Jeff VanderMeer, reviewing Penguin's Great Ideas collection on his blog Ecstatic Days has reached the Communist Manifesto by Marx & Engels. This reminded me of some old treasured posters in my possession which I acquired during the uproar of the Whitlam Government dismissal in 1975. Several of them (in fact most of them) were produced by the Communist Party. Even though I was never a member of the Communist Party I have a communist party badge, given to me by a friend who was.
Anyway, back to the posters...
They are all a bit tattered and browned by time, being at the time printed on poor quality paper, but they are probably extremely rare these days. I have photographed them as they are too large to scan.
Firstly, a very popular poster of the time showing Malcolm Fraser on a horse as a haughty squatter. Even though we hated Malcolm Fraser at the time he took power, he has since evolved into an admirable human being, being outspoken in his concern for the underprivileged.
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Next, the infamous John Kerr (the Governor General of whom Whitlam famously said Well may we say "God save the Queen" because nothing will save the Governor-General) features as the focus of a rally.
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Blinky Bill, the hero of a famous Australian children's book, carries the Eureka flag.
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And finally, a bit irrelevant to politics, Bear Dinkum - iconic Australian bear created by Neil Curtis.
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Click images for larger versions
2 comments:
oh comrad, the workers flag is deepest red.
those posters should be worth a lot of money if you were desperate enough to part with them.
Eureka Blinky is totally wonderful, Kerr was a bucket of shite from start to finish, and people forget that Malcolm was only 25 when elected to the seat of Wannon.
Wishing you
only happy days through the New Year.
You must be my vintage if you remember all that.
I am aware the posters could be worth something, but they are really in pretty bad repair. I should have looked after them better.
I loathed Fraser during his years in Government. Remember his catch phrase "Life wasn't meant to be easy"?
Still, when you consider him against the Howard regime, he was actually pretty soft.
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