Make the March
An anti-cuts art project
2012 & 2022
“It is a joyous initiative.”
Here Come The Plebs by Kate Wright
I can’t find any way… by Paul
Ahead of the TUC’s A Future That Works rally in October 2012, Make the March shared the banners and placards activists were preparing to take on the march.
In doing so, and by gaining significant media coverage, the project celebrated the creativity of anti-cuts activists and spread the word about the rally.
The project included a banner competition funded by the TUC, which was judged by artists Ed Hall and Bob and Roberta Smith, journalist Kevin Maguire, and comedian Josie Long.
On the march itself, the Make the March team carried Bob and Roberta Smith’s giant Letter to Michael Gove, 2012. It was heavier than we thought it would be.
Ten years on, Make the March returned to focus on the coach trips thousands of people make to get to national rallies.
For the TUC’s We Demand Better demo on 18 June 2022, 15 coaches from across the country shared their stories and politics online in the hours before the march in central London.
For more details on the 2022 project, click here.
Where’s Your Spine, Nick? Where’s Your Heart, David? by Trish Hann
“I’m a recent graduate, about to start my career in Radiography and I’m really worried about the funding cuts and creeping privatisation of the NHS. It’s up to people like us to fight this injustice; we are all affected by it.”
Fifty Shades of We Won’t Pay by Sel
“This year I’ll be marching in the Pink and Black Bloc, to show solidarity with queer comrades and to highlight the fact that LGBT people (especially young LGBT people, who are already hit harder by access to benefits being cut and unemployment) are disproportionately hit by the cuts.”
Tax the Rich! by Dani Ahrens
“I’ve made this in crochet, using Suffragette colours. The cuts are hitting women and children particularly hard – the changes to housing benefit have led to a 60% increase in families with children being placed in emergency b&b accommodation. My placard is like a baby blanket. It represents the women who keep their babies safe and comforted even when they are denied the security of a home because the government won’t make the rich pay their fair share.”
Banners and placards from the project went on to be included in the People’s History Museum's 2013 exhibition The Art of Protest in Manchester.
The project’s (now defunct) website has been archived in the British Library’s Political Action and Communication collection.