Anti-Jubilee Agitprop 1977

The most famous moment of opposition to the Queen's 'Silver Jubilee' in 1977 (to mark 25 years on the throne) was of course the success of The Sex Pistols' 'God Save the Queen' single which got to number 2 in the charts despite a lack of radio play and many shops refusing to sell it - and everyone knows it probably would have been number one without some rigging of the charts.

I still think this is the greatest of the first wave UK punk songs-  'God save the Queen, She ain't no human being, There is no future In England's dreaming...We're the flowers in the dustbin, We're the poison in the human machine. We're the future, we're the future'

Still there were other expressions of anti-monarchist feeling from the radical left in Britain and Ireland. Here's a few examples:

Stuff the Jubilee badge - according to Sherrl Yanowitz:

'I designed this badge with Neil McFarlane. It was my first badge design. When I ordered 4000 badges from the Universal button company in Bethnal Green, they sort of laughed at me. The same company had the order for hundreds of thousands of pro monarchy items. We advertised the badge mainly through a small advert in Private Eye and in Socialist Worker. the badge became a campaign. In the end we sold over 40,000 badges in less than three months. there were stickers too. and Stuff the Jubilee parties in a number of cities'

'Stuff the Jubilee - roll on the red republic'
(front and back cover of Socialist Worker, 4 June 1977 -from excellent Splits & Fusions Archive)

Women's Voice (SWP women's magazine), May 1977

Socialist Challenge, June 1977 

(paper of the International Marxist Group)

Anti-Jubilee Picnic organised by Y Fflam ddu/Black Flame (Swansea Anarchist Group)
Freedom (Anarchist Fortnightly), May 28 1977

Freedom (Anarchist Fortnightly), June 11 1977

'ER Queen of Death 69-77- 1800 dead' - banner on demo somewhere in Ireland 1977
(from  Ireland: The Class War and our tasks, Revolutionary Struggle. RS were a small Irish communist group influenced by the Italian radical left)


Lots more contemporary articles about the Jubilee if you follow the links to the SW, SC and Freedom full papers.

Ma'at, slave ships and refugees at Runnymede

Runnymede by the River Thames was the site of the signing of the Magna Carta*, a step towards limiting the power of monarchy (though still some way to go towards its abolition!) and enshrining the principle of trial by a jury of peers.

A recent art work there by Hew Locke, The Jurors, consists of 12 chairs decorated with images relating to struggles for justice and equality.

 

The front of one chair features the Egyptian goddess Ma'at on the front and the slave ship The Zong on the back.

'Ancient Egyptian scales are topped with the head of Ma’at, the goddess of truth, justice and balance. A dead person’s heart is weighed against a feather to see if the owner is worthy to enter paradise. Ma’at’s symbolism is still apparent in the western personification of Lady Justice'

'In 1781, 133 slaves were thrown overboard from this ship, The Zong. The owners made an insurance claim for the loss of their human cargo and the resulting legal case caused public outcry. On the sails, the West African symbol Epa represents captivity, law and justice'.

Another features a refugee boat:

'A boat carrying refugees inscribed with the names of boats connected to legal cases that marked changes to maritime law, the responsibilities of nations towards refugees, and maritime search-and-rescue protocols'

All sadly relevant as refugees continue to die crossing the maritime deathscapes of the Mediterranean and the Channel, and the British government schemes to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. 

(all quotes from The Jurors leaflet, National Trust, 2019)

* I recommend The Magna Carta Manifesto by Peter Linebaugh for a broader understanding of the significance of this historical moment.