Catalogue Number
NMLH.1992.663
Object Name
Poster
Title
'Sacrifice? The man at the top: "Equality of Sacrifice - that's the big idea, friends! Let's all step down one rung!" From "Plebs" the organ of the N.C.L.C. Vote Labour.'
Place
England, UK
People
Labour Party, Ramsay MacDonald, National Council of Labour Colleges
Events
Wall Street Crash
Description
Four men stand on a ladder in a pool of water. Their income and style of dress shows that the lower down the ladder they get, the less well off they are. At the bottom the unemployed man's head is barely above water. 'The man at the top: "Equality of Sacrifice - that's the big idea, friends! Let's all step down one rung!"'
'Sacrifice?' was drawn around 1931 by J.F. Horrabin for 'Plebs' the magazine of the National Council of Labour Colleges (N.C.L.C.) and is intended to highlight that economic policies that barely touch the richest can badly harm the poorest. The poster is criticising the Labour Party for participating in policies that harm the unemployed, including cutting unemployment benefit.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 plunged the country and the newly elected Labour Party into crisis. Ramsay MacDonald's solution was to cut unemployment benefit and form an alliance with the Tories in National Government. The Labour movement never forgave MacDonald for his 1931 betrayal.
