Oslo’s Political Stickers

The Akerhus Fortress in central Oslo dates back to the 13th century. It has been a castle, a fortress, a prison, and is now home to several museums and the mausoleum of the Norwegian Royal family (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 11/08/2022).

The next stop on my Scandinavian adventure in the summer of 2022 was Oslo, the capital of Norway. Founded in around 1000 A.D., the city is now the political and economic centre of Norway, as well as one of the most expensive cities in the world. Turns out that it is also very good for political stickers!

Stickers and posters like this one were made and put up in Norwegian ports in the summer of 2022 by a group called CruiseNOTWelcome, which aims to raise awareness of the social and environmental impacts of large cruise ships. There were several huge cruise ships in Oslo whilst I was there, and I can see why some locals aren’t keen on them. Apart from anything else, the vast ships block the view of the Oslo Fjord, and the city centre was much busier when the cruise ships were docked (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 10/08/2022).

This sticker plays with the imagery of the Godfather. The text translates to “Make The Alliance an offer they can’t refuse.” The Alliance – Alternative for Norway is a Norwegian neo-Nazi political party (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 10/08/2022).

I really like the design of this sticker. The 1st of May, or May Day, is used around the world to commemorate the victories of workers and the labour movement. The text translates to “work under capitalism is coercion, fight for socialism!” The sticker is produced by Rød Ungdom, or Red Youth, the youth group of the Red Party. It’s 3 main principles are revolutionary socialism, feminism, and communism (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 10/08/2022)

The Karlsøy Festival is a co-creative and participatory festival which takes place annually on an island in northern Norway (10/08/2022).

Kvinnefronten, or the Women’s Front, is Norway’s oldest radical women’s organisation. This sticker is playing with the format of a Who Wants to be a Millionaire question, and translates as: “whose choice? the Church; the State; the tribunal [courts?]; the woman. Abortion is women’s choice; remove the courts!” Of course, “the woman” is highlighted as the correct answer (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 10/08/2022).

Sea Punks is a German voluntary organisation that helps refugees in Europe. They are raising money to fund a ship to rescue refugees trying to reach Euope via the Mediterranean Sea (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 10/08/2022).

This sticker is declaring the place that it is stuck in an “anti-racist neighbourhood” (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 10/08/2022).

This sticker translates too “The whole world hates Nazis.” If only that were true! (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 10/08/2022).

This sticker is advertising an anti-Nazi protest in Fredrikstad, another city in Norway, in July 2017, which pretty much makes it an antique by sticker standards! (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 11/08/2022).

This sticker is in Polish and translates to “Anti-homophobic Action.” It is not unusual for activists and campaigners to take stickers with them when they travel, or this could be a Polish activist living in Oslo. Frustrating as it often is, I can only guess at the stories and circumstances of most people who put up stickers (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 11/08/2022).

Be Gay Do Crime is a slogan used by LGBTQI+ activists that has increased in popularity over the last few years. The image of a skeleton carrying a sign with the slogan on is also quite common, although I haven’t been able to figure out why (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 10/08/2022).

Malmö’s Political Stickers

The Old Royal Post Office Building in Malmö (Photo: Hannah Awcock 08/08/2022).

Malmö is the third largest city in Sweden. Previously heavily industrialised, it struggled to adjust to post-industrialism, but it has been thriving since the completion of the Øresund Bridge, a combined railway/road bridge and tunnel that connects the southern Swedish city to Copenhagen, 16km away across the Øresund Straight. I went on a day trip to Malmö whilst staying in Copenhagen in the summer of 2022. All of the stickers featured here were found in that single day.

Extinction Rebellion was founded in the UK in 2018. Since then, it has expanded around the world. It combines internationally recognisable symbols…(Photo: Hannah Awcock, 08/08/2022).

…with local designs and languages. This sticker translates to “Do you have climate anxiety? Do you think those in power don’t care enough? You are not alone.” (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 08/08/2022).

The text on this sticker means ‘Young Antifascist” (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 08/08/2022).

This sticker is fairly self-explanatory, but it means “Activism, Feminism, Socialism in Lund.” Lund is a city about 20km away from Malmö. The Instagram account promoted by this sticker belongs to Organising Autonomously, a revolutionary socialist organisation based in Lund (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 08/08/2022).

I’m assuming that this sticker used to have more detail, that has faded with time. The most recent series of protests in Hong Kong started in 2019, so this sticker could be relatively old (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 08/08/2022).

Team Vegan is a German company that sells ethically sourced, vegan-themed clothing and products. You can buy this design and others on t-shirts, hoodies, and stickers (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 08/08/2022).

Variations of the ‘Hello my name is…’ stickers are quite popular with graffiti artists as a quick and relatively low-risk way of tagging. Sometimes, as in this case, they are used to spread a political message (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 08/08/2022).

The Grindadrap is an annual hunt of pilot whales and dolphins in the Faroe Islands. The animals are driven into shallow bays where they are beached and killed. The hunt has come under increasing criticism from animals rights groups over the last few decades as particularly cruel and traumatic for the animals. Its defenders argue that it does not affect the population numbers of affected species, it has been made more humane recently, and it is a central part of Faroese culture (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 08/08/2022).

The text on this sticker translates to “HIV is not contagious during treatment.” The sticker was made by Positiva Gruppen Syd, a non-profit organisation based in Malmö that supports people with HIV in southern Sweden. HIV treatment has developed to the point where people with HIV cannot transmit it as long as they are receiving treatment, but there is still a lot of stigma and misinformation involved (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 08/08/2022).

I do not think I have come across a sticker celebrating demisexuality before. Demisexuality means that you do not experience sexual attraction based on immediate factors such as looks or smell, but you can experience sexual attraction based on a bond you have formed with someone once you get to know them. I assume the background of this sticker is a faded representation of the demisexual flag, which is white on the top and grey on the bottom, with a purple stripe in the middle and a black triangle on the left-hand side (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 08/08/2022).

I like to try and finish these posts on a positive note; this sticker reads “The world is more beautiful with you” (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 08/08/2022)

Edinburgh’s Stickers: Ukraine

Some ribbons in the colours of the Ukrainian flag tied around a lamppost in the Meadows (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 12/03/22).

Since the Russian Army’s invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022, there has been an international outpouring of condemnation of Russia’s actions, and solidarity for the people of Ukraine. People have donated goods, time, and money to help those whose lives have been turned upside down by yet another senseless war. That solidarity has also found its way onto city streets in the form of ribbons, posters, and stickers, often using the blue and gold of the Ukrainian flag.

This is the first sticker relating to Ukraine that started appearing in Edinburgh, only a week after the invasion. The QR code links to a list of resources and websites for donating to/supporting Ukraine (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 02/03/2022).

This is technically two strips of tape rather than a sticker, but it is a good illustration of how easy it can be to convey a message of support. The vibrant colours and simple design of the Ukrainian flag make it instantly recognisable and easy to replicate (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 12/03/2022).

Although you can replicate the Ukrainian flag with coloured tape, stickers of it have been popping up all over Edinburgh too (Photo: Hannah Awcock. 15/03/2022).

This design combines the Ukrainian flag with the ‘peace’ hand gesture (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 13/03/2022).

This sticker also utilises the Ukrainian flag. According to Google Translate, it means ‘Fuck Off Putin’ in Croatian (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 05/04/2022).

This is the Ukrainian coat of arms. It is a trident, based on the seal of Volodymyr, the first Great Prince of Kyiv, who ruled in the late 10th and early 11th centuries (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 13/03/2022).

This design also uses the Ukrainian coat of arms (Photo: 05/04/2022).

Other stickers choose to focus on the orchestrator of the invasion rather than Ukraine. Putin has always been a controversial figure, and I did find the occasional sticker criticising him before the invasion, but the number and variety has increased dramatically since February 2022 (Photo: Hannah Awcock: 13/03/2022).

This sticker doesn’t directly refer to the invasion of Ukraine, but LGBTQIA+ people in Ukraine fear persecution if the Russian invasion is successful. Whilst it is legal to be gay or transgender in Russia, it is also legal to discriminate against LGBT people because of their sexuality or gender identity (Photo: Hannah Awcock: 13/03/2022).

I didn’t want to give Putin the last word in this blog post, even a dragged-up version of him! This feels like a better message to end on (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 12/03/2022).

Edinburgh’s Protest Stickers: Transgender Rights

A ‘Queer Edinburgh for Trans Rights’ sticker near the Easter Road Stadium, home of Hibernian F.C. The sticker includes key features in Edinburgh, including the Dugald Stewart Monument on Calton Hill, Arthur’s Seat, the Scott Monument, and Edinburgh Castle (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 30/09/2021).

In a similar way to social movements more generally, there tend to be trends in the topics addressed by protest stickers. Over the last year or so, the number of protest stickers relating to Covid-19 has decreased. The number of stickers relating to transgender (trans) rights, on the other hand, has increased dramatically, perhaps in response to high-profile events and controversies in the media. I have found stickers that defend and celebrate trans people, and transphobic stickers that attack and criticise them. For this blog post, I have decided to only feature the former kind, as I do not believe that the existence and rights of trans people is a debate. It’s bad enough that transphobic stickers are on the streets in such large numbers, I am not going to use my blog to give them a platform, even if it is to criticize them.

I would like to give a platform to Trans Happiness Is Real and catboysoc_oxford on Instagram and Stickers Against Hate, Dublin Stickers Against Transphobia, N3KOcardiff , Stickers and Love, and West Queer Art on Twitter who all produce and distribute wonderful pro-trans and trans rights stickers.

This sticker combines the most recent iteration of the Rainbow Pride with the Trans Pride Flag. The hashtag #LGBwiththeT is a way of showing solidarity between different elements of the LGBT+ community (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 18/04/2021).

The Pokemon-Trans Rights crossover you never knew you needed! (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 01/07/2021).

Who doesn’t love a good pun? Cisgender people are those whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth. The Trans Pride flag and its colours are a common feature of pro-trans stickers (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 20/07/2021).

This sticker also uses a pun. BogOff is a campaign started in 2021 in response to an open consultation launched by the British government about ‘toilet provision for men and women’. They are campaigning for equal access to toilets for all people, including workers, unsheltered people, and disabled people as well as trans and gender-nonconforming people. (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 15/03/2021).

This sticker subverts a popular transphobic sticker design. The design is exactly the same, but a definition of ‘woman’ has been replaced with a definition of ‘transphobia’. (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 13/09/2021).

This sticker also plays with stereotypical transphobic designs. Recently, transphobic stickers and social media accounts have adopted the colour scheme of the Women’s Social and Political Union, the best-known of the suffragette organisations. I guess I wasn’t the only one extremely uncomfortable with feminist history being used in this way (although I am not pretending that the WSPU was a perfect organisation, far from it!), as this sticker is claiming the purple, white, and green colours for trans-inclusive feminism (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 23/08/2021).

This sticker is also using the WSPU colours for a pro-trans message. I appreciate the sentiment, but for me the wording of this sticker misses the mark a bit. Saying that trans people are welcome still implies that they are outsiders in some way. Transgender people don’t need to be welcomed, because they have as much right to be ‘here’ as anyone else. It’s a bit like telling someone they are welcome in their own home (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 13/09/2021).

I think this sticker puts it much better! (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 29/06/2021).

Many of the accusations made against transgender people are similar to those that have been made against gay people. The way this sticker is placed over another suggests that the one underneath carries a transphobic message (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 19/11/2021).

Solidarity is an important element of any social movement, and who doesn’t want punks on their side? (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 24/07/2021).

This sticker was made by a charity based in Kirkcaldy called Pink Saltire to celebrate Transgender Day of Visibility on 31st March 2021. I walk past this lamppost often, and a few days before I took this photo there was a transphobic sticker on this spot. You can see the outline of it, as some paint came off with it when it was removed (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 30/06/21).

Mutual Aid Trans Edinburgh was set up during the pandemic to provide support by and for trans and queer people in the city. The group went on hiatus in October 2021, but there is still a list of resources available on their website (Photo: Hannah Awcock,12/01/2021).

With all the hate and discrimination that trans people face, it can be easy to forget that trans lives are not only characterised by hardship. This sticker, and the Instagram account TransHappinessIsReal, act as a reminder that this is not the case (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 19/11/2021).

TERF stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. It first appeared in 2008, to refer to transphobic feminists. It is considered an insult by many of the people it applies to, who prefer the term ‘gender critical’. This sticker felt like an appropriate note to end this blog post on! (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 28/11/2021).

Edinburgh’s Protest Stickers: Israel-Palestine

Stickers sympathetic to Palestine are not new, but they began to appear more frequently in Edinburgh after violence flared up in May 2021 (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

The conflict between Israel and Palestine is an incredibly complex one that has been going on for decades. Every so often violence flares up, drawing international attention back to the region. The most recent outbreak started on 10th May 2021, sparked by the predicted eviction of four Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. Control of the area is contested, and more than 1000 Palestinian families are currently at risk of eviction.

Most of the protest stickers I have found in the UK are sympathetic to Palestine, it is very rare to find pro-Israeli ones. The conflict is a relatively common topic of stickers (I wrote a blog post about pro-Palestinian stickers in London back in 2017), but when the violence gets worse the frequency of stickers increases. With the outbreak of hostilities in May, the number of stickers in Edinburgh went up. Several of the designs I have seen before in other cities, but some are unique, and some are specific to Edinburgh.

Campaigns to support Palestine is nothing new. I photographed this sticker in 2020, but it is referring to an event in 2016. On 17th August 2016, the Confederation of Friends of Israel Scotland hosted an event as part of the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe to promote Israeli cultural performers. No 2 Brand Israel organised a series of events to oppose this, as part of the BDS strategy. BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, and a strategy adopted by organisations around the world in 2005 to put pressure on Israel to comply with international law (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker is calling for the boycott of Israeli-made goods, a key element of the BDS strategy. The Palestinian flag, and colours of the flag, are a common feature of pro-Palestinian stickers (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker was produced by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, an active group that does what it says on the tin really (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This is another sticker that predates the current conflict. It was produced by rs21, otherwise known as Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century, which produces commentary and analysis on a broad range of issues and events. They also support BDS (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker was also produced by rs21. Benjamin Netanyahu was Israeli Prime Minister between 1996 and 1999, and 2009 and June 2021. This sticker appeared in the Meadowbank area of Edinburgh in May 2021, but the design dates back to 2014 (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This is another sticker that appeared in 2021, but was designed much earlier. I first spotted it in London in 2017. It was produced by the Socialist Worker Student Society, the student section of the Socialist Workers Party, another revolutionary socialist group (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Street artists and taggers have used the ‘Hello my name is…’ stickers for a long time because they are cheap and readily available. It is less common to see them used as protest stickers, but they’re effective! (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

The text on this handwritten sticker is faded, but it reads ‘Palestine will be free” (Photo: Hannah Awcock)

This sticker doesn’t explicitly mention Palestine, but because it is the same pen and handwriting as the previous sticker, and I found them relatively close together near the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, I assume that this one is also about Palestine (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Edinburgh’s Protest Stickers: Climate Change and the Environment

A #ClimateCrisis message on a lamppost opposite Holyrood (Photo: Hannah Awcock)

It often feels like events like Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic have forced climate change down the political priority list. Movements such as Extinction Rebellion and School Strikes for Climate have lost momentum, and they are not getting the same kind of press coverage as they were in 2019. Nevertheless, climate change continues to be an urgent issue, and it keeps cropping up in Edinburgh’s protest stickers, alongside other environmental issues. With the next UN Conference on Climate Change being held in Glasgow in November 2021, Scotland might see an increase in environmental activism.

Founded in 2018, Extinction Rebellion quickly became one of the most well-known environmental direct action groups. They are quite active in Edinburgh (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

The Socialist Workers Party is a revolutionary socialist party. Many groups believe that climate change cannot be halted without widespread change to our economic and political systems (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

The Green Anti-Capitalist Front (GAF) argues that capitalism is responsible for the environmental crisis, and the impacts of climate change are disproportionately affecting the most poor and powerless. (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

There are 3 branches of the GAF in Scotland: Glasgow, Edinburgh, and the Borders. Whoever designs their stickers has a knack for it! (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker is a reference to the 1997 song by Aqua ‘Barbie Girl’. One of the lines from the chorus is “Life in plastic, it’s fantastic.” The sticker is clever, but looking back at the song lyrics I’m a little disturbed at the image of a 6-year-old me singing along to it! (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Straight to the point (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

The words on this sticker have faded, but they read: “Animal agriculture is the leading cause of species extinction.”(Photo: Hannah Awcock).

rs21’s full name is Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century (you can see why they shortened it!) They aim to create a space where socialist ideas are discussed, reinterpreted for the modern era, and acted on. This sticker demonstrates how climate changes is only one of the issues that concerns them. In fact, climate change and the environment is one of 10 key themes that rs21 organise around (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker also links climate change and capitalism (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Of course I had to give Mr T the last word! (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Edinburgh’s Protest Stickers: Coronavirus

A stereotypically Scottish public health message on Leith Walk (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Protest stickers tend to reflect the issues that people care about. It should come as no surprise then that the coronavirus pandemic has emerged as a popular topic of stickers over the last 12 months. I have written about coronavirus protest stickers in Brighton, where I spent the first lockdown, but since I moved to Edinburgh I have found a whole new set of stickers, which have evolved as the pandemic has. From criticism of the government’s handling of the pandemic, workers rights, and complaints from the city’s student population, through to questioning the efficacy of lockdowns and masks and even rejecting the existence of Covid-19, the stickers I have found over the last few months represent a range of conflicting views.

Although this sticker doesn’t explicitly mention Covid, it is in the same style as other stickers I found nearby that did directly mention the virus, so I am fairly confident that this sticker is refering to Covid rather any of the other things Boris Johnson has been criticised for over the last few years (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This is one of the other stickers in the same style. The text is faded, and it looks like someone tried to scratch it off at some point, but it says “Clapping isn’t enough.” The weekly Clap for Carers started out as a very popular gesture during the first Lockdown, but later was criticised for being just that, an empty gesture (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Many employees felt compelled to go back to work after the first lockdown, even if they were worried about their health. The No Safety No Work campaign is a new campaign to protect worker safety during Covid-19 run by the Anarchist Communist Group (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Another sticker promoting the No Safety No Work campaign. Again, there is no direct reference to Covid (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Another sticker produced by the Anarchist Communist Group calling for the redistribution of wealth. Many of those classified as key workers during the pandemic are poorly paid, and it has highlighted inequality in wages and income (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

As the pandemic has progressed the number of protests against Lockdowns and masks has increased. There is also a significant proportion of people who do not trust the vaccine. The Saving Scotland Party seems to have been set up to campaign against coronavirus restrictions (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

UK Column is an alternative news website and newspaper founded in 2006. Judging from the cartoon on this sticker, they also disapprove of coronavirus restrictions. Someone has responded by writing on the sticker (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker is a modified version of a well-known image created by the street artist Shepard Fairey (the mask has been added). Although it isn’t explicitly anti-mask, that is how I interpret it. Many people opposed to coronavirus restrictions have complained that they are authoritarian, and I think this sticker is making a point along those lines. I suppose it could be an honest attempt to encourage people to wear masks, but it doesn’t feel like that! (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

It is not uncommon to see the coronavirus restrictions linked to the dystopic world of George Orwell’s 1984. This sticker is suggesting that Covid-19 is an excuse for cracking down on civil liberties. ‘False flag’ is a phrase popular with conspiracy theorists (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

I wanted to end on a slightly more positive note, and this sticker made me smile. Once I figured out what it means, that is! ‘Jambo’ is a nickname for a supporter of the Heart of Midlothian football team, based in Edinburgh. Apparently they have a healthy rivalry with the other Edinburgh team, Hibernian. Something tells me this sticker was made by a Hibs fan! (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Edinburgh’s Protest Stickers: Black Lives Matter

The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 sparked a resurgence in the Black Lives Matter movement (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Founded in 2013, the Black Lives Matter movement has experienced a renaissance since the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in May 2020. From protests to art, the resurgence of BLM over the Summer of 2020 has been dramatic. Racism has been a topic of protest stickers for as long as I have been studying them, but the recent BLM revival has resulted in a corresponding surge in stickers that use the language and symbolism of BLM. Since my recent move to Edinburgh, I have found a lot of protest stickers on a whole range of topics, but racism and BLM have been some of the most common.

Love [insert place or thing], hate Racism is a fairly common formula for protest stickers. Racism was a common topic of protest stickers long before BLM experienced a revival this summer (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker combines two of the hot topics of 2020! Stand up to Racism has been prominent in anti-racism campaigns in Britain over the last few years (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

The raised clenched fist has been a symbol of resistance for decades, but at the moment it is particularly synonymous with Black Lives Matter (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Simple but striking black and white designs is also fairly typical of Black Lives Matter (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Graffiti artists and taggers often use ‘Hello, my name is…” stickers to make their mark on urban space. I don’t think I have seen an Italian version before, but it is still instantly recognisable (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Repeating the names of black people killed by police is a common practice of BLM at meetings and protests. The next few photos are sticker versions of this practice. Michael Brown was 18 years old when he was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

BLM is very much a social movement for the social media age. Hashtags are common, and are used very effectively to attract attention to causes and events. Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed by a white civilian whilst out jogging in Georgia on 23rd February 2020 (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Yvette Smith was shot and killed by a police officer in Texas in 2014 when she opened the door of a friend’s house. Yvette was unarmed, and had called the police because of a dispute between two men (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Sandra Bland committed suicide in her jail cell in Texas in 2015 after being arrested for assaulting a police officer during a traffic stop. Both her arrest and her treatment in prison have been heavily criticised (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

The next set of stickers are also part of a series that I assume are produced by the same person(s). When Britain ended slavery in the 1830s the government borrowed a huge sum of money to pay compensation–not to the slaves, but to their former owners for the loss of their ‘property’. The British public only finished paying off that debt in 2015 (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

There seems to be a general sense in Scotland that it is not as racist as the rest of Britain. This sticker is disputing that narrative. Sheku Bayoh died whilst being arrested by police in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in May 2015 (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker is also disrupting the narrative that Scotland does not have a problem with racism (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Henry Dundas was the most powerful man in Scotland in the late 18th century. He became Home Secretary in 1791, and he has been accused of using his influence to delay the abolition of the slave trade by 10 years (he supported a gradual rather than immediate abolition). A statue of Dundas stands on top of a 150ft pillar in St. Andrews Square in Edinburgh, and it has been just one of the statues targeted in a campaign to decolonise British statues in recent months. Dundas is a popular figure in Scotland, and the debate about his legacy has been fierce. It is difficult to make out, but someone has written on this sticker: “Dundas abolished slavery in Scotland 1793.” His legacy in relation to the slave trade is complicated, and certainly cannot be resolved by a single protest sticker. It does demonstrate how strongly people feel on this issue, however, on both sides of the debate (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Brighton’s Protest Stickers: Coronavirus

It is not uncommon in Brighton to find junction boxes painted by street artists and for advertising. This one is a recent addition to the Brighton streetscape (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Church Street, 03/08/20).

Disease is not political, but how we cope with it most definitely is. The Coronavirus epidemic has sparked a whole range of political debates, from the effectiveness of the government’s handling of the crisis, to the necessity of facemasks, to the questionable link between the virus and 5G. I have written before about how people interacted with urban streets differently during lockdown in Brighton and Hull, but as the lockdown eased coronavirus has started to crop up in the protest stickers I have spotted as I move around Brighton (in a safe and socially distanced manner, of course!)

People engaged with their surroundings in new ways during the lockdown. Homemade signs in windows quickly spilled out onto streets and footpaths (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Dyke Railway Trail, 25/04/20).

My instinct is that this isn’t a genuine product of the Brighton and Hove City Council, but I suppose it’s a possibility! (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Providence Place, 18/06/20).

The pandemic has sparked a lot of conspiracy theories. The Shropshire Corona Resilience Network is a Facebook Group which posts various conspiracies about coronavirus (Photo: Hannah Awcock, London Road, 18/06/20).

Other conspiracy theories question the origins of coronavirus. These stickers are advertising a Youtube documentary about the origins of what it calls the ‘Chinese Communist Party Virus’, which suggests that the virus did not really originate in a food market (Photo: Hannah Awcock, 20/05/20, Brighton seafront).

The Corbett Report claims to be an independent news sources and has been promoting conspiracy theories since 2007. It is no surprise that he has something to say about coronavirus (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Madeira Drive, 03/08/20).

Not all of the protest stickers and posters I’ve found are promoting conspiracy theories. This poster is demanded PPE and testing to protect NHS workers (Photo: Hannah Awcock, East Street, 18/06/20).

There isn’t much of this poster left, but it is mimicking the aesthetic used by the government in the “Stay Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives” posters. I think this poster is suggesting people “Stay Home. Boo for Boris. Sack Cummings.” (Although it “Sack” could be something more rude”!) (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Madeira Drive, 03/08/20).

This sticker has also been partially removed, but I think it says something along the lines of “Anti Social Distance Resistance”, which could be pro-social distancing, but I suspect is actually against it. (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Madeira Drive, 03/08/20).

Before the virus, if a person was wearing a face mask in a protest sticker or piece of street art, it meant they were an anarchist, or radical activists. Nowadays they are just as likely to be a conscientious individual doing their civic duty. I think this sticker is pre-virus, but it an interesting example of how the meanings of symbols can shift and change (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Madeira Drive, 03/08/20).

I think that this sticker is also pre-virus, but again its meaning has shifted because of the current situation we find ourselves in. I hope it is correct! (Photo: Hannah Awcock, North Street, 03/08/20).

I think we have all had this thought once or twice over the last few months! (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Marine Parade, 03/08/20).

Brighton’s Protest Stickers: Animal Rights

dav — A fairly unambiguous anti-fur sticker (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Kensington Gardens, 20/04/19).

Animal rights have been increasing in prominence over the last few years through the prism of vegetarianism and veganism. Brighton has been a hotspot for vegan activism over the last few years, and there a lot of protest stickers in the city encouraging people not to eat meat. However, there are many other areas where animal rights are compromised including fur, testing on animals, mass extinctions, and live animal transportation, and these topics also feature in protest stickers relatively often.

sdr — The Animal Liberation Front is a leaderless resistance movement that undertakes direct action in support of animal rights. Some consider them to be terrorists (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Church Road, 24/04/19).

dav — Another anti-fur sticker with a pretty unequivocal message. I thought that public opinion had mainly turned against fur, but it is still common enough for activists to see it as an important issue (Photo: Hannah Awcock, New Road, 04/02/17).

dav — Respect for Animals is an organisation based in Nottingham that campaigns against the international fur trade (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Dyke Road, 06/08/16).

sdr — Fox hunting remains a controversial topic, even though it has been banned in the UK since 2005. (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Queen’s Road, 20/04/19).

27-08-16 Jubilee Street (6) — Brighton Hunt Saboteurs uses non-violent direct action to prevent illegal fox hunts (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Jubilee Street, 27/08/16).

dav — Experimenting and testing on live animals is another well-publicised controversial topic. This sticker uses a particularly graphic image (Photo: Hannah Awcock, West Street, 27/10/16).

dav — The Swiss League against Vivisection has been campaigning for animal rights since 1883. Here they are targeting a specific airline in an attempt to pressure them to change their practices (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Queen’s Road, 24/03/17).

sdr — The RSPCA is a well known charity in the UK. They investigate animal cruelty, rescue animals, and prosecute those responsible. In this sticker they are calling for an end to the practice of transporting livestock long distances before they are slaughtered (Photo: Prince Albert Street, 20/04/19).

dav — PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is another well known animal rights organisation. They are an international organisation, with more than 6.5 million supporters around the world. They focus on 4 main areas where they believe animals suffer the most: laboratories, the food industry, fashion, and entertainment. Although animals in circuses are much less common than it used to be, it is still legal for UK circuses to use wild animals (Photo: Hannah Awcock, North Street, 09/12/18).

dav — It isn’t clear who made this sticker. The message reads “Don’t bet with William Hill greyhound killers.” The ‘H’ in William Hill has been overlaid with a ‘K’. Greyhounds typically live for 10-14 years, but they only race for about 4. I think this sticker is accusing William Hill of killing greyhounds when they are no longer competitive (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Church Road, 24/04/19).

dav — The symbol on this sticker may be familiar to you now as the Extinction Rebellion logo. The symbol itself is older however, created in 2011 by artist ESP. The circle symbolises the planet, whilst the hourglass indicates that time is running out for many species (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Grand Parade, 18/04/17).

dav — This march was organised in 2019 by Brighton Vegan Activists. I really like the design of this sticker, so it seemed like a good one to end on! (Photo: Hannah Awcock, Queens Road, 20/04/19).