{"id":733,"date":"2014-08-13T12:35:38","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T11:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=733"},"modified":"2014-08-14T16:15:01","modified_gmt":"2014-08-14T15:15:01","slug":"disobedient-objects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=733","title":{"rendered":"Disobedient objects"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

A beautifully crafted Unite banner flies high just behind newly erected\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbarricades\u00e2\u20ac\u0165\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c just inside the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just one of 99 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bDisobedient Objects\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 used by grass roots groups around the world since the 1970s to challenge authority and fight for change. The V&A is crammed with elite and priceless objects. This exhibition is a bracing blast of protest, subversion and dissent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are tear gas masks made from plastic water bottles with a facemask shoved down the nozzle \u00e2\u20ac\u201c used by protesters in Istanbul just last year. There are ingenious \u00e2\u20ac\u0098lock-on\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 devices, used by UK and New Zealand activists trying to stop forests being cut down or roads being built.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At first glance, the Unite Community banner may look very traditional.\u00c2\u00a0 But there is something quite radical about a union banner for members who are not in work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite Community, of course, recruits and organises beyond the traditional workforce, helping to build the kind of grass roots activism which dominates this ground-breaking exhibition.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite Community members in South Yorkshire knew exactly what they wanted in their banner (pictured), says Joe Rollin, who co-ordinates community members across Yorkshire and the North East.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe wanted it to represent local struggles of the past and some victories, to make it clear our spirits are unbroken and that we want to fight for the future. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why we came up with the slogan \u00e2\u20ac\u015bstill the Enemy Within\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, which Thatcher famously used against the miners.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165\u00c2\u00a0 Unemployed, retired, disabled and student members chipped in ideas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The South Yorkshire banner has had many outings \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including the great march to save the NHS in Manchester last autumn, timed to coincide with the Tory Party conference.\u00c2\u00a0 When it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not out on the streets, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on display in Unite Community\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Barnsley offices \u00e2\u20ac\u201c former home to the Yorkshire NUM.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only contribution to the exhibition. There are copies of the Wapping Post, produced during the year-long dispute in 1986-87 when Rupert Murdoch sacked 5,500 workers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Wapping Post played a key role in pre-twitter days \u00e2\u20ac\u201c keeping strikers informed and buoying up morale.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ann Field, Wapping dispute stalwart, former print union and Unite official, said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great to see the Wapping dispute included in an exhibition that depicts people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s struggle for justice, liberation and equality.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor us though, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not preservation for preservation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sake \u00e2\u20ac\u201c presenting the history of battles for workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 trade union rights inspires us all to fight On.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There are some very poignant exhibits \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the appliques Chilean grandmothers made of the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdisappeared\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, an anti-US death sentence \u00e2\u20ac\u015blove truck\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, complete with the death mask of a Texan prisoner killed by lethal injection.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the face of Aung San Suu Kya, hidden in a watermark on a Burmese bank note \u00e2\u20ac\u201c circulating at a time she was under house arrest and images of her were illegal. It took the authorities three months to catch on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another \u00e2\u20ac\u015billegal\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 bank note shows the shocking wealth divide in the US \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a stamped dollar bill divided down the middle shows the richest 400 own as much as the bottom 150,000,000.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of grass roots wit on display. Take the \u00e2\u20ac\u015btactical frivolity\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 of May Day protestors in Berlin and Barcelona who lobbed giant silver blow-up cobblestones into baffled police lines in 2012.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And London student Coral Stoakes made it clear what she thought of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plans to triple tuition fees on the 2011 protest march in London. Her homemade placard blares, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI wish my boyfriend was as dirty as your policies.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Technology is changing protest as activists harness Twitter, Facebook and on-line petitions. But as Pragma Patel from longstanding canny campaigners Southall Black Sisters says on a film loop at the exhibition, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe cannot rely on virtual campaigning. We have to be physically present\u00e2\u20ac\u015b. Quite so.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Disobedient Objects is on at the V&A until February 5 admission is free.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Visit www.vam.ac.uk<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A beautifully crafted Unite banner flies high just behind newly erected\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbarricades\u00e2\u20ac\u0165\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c just inside the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington.   It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just one of 99 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bDisobedient Objects\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 used by grass roots groups around the world since the 1970s to challenge authority and fight for change. The V&A is crammed with elite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67],"tags":[27],"wps_subtitle":"Unite features at the V&A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new inspiring exhibition ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=733"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":737,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions\/737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}