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A REMARKABLE trade union banner has been rediscovered after disappearing years ago — and is to undergo restoration.
The banner was created in 1977-78 by left artist Andrew Turner, who has made two dozen banners during more than 50 years of artistic work.
It was made for the Manchester branch of what was then the General and Municipal Workers’ Union (GMWU), now part of the GMB.
Its depiction of a muscled worker tearing chains apart drew gasps when it was unveiled in Manchester.
Mr Turner recalls: “There were about 200 shop stewards, men and women, at the unveiling. One young shop steward said: ‘It’s incredible, it’s like the Hulk.’
“So it became the Incredible Hulk and the name stuck.”
After Tory attacks on the trade union movement of the 1980s and 1990s many branches were merged or wound up. It was in this period that the banner disappeared.
But Mr Turner received information about it from the office of GMB general secretary Paul Kenny, with whom he was in touch.
“I was told the banner had been found and was to be restored,” said Mr Turner.
The banner is in the People’s History Museum in Manchester awaiting the start of the restoration work.
Mr Turner has visited the museum to advise on the project, including what paint and other materials should be used.
His banner-design style is unique — as is his other art.
“The GMWU was the beginning of my challenge against the orthodoxy of banner design, bringing banner design into our times,” he told the Morning Star.
