Polymers of 98.9 to 95.5 weight percent of olefinically unsaturated carboxylic acids containing at least one activated double bond, 1 to about 3.5 weight percent of an alkyl acrylate ester of acrylic or methacrylic acid wherein the alkyl group contains 10 to 30 carbon atoms and 0.1 to less than 1 weight percent of a crosslinking monomer, are efficient thickeners in many applications where high ionic environments are encountered and may be used at lower concentrations to obtain equivalent or better results than prior art thickeners, and have been found to be particularly effective in print paste applications wherein there are reactive dyes, direct dyes and disperse dyes with high and varying ionic content. Further, in screen printing, improved print pastes are provided when they contain the novel polymers of this invention that have better rheology with less bounce back on release of printing pressure, and textile prints so made have better penetration. The resulting prints have an excellent combination of sharpness, lack of wicking, penetration, levelness and color yield.