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Photograph

Title
Zarb Hero (The Unjust Treatment of two Anti-Conscription Demonstrators)
Imprint
1968-1969
Abstract

Colour photograph (taken in 1980’s) of a wall slogan painted in October 1968 on the back wall of Fowler’s Vacola factory Hawthorn (beside railway line, near corner of Power Street and Burwood Road Hawthorn). Slogan painted early one morning, October 1968 to protest the imprisonment of conscientious objector John Zarb, a Pascoe Vale postman. Zarb was incarcerated in Pentridge for two years. The artists were Ken Mansell, Barbara McNeill and Adrian Desailly, all members of the Young Socialist League (formerly Eureka Youth League).

The accompanying text was anonymous, but probably distributed by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Single-sided leaflet distributed at demonstration Saturday March 8, 1969 at Urquhart Street Northcote railway bridge. The demonstration was initiated by SDS. The purpose of the demonstration was to protest the penalties imposed on Mansell and Desailly, and to complete the ‘Free Za…’ graffiti they had begun on March 1. - [Ken Mansell]