Description: Poster created by Iraqi artist Muatsim Abd-Alkarim, who was killed by Iraqi government forces in 1983.

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Description: Spoof film poster for “Gone With The Wind” starring Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Made for Friends of the Earth in the 1980s. The stars of the 1939 film are replaced in this photo-montage poster by US President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher. The title refers to the feared effects of nuclear war. The image of Thatcher in Reagan’s arms gives an impression of British politicians being subservient to the US.

Description: Copy of Peace News from September 6th 1963 showing the civil rights march on Washington D.C. and highlighting Martin Luther King’s speech. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. He followed his father into the church and founded the first black ministry in Montgomery, Alabama. He campaigned for an end to such discrimination against blacks as segregated schools and inferior voting rights. He set up the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 to organise nonviolent protests across the US. These came to a head in August 1963, when 200,000 people marched to Washington D.C.

This copy of Peace News shows the scene at the Lincoln Memorial where King made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Despite the passing of acts to end discrimination, King continued to campaign for social reform. On April 4th 1968 he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. His funeral was attended by 150,000 people. The third Monday in January has since been declared “Martin Luther King Day”, a US national holiday.

Description: Poster board dating from 1937, carried in Peace Pledge Union marches. In October 1934 Canon Dick Sheppard, an Anglican priest and pacifist, wrote to the press, calling on men to send him postcards declaring their rejection of war. In the mid-1930s pacifism was growing in popularity and within a year Sheppard had received 80,000 postcards. The size of the response inspired him to try and give their movement a more formal structure. Consequently, in 1936 he set up the Peace Pledge Union (PPU).

Those joining the new organisation were asked to sign a pledge declaring “I renounce war and will never support or sanction another.” The theory was that if enough agreed, no government would be able to raise an army, war could never be national policy and peaceful alternatives would have to be found.

Supported by such famous writers as Siegfried Sassoon and Aldous Huxley, the PPU had 133,000 members by November 1937. The museum has two poster boards carried in demonstrations in that year – this is one of them.

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Item type: Poster

Description: Poster explaining what a Nuclear Free Zone is in different languages, published by Manchester City Council. On 5th November 1980 Manchester City Council became the first local authority in Britain to declare itself a ‘Nuclear Free Zone’. The Council was against the siting, production and transport of nuclear material in the area for which it was responsible.

This was of real concern to the people of Manchester as several nuclear sites such as Sellafield in Cumbria and the Capenhurst uranium enrichment plant in Cheshire, were nearby. Manchester asked the government to “refrain from manufacture or positioning of any nuclear weapons in the boundaries of our city” and began to promote peaceful alternatives to nuclear weapons. Leaflets and posters such as this one were produced in five languages.

The anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was marked by the laying of wreaths and friendships were formed with many world cities, including Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and Cordoba. Manchester’s example was followed by many other local authorities and as of 1995 there were over 150 Nuclear Free Zones across England, Wales and Scotland.

Description: Poster showing war-torn Europe being overseen by US President Ronald Reagan, who is seen sitting in a film director’s chair. This poster was created in the early 1980s by the American photo-montage artist Richard Slye. Most of Slye’s posters criticise the arms industry and many of them have been used by the US and Canadian peace movements.

This poster was also part of an exhibition staged in the early 1980s by the Co-operative Retail Service, London Region political committee. The exhibition contained posters from every part of the world and was intended to show that people across the world were ‘united in opposing the continued insane nuclear arms race.” Most of the posters from this exhibition were donated to The Peace Museum.

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Description: Soviet peace poster produced in 1980. This poster was part of an exhibition staged in the early 1980s by the Co-operative Society Retail Service, London Region political committee. The exhibition contained posters from every part of the world and was intended to show that people across the world were “united in opposing the continued insane nuclear arms race.” Most of the posters from this exhibition were donated to The Peace Museum.

Description: Poster of John Lennon with the title of his 1969 single “Give Peace A Chance.” John Lennon was born on 9th October 1940 in Liverpool. He was a member of one of the most famous bands to be created in Britain, The Beatles. After many hits with the band and years of success the band ceased and Lennon decided to team up with his wife, Yoko Ono, and try to change the world. One of the first things they did was to plant acorns of peace at Coventry Cathedral. Their other activities included a week-long bed-in during their honeymoon in Amsterdam. This was to protest against the Vietnam War. The couple also attended a press conference in Vienna where they both lay together inside a large white bag. As well as this, Lennon also tried to educate people about the idea of world peace. In 1969 “Give Peace A Chance” was released. The song was recorded by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band as they sat on the floor of the Hotel La Reine. The world never anticipated how influential this song would become and it was reported that, during the Gulf War in 1991, the countries’ representatives who were opposed to the war were unconsciously using the phrase from the song to request a ceasefire. On 8th December 1980 Lennon was murdered by a gunman outside his apartment in Manhattan. The world mourned the loss with as much passion as would be expected for royalty.

Most of the posters from the original exhibition were donated to The Peace Museum. This particular poster is also on permanent display at The Peace Museum’s exhibition “A Farewell to Arms?” at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.