Yeah, you read that right: TESA is in Teen Vogue.
We have long been influenced by the history of board games for changing the world, and we chatted with the Teen Vogue about the most surprising example of all: Monopoly. For those unaware, Monopoly, originally called The Landlord's Game, was created by a woman named Elizabeth Magie to teach about the need for economic change. Here's an excerpt from the article:
“[Magie] was using it to teach about the dangers of land-grabbing and wealth consolidation,” explains Brian Van Slyke, a member of the worker-owned Toolbox for Education and Social Action (TESA) Collective, the group behind games like Rise Up, Strike!, and Space Cats Fight Fascism. “It was this underground tool in the early 1900s, a popular underground game, where people would make their own copies at home and that kind of stuff.”
According to Pilon and Van Slyke, Magie had initially made two different sets of rules for the game — one that was designed to foster monopolies and encourage competition (like the way the game is still played today) and another that was designed to be anti-monopolist, distributing created wealth instead of encouraging players to concentrate it. The Landlord’s Game, as Magie created it, had the potential to teach people about the painful realities of wealth capitalism can cause — not simply encourage them to role-play ruthless capitalists.
“Her point was for kids, when they played the game, to see the dangers and see all the bad things that happened and how people hated each other, and how only one person could win,” Van Slyke explains. “And then in her anti-monopoly version, everyone would come together and work together and play.”
Read the article in full here.
Over the past number of years, Teen Vogue Politics has become an important outlet for social justice news. We're proud to be featured there, and to bring the larger story of games for changing the world to a wider audience.
Production on "STRIKE! The Game of Worker Rebellion" Resumes (While Workers Stay Safe)
We're happy to report that production is starting to slowly gear back up for STRIKE! The Game of Worker Rebellion after the COVID-19 pandemic forced our printer to temporarily suspend operations. Now, they have begun to resume manufacturing. Our printer is saying they believe they can finish the game during the week of June 22. After that, it will take us approximately 2 weeks to ship the game out to you all.
As such, we want to consider the end of June/start of July as our current goal post about when shipping for STRIKE! will begin for everyone that backed it on Kickstarter and has pre-ordered it. Though due to so many pandemic variables, that might be flexible. All our other games are still shipping immediately. Thank you so much to everyone who has bought this game and for your patience - and we can't wait to get it into your hands!
As a reminder, our original goal had been to ship STRIKE! by the end of March/start of April - and we were very close to making that goal! Unfortunately, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturing was delayed. We are proud that STRIKE!, like all of our games, is being manufactured domestically, sustainably, and ethically. While the manufacturing delay was a bummer, we completely understood and entirely supported the workers staying safe - that was the most important thing of all!
And while we are happy to hear that the game can get to you sooner rather than later, we have stressed to the printer that we expect them to do everything they can to keep workers safe, and that such efforts are the absolute highest priority of all, even if that stretches the timeline out further. And by all accounts they are taking this seriously, and we are very happy to hear it. The printer is working with a considerably reduced amount of staff on site, everyone is spread out much further than usual, they are constantly sanitizing their workspaces, and much more.
This pandemic has been hard for everyone, and we know that while board games are not a priority during this time, they can bring joy, levity, inspiration, and entertainment. We are committed to getting STRIKE! to you while making sure everyone stays safe. And again, all of our other games are still shipping.
In solidarity,
The TESA Collective
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