Catalogue Number
NMLH.2023.111
Object Name
Poster
Title
People are right to rebel
Place
China
People
Chairman Mao; Mao Zedong; Mao Tse-Tung
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 red, white and black poster. The title of the poster, in white text against a red background reads, "People are right to rebel. This is the first lesson in marxism." There are three images on this poster, the first is a large photograph of Chinese workers in a factory. The second
image shows silhouette images of people, in black and white. The caption for this image says "Communists laying mines early 1940s." The last image is an illustration drawing in black and white, of people working in tunnels. The caption for this says "tunnel warfare." There is a large quote on the left of the poster, in white text against a red background. This says " Considering the revolutionary war as a whole, the operations of the people's guerrillas and those of the main forces of the Red Army complement each other like a man's right arm and left arm, and if we had only the main forces of the Red Army without the people's guerrillas, we would be like a warrior with only one arm. In concrete terms, and especially concerning military operations, when we talk of the people in the base area as a factor, we mean that we have an armed people. That is the main reason why the enemy is afraid to approach our base area. - Mao Tse-Tung 1936." This is a quote from Chairman Mao (also known as
Mao Tse-Tung and Mao Zedong). He was a was a Chinese politician, Marxist theorist, military strategist, poet, and revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
