The power of the working class is the hope of the nation”. – Van Jones
International Labour Day or May Day is a celebration of the sweat and toil of the millions of workers who shaped the world. What began as a peaceful protest by workers at Haymarket Square in Chicago in 1886, demanding an eight-hour work day, soon turned violent resulting in the death of police officers as well as striking workers. The day is now recognised as an important point in the history of labour movements.
No workers’ protest has been complete without posters, placards, and banners. These have been used for centuries and may have started as small scratchings on walls or stones to show dissent and later evolved into placards and pamphlets. Here’s a look at this art form that has become such an intrinsic part of today’s protest rallies.
The first visual protest
Although the origins of the first protest poster cannot be traced to the exact point in history, the earliest recorded instance is related to the church. Martin Luther, a German priest and professor at the University of Wittenberg, Germany, authored the book The Ninety-five Theses in 1517, which challenged the authority of the church, a brave act in those days. When Luther and members of the Protestant Reformation stuck excerpts from the book on the church doors, the message of defiance that was conveyed was perhaps the oldest visual symbol of resistance.
Emblems of labour revolution
Placards and posters have always served as crucial tools to mobilise workers to come together for a cause. They have often been proudly displayed in the homes of workers who once held them to proclaim their fight for fair practices. Designed by artists, they are usually full of symbols and powerful quotes.
The 1889 Dockers Strike is a perfect example of how banners were used to create a visual spectacle, to further strengthen the voices of the protestors.
During the strike by 100,000 dock workers demanding better pay, banners with slogans that read, ‘We shall fight and we shall win until all destitution and prostitution are swept away’, as well as posters with images of Hercules wrestling a serpent which symbolised the workers’ exploitation, were used with great effect. Some of the banners even used famous artworks, like the illustrations from Walter Crane’s book, Hercules and The Old Man and the Sea.
The 1926 Miners Lockout saw a shift in the tone of general trade union banners, when the Red Follonsby banner, featuring a portrait of Russian Communist leader Lenin, was widely used. It marked a change to an almost militant call to arms and represented fiery defiance. At the time, it was considered extremely revolutionary considering the normal standards for British Trade Union propaganda material.
India’s slogans of resistance
Our country’s use of banners and posters started in the late 19th century when there was a slow rise in labour activism and trade unionism. When the 1877 strike at Nagpur’s Empress Mills took place, labour strikes were new to the nation and hence, although banners were used, there was a lack of any sort of standardised formats. The primary focus was on collective action, rather than visual representations that would serve as an alternate voice.
By 1918, when the Ahmedabad Textile Workers strike took place, demanding better wages, leaflets, banners, and many other forms of communication were in use. Led by Mahatma Gandhi, the demonstrations were nonviolent, and the peace marches strongly relied on these banners to get the message across. Ever since the nation breathed the air of Independence from colonial rule, the usage of these protest posters has only been amplified. The designs gradually became aimed at attention-grabbing, which was very essential during rallies, and slogans too were coined bearing in mind the vocabulary of the times. In contemporary days, digital banners are being utilised to the fullest, with bright-coloured posters and compelling words leaping out of mobile screens, impacting even the casual browser, well enough to relate to the cause.
Cutting across censorship
Just as any act of rebellion can land one in trouble, the posters one holds while protesting can cause serious consequences for the striking group. When gold and silver miners went on a series of strikes from 1903-1904, often referred to as the Colorado Labour Wars, the poster that was created for the protest, titled Is Colorado in America, led to the arrest of the president of the Federation of Miners for using the American flag as a backdrop to the slogans, which spelled out the human rights abuses committed by the owners of the mines.
Banners are indeed a risk to be shouldered by the protestors and provocative ones can lead to police action and legal issues. Some rallies and demonstrations have cleverly resorted to the use of blank pieces of cardboard or paper as a novel way to deliver the message while making it hard for the authorities to find reasons to censor them.
A simple phrase or a single potent image it may be, but these mighty tools have challenged the highest corridors of power. Their validity may be for a specific moment in time but their relevance stays on forever and they have proved to be a valuable source for the historical documentation of labour movements. What better testament do we need to understand that art inspires action?