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Radical Poster Collective

In May 2022 three of us met at the With Banners Held High trade union event in Wakefield. After going on the march with the trade union banners and brass bands, and looking through the various stalls; we adjourned to The Old Print Works for a pint and a chat.

Between us we had decades of experience of radical politics, campaigning, leafletting, demonstrating, confronting fascists, printing and fly-posting – and we were talking about our common interest in radical posters.

We decided that we should pull together a collection of radical posters; and we would try re-printing some and see if we could sell any.

We agreed that we wanted to be non-profit making; and that any surplus money we did make, we would donate to good causes. Our interest was in developing and curating a collection of good quality radical posters rather than starting a business. We agreed to call ourselves the Radical Poster Collective.

We all lived in different cities so meetings were generally held by Zoom. We all had different ideas about what made a good poster. One member was particularly interested in Walter Crane, and pre-20th century radical politics, one was particularly interested in Spain and the Soviet Union – bright, colourful and social realist, and one member was particularly interested in contemporary and traditional prints. Between us we brought a wide range of interests that has been complementary.

We also agreed to be non-sectarian – so, for example, although none of us would describe ourselves as Leninists, if we like a poster from the Soviet Union we are happy to include it in our collection.

It has been pointed out to us when we have our stalls that we have suffragette posters advocating “Votes for Women” alongside posters exclaiming that “The Vote Changes Nothing, the Struggle Continues” – but we love them both equally.

Our next step was working out how to re-produce and sell posters – initially getting 5 copies at a time from a high street copier, when we weren’t confident that we could store or sell higher numbers.

We started a website to display the posters.

We started to have a stall at various radical bookfairs – mostly in the North of England, where we found the response quite overwhelming at first. We also had to learn how to transport and display the posters, and how to package them when we sell them. Having tried various approaches we settled on having two big ring binder files on the stall for people to flick through.

We then decided to sell them on Ebay, and over time we have worked out a safe and efficient way to manage sending the posters in the mail. We now put the posters in a cellophane package, and then put them inside a cardboard tube – which works really well.

One of the first posters we made, which has sold well over the last couple of years, was this version of the Nina Vatolina’s anti-fascist poster. At the time, we decided to translate the text into English but since then while we haven’t translated the text, in some cases we have added an English translation to the poster. 

We liked this poster so much we later used it as the basis for a design that we used to raise money that we donated to the RCN strike fund, during the NHS strikes in 2022 and 2023. 

Over time we have developed skills in digitally ‘fixing’ posters that have tears or stains on them. Our early attempts were sometimes a bit clunky (over digitised, or bleached out). Some didn’t turn out good enough because we just didn’t have the skills to create a poster of a quality that we were happy with.

But we have persevered and one of our finest was recreating this poster from the Spanish Revolution in 1936.

We couldn’t find a version that wasn’t in a really poor condition so we started recreating it from scratch

There is a paragraph in George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia that says: “In the barbers’ shops were Anarchist notices (the barbers were mostly Anarchists) solemnly explaining that barbers were no longer slaves.” We think this poster by Ricard Obiols is probably what Orwell was talking about – which we have completely recreated from a poor quality original.

Over time we have improved our website, and now include links to information about the artists where we can; and links to other websites that we think are worth having a look at.

There’s still more to do though – none of us are website designers, but we are learning as we go along.

We’ve tried designing our own posters – none of us are artists really but we had a go anyway. This one of Rocky the communist cat (having nicked the slogan from somewhere else) has been quite a good seller, and often prompts conversation with people visiting our stall.

More recently we designed a new poster celebrating trade union organiser and songwriter, Joe Hill.

We are still working to make more good quality radical posters available, and design more of our own.

Visit our website, find us on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky, and if you get chance come and say hello to us at a bookfair or event.

Radical Poster Collective