Dr Hannah Awcock has been a
Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Hill since January 2019.
Hannah is interested in the cultural and historical geographies of resistance.
Here she uses protest stickers to investigate Hull’s radical culture.
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Whilst
a lot of protest stickers relate to specific issues, some are quite general.
This sticker is emphasising the importance of solidarity, one of the core
concepts of activism of all kinds. Solidarity
is the practice of offering practical, financial, and moral support to other
activist groups and campaigns. The white ‘A’ in a circle is a symbol of
anarchism.
Since
the EU Referendum in June 2016, Brexit has been a popular subject of protest
stickers, produced by both Leavers and Remainers. This sticker is produced by
the EU Flag Mafia, which sells a wide range of anti-Brexit merchandise (you can
by 100 stickers for £6 if you are interested, and they have several different
designs).
This
is one of the most unusual sticker topics I have ever found, and I have never
found this sticker anywhere else but Hull. Biafra was a secessionist state in
eastern Nigeria between May 1967 and January 1970. Biafra’s attempt to become
an independent state sparked the Nigerian Civil War. The Nigerian military
government effectively starved the people of Biafra into submission, and they
surrendered. Some groups still continue to campaign for Biafran independence,
and I would love to know what the connection is between these campaigns and
Hull!
This
is an example of a handmade sticker. It is playing on the double meaning of
‘colour,’ referring to both race and the more literal interpretation, as in
red, blue, yellow, etc.
This
sticker was produced by the Anti-fascist Network, but it is also promoting an
anti-racist message. Three slanted arrows in a circle is a common symbol used
by anti-fascist groups. It shows how protest stickers can be territorial, by
claiming the surrounding area as an anti-fascist space.
This
sticker demonstrates what can happen when stickers are not removed quickly. It
has been partially peeled off, and large parts of the rest have faded away. I
have seen this sticker before, so I know what it says. It reads “Fight War not
Wars,” which is derived from the popular 1960s anti-war slogan “Make Love not
War.”
This
is another sticker that I have never seen anywhere else but in Hull. Protest
stickers promoting vegetarianism and veganism are relatively common however.
This sticker is encouraging the viewer to watch Earthlings, a 2005 documentary
about how humanity uses animals in a variety of ways. Its design is simple and
there is quite a lot of text. On way of analysing stickers is to think about
how effective their design is. For example, which of the stickers in this post
do you think is most likely to make you stop and read it if you saw it in the
street? Why is this?
Most
protest stickers are left-wing and/or progressive. Sometimes, however, I come
across a particularly unpleasant sticker like this one. It is accusing all
refugees of being prone to violence against women. In recent years, women’s
rights have increasingly been used as an excuse for anti-immigrant sentiment,
which could be related to the rising number of women in right-wing groups. The
sticker was produced by Combat 18, a violent neo-Nazi terrorist group formed in
the UK in 1992.
This
isn’t strictly speaking a protest sticker, but I wanted to end on a positive
note! Jean Bishop is a local hero in Hull, having raised almost £120,000 for
Age UK over the last two decades armed only with a collection tin and a bee
costume. She has been an inspiration to the city for some time, and in 2017 was
awarded and British Empire Medal for her efforts.
In
this post, I have attempted to show the wide variety of protest stickers that
can be found on the streets of Hull. Perhaps next time you are out and about in
the city, you will start to notice them too!
If
you would like to see more of the protest stickers I have found on my travels,
you can view them on my blog: https://turbulentlondon.com/category/protest-stickers/
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