Politics on the Streets of Belfast

Belfast is a fantastic city for street art and murals, which feature heavily in the city’s finely-balanced political situation (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

My summer holiday this year was a road trip around Ireland with my sister. Our first stop was Belfast, which was I very excited about. I love street art, and I love the history of rebellion and resistance, so it felt like the perfect city for me. Although Irish history is not really taught in English schools, I was aware of the euphemistically named ‘Troubles’ in a vague sense that was heavily influenced by my parents’ perceptions of it; Mum in particular was a little bit nervous about us going to Northern Ireland, even 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement. We both made an effort to get to know the history a little bit better before going (I highly recommend the BBC documentary series Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland for a clear and concise account of the Troubles from start to ‘finish’). This is definitely one of those situations, however, where visiting a place gives you an insight that it is impossible to get from a book or a documentary.

I took my car over to Belfast from Scotland on the ferry, so we used a website to rent someone’s driveway whilst we were in the city (it’s a bit like AirBnB but for cars). When we arrived in the neighbourhood, we were taken aback by the loyalist flags and murals that adorned walls and lampposts. It is one thing to expect to find a lot of political murals in a city, it is quite another to turn a corner into a street an immediately be able to tell the political allegiances of it’s residents. Politics in Belfast is highly visible in public spaces of residential areas.

This mural greeted us as we arrived in the neighbourhood where we left the car whilst in Belfast. The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) is a loyalist paramilitary group founded in the mid-1960s (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

If I am asked about my national identity, I will say that I am British. But I wear my nationality loosely; I think nationalism causes a lot more problems than it solves, and it just isn’t that important to me. Walking around the loyalist areas of Belfast, I was confronted with an expression of British nationalism that felt quite alien to me, mainly in terms of how fierce it was. There were Union flags EVERYWHERE, alongside flags of Northern Ireland. There were murals dedication to Queen Elizabeth and King Charles, and other commemorated the losses of various parts of the British Army. I understand it; when a group feels threatened it is not uncommon to cling to that shared identity more tightly, but it is a very different Britishness to the one I am used too.

A mural celebrating King Charles III on the Shankill Road, one of the most well-known loyalist areas in Belfast. The Britishness expressed in these areas was one that felt quite distance to me, even as person who normally describes myself as British (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

The Republican areas of Belfast express an Irish identity just as fiercely as the loyalist areas express a British identity. It is generally more outward-looking, expressing solidarity with international groups and campaigns such as Palestine and Black Lives Matter. There are not many things that Republicans and loyalists agree on (for example, loyalists tend to support Israel for a range of reasons, a significant one being that Republicans tend to support Palestine), so it is interesting that both groups are so prolific in their use of street art and murals. I would love to know more about the history of murals in Northern Ireland to gain a better understanding of how this situation developed (so if anyone knows of any good sources on this, please let me know!)

A mural on the Falls Road commemorating the 1916 Easter Rising, during which republicans in Dublin attempted to win Independence for Ireland by force (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

A mural in the Falls Road area expressing solidarity with Prisoners of War. One of the clasped arms is wearing the Irish flag, the other wears the Palestinian flag (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Separating many of the loyalist and Republican areas of Belfast are so-called Peace Walls. First built as temporary structures in 1969 at the beginning of the Troubles, many people in Northern Ireland still need them to feel safe in their neighbourhoods. I clearly remember the moment I first found out about them, at a conference during my PhD. I was shocked both that such structures exist in modern Britain, and that I didn’t know about them before; it is striking that they are not more widely known in the UK. Despite a commitment by the Northern Ireland Executive in 2013 to remove all Peace Walls by 2023, there are more today than there where when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. Cynics suggest that they are still in place because they are a popular tourist attraction in their own right. I would guess that the tensions caused by Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol have also slowed down their removal.

The Peace Walls have become a tourist attraction in their own right- there are two ‘black taxi tours’ (taxi drivers drive tourists around key sites and tell them about the Troubles) in this photo. Tourists sign this wall, which separates the famous Shankill Road and Falls Road areas (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Given my interest in street art and political history, there wasn’t really any doubt that I would find Belfast a fascinating place. The city’s recent history and politics is inscribed into the urban fabric in a way that I have never seen anywhere else. What I was less prepared for was how much it would make me reflect on my own identity, and the gaps in my knowledge of the history of my own country.

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)

Protest Stickers: Edinburgh 2

This is one of the oldest buildings on the Royal Mile (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

At the end of 2019 I went on a last-minute trip to Edinburgh. It was great to explore the city, and it also meant I got to add to my protest sticker collection! There are a range of topics on protest stickers that often crop up in in big cities, including: gender, working relations, vegetarianism, housing conditions, elections, and Brexit. There are also specific local issues, which you don’t tend to find anywhere else. In Edinburgh, examples of these are: working conditions at the Fringe Festival, the use of public land for events which profit private companies, and Scottish independence.

2019-12-16 11.32.07 — Fair Fringe is a campaign to improve the wages and working conditions of people working for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They are asking Fringe Employers to sign a charter guaranteeing they will give their employees certain working conditions (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-17 13.52.56 — Edinburgh is famous for several public events, including the Edinburgh Festival, the Fringe Festival, a Christmas Market, and Hogmanay. As these events have expanded, tensions have increased between organisers and local people, who often have to put up with significant inconvenience and restrictions on their movements around central Edinburgh. Some feel that the city doesn’t get enough benefits from these events. I think this sticker is referencing those ongoing debates (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-16 11.35.51 — Like most big cities, the cost of housing in Edinburgh is high, and increasing all the time. Living Rent is a tenant’s union which campaigns for tenant’s rights across Scotland, including calling for a nationwide rent cap (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-16 11.57.19 — The campaign for a second referendum on Scottish Independence has been boosted by Brexit, and it was the topic of quite a few protest stickers in Edinburgh. This sticker is responding to the argument that Scotland wouldn’t be able to make it as an independent country (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-17 12.01.02 — Just in case the Yes campaign wasn’t patriotic enough, this sticker takes it one step further! (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-16 11.51.12 — The image on this sticker has faded so it’s quite difficult to make out, but the text is very clear (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-16 11.39.51 — This sticker incorporates anti-fascist symbolism and design style with the transgender flag (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-16 11.22.34 — This sticker, on the other had, is rather sarcastically criticising the transgenderism. This debate has split the feminist movement in recent years (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-16 11.27.14 — In December 2019, university staff around the country went on strike over working conditions and changes to pensions. The Autonomous Design Group designed these stickers in solidarity with those on strike in Edinburgh (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-16 11.41.53 — I found this sticker outside one of the University of Edinburgh’s buildings. It is also probably left over from the strike. Tuition fees were first introduced in the UK in 1998, but there are still some who oppose them. VCs, or Vice Chancellors, are the most senior people in the university hierarchy, so they often become the focus of opposition (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-16 11.33.34 — I’m guessing that this sticker is from before the General Election on the 12th of December. It is comparing Boris Johnson to Pinocchio, who’s lies famously got him into trouble (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-16 11.25.10 — This sticker looks quite old, but it could just be that paper stickers don’t tend to last as well as other materials. Boris Johnson only agreed his Brexit deal with the EU in October 2019, so the sticker can’t be more than a few months old (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-17 13.53.28 — Sometimes, you have to take a sticker’s location into account in order to appreciate it fully (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-12-17 14.15.48 — This sticker is really interesting because I have seen quite a few stickers in various places calling for solidarity with Hong Kong since the latest round of protests started there in mid-2019. I have only seen this anti-solidarity stance in Edinburgh however. The graffiti is referring to the fact that the Extradition Bill which kick started the protests was in response to a woman from Hong Kong being murdered by her partner in Taiwan. Most people don’t know this however, and the Extradition Bill was almost universally criticised as an attempt by China to gain more power over Hong Kong (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — This sticker is advertising vegankit.com, a website that offers advice and guides on eating and living vegan. It isn’t clear who is behind the website though. (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Protest Stickers: Melbourne

2019-08-01 06.47.18-1 — Melbourne is famous for its street art (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This summer, I spent 3 weeks travelling around Australia and New Zealand. I have already written blog posts about Sydney’s Protest Stickers, and the Lennon Wall for Hong Kong in Melbourne. Melbourne has a reputation for being Australia’s most cosmopolitan city. It is also known for its culture, particularly the restaurants, bars, boutique shops, and street art in the city’s Laneways. As it turns out, it’s also pretty good for protest stickers. Like most large cities, Melbourne’s protest stickers address issues on a range of scales, from the local, through the national, to the global. I found some stickers that I have seen elsewhere in the world, and some that are uniquely Melburnian.

There has been a lot of debate recently about free speech and ‘no platforming’. The producer of this sticker is quite confident about the best way to counter fascist beliefs (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker is alluding to Australia’s colonial history. There is no one Aboriginal name for Australia, because there was a large number of Aboriginal communities and societies when Europeans arrived. Aboriginal peoples have suffered extensive hardship, prejudice and discrimination at the hands of Europeans, and although their treatment has improved, there is still a long way to go (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Fin Free Melbourne is a group that campaigns for the banning of all shark-fin based products in Melbourne, with the ultimate goal of protecting shark species all over the world (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Climate change is an increasingly popular topic of protest stickers around the world, and Melbourne is no exception (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

The School Strike for Climate is a global movement kickstarted by the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg. School Strike 4 Climate is an Australian organisation that coordinates strikes around the country (Photo: Hannah Awcock)

Extinction Rebellion is another global climate movement. It started in the UK in late 2018, but now has a strong Australian branch (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-07-31 10.50.23 — Be Fair Be Vegan is a US-based campaign group that funds advertising campaigns to promote veganism. Melbourne is just one of the cities in which they have paid for advertising (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

The colours on this sticker have faded, but at one point it would have been the Trans flag (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-08-01 10.33.42 — Unfortunately, I sometimes find stickers that promote racist and far-right politics. It seems that I am not the only one who took offence at the message of this sticker however, as someone has tried to erase and obscure it (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-07-30 21.25.12 — This sticker has also provoked some debate–words and letters have been removed, covered over and written again to alter its message. Police forces around the world can be controversial, with some appreciating the safety and protection they offer, whilst others think they abuse their power and discriminate against minority groups (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-08-01 14.52.04 — This sticker is also criticising the police, alongside prisons and more broadly capitalism. Some of it has been removed, but I can still tell from the colour scheme and blood splatter that it is playing on Kill Bill, the popular 2003 Quentin Tarantino film (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-07-30 18.02.06 — This sticker is also criticising capitalism, arguing that workers deserve to keep everything (including wealth) that they generate. I don’t recognise the character in the middle of the sticker

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more comprehensive protest sticker! (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Protest Sydney: Stickers

A World Wildlife Fund sticker in front of the Sydney Opera House (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

In the summer of 2019, I was lucky enough to spend 3 weeks travelling around Australia and New Zealand with my sister. As usual, wherever I went I kept an eye out for protest stickers, and the Antipodes did not disappoint. The first city we visited was Sydney. Founded in 1788 by the British as a penal colony, it is now Australia’s largest city.

I thought this sticker might have something to do with immigration policy, but it turns out that Keep Sydney Open was founded to campaign for an evidence-based approach towards policy on the nighttime economy. They felt that they weren’t being listened to as a campaign group, however, so in 2018 became a political party and broadened the range of issues they are concerned with. I found this sticker in Bondi Beach, one of Sydney’s most famous suburbs (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Another political party who have left their traces in Bondi Beach is The Greens, a left wing party with four main principles: ecological sustainability, grassroots democracy, social justice and peace and non-violence. Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world, so it is not surprising that housing is an important political issue (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Alongside local politics, the protest stickers in Hong Kong also reflected global issues. Here, a post-it note has been drafted into service as a protest sticker supporting the recent protests in Hong Kong. Since June, protesters have been clashing with police in Hong Kong over China’s increasingly repressive rule. At the time of writing this post in early October, there is no sign of either the protesters or the Chinese government backing down. Solidarity protests have taken place around the world, including Sydney, Taiwan, and Melbourne (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-07-29 09.15.52 — Another global movement that only seems to be increasing in momentum is Extinction Rebellion. Founded in the UK in late 2018, this leaderless, nonviolent movement has spread around the world, including several global days of action. The Australian Extinction Rebellion seems just as determined as any other group to get their demands met (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

It is clear that not everyone supports the aims of Extinction Rebellion, as someone has tried to obscure the message of this sticker. There is something written over the image too, but I cannot make it out. The Australian government is currently led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who does not seem to view climate change as too much of a priority (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker, produced by the Greens, is also suggesting that significant political reform is needed in order to effectively counter climate change (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker was also produced by the Greens, and it highlights the negative impacts of climate change that go beyond climate change (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-07-27 09.35.17 — Save Poppy is an organisation that aims to persuade people to give up meat by sharing information about the “cruelty, environmental destruction and the health impact of animal agriculture.” (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-07-29 20.25.35 — This is another sticker promoting SavePoppy.com. Protest stickers promoting veganism have become increasingly common over the last few years. Many of them take a similar approach to this one, arguing that it is hypocritical to love animals and eat meat (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This is very poetic for a protest sticker. The A in a circle is a common anarchist symbol, and many anarchists believe that prisons should be abolished (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Same-sex marriage was legalised in Australia in 2017, so this sticker is a bit of an antique by protest sticker standards! (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

IMG_6137 (2) — What protest sticker blog post is complete without an anti-fascist sticker? Anti-fascist Action was originally founded in the UK in 1965, but there are now branches all over the world (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Lennon Wall for Hong Kong: Solidarity in Melbourne

“Free HK”, part of the Hong Kong solidarity wall in Melbourne, Australia (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

At the time of writing this blog post in early September 2019, there appears to be no end in sight to the protests which started in Hong Kong in June. The spark which lit the tinder was a proposed extradition bill which would make it easier to transport people from Hong Kong to mainland China for questioning and trial. People in Hong Kong do not trust China’s justice system to be fair and impartial. Under pressure from protests whose intensity seemed to take everyone by surprise, the Hong Kong government shelved the extradition bill. This did not end the protests however, as the bill had tapped into a deeply held fear among the people of Hong Kong. Since being returned to China by Britain in 1997, residents of Hong Kong have enjoyed a lot more freedom than citizens of mainland China do, and they protect this freedom fiercely. For the protesters, the extradition bill was just one part of a much broader attempt to strip Hong Kong of its cherished freedom, and they are not willing to give their special status up without a fight. Over the last few months, protesters have clashed with police around the city.

Hosier Lane in Melbourne is famous for it’s street art, and has become a significant tourist attraction (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

At the start of August 2019, I visited Melbourne in Australia, and I was quite surprised to find a wall full of messages expressing solidarity with, and seeking support for, the protesters in Hong Kong. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been: Australia has strong connections with China. China is Australia’s largest trading partner, and in 2017 there were 500,000 Chinese-born migrants living in Australia. Melbourne is known for its cosmopolitanism, and the city’s Laneways (alleys) are famous for edgy street art, shops, bars, and restaurants. The most famous for street art is Hosier Lane; it has become a popular tourist attraction. The solidarity wall is at the bottom of Hosier Lane, near the junction with Flinders Street.

The Hong Kong solidarity wall in Hosier Lane, Melbourne (Photo: Hannah Awcock)

The wall is made up of posters calling for support and explaining what is happening in Hong Kong, and post-it notes with messages of solidarity. It feels spontaneous, but it is actually the result of a piece by Chinese artist Badiucao. He created a piece of street art featuring Chinese leader Xi Xingping and Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam, then invited people to add their own messages of solidarity. A box of post-it notes and marker pens has been left so that visitors can add their own messages. This practice has become known as ‘Lennon Walls,’ which have appeared all over Hong Kong during the protests. They are now springing up elsewhere, including Toronto and Tokyo. The original artwork of Lennon Wall for Hong Kong can just about still be seen in the above image: it is the black text on the white background peeking out above the post-it notes.

I spent a little while watching other visitors interact with the wall. Many had little interest, others seemed to be interested in finding out what all the fuss was about, and some, particularly those who appeared to be of Asian origin, seemed quite moved by the outpouring of solidarity. I would be curious to know if this message of solidarity reaches protesters in Hong Kong however: do they know how much support they have in Melbourne?

A box of stationary attached to the wall so that people can add their own messages of support (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

A message left by a member of an airline crew, explaining how much the wall meant to them (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

A visitor to the wall adds their own message (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

It is very important to the protesters in Hong Kong that people around the world know about their struggles and understand them, which is one of the reasons they have targeted Hong Kong International Airport over the summer; a controversial tactic which risks alienating travelers instead of convincing them that the cause is just. The Lennon Wall suggests that the message is getting through, however. It gives a strong sense of solidarity and obviously means a lot to people from Hong Kong. It also highlights the obvious overlaps between street art and resistance; a subversive medium to begin with, street art is an obvious companion to protest.

Sources and Further Reading

BBC News. “Hong Kong Anti-Government Protests.” Last modified 3rd September 2019, accessed 3rd September 2019. Available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c95yz8vxvy8t/hong-kong-anti-government-protests

Clark, Helen. “Should Australia Fear an Influx of Chinese?” This Week in Asia. Last modified 30th July 2017, accessed 3rd September 2019. Available at https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2100798/should-australia-fear-influx-chinese

Dalziel, Alexander. “Post-it Protest in Support of Hong Kong Backlash over Extradition Plan.” The Age. Last modified 20th August 2019, accessed 3rd September 2019. Available at https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/post-it-protest-in-support-of-hong-kong-backlash-over-extradition-plan-20190720-p5293c.html

Sydney Morning Herald. “Chinese Political Artist Badiucao supports Hong Kong Protesters with Hosier Lane ‘Lennon Wall.'” Last modified 20th July 2019, accessed 3rd September 2019. Available at https://www.smh.com.au/world/chinese-political-artist-badiucao-supports-hong-kong-protesters-with-hosier-lane-lennon-wall-20190720-h1ge99.html

Protest Stickers: Hull

dav — Hull has a wonderful street art scene, some of which has a political message (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Since January I have been living and working in Hull, an overlooked city in East Yorkshire on the Humber Estuary. I am quite easily pleased when it comes to the places I live–I have yet to live anywhere that I don’t like. That being said, Hull is a vibrant city with friendly and welcoming people, lots to do, and a thriving cultural scene (I have especially become a fan of the Bankside Gallery, where you can see fantastic street art at several locations around the city). Hull gets an average number of protest stickers for a city of its size; I have already written one post about them for the University of Hull’s Department of Geography, Geology and the Environment blog, here. But the stickers keep appearing, and so will the blog posts!

dav — Brexit-related protest stickers have been a feature on city streets across Britain (and further afield–I have seen them in Berlin, for example) since before the Referendum in 2016. The Liberal Democrats are the only major political party that are explicitly anti-Brexit (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

sdr — Bollocks to Brexit is a common anti-Brexit slogan that appears quite often on protest stickers. Here it has been altered to convey a pro-Brexit message. Sometimes people interact with stickers to change or obscure their message by writing on them or scratching parts of them off (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — Extinction Rebellion is a social movement that started in Britain in late 2018, and campaigns for swift action on climate change and environmental destruction. Hull has quite an active branch (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — Biofuelwatch campaigns around industrial-scale bioenergy. Currently the UK government gives £1 billion of renewable energy subsidies per year to power stations which burn wood to produce electricity. This is method of electricity production is dirty, it releases carbon into the atmosphere and it encourages deforestation. Biofuelwatch wants this money to be given to methods of producing electricity that are actually renewable (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

sdr — Nuclear fuel is another alternative method of producing electricity that is controversial. Stop New Nuclear is a group which campaigns against the construction of new nuclear power stations. This sticker is promoting an anti-nuclear protest called Surround Springfields in April 2019. Springfields is a site in Lancashire which produces fuel for nuclear power plants, and processes waste produced by them (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — Veganism is another issue that is becoming increasingly popular in protest stickers, linked to both animal rights and climate change. This sticker is playing with the logo for Back to the Future, a popular 1985 sci-fi film. Challenge 22 is a project run by Israeli animal-rights group Animals Now. It encourages people to commit to trying veganism for 22 days, and provides support and advice (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — This sticker is also promoting veganism by focusing specifically on the cruelties of the dairy industry. It is promoting The Vegan Activist, who posts educational videos about veganism on his Youtube channel (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

sdr — Fur is another key element of animal rights campaign. The Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade is a grassroots, anti-fur campaign group (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

sdr — Jeff Luers is an American environmental activist who was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2000 for his involvement in an arson attack on a Chevrolet dealership in Oregon. It was a very harsh sentence, especially considering that no one was hurt, and he only caused about $40,000 dollars worth of damage. His sentence was reduced and he was released in 2009, but he has taken on martyr-like status for some sections of the environmental movement. This sticker looks quite old, but I would be surprised if it has been around since Luers was imprisoned more than a decade ago. The web address on the sticker no longer exists (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — This sticker is very faded, so I would expect is has been around for a few years. It is promoting an anti-war and violence message, playing on the double meaning of ‘arms’. The peace logo in the bottom left is very well known. The capital E in a circle in the bottom right, is less common, and represents Equality (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-06-22-09.49.13.jpg — Unfortunately, not all of the protest stickers I have found in Hull are progressive. This sticker is produced by the British Movement, a neo-Nazi group founded in 1968. It has been through periods of dormancy and the leadership has changed several times since then. It seems to have a small membership at the moment, but it is still disconcerting to see its logo in Hull (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — This sticker is advertising the National Front, another far-right fascist group, founded in 1967. Like the British Movement, it has also had periods of rise and decline over the decades, and it has quite a small membership currently. Someone (or perhaps multiple people) have obviously taken offence at this sticker at some point and tried to remove it (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — I wanted to end the post on a positive note, and I love this sticker that I found on the Hessle Road. LGBTQI+ rights groups are struggling with conflict over transgender rights at the moment, but local Pride events in Britain are going from strength to strength at the moment, and Hull is no exception–the 2019 event on the 19th of July was a huge success (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Protest Stickers: Berlin Part 2-Climate Change and the Environment

sdr — A Fridays for Future demonstration in the German Bundestag in Berlin in March 2019 (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

I recently visited Berlin at a time when climate change and environmental protection were at the forefront of protest cultures around the world thanks to the efforts of Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future movement, and Extinction Rebellion. Whilst touring the German Bundestag (Parliament) with my students, I witnessed a Fridays for Future protest which involved activists handcuffing themselves to the handrails seen in the image above. In last week’s post, I wrote about Berlin’s protest stickers, but there were so many protest stickers in the city relating to climate change and the environment that it warranted its own post. Again, I must thank my colleague Julia Affolderbach for translating a lot of these stickers for me.

sdr — Extinction Rebellion is a direct action group that was formed in the UK in the second half of 2018. Since then, branches have been set up around the world. The group use nonviolent civil disobedience to promote their ambitious demands, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — System Change not Climate Change is one of the most common slogans used by Extinction Rebellion (XR for short). The group’s symbol, an hourglass in a circle, has been around for a few years and is called the Extinction Symbol. The circle represents the earth, and the hourglass is a warning that time is running out for many species (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — Fridays for Future is the name given to the weekly strikes by school children and students, demanding that adults, particularly those in power, take the threat of climate change seriously. The movement was kick started by Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old who sat in front of the Swedish Parliament every school day for 3 weeks in August 2018 (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — This sticker shows the Fridays for Future logo, and includes a quote from Greta Thunberg. Many people have criticised the strikers for missing out on their education. In this quote, Greta is defending that decision. The text in pink below the logo translates as “Education strike for the climate. Every Friday. Also in your city!” (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — This sticker includes a photo of a climate strike, possibly in Berlin. The slogan translates as “We are not skivving, we’re fighting!” “Klimastreik,” shown on the banner in the photo, means Climate-strike. This sticker is also responding to the criticism that students shouldn’t be playing truant in order to protest (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker is playing on Trump’s slogan of “Make American Great Again,” again referring to Greta Thunberg. The quiet Swedish teenager has become an overnight celebrity in activist circles, and travels all over Europe (by train, she doesn’t fly) speaking at rallies and meeting politicians (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — Although Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future have been very prominent in recent months, they are not the only groups that campaign around climate change. This sticker was produced by Revolution Germany. It doesn’t have a website, but does have a social media presence and describes itself as an international communist youth organisation. The text on the strip at the bottom translates as “No profit from our earth. Expropriate climate-killers!” In effect, it is calling for the wealth and property of those responsible for the destruction of the environment to be confiscated (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker is also calling for an end to climate change, with a particular focus on coal, which is a particularly ‘dirty’ way of producing electricity (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

sdr — Ende Gelände is a coalition of activists, campaign groups, and social movements calling for an end to the mining and burning of coal for electricity because of its contribution to climate change. Their actions are mostly focused around a region of open coal mines in the Rhineland, which the group claim is Europe’s biggest source of CO2. The Hambacher Forest is an area of ancient woodland near Cologne that energy company RWE AG wants to cut down in order to expand an open-pit coal mine. Activists have fought hard against this, and a final decision from the courts is expected in 2020 (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

sdr — This sticker also refers to Hambacher Forest, although only as a web address which would provide the reader with more information if they wanted it (the English version of the website can be reached here). It translates as “Climate change won’t wait for you to finish your Bachelor’s [undergraduate degree]. Turn your theory into practice.” Many activists believe we have run out of time to discuss and debate climate change, and that action must be taken now in order to prevent disaster (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — The German text on this sticker translates as “Expropriate energy companies! To save the environment: overcome capitalism.” It was produced by Left Youth Solid (Linksjugend [‘solid]), a socialist youth organisation. The penguins look suspiciously like those from the 2005 children’s film *Madagascar*, who proved so popular that they got their own spin-off film in 2014. It is not uncommon for characters from popular culture to appear in protest stickers (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

If there is one environmental issue that has captured the public imagination more than climate change over the past year or so, it’s plastic. Both governments and businesses are facing increasingly pressure to reduce the prevalence of single-use plastics, particularly because so much of it ends up in the oceans. The image on this sticker is difficult to make out because it has faded, but it shows a sea bird that has died, possibly because of the significant amount of plastic it had ingested (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Protest Stickers: Berlin Part 1

As with many large cities, Berlin’s street furniture has a lot of stickers, of all kinds (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Earlier this year, I went to Berlin as a member of staff on an undergraduate field trip. I had never been before, and I was really looking forward to the chance to explore a city with such a complex history, as well as a reputation for alternative culture and politics. Berlin did not disappoint; it is a vibrant city, with an admirable approach to coming to terms with the most difficult moments of its past. It has a lively culture of protest stickers too, so much so that I have decided to do two blog posts on the topic. At this point I would like to say thank you to my German-speaking colleague, Dr. Julia Affolderbach, who never once ran out of patience with me for repeatedly asking “What does this sticker say?”

dav — This sticker translates as “The AFD is no alternative.” The AFD is Alternative fur Deutschland (Alternative for Germany), a far-right political party founded in 2013. After failing to secure any seats in the German parliament in the 2013, in the 2017 federal elections it became the 3rd biggest political party in Germany, and many see its rapid growth as a cause for serious concern. This sticker is encouraging people to not to see the AFD as a viable alternative to the mainstream political parties, with whom many people are feeling frustration and disillusion. What the connection to Patrick from *Spongebob Squarepants* is I’m not sure, but it is not uncommon to see characters from popular culture on protest stickers (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

mde — This is another anti-AFD sticker, adapting the well-known logo of the 80s hip-hop band, Run DMC. I have seen quite a lot of protest stickers using this style in my travels (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

sdr — This is the remnants of a sticker produced by the AFD; the white letters in the blue rectangle with the red arrow is their logo. The only remaining text translates as “Germany protests”, but someone obviously took offence at the sticker’s message and removed most of it, so I can’t tell what the AFD is ‘protesting’ (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — Fuck off Google is a campaign group trying to prevent Google from opening a ‘campus’ in the Kreuzberg neighbourhood. Opposition stems not just from what the campus would do to the local area, with rising housing prices and gentrification already a problem, but also Google’s questionable business and surveillance practices. So far, the campaign has been successful, and in October 2016 Google announced it will not be going ahead with its plans for a Kreuzberg campus (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — I’ve got to admit, at first I thought this sticker was about the gender pay gap. When I was in Berlin, there was an event to highlight the this that involved women paying reduced fares on public transport. However, this sticker is actually about agricultural subsidies. The text at the bottom translates to: “Agricultural subsidies only for good agriculture and good food.” I assume it is arguing that EU agricultural subsidies should be used to encourage sustainable farming practices (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — Women’s rights did crop up quite often in Berlin’s protest stickers however. This distinctive design was produced by BesD (the Professional Association for Erotic and Sexual Service Providers), a group of current and former sex workers who campaign on various issues to improve the sex industry (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — This sticker relates to the representation of women in advertising. It was produced by Berlin-Werbefrei, a group which is campaigning for increased regulation of advertising, including: the removal of all commercial advertising in public spaces, the regulation of advertising and sponsoring in schools, universities, and other public organisations, and the introduction of binding rules relating to derogatory and discriminatory advertising (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — As with most cities, anti-fascism is one of the most common topics of Berlin’s protest stickers. This sticker is simple, but effective at communicating its message (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — This sticker roughly translates as “Against ethno-nationalism (it is actually quite difficult to directly translate ‘volkische,’ but it is strongly associated with fascism and Nazism), sexism, anti-Semitism.” Anti-fascist groups can be quite territorial in the way that that claim space, so it is not unusual to see stickers that declare the vicinity an “Antifa area.” Jugend Widerstand is a group whose name translates as “Youth Resistance,” and it turns out this sticker is a manifestation of a dispute between two left-wing groups who dislike each other’s stances. Thanks go to the many people on Twitter who helped me with the translation and context of this sticker (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — It is also not uncommon to see stickers that encourage the viewer to “Support your local antifa.” This sticker has the added element, however, of telling people not to move to Berlin. My guess is that this is a criticism of the increasingly expensive and overcrowded housing and overstretched public services that many major European cities struggle to deal with as people move there in search of better opportunities and jobs (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

Annoyingly, it seems impossible to escape from Donald Trump. This sticker is looking very good for 3 years old! (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — This anti-American sticker has not aged quite as well. I assume it was produced when Barack Obama was US President, so it was probably made in 2016 at the latest. It can be quite difficult to gauge the age of stickers, as most do not include a date (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — Hands Off Venezuela is a group that campaigns for the lifting of sanctions against Venezuela, and against military intervention there. They were founded in 2002, but appear to be experiencing a resurgence due to the recent political upheavals in the country (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

dav — Critical Mass is a global cycling protest in which cyclists take to a city’s streets in large numbers to remind people to be mindful and respectful of other road users, and to assert cyclists’ rights to be on the road. This sticker is advertising Critical Mass Koln, which takes place on the last Friday of each month (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

This sticker is in French rather than German or English, and reads “Everyone hates the Police.” The small boy in the foreground is holding a gun behind his back, hiding it from the police officers in the car who are talking to the other boy. Whilst tensions with police can be high in cities, particularly among ethnic minorities who often feel profiled and discriminated against, this is a disturbing image (Photo: Hannah Awcock).

2019-03-19 13.47.35.jpg — I’m not sure that this technically counts as a protest sticker, but I wanted to finish on a positive note 🙂 (Photo: Hannah Awcock).