Catalogue Number
NMLH.2025.26.2
Object Name
poster
Title
'Racism. This woman nearly lost her daughter through it. Edith Akwei, Cook Supervisor in Southwark, was faced with the horror of a deportation order being served on her 15 year old daughter. Happily this was a case NUPE helped win. Many others don't have happy endings - Will you help us change this cruel system? NUPE. Racism - We're fighting it. Join us!'
Place
Southwark, UK
People
NUPE (National Union of Public Employees), UNISON
Description
A white poster with black text which reads: 'Racism. This woman nearly lost her daughter through it. Edith Akwei, Cook Supervisor in Southwark, was faced with the horror of a deportation order being served on her 15 year old daughter. Happily this was a case NUPE helped win. Many others don't have happy endings - Will you help us change this cruel system? NUPE. Racism - We're fighting it. Join us!' In the centre of the poster there is a large black and white photo of Edith Akwei and her daughter, two Black women, both looking pensively at the camera.
This poster was designed by NUPE (the National Union of Public Employees), advertising the union's participation in anti-racist campaigning on behalf of their membership. A trade union is a democratic organisation made up of workers. Organising collectively as a union gives workers a stronger position when challenging employers or the government to change unfair or dangerous working practices, raise wages, or settle grievances between individual workers and their employer.
As this poster demonstrates, unions also hold political stances on issues that aren't directly related to workplace conditions. These policies are voted for by their membership at annual conferences. NUPE held strong anti-racist and anti-fascist positions, and would participate in protests against discrimination, like the case discussed on the poster. In 1993 NUPE joined with two other trade unions to form UNISON, the UK's largest public service union, which still participates in anti-racist and anti-fascist protests and advocacy for global majority workers to this day.
Multimedia
