Catalogue Number
NMLH.2023.18
Object Name
Poster
Title
Makibaka
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. Large black, red and white poster. This has black text on a red background, as well as three photographs, and images of soldiers holding knives and guns. The title of the poster reads "Makibaka! Support the struggle of Filipino people." The bottom of the poster reads "you can imprison a
revolutionary, but not a revolution." The poster context written on the top left of the poster reads, "The Philippines...An archipelago of 7,000 islands. Land area of 115,000 square miles. Almost twice as big as England. Population of 45 million. About the same as England. The Philippines...Martial Law declared September 21, 1972. Today a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society dominated by US economci interests. Several treaties ensure the control by the US multi-nationals of the economy as well as the continuing presence of US military bases in the Philippines. Japan and a few European states also contend for their share of the spoils. This foreign dominance and control of the Philippines is reflected in the internal structure of the country. We compare Philipine society to a pyramid where a tiny minority of about 3%of the population own 80% of all resources." There is a diagram of a pyramid underneath this text displaying ownership of resources through different groups; landowners,
big businesses, small businesses, professionals etc. The three images at the top of the poster are different photographs of people in Manila; the first is labelled "There are over 1,000,000 slum dwellers in the Greater Manila area. They liveonly on rice and fish and militantly demonstrate against the Marcos regime's relocation plan." The second photograph is labelled "military prepare for confrontation during a human rights demonstration held in Manila during the World Law Conference." The third poster's label reads "workers demonstrate in Manila during president Ford's visit against Presidential Decree PD823. Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan (Liberated Movement of New Women) also known by the acronym MAKIBAKA, is a militant left-wing nationalist revolutionary womenâs organization in the Philippines founded in April 1970.
