Catalogue Number
NMLH.2022.260
Object Name
Postcard
Title
Paying for the means to kill yourself by Leon Kuhn postcard
Date
1984
Description
Black and white postcard. There is an image of a hand extending its fingers - the fingers are drawn like rockets or missiles. The bottom of the postcard has white text reading: "The average worker puts in two weeks work each year to pay for the means to kill him / herself." The reverse side of the postcard has more information. In black text, the reverse side reads "Paying for the means to kill yourself by Leon Kuhn. 'From The Big Bang for Bureaucrats' a book of cartoons by Leon Kuhn on civil defence. £3.95 from bookshops." The bottom left of the postcard says "The Labour of the working class is the source of the profits that are needed to sustain the system and its weapons of mass destruction." Leon Kuhn was a long-time activist, artist and member of the Socialist Workers Party. His cartoons were in several newspapers, and in 1983 Kuhn published "The Big Bang for Bureaucrats." Leon was an active supporter of different miners groups, anti-fascist groups and anti-war groups.
There is a Leeds postcards logo in the corner - Leeds Postcards was founded in 1979, with the intention of using postcards âas a political tool and agent for changeâ.
They quickly became well-known, producing some iconic work with activist groups such as the Medical Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons (MCANW) and CND branches across the country, and artists including Peter Kennard and Steve Bell. They are still publishing postcards today.
Throughout the 1980s, Leeds Postcards published a number of cards satirising the threat of nuclear war, and celebrating the movement against the bomb.
