T-Shirt Women Freisinnig (Argentina 1882)

On 1 January 1882 a group called Sammelpunkt der freisinnigen Deutschen in Buenos Aires (Meeting Place of the Free Germans in Buenos Aires) was formally inaugurated. It was formed by German socialists as a mutual society. On October 2, 1886, they founded a newspaper with the same name as the group, and by 1889 the circulation of the paper was 600 copies. At this time the group also had around 150 members, as well as a headquarters containing a library, a meeting hall and theatre at Comercio 880. Die "Freisinnigen" were active also on a political and practical level and were among those who initiated and implemented the first May Day celebrations in 1890. This initiative followed the International Workers' Congress in Paris 1789 where it was decided to give expression to the workers' general demands through the introduction of May Day as an international day for workers and their agitation in each individual country. In Argentina, the "Freisinnigen” undertook the effort to establish an international organizing committee in March 1890 and to successfully hold the demonstration two months later with approximately 2,000 participants.

The design realised by Poxi from Buenos Aires combines the word "freisinnig" (meaning free or free spirited) with the Argentinian May sun (sol de mayo) which symbolizes the birth of Argentina's independence, commemorating the sun breaking through clouds during the May Revolution of 1810. It represents liberty and self-rule, honoring the Inca sun god Inti, connecting the newly born nation to indigenous heritage and its pre-colonial past. The broken chains underneath the sun are both an allusion to the line "hear the sound of broken chains" (oid el ruido de rotas cadenas) from Argentina's national anthem and a tribute to the international workers' movement; the phrase "Workers of the world, unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains!" is the famous closing line from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' in The Communist Manifesto.