The Wobblies are one historical example of social anarchist aesthetics.

Interviewee: Neala Schleuning

In this country there was a powerful anarchist workers movement in the Midwest in the early part of the twentieth century. They called themselves the Wobblies, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). They were called the “singing revolutionaries.” That is one of the most clever things in the history of political art in this country, because they took old familiar tunes that everybody knew how to sing and put political words to them and they published this Little Red Book - they called it - which is still in print. The original was small enough to fit in your pocket. People had the new lyrics in their pocket and they had already learned the tunes. In 1913, the Wobblies collaborated with John Reed and other artists to create the Paterson Strike Pageant, in horror of the silk workers who were on strike. It was an early example of social performance/participation art.  So this idea of people as a group engaging in their art was really central to what Cardwell talked about. And I think it is sort of the essence of socialist realism that art is embedded in the daily lives of people and what they do together.