Long before “Eat the Rich” became a meme, it was a provocation — a sharp, punk-edged slogan printed by the U.S. Labor Front (U.S.L.F.) in the early 1970s, when artists, radicals, and downtown misfits were pushing back against the country’s widening economic and political divides. Part satire, part battle cry, part working-class poetry, the slogan captured everything that era loved: wit, rebellion, and a refusal to take wealth or power too seriously.
The phrase took on a whole new life when Patti Smith wore the shirt during her early career — leather jacket, wild hair, and the words stamped across her chest like a dare. It appeared in photos, onstage, and in the mythology surrounding her rise. Suddenly the tee wasn’t just a protest graphic; it was a piece of punk iconography, tied forever to the godmother of downtown cool.
