Rockin’ Out with Bob Seeger’s Dad
Punk bands played benefits for End The Arms Race, Prison Justice Day, anti-poverty campaigns, Rape Relief, funding for teen centers, legal defense funds for activists, opposition to apartheid in South Africa etc. Of all the musical genres, punk rockers were the most consistent supporters of radical causes. Although youth and style oriented, there were occasions for general audiences, when D.O.A. played a benefit show with Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie, for example.

D.O.A.
My brother, Ken Lester, was D.O.A.’s manager in the 80s. I was drawn into their sphere to design the band’s album covers, posters, T-shirts, and stickers. One of my worst moments was a dead of night call from my brother when D.O.A. arrived in England for a tour. Ken was frantic. The English version of the new LP was mostly blank, the blood-splattered D.O.A. logo was three inches high. Oh god, I thought, what have I done? D.O.A.'s image in tatters, and in England of all places, home of punk rock. I couldn't sleep. They finally let me know that the artwork had also been used for an ad, tagged: reduce 25%. This tag was never removed. Nobody noticed. It still creeps me out.

Word on the Street
Posters were the main method of letting people know about shows and political rallies. Today the battle for poster space is fierce, an anti-poster bylaw makes postering somewhat risky. Teams of youths who look like punk rockers are employed to strip posters off lamp standards. Communication at street level has become a politicised issue.

DIY Art Attack
I self-publish posters on a variety of issues – censorship, poverty, historic labor rights, anarchist philosophies -- and leave them in public places for others to put up. These aren’t posters announcing an event, or selling anything, they just look damn good on the streets. I also create artwork for book covers, theater productions, and literary events.

David in the Jefferies' back yard, New Zealand.

Mecca Normal Sells Out
In 1985 I formed the anarchist guitar and voice duo Mecca Normal with singer Jean Smith. We organized a series of tours in Canada, the U.S. and England called The Black Wedge – we kicked off our first tour by selling out two nights in a Vancouver nightclub. Political poetry? Nightclub? Sold-out? No one had heard of such a thing. As the poster stated, “We are anti-authoritarian poets and minimalist musicians reclaiming our voices, taking back culture, setting our wild hearts free!”

The Black Wedge
We borrowed D.O.A.’s school bus and drove the west coast playing clubs, a soup kitchen, an alternative school, radio stations, parties, and a bookstore. These tours continued for a few years – the name, The Black Wedge, is up for grabs. Take the name and create a tour! Like those bicycles in Holland -- you just take them and leave them for the next rider.

The First Tour
Touring the west coast in 1986 opened our eyes to a whole different underground, a whole new "punk rock". Everywhere we visited we met artists, writers, musicians and activists with a DIY aesthetic and their own methods for making things happen. It was a challenge for us, could these berry-picking, pie-baking kids organizing dance parties and swimming hole picnics be political? Everyone happy, picking up instruments to join in the fun. Us with our smash the state ferocity, and them with a bag of marshmallows and some extra sticks. Almost fifteen years later we are still collaborating with them, or are they collaborating with us?

Becoming a Publisher
In 1993 I started Get To The Point, to publish Jean Smith's first novel "I Can Hear Me Fine". Jean became the editor of Smarten Up! & Get To The Point and we’ve published a series of chapbooks of poetry, politics and artwork by community activists. One book won a major award, another was selected as one of the top 5 poetry chapbooks in Canada, and one of my book designs was featured in Zines, a large format book published in England. Visit the Smarten Up! & Get To The Point website.

This collection of posters, INSPIRED AGITATORS, was conceived in the spirit of the protests against the WTO. The corporations may sneer, but that sneer has a long history of capitulation. Every moment of history is embedded with obstacles that seem insurmountable; achieving social change seems impossible. Yet, again and again, battles are waged in climates of indifference, hostility and brutality.
These posters represent inspired moments of change. When an Indian Nation wore down the might of the U.S. government; when an artist defied the Nazi party; when women achieved the right to vote; when a socialist government was elected in North America; when universal healthcare was implemented; when a union for all was organized; when a woman was finally accepted legally as a person; when a black man fought public lynching. Our worlds lurch and groan uncomfortably.
My watercolour drawings are observations on identity, culture and human interaction. They juxtapose opposites within wholes; details of the everyday conflicts we stammer through; the grays of our shadows. The attempt to communicate has been made easier with technology, but does it mean we understand each other any better? Does media depict us any clearer? Is diversity of thought any greater?
In these drawings paper is confronted by pen, pencil and water. It is a messy process, the lines are not straight and the water has its own direction. Though the meaning of an idea is not always clear, it should still be stimulating. The viewers' interpretation is necessary to 'get it' or 'get it their own way’. Knowing there is more than one interpretation, frees up our understanding.