Parents Must Unite + Fight. Hackney Flashers: Agitprop, Work, and Socialist Feminism in England
The design of this medium-format hardcover book in black, white and yellow emphasises the continuing relevance of its subject: the feminist movement of the 1970s. The volume explores the London-based female collective the Hackney Flashers, whose two touring exhibitions (1975 and 1978) and slideshow (1980) brilliantly combined images and text to denounce the exploitation of women as sole child-rearers and underpaid workers. The activists also organised demonstrations and initiatives around childcare. The fact that these concerns are as relevant now as they were then is highlighted by the radical design, which shuns nostalgia and transposes the historical sources to the present. For instance, the full-bleed title photograph of a child at a demonstration, holding a placard bearing the slogan ‘PARENTS MUST UNITE + FIGHT’, now functions as the book title. A ‘cinematic’ 64-page prelude presents the exhibition materials produced by the Hackney Flashers on corresponding image and text pages without commentary, as if it were a current work. The noise of the streets is made visual and speaks directly to the viewer. It is not until the second part of the book that the historical background is addressed, in an academic essay on yellow paper. The book concludes with a plate section containing exhibition panels and with brief biographies of the protagonists, including a recent group photo. The strategic fusion of past and present also extends to the typography, as the simple, monolinear and rounded typeface used for all the texts harks back to the ‘écriture script’ handwriting that has been taught in French schools since 1945. All the elements work harmoniously together, and the jury did not question a single decision made by the design duo.
