Unemployment (British poster, 1909)

The Propaganda Archive

A project by Propagandopolis to create the internet’s largest archive of propaganda posters, postcards, pamphlets, stamps and other ephemera.

This archive is currently a work in progress. New content and features will be added over the coming months. If you would like to learn about or support the project, you can do so below:

Text: Unemployment – whose turn next?

Year: 1909.

Publisher: Budget Protest League.

Artist: NA.

Additional information: The poster was published by the Budget Protest League, an organization established in 1909 to oppose the People’s Budget proposed by Liberal Chancellor David Lloyd George. The League published numerous posters criticizing the budget as a socialist initiative and condemning free trade, which they believed was causing British industrial decline. The poster depicts death symbolizing unemployment marching on a factory, carrying a scythe labeled ‘Free Trade’.