Catalogue Number
NMLH.2019.55.227
Object Name
drawing
Title
Crowds at Factory Gates
People
Cliff Rowe
Events
Ban on Daily Worker
Description
An ink sketch of crowds outside the gates of a factory. Gasworks cylinders can be seen in the background. On the left of the image a wall has been painted with the slogan 'Lift the ban on the Daily Worker'.
The sketch references the ban on the Daily Worker newspaper, which took place between 1941 and 1942. The Daily Worker was the newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and it was suppressed by the wartime coalition government as the paper initially opposed Britain's participation in the Second World War. The Daily Worker opposed the war due to the non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Communist Party policy denounced the war as British attempts to impose imperialism on first Germany, and then the Soviet Union. The ban was lifted as the paper reversed their political stance following Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. The inclusion of these slogans in the painting gives us insight into how political issues were communicated in working class areas during the war.
Artist: Cliff Rowe
**ON DISPLAY**
