Our Members Be Unlimited: A Comic about Workers and Their Unions

So, so excited about this one! The first book-length comic from Australian comics journalist, cartoonist, and labor activist Sam Wallman is a stunner — a bold visual history of workers’ struggles; a mini-memoir of Wallman’s time working as a picker (and shop floor organizer) in an Amazon warehouse; and a compelling intro-slash-invitation to union activism. Buy one for yourself and one for a coworker! Recommended By Tove H., Powells.com

A timely and inspiring work of comics journalism — the history of unions and why we need them (and a first-hand account of working in an Amazon warehouse).

Workers of the world, unite! From comics journalist Sam Wallman comes a thoughtful plunge into the history of unions. Through distinctive art and sharp-eyed reporting, Wallman ushers us into the hidden aisles of 21st-century labor conditions, and shows us recent labor movements and union triumphs — all while framing current conditions against the history of unions and the earliest rallying cries for worker rights.

It's an entry point for younger generations, and a reminder for workers who have had their livelihood reduced by capitalist pressures. It's also a primer for those new to the power of collective action.

From an Amazon warehouse in Melbourne (where Sam worked for a year), to Britain and Bangladesh, to Walmart in China and the New York Taxi Workers Alliance strike against the Trump-era refugee ban of 2017, this book is a highly original and visual exploration of the power of unions.

"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

"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

Sam Wallman is a comics-journalist and cartoonist based in Melbourne, Australia. His work has been published by The Guardian and The New York Times, among others. In 2016, he visited the United States to draw everyday people's responses to the presidential election for Australian, Italian, and American media outlets.

Sam is a committed unionist, having worked as an organizer for the National Union of Workers, and a delegate on the shop floor prior to that. He has drawn cartoons for over a hundred trade unions and worker organizations around the world, and is currently developing large-scale murals and banners. He works out of the Workers Art Collective studio in the Trades Hall, Melbourne, the oldest union building in the world.