This project has focused on stories uncovered from The Bishopsgate Institute Archive of people who have fought for different workers’ rights related campaigns. I have focused on three case studies, which I believe can teach us different aspects of advocating for ourselves and resisting.
 

The Wages for Housework Campaign (1960s – present) can show us how to organise a larger and more varied, seemingly unconnected group of people.
 

The Murder of Altab Ali (1978) shows what the political mechanisms which strive to keep us apart are, and that the passing of one law is not the end of a struggle. It also deal with memory, asking who is being remembered and why.

 

The Wapping Dispute (1986) is a perfect example for why it is important to find ways to come together and fight for our rights, as technological advancement shouldn’t only benefit employers.

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Using traditional printmaking techniques (which are laborious and trade specific) to illustrate these stories has been instrumental in personally realising the extent of the work that organisations of the past have had to do in order to fight for and gain the rights that we take for granted today. None of the benefits of today have been achieved without protest and organised resistance, and we need to be inspired by the past in order to keep moving forward.

 

Illustrations have been made through etchings, metal engravings, linocut, wood engraving and letterpress.