Our Members Be Unlimited: a comic about workers and their unions

by Sam Wallman

An original and visually powerful exploration of unionism.

In our current political climate, people are looking for answers — and alternatives. The promise of unions is that their ‘members be unlimited’: that they don’t belong to the rich, the powerful, or special interests, but to all workers.

How did the idea of unionism arise? Where has it flourished? And what are its challenges in the 21st century? From Britain to Bangladesh, from the first union of the 18th century to today, from solidarity in Walmart China to his own experiences in an Amazon warehouse in Melbourne, comics journalist Sam Wallman explores the urge to come together and cooperate that arises again and again in workers and workplaces everywhere.

With a dynamic and distinctive art style, and writing that’s both thoughtful and down to earth, Our Members Be Unlimited serves as an entry point for young people or those new to these notions of collective action, but also as an invigorating read to those already engaged in the struggle for better working conditions — and a better world.

Genres: Graphic Novels, History, Nonfiction, Comics, Politics, Labor, Australia

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2022

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my, this book is absolutely wonderful. It presents a rockhard case for unions and unionising, byb referencing the history of unionisation and connecting it to the author's own experiences with trying to unionise against Amazon.



It's a pretty dense book, there's a lot of information, but it's very well written, making it a suprisingly gripping overlook of unionisation. The author's art is exceptional - a cartoony style that seems loose and reminds slightly of Matt Groening, but it's also highly detailed and covers every page surface.



Look, I already was on the side of unionisation, but this book only galvanised that opinion.

Highly recommended.

(Thanks to Scribe US for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)

[Sheree | Keeping Up With The Penguins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our Members Is Unlimited‘s fun format and beautiful rendering belies the significance of its subject – a must-read for fans and followers of Jorts The Cat.

My full review of Our Members Be Unlimited is up now on Keeping Up With The Penguins.

[Carol - Reading Writing and Riesling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellently written and illustrated. There is so much here to be reminded off, change to aspire to.

[Tanushree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read, and such beautiful, poignant illustrations! Fascinating how we’ve moved so far away from one of the most organic things we did as humans working together.

The book covers the detailed technicalities, as well as glorious emotions of the works of unions, and how they’ve pretty much brought about all the comforts we enjoy in our lives. From weekends to sick leaves to paid maternity leaves.

The illustrations can be very hard hitting at times.

This Karl Marx quote he drew is the closest summary I can think of: “The worker puts his life into the object, and his life then belongs no longer to himself, but the object. The greater his activity, therefore lesser he possesses. What is embodied in the product of his labor is no longer his own… the object exists independently, outside of himself, alien to him, and stands opposed to him as an autonomous power. The life he has given to the object sets itself against him as an alien and hostile force.”

[Kieran Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent graphic anthology by Sam Wallman on unions, their history, their troubles and their triumphs.

Stunningly beautiful and politically sharp, this is a book that I can see myself coming back to, and repeatedly recommending to fellow workers learning about unionism.

"I hope no one draws from this the conclusion that my views are shaped by nostalgia for an age that cannot be recaptured. Rather, my views about work are governed by nostalgia for an age that has but yet come into being" - Harry Braverman, cited in Our Members Be Unlimited.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

the best part of this book, by far, is how grounded it is in the author's reality and how undeniable his faith is in the union difference

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! This book provides an excellent starting point for anyone wanting to learn more about Unions and labour history. Well written, easy to follow and beautifully illustrated by an amazing artist and comrade. This book reads like a conversation between workers as they go about their day, dreaming about something more.

[Rania T · Rating 5 out of 5]

The birth of the Union Movement has a very fascinating history. You will learn plenty from this graphic novel. Lots of facts and real life stories that relate to worker's struggles. Mention of Green Bans as well. It is pleasing to know that the writer worked on this at Trades Hall in Melbourne which is the oldest Union Building in the world. Like we say, workers of the world unite and there is strength in the collective. Highly Recommended.

[Sophie Darwinian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely love this beautiful, moving book. The illustrations are gorgeous and the message is powerful and deeply felt. Highly recommend.

[Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book, gorgeous illustrations, interesting ideas and meaningful history.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

The good: this is a gorgeous looking book, with striking design; it documents really significant overarching Australian view of unions that is hard to find; the section on Amazon workers is very moving and engrossing.
The not-so-good: it can be quite hard to read, both because the info-dumps are fairly dry and more importantly, because the design often sacrifices readability; it is missing significant exploration of sexism and racism.
Other comments: I really wanted to like this more than I did. I had been hoping for something akin to the work of Richard Appignanesi, or the amazing Bhimayana, in bringing a graphic approach to complex ideas. At times, Wallman gets very close to this - especially in the historic sections, and the lush two-page spreads. But on the whole, this lacks the humour of the former and the personal focus of the latter, making the content tiring to read (obviously exacerbated by the difficult placement and not-great contrast of much of the text). The book shines most in the section where Wallman details his own experiences at Amazon - this tightly focused story uses the graphic elements to contrast the looming emptiness to the workers very embodied and social reality. It is outstanding in conveying the way unions feel, and I couldn't help thinking that a focus on different workplaces might have worked better for the whole book.
The viewpoint presented adheres pretty closely to that of the international socialist tendency, although Wallman introduces an anarchist character to present an alternate view in later chapters, with clear passion for broadening the whole union movement. It could have benefited from a more explicit discussion of gender and race in union history. Without this, it would be hard to really understand some of the issues in the modern movement.

[Soo-Min · Rating 5 out of 5]

Join your union xoxo

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our Members Be Unlimited is an excellent introduction to the past and present of unions.

Through ten chapters, Wallman breaks down the pros of unions, the benefits we've gotten, the downsides to the destruction of unions in recent decades, the work people are doing right now to improve workplaces through unionising and direct action, and excellent historical tidbits about unions and direct action in decades (even centuries) past. When the more recent actions were discussed, I really liked how it addressed modern workplace concerns, such as robots/automatisation, massive international corporations being who many work for (with a particular focus on Amazon warehouses), the rise of gig work, and growing environmental and climate concerns (especially with many workplaces not being environmentally friendly). I also liked how he addressed where some unions have had corruption issues and the ways this can be fought. Our Members Be Unlimited is also pretty successful at maintaining an international perspective--the author is Australian and so many aspects are Australian specific, as well as heavily US and UK specific, but it also addresses unions and direct worker action in Bangladesh, India, Poland, Iceland, New Zealand, China, Peru, and more.

It's visually interesting to look at, and the stylistic changes between chapters and sections made it engaging to read. I did find that some of the text could be quite small, and the way it changes directions across pages required me to turn my head or the book more than I would like, so I would definitely say that if your vision is a problem, I recommend reading a digital copy to make zooming in an option and turning the content easier.

While it's clearly written in a way that makes it obvious that Wallman cares about issues of race, disability, gender, and sexuality, I do wish that these had been more directly addressed in relation to the past and present of unions. I would have been delighted to see the book be longer if it meant we got to address these things more directly.

Overall, this was an excellent primer on unions, and one I definitely think is worth checking out. It provides a lot of the basic information I think all workers today deserve to have access to. I wish it had been longer to provide more info and that the font had been larger in places, but its imperfections don't lessen the things it does great, in my opinion.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is pretty good, it’s very dense, but heartfelt and conveys the topic well. Probably four stars if I liked it more aesthetically; the style is sort of R Crumb meets Keith Haring (or something) and the text is sometimes hard to read and not always well integrated into the image. Having said that, it provided plenty of food for thought, and quite a lot of depth on the topic. Quite a useful book.
Also, join your union!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent Australian graphic novel. Bright, clever and informative graphics. Part memoir based on the author's experience in an Amazon warehouse part a history of Unions, what they have achieved, how they are/were formed and how they work. One that I'd recommend to anyone interested in an introduction to Industrial relations. Only requires a small investment in reading time but would also be a fun one to flick through a few times.

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it. Learnt so much about the history of unionism, the praxis and some theory - all told in everyday language so it didn't read dense or dry for me. Sam weaves his own experiences working at an Amazon warehouse through it and doesn't shy away from the reality that organising working people is incredibly difficult yet so valuable. Something like this needed to be illustrated and I commend the collective labour that went into this. It made me feel cautiously optimistic about collectivism and the power of workers coming together to achieve economic justice.

[King]

Wallman's writing and cartooning is so innovative and comprehensive. Some of the visual metaphors in this book were truly stunning and the pacing of this book is unrivaled in nonfiction. For me, the book lost some steam in the last few chapters but i still came away from this book more informed and excited about the possibilities of making nonfiction comics.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information and messaging is good, but some of the pages are almost unreadable. There’s style and then there’s making the reader rotate the book to read walls of text you’ve stuck on different sides of cubes.
Sadly, I think this would be better as a long form essay and not a work of sequential nonfiction.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A colorful and thorough look at labor unions — past, present, and future. Packed with historical anecdotes. I would recommend this to anyone interested in learning more about why unions are important.

[Hollis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is incredible, I can’t believe it isn’t more popular. The illustrations are TOP TIER & the content is really informative. It taught me a lot about unions, both their history & where we’re at today. Please read this !!

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️

Loved the art/colors and history.

[Michael Middlemast · Rating 5 out of 5]

COMRADES

[Steven Kolber · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times tricky to read, but mind expanding and compelling.

[Timothy Dymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is unionism for the people who actually unionise? The best description I have found in more academic studies of unionism is the description that it is an ‘experience good’ - one for which the consumer does not know the value of the product before it is bought and used. Many unions try to articulate the benefits of joining a union in terms of wage outcomes (‘unionists on average earn more than non-unionists’) or services (‘your union provides you with legal advice’). However the feeling of solidarity and connection between workers - which artist and writer Sam Wallman describes through the experience of his work in an Amazon warehouse - is hard to articulate if you’re not in the collectivising situation. Towards the end of the this book, Wallman relays this question to him from a friend:

'How are you gonna articulate how unionism feels? Like, that feeling when you see someone who has been disempowered their whole life stepping up? When you see someone who was self-interested stand up alongside someone else, whose life is totally separate to theirs? Someone fighting for a stranger or whatever. How the f--- are you gonna draw that, how are you gonna make the reader feel that?'

Wallman answers that question by taking his readers on a deep dive into unionism. That includes a history lesson:

'The first rule of the first working-class political organization formed in Britain was: “that the number of our members be unlimited.”'

But it is also an impressionistic visual dive into the world(s) and lived experiences of labour - particularly at the so-called ‘bottom end’ of routinised manual work. Wallman asks at one point while he is pushing trollies in the Warehouse ‘when I work, where does my body end and the equipment begin?’ It is accompanied by an image of his hands melting into his cart.

In that sense a wordy review can’t do justice to what this book is trying to convey. The art, with its array of characters, street scenes, disembodies workplaces, and mass struggles, is one of the best articulations of the ‘experience good’ that is solidarity among workers once the realisation dawns that, in the words of American Socialist Eugene V Debs quoted in this book: ‘You do not need the capitalist. He could not exist an instant without you’!

[Alex Gaidai · Rating 1 out of 5]

One sided presentation, with liberal, communist and social views. The art is interesting, the format is unique. The subject is more of a rant, than an analysis, or even history. Disliked it about halfway, but had to finish.

What is worth noting, is the magnitude of changes that unions brought about historically, both positive and some negative. In the end the union is as good as the ideas or values that it represents, and if the union is primarily rising up for the morally subjective or humanist causes from one day to another, then what good can we expect.

Every union can flourish because of the fact that capitalism is flourishing. It's almost a symbiotic relationship. It's the outflow of natural response from both sides to the following: greed, inequality(which is not intrinsically bad), selfishness, laziness, jealousy, envy, moral failure, etc.. exploitation leads to formation of unions, and that's the cycle.

What's sad is that a lot of the problems and concerns that unions challenged, are some real and tragic issues, that often do lead to poor working terms and conditions, and of course one would want to solve those issues, but Communism, Socialism, Marxism or "Ludittism" or UBI is not the answer, and yet people still hope that one day it will be done just right and then every wrong will be righter.

Unions, and the true union leaders, are presented in this book as forces with innate good virtues.

Ultimately, I believe, humanity does not have the power within itself to fix these injustices.

And to counter the quote on page 183, someone better than Moses, indeed came . The only way we can have lasting and fulfilling change in these areas is by meeting and submitting to King Jesus, whom Moses anticipated as well.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

With "Our Members Be Unlimited," cartoonist Sam Wallman splits his narrative between a history of the labor movement and anecdotes from his time working (and trying to unionize) an Amazon warehouse in Australia.

The Amazon elements are most compelling. Wallman shares viscerally what it's like to be in the grips of automation. He and his fellow workers are lashed by voiceless screens; they're pulled into overtime without warning, constantly judged by how fast they move and how much they accomplish. It's robotic and exploitative and sound ripe for unionizing.

Unfortunately, Wallman doesn't seem to make much progress in his unionization efforts (a tall task, I know). He commiserates with unhappy coworkers, tries to sell them on the benefits of solidarity, but the gears they're meshed in just seem too big.

The sections of the book that deal with the history of the labor movement are obviously meaningful for Wallman, but I don't think he succeeds in visually articulating the hard past and shaky future of the labor movement. There are a few scenes where he successfully illustrates what solidarity might look like, but too much of the art is blobby and stuffed with text. Workers are illustrated as Keith Haring-esque outlines, but they lack the energy of Haring's work. At their worst, they can seem one notch above clip art.

While Wallman's passion is evident (and I'm largely sympathetic to his perspective), "Our Members Be Unlimited" feels unrefined. Unfortunately, it doesn't fully succeed in the medium he's chosen.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part history, part call-to-action, part memoir of the author trying to salt an Amazon warehouse, this book expanded my views on what unions are capable of. Like did you know that Google employees got Google to drop its contract with the military because they didn’t want their creations used to spy on citizens and kill people in drone strikes? Did you know that women in Iceland went on strike for women’s rights? Did you know that dock workers refused to unload cargo from South Africa to protest apartheid?

Many people have forgotten the power behind people simply working together for a better life—e.g. up until recently, Michigan was a Grub-state, a “Right to Work” a.k.a. right to undermine and mooch off unions. Meanwhile, Gov. Abbott in Texas wants to pardon a man who murdered protesters—the right to organize, peacefully protest and not be a bootlicking grub is constantly under threat.

This book also had me thinking about how even some progressive movements, such as universal basic income, can be seen as begging for more gruel.

Funny, Jeff Bezos went to space because he ran out of ideas of what to do with his money (how about pay your workers a living wage and stop contributing to climate change and global destruction? No? 🍆-rocket like your rich friends…)

The 1% stand together, so should workers. There would be no 1% if they didn’t have their boots on our necks, profiting from our labor and suffering.

[Peter Hollo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book, with full-bleed illustrations on every page. Wallman takes many creative approaches to drawing the stories he tells, and his pictures really support the words.

The words, though: this is no cut-down, simplified, made-for-pictures thing. It's a work of art indeed, but one with a lot to teach us. Wallman harnesses many stories from across the history of unionism, from well before capitalism had even reared its head, through friendly societies to early unions to current-day subjugation and maltreatment in Amazon warehouses, factories and more across the world. He also draws examples of co-operative behaviour from nature, and does not ignore politics.

It's also a huge pleasure that Wallman is Australian. The chapter on Amazon is based in the Melbourne warehouse where Wallman worked, and the green bans, Melbourne's tramways unions and more get a look in.

For those interested in unionism, anti-fascism and leftist politics (whether anarchism, socialism, or just "let's all be nice to each other"), but worried that it's pointless, that it costs too much, that it's tainted by communism or thuggishness, I highly recommend this as a mature, beautiful and inspiring read.

[Q · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this overall, esp the first half which is more narrative-driven, with some astonishing pieces of union history. Sam's a great storyteller and his writing and visual style work well for both the action and abstract ideas. There are a few places where the design is really clever, quite astonishingly beautiful, even when it dips into essayistic stretches that were hard on my (terrible) eyesight. And I really appreciated the way the narration twisted in critical dialogue with itself, while not trying to settle these open questions.

I felt a bit put off though by the bloated illustrated glossary at the end, which seemed snide and narrow compared to the expansive optimism of the rest of the book. The main text is very clear that the contemporary labour movement is not just being white blokes in construction and manufacturing but then the terms included in the glossary are very that: all these idioms and anachronisms that I reckon make people feel disengaged from unions because their work doesn't look like that. Anyway I could've done without that coda and had it just end on acknowledgements. Still, I would definitely recommend this as both an invigorating read and a useful reference, and I'll be getting my own copy once I return this to the library.