Catalogue Number
NMLH.2021.119
Object Name
Postcard
Title
By British Join CND
Place
Leeds
People
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND); Leeds Postcards
Date
1984
Description
A Countercard postcard featuring a photograph of CND graffiti.
The postcard features a coloured photograph of a billboard advertising 'By British' Y-fronts. The advert has been vandalised to read 'Join CND' with the peace sign and CND logo drawn over the Y on the underwear pictured. The billbard is surrounded by houses and empty buildings. The back of the postcard reads "By British" and tells us that the image was taken in 1982 and reproduced for this postcard in 1984. It was distributed by Leeds Postcards.
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that campaigns for peace and for governments around the world to demilitarise and discard existing and new nuclear weapons programmes.
There is a Leeds postcards logo - 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 Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (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.
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