Question of the day.

[Vizth Hal]

0

When signmakers go on strike, how do
they make their point?
~Joost Kuyt, Amsterdam

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Spoiler

As Mr. Herring recounted in his fascinating letter
(January issue), striking signmakers make their
point precisely by not carrying signs (though as
some commentators have identified, the whole affair
consequently seems like nothing so much as twenty
blokes in overalls, looking cross). Further to earlier
answers, I remember well the pitched battles between
signmakers and militant coal miners in the summer
of 1984. When members of the south Derbyshire coal
miners union appeared over the hill, carrying homemade
banners decrying Thatcher’s government, a chilling cry
of “SCABS!” went up from the five striking signmakers,
and a bloody skirmish ensued, while the police—grateful
for the chance to have a cup of tea—looked on.

~Albert Shankly, Langley Mill, Notts

am very interested to read the letter of Monsieur
Shankly about signmakers who made riots in England in
the 1980s. Of course, in France the union of signmakers,
FROTAGE (Fédération Régionale des Ouvriers Textuels/
Artisans en Grève), we do things very differently and
with much more class. We do carry signs, but instead
of the angry slogan, our signs they feature beautiful
paintings of the signmakers themselves, in the style of
M. René Magritte, over the legend: Ceci n’est pas un
fabricant des signes. Though, I confess, we also block
all of the roads into Paris and firebomb the houses of
old womens

~ Jean-Marie Oranais , Paris