Workers of The World Unite, 2009

Catalogue Note

In Workers of the World, Banksy reimagines one of the best-known political slogans in modern history. Across a large wall, a hooded graffiti writer paints the words “WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!”, while beside him a municipal worker wearing a fluorescent safety vest calmly follows behind with a bucket and broom, apparently preparing either to assist or to erase the message. The composition deliberately leaves the relationship between the two figures unresolved, inviting multiple interpretations.

The slogan, taken from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ Communist Manifesto, has long symbolized collective action and working-class solidarity. Banksy removes it from its historical context and places it firmly within the contemporary urban landscape, where political ideals confront the routines of everyday labor. Rather than depicting a dramatic confrontation between authority and rebellion, he presents two workers quietly carrying out their respective tasks.

This ambiguity gives the painting its strength. The graffiti writer and the maintenance worker are not obvious opponents. Both are laborers. Both use tools. Both physically transform the city. One leaves marks behind; the other removes them. Banksy suggests that despite appearing to stand on opposite sides of the law, they may have more in common with each other than with the institutions they serve.

The fluorescent vest introduces another layer of irony. Traditionally associated with public order, maintenance and municipal authority, it has become one of Banksy’s recurring visual motifs. Here it quietly undermines the revolutionary slogan itself. The revolution no longer arrives through barricades or mass demonstrations but through routine public maintenance. Political idealism has become just another task on the day’s schedule.

Created for Banksy vs. Bristol Museum in 2009, Workers of the World reflects Banksy’s continuing fascination with labor, public space and the contradictions of contemporary society. Like Very Little Helps, Luxury Loft and Rickshaw, it examines the often invisible individuals whose work sustains the systems within which the rest of society operates.

Ultimately, the painting reminds us that the meaning of work extends beyond political ideology. Whether creating, cleaning or protesting, both figures contribute to the continual rewriting of the urban landscape. Banksy leaves us to decide whether they are adversaries—or simply colleagues performing different parts of the same job.