“Unionism is about more than your rights at work. It is something greater even than a form of politics at the point of production: union struggle is composed of those mundane moments of perseverance and ingenuity in daily life that are all too easy to pass over in retrospect. This is the history that Sam Wallman uncovers in his magnificent new longform comic, Our Members Be Unlimited … With his unmistakable animated and intricate graphic style, Wallman is skilled at stitching these quotidian details into a broader narrative of working-class history … Learned and extensively researched, this book is also practical, ending with a sizeable glossary of useful union terms, from ‘black cat’ to ‘ultra’. Wallman’s activist energy, familiar to anyone who has read his shorter comics or seen his posters pasted up around their city, makes this graphic history urgent and invigorating reading.”
―Joshua Barnes, Books+Publishing
“Beautiful, bold, and necessary. An original and timely look at labor’s past and present that shows how workers won the rights we have and how they’ll be taken away if we don’t use our power to keep them and build on them.”
―Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA
“Our Members Be Unlimited is a beautiful and often moving guide to union organizing that’s in touch with the reality of work today. Sam Wallman draws on the history of working-class resistance and the humanism at the heart of our movement to guide and give heart to activists.”
―Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin magazine
“Sam Wallman’s comic is history and argument, it is celebration and reflection, and with every turn of its beautiful, vivid pages it is a reminder of the galvanizing power of radical solidarity and of radical love. This book is a gift, it’s exhilarating.”
―Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap and 7½
“In a narrative that moves from trade-union history to his own efforts organizing in an Amazon warehouse, Sam Wallman draws honest, unsentimental portraits of the working class that was and the working class that is. Most of all, he shares a vision of the working class that could be, depicting the everyday decency of ordinary people as the only hope for a world in crisis. Funny, tender, and wise, this book both delights and inspires.”
―Jeff Sparrow, author of Crimes Against Nature
“Sam Wallman’s comic is history and argument, it is celebration and reflection, and with every turn of its beautiful, vivid pages it is a reminder of the galvanizing power of radical solidarity and of radical love. This book is a gift, it’s exhilarating.”
―Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap
“In a narrative that moves from trade-union history to his own efforts organizing in an Amazon warehouse, Sam Wallman draws honest, unsentimental portraits of the working class that was and the working class that is. Most of all, he shares a vision of the working class that could be, depicting the everyday decency of ordinary people as the only hope for a world in crisis. Funny, tender, and wise, this book both delights and inspires.”
―Jeff Sparrow, author of Crimes Against Nature
“Our Members Be Unlimited is a beautiful and often moving guide to union organizing that’s in touch with the reality of work today. Sam Wallman draws on the history of working-class resistance and the humanism at the heart of our movement to guide and give heart to activists.”
―Bhaskar Sunkara, founding editor of Jacobin magazine
“Beautiful, bold, and necessary. An original and timely look at labor’s past and present that shows how workers won the rights we have and how they’ll be taken away if we don’t use our power to keep them and build on them.”
―Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants–CWA
“Unionism is about more than your rights at work. It is something greater even than a form of politics at the point of production: union struggle is composed of those mundane moments of perseverance and ingenuity in daily life that are all too easy to pass over in retrospect. This is the history that Sam Wallman uncovers in his magnificent new longform comic, Our Members Be Unlimited … With his unmistakable animated and intricate graphic style, Wallman is skilled at stitching these quotidian details into a broader narrative of working-class history … Learned and extensively researched, this book is also practical, ending with a sizeable glossary of useful union terms, from ‘black cat’ to ‘ultra’. Wallman’s activist energy, familiar to anyone who has read his shorter comics or seen his posters pasted up around their city, makes this graphic history urgent and invigorating reading.”
―Joshua Barnes, Books+Publishing
“[Our Members Be Unlimited is a] textured, extensively researched work … The artist’s bold style, consisting mainly of primary colors, makes the work visually compelling … His creative agility demonstrates the many possibilities of comics … What’s hugely evident across the work is Wallman’s passion for, and belief in, a better world.”
―Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen, The Sydney Morning Herald
“Sam Wallman has written an inspiring and uplifting visual history of the [union] movement … [his] distinctive style, wit and historical knowledge make this something to relish.”
―Jason Steger, The Sydney Morning Herald
“Sam Wallman’s book is an insight both personal and historical into a collectivist alternative to capitalism that has existed as long as there have been bosses … Wallman is ambitious enough to take comics to areas that are hard to explain, where the message may be complex but the stories are simple. … [Our Members Be Unlimited] is a book that asks readers to read slowly and pay attention to the subtleties.”
―George Dunford, ArtsHub
“Our Members be Unlimited offers an entertaining, well-researched and accessible history of unionism … [Each page] is designed with the confidence and urgency of a poster.”
―Matt Chun, Overland
“Stylistically, Wallman deftly manages the complex use of space - at times like MC Escher or Diego Rivera, also taking inspiration from early trade union banners … Unique and urgent, Our Members Be Unlimited is aimed at a broad audience and well deserves to reach it.”
―Andrew Chuter, Green Left
“Creatively, intellectually, politically, emotionally, Wallman has produced a remarkable work. Our Members Be Unlimited is a robust and distinguished contribution to the long Australian tradition of interactions between artists and the labour movement going back to its birth years in the nineteenth century.”
―Rowan Cahill, Recorder
“No artwork or book has the same power as rank-and-file workplace organizing. But if it reaches a wide enough audience, the book might help amplify the emerging wave of union organization, from US Amazon warehouse workers to cleaners and health care workers in Australia. Our Members Be Unlimited helps us realize that, when we build union solidarity in the workplace, our efforts go beyond wages and conditions ― rekindling the old spirit of collectivism is how we build a better future for humanity.”
―Nicky Minus, Jacobin
