This year’s centenary of the start of the First World War is accompanied by a tidal wave of events and commemorations. But one key aspect of the war’s history is likely to receive little or no attention: the history and stories of the people and organisations that opposed the conflict.
Moreover, this history – of police raids and buried documents, feminist peace initiatives and clandestine printing presses, striking German munitions workers and communities of resistance from Huddersfield to Hackney – appears to be largely unknown even to contemporary activists.
To help counter this omission PN is researching and producing a series of 10 highly-visual colour posters, celebrating key figures and events from the First World War anti-war movement, featuring the distinctive graphic art of PN co-editor Emily Johns.
The project has been named ‘The World is My Country’ – a phrase of Tom Paine’s used by jailed anti-war activist Alice Wheeldon in a letter from prison in February 1917.
The first poster (‘The great case of Bodkin v Bodkin’) is completed and will be available shortly – in sizes A5 and A2 – through the PN webshop.