"we are very patient" (Patreon)

been spending a fair bit of time out at the McCormick strike in Clayton lately. 

a quiet older lady sitting next to the worker above said a minute later: "if management are nice to us, we will be nice to them, and if they fuck us --- we fuck them", everyone started hooting and hollering after a brief shocked pause. you can visit the striking workers next to their factory at 63-71 fairbank rd, clayton south, or support their strike fund at https://chuffed.org/project/mccormickstrike

i realised putting this update together that from the almost 10 drawings that are here i got paid a total of $100 lmaoooo (considerably less than $1 an hour) which is not always the case, but yea thankyou x100000 for the support and solidarity here!!!!! the patreon $ allows me to do way more goofy experimental stuff, and to draw more directly for union members and activists.

thanks also to ppl who voted on which topic i shld draw about for this months Overland cartoon. illustrating the Sara Nelson quote 'using power builds power' was the most popular option by more than double other votes. I struggled with how to draw it, but thought maybe something that celebrated and collated a heap of industrial tactics could work, esp cos alot of us think of strikes as the be-all-and-end-all (which they're...not-not). I stopped short of including a definition of each of the tactics, but tried to highlight something unique about each one in each accompanying little drawing. i think the piece will work best printed up huge cos there's alot going on in it, but even still i'm not sure it'll work that well... any constructive or critical feedback welcome as always.

the piece can be found below or here: https://overland.org.au/2021/03/using-power-builds-power/

been continuing along with illustrating a bunch of classic worker slogans, proving to be a fun loose exercise in between drawing pages for the long-form book which is a bit more of a slog. also good chance to experiment with some different styles and compositional approaches.

drew the next slogan after my friend Kieran sent this pic to me (thanks also to the AMWU and the UMWA for leading us to it)

Wasn't sure whether to draw the line 'nothing is too good for the working class' or 'labour is entitled to all it creates', perhaps i'll do em both eventually since i'm aiming to do 100 slogans. also aiming to end up with 100 of the definition panels, some of which i'll drop in below.

took me several attempts to get the bejewelled dildo right in the above pic. forgot to include avocado toast but prolly for the best cos that has gotta be one of the stupidest culture war symbols ever surely. apparently that whole "poor young ppl shld just stop eating avocado toast" trope came from an *australian* capitalist. and is now being parroted by right wingers and deadshits all over the world. who says australia doesnt make or export anything anymore!!!!!!!

♬ "I dreamed i saw Joe Hill last night, alive as you or me..." ♬

as usual pls lemme know if u have any slogans you think i shld illustrate, or terms u reckon i shld prioritise including in this 'definitions' series, happy 2 oblige.

liked this painting called 'pulled over', by Woodrow White:

thanks for the support! a few new ppl signed up recently - thanks heaps. i will mail u sum stuff as thanx next week, working on getting a bunch of the slogans printed up as scrappy poster sets. if anyone else wants me to send some pls let me know. meanwhile there are some more nicely printed versions of a few of the posters up on my store https://www.samwallman.com/store n there is a permanent 25% discount there if u use the code PATREON at checkout. or if money is tight n u rly want anything in particular just send me a msg.

thanks again mates <3