Catalogue Number
NMLH.2023.110
Object Name
Poster
Title
The division of the world
People
Marx; Lenin
Date
1972-1982
Description
The Poster Collective was a collective formed in 1971 at the Slade School of Art,  a group formed to initially produce posters in response to the miners strike and on the wars in both Vietnam and Ireland. It was formed on the basis of developing a coherent visual style, which addressed the political issues of the time. This included the armed struggles against colonialism in Africa, the struggle of women for equal rights and the continuing struggle against racism. The collective was active in the 70's and 80's, producing posters on a wide range of issues, including for educational purposes. The group was not-for-profit and used a variety of hand-printing techniques to create their posters. This is a large black, yellow and green poster. It is titled "The division of the world." The poster is abouut capitalism, imperialism and labour. There are several images of the poster, the central image is a black and white image of the earth. Other images show a Black woman working on a field,
workers on a field, men working, women working in factories, and the cover ofa german magazine with illustrations on the front. The text on the poster reads, "THE DIVISION OF THE WORLD
A NEW AND INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOUR, A DIVISION SUITED TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE CHIEF COUNTRIES OF MODERN INDUSTRY SPRINGS UP AND CONVERTS ITS ONE PART OF THE GLOBE INTO CHIEFLY AN AGRICULTURAL FIELD OF PRODUCTION, SUPPLYING THE OTHER PART WHICH REMAINDS CHIEFLY AN INDUSTRIAL FIELD. - MARX."
"IN THESE BACKWARD COUNTRIES PROFITS ARE USUALLY HIGH, FOR CAPITAL IS SCARCE, THE PRICE OF LAND IS RELATIVELY LOW, WAGES ARE LOW, RAW MATERIALS ARE CHEAP. Lenin"
"United Nations statistics show that the prices of primary prod ucts exported by the developing countries in 1970 were actually 4% lower than in 1950, whereas the price of manufactured goods exported by the developed coun tries in 1970 went up 44% in the same period. By 1972 the increase had leapt to 65%. This unequal exchange in values in the period of 1951-72 resulted in a staggering loss of $ 122, 269 billion to the third world. " "The epoch of the last stage of capitalism shows us that certain relations between capitalist combines grow up, based on the economic division of the of the world; while parallel and in connection with it, certain relations grow up between political combines, between states on the basis of the territorial division of the world, of the struggles for colonies, of the struggle for economic territories. - Lenin."
