Skip to main content
Resist and connect
JON BALDWIN appreciates the way Steve McQueen has curated the evidence of our resistance, and is inspired by their cumulative effect
Andrew Wiard Demonstration against the imminent invasion of Iraq by Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Muslim Association of Britain, 15 February 2003

Resistance: How Protest Shaped Britain and Photography Shaped Protest
Turner Contemporary, Margate

CONCEIVED by artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen, Resistance recently opened in Margate, Kent. This is a curation of photographs chronicling and bearing witness to popular protest in the UK. 

It spans a turbulent century, from early faded images of suffragettes in 1903 to the anti-war protest of 2003 on the cusp of the proliferation of camera-phones. 

The people are seen standing up for women’s rights, workers’ rights, queer rights, disabled rights, the environment, and standing against fascism, racism, post-imperialism, nuclear arms, and war. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
CONFRONTING HOMOPHOBIA: (L) FCB Cadell, The Boxer, c.1924; (
Exhibition review / 21 March 2025
21 March 2025
While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS: Xilun Sun as the mysterious interloper
Film of the Week: / 20 March 2025
20 March 2025
ANGUS REID recommends an exquisite drama about the disturbing impact of the one child policy in contemporary China
Short Story / 7 February 2025
7 February 2025
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
Frantz Fanon at a press conference during a writers' confere
BenchMarx / 28 January 2025
28 January 2025
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
Similar stories
(L - R) Cala neighbourhood, the little girl with the ball, P
Exhibition review / 24 January 2025
24 January 2025
ANNA SERGI recommends the first UK exhibition of a remarkable female photographer who studied the impact of mafia violence on everyday life
(Left) Untitled, (Right) Untitled
Exhibition review / 26 August 2024
26 August 2024
MICHAL BONCZA sees an exhibition of photography that offers intriguing glimpses of Britain
Peter Kennard, (L) The Gamble, 1986; (R) Protest and Survive
Exhibition Review / 23 August 2024
23 August 2024
JAN WOOLF applauds art that has not only documented the anti-war and anti-capitalist movement but been an integral part of it 
(L) Chilean academic and photographer Luis Bustamante; (R) C
Exhibition Review / 11 July 2024
11 July 2024
Co-curator TOM WHITE introduces a father-and-son exhibition of photography documenting the experience and political engagement of Chilean exiles