Overland literary journal > Articles by: Sam Wallman

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Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman is a writer, illustrator and dockworker based on Wurundjeri country. You can follow his work here.

Articles by Sam Wallman:

3 March 20255 March 2025 · Cartoons

RIP woke, methed-up Ned Kelly

Upon visiting the State Library of Victoria on a warm February morning, Sam Wallman and Reuben Winmar speculate on what Ned Kelly might get up to if he was alive today.

27 January 202527 January 2025 · Cartoons

“… but fight absolutely”

Sam Wallman

In which Sam Wallman illustrates a stirring quote from the great Mike Davis.

6 December 20246 December 2024 · Palestine

The movement for Palestine is now…

Sam Wallman

"The movement for Palestine is now stronger, smarter, louder and better connected than ever before." (Noura Mansour)

8 November 20248 November 2024 · Cartoons

Freedom machine

Sam Wallman

A love letter — no, wait, poster — to cycling by the great Sam Wallman.

23 October 2024 · Cartoons

Watching as the empire votes

Sam Wallman

There's an old idea, that as long the United States dominates the whole world, maybe every person on Earth should get a vote in their elections.

9 September 20249 September 2024 · Cartoons

Ten things workers need to know about the CFMEU

Sam Wallman and Sarah Missen

“Defend the unions, defend the CFMEU. Demand your union stand in solidarity with the CFMEU. Join the workers’ campaign to defend their union.” Ten things workers need to know about the CFMEU — with words by Sarah Missen and illustrations by Sam Wallman.

19 July 202419 July 2024 · Cartoons

About the crisis at the CFMEU

Sarah Missen and Sam Wallman

It feels necessary to say something about the crisis at the CFMEU.

1 July 20241 July 2024 · Cartoons

The three kinds of unionism

Sam Wallman

It's not enough to complain or "call out" your union. Lousy unions can be captured and dragged into militancy. And, on the flip side, fighting unions can turn to shit and become business unions. Unions are only as good as we make them.

12 May 202414 May 2024 · Cartoons

“Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage”: the anti-war meaning of Mother’s Day

Sam Wallman

What we now call Mother's Day was born of the anti-war movement. In 1870, Julia Ward Howe called for an annual 'Mother's Peace Day': "Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caress and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn what we have been able to teach them..."

8 May 20248 May 2024 · Cartoons

Against unpaid student placements

Sam Wallman

From next year, students in Australia will be forced to work conventional jobs for $8 an hour in order to get their degree. Listen to the rumbling of a massive placement strike on the horizon.

27 March 20249 April 2024 · Cartoons

Visas for Palestinians: let them in

Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman makes the case for a visa scheme for Palestinians fleeing the war on Gaza.

29 February 202429 February 2024 · Cartoons

Why won’t they rise?

Sam Wallman

Sam has an explanation for why wages just won't rise.

1 February 202414 February 2024 · Cartoons

Get yourself a labour movement so big and powerful …

Sam Wallman

Get yourself a labour movement so big and powerful that it doesn't matter who is in government — Rosie Scroggie

19 December 202319 February 2024 · Cartoons

Straight from their mouths: why Palestine is union business

Sam Wallman

I want you to know that inside that terminal right now you have support, we hear your voices, we feel your loss, we recognise your history, we acknowledge your sovereignty and we see your power. And we stand with you.

8 November 20238 November 2023 · Cartoons

Peoples’ movements need physical spaces: the Semaphore Workers Club

Sam Wallman

In the late 1970s, a handful of unionists and communists studied the rules of an elite gentlemens' club on the waterfront of Semaphore, Adelaide. They carried out a coup, taking over formal outright owneship of the beautiful grand old social club. They turned the establishment into the Semaphore Workers Club ...

28 September 20233 October 2023 · Cartoons

Ban cars from the city

Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman makes the case for closing the streets off one by one.

24 August 2023 · Cartoons

Our struggles have no borders

Sam Wallman

Every worker is your co-worker. Every co-worker is your potential comrade. You have more in common with an unknown worker on the other side of the planet than yo do with your boss.

25 July 20238 August 2023 · Cartoons

Peeling off scabs in Botany Bay

Shane Reside and Sam Wallman

In Spring 2020, when an operator set up a company paying bottom-of-the-barrel rates in a crude attempt at scraping a profit out of the lines by undercutting the militant members of the MUA, the workers of port botany went feral. Led by the lines crew, construction workers, train drivers, university lecturers, teachers and students drove the scabs out.

5 June 2023 · Cartoons

Where to build an overdose prevention centre

Sam Wallman

The proposed locations of overdose prevention centres aren't chosen at random. They are based on evidence and careful consideration. For the site to be effective, it needs to be pinpointed, in what experts call a 'honeypot'.

10 May 202315 May 2023 · Cartoons

Make public transport accessible

Sam Wallman

Passed in 2002, Federal Disability Discrimination Act requires public transport across Australia to be fully accessible by the end of 2022. Our trams, trains and buses are running late. At the current rate of progress, public transport will not be fully accessible until 2066 - over 40 years out of time.

12 April 202314 April 2023 · Cartoons

Tips for rookie organisers

Sam Wallman

Get close to the workers—stay close to the workers. Tell workers 'it's your union' and then behave that way. Don't do for workers what they can do. The union is not a fee for service—it is the collective experience of workers in struggle. The union's function is to assist workers in making a positive change in their lives.

22 March 202315 May 2023 · Cartoons

Standing at Solidarity Park

Sam Wallman

In 1997, in response to anti-union legislation, 30,000 unionists marched on WA Parliament, and were ignored. On May Day, directly across the road from Parliament, aka ‘Bullshit Castle’, a site was pegged and legally claimed by unionists using the Mining Act. Remarkably, Solidarity Park is now Heritage Protected. The site is not just historic though, it’s alive. We ought to keep it overflowing with our movements.

21 February 202322 February 2023 · Cartoons

It’s time to tame the pokies

Sam Wallman

Australia is home to 0.3 per cent of the world's population but 20 per cent of the world's pokies. Pokies' users in New South Wales lose an average of $4,500 per person every year, or $11.4 billion a year. It's time to make the gutless politicians tame the pokies.

27 January 202331 January 2023 · Cartoons

In attacking us, they bring us together

Sam Wallman

'What these bosses don't understand is that in attacking us, they bring us together.' (Paddy Crumlin, Maritime Union of Australia, Svitzer Rally November 2022)

15 December 202216 December 2022 · Cartoons

Let them vote

Sam Wallman

At sixteen years old you're old enough to die in a war, have worked for two years, drive a car, leave school, pay taxes, get married, secure public housing, vote in over 15 other countries, have an existential crisis. Let 16+ year olds vote!

8 November 20229 November 2022 · Cartoons

You don’t have to hate your job to want a union

Sam Wallman

Sometimes people's care for their workplace gets weaponised and used against them. Just remember: you don't have to hate your job to want a union.

20 October 202220 October 2022 · Cartoons

Enough to power 500 Australias

Sam Wallman

The landmass we call Australia is rich with sun and wind, with enough renewable energy to power 500 Australias.

21 September 202226 September 2022 · Cartoons

Act your wage

Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman has some suggestions for how workers should behave on the job.

29 August 20228 September 2022 · Cartoons

Public transport should be free

Sam Wallman

This month, Rail Tram and Bus Union members in NSW gifted the public free train travel as part of their industrial action against the tightarse Tory State Government. In so doing they showed us that maybe public transport should be free. We already pay for it.

27 July 202231 August 2022 · Cartoons

Whose job it is to cover your shift if you’re sick

Sam Wallman

It's 100,000% your boss's job to cover your shift if you're sick, not yours. Your boss absorbs the profit, let them absorb the risk.

4 July 202215 August 2022 · Cartoons

Private school? I would rather—

Sam Wallman

In which Sam Wallman expresses a strong opinion about the educational value and social role of private schools.

7 June 202225 July 2022 · Cartoons

‘We deserve so much more.’ An extract from Our Members Be Unlimited

Sam Wallman

In spite of isolated acts of warmth and grace taking place between people around the world at any given moment, broadly speaking, formally organised collectivism is in decline. We've probably never been this alone, in a time when coming together couldn't be more important.

2 June 202225 July 2022 · Cartoons

Meaningful action vs sterile and harmful action

Sam Wallman

‘Meaningful action is whatever increases the confidence, the autonomy, the initiative, the participation, the solidarity, the equalitarian tendencies and the self-activity of the masses and whatever assists in their demystification. Sterile and harmful action is whatever reinforces the passivity of the masses, their apathy, their cynicism, their differentiation through hierarchy, their alienation, their reliance on others to do things for them and the degree to which they can therefore be manipulated by others—even by those allegedly acting on their behalf.’

2 May 202214 July 2022 · Cartoons

Inside ‘Corporate Memphis’

Sam Wallman

Why do all drawings look the same? The style known as 'Corporate Memphis' deploys flat, geometric, benign-looking figures, rendered in solid colours. Their fun, bendy arms offering to launder the reputation of any real estate agent, bank or social media platform.

31 March 202218 May 2022 · Cartoons

Don’t start what you can’t finish

Sam Wallman

Just don't.

28 February 20224 May 2022 · Cartoons

Fuck lawns

Sam Wallman

In seventeenth-century England, highly manicured lawn emerged as a symbol of control, dominance and status across the estates of the ruling class. Each year, people spend over $30 billion on lawns, which consumes 30-60 per cent of urban fresh water supplies. If nothing is eating your plants, then your garden is not part of the ecosystem.

1 February 202211 March 2022 · Cartoons

Who’s afraid of gay blood?

Sam Wallman

Men who have sex with men are largely banned from donating blood in Australia and the United States. The ban on gay blood donations is a hangover from nearly half a century ago, when much less was known about HIV & AIDS. Individual donors should be assessed based on their individual risk—not their gender or sexuality.

20 December 20213 March 2022 · Cartoons

The work to be done

Sam Wallman

If you're unemployed it's not because there isn't any work. Just look around: a housing shortage, crime, pollution, we need better schools and parks. Whatever our needs, they all require work. And as long as we have unsatisfied needs, there's work to be done.

21 November 202128 January 2022 · Cartoons

Make the Yarra swimmable

Sam Wallman

For over 40,000 years, the Yarra has been actively cared for by the people of the Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung nations. These communities are still today fighting for the river.

11 October 202116 November 2021 · Cartoons

Our strength to strike is built through striking

Sam Wallman

Striking is the workers' greatest weapon. Here's a poster to prove it.

7 September 20215 October 2021 · Cartoons

Revealed: how much rich people care about your mental health

Sam Wallman

Plotting the results of a rigorous longitudinal study, Sam Wallman illustrates how much the rich care for your mental health, expressed as fucks given vs whether or not there is a lockdown.

31 August 202127 September 2021 · Cartoons

Safe injecting rooms save lives

Sam Wallman

A safe injecting room in Melbourne saved at least twenty-one lives in its first eighteen months of operations, and prevented 270 serious overdose incidents. No-one Safe injecting rooms save lives: Build them. Defend them.

8 August 20215 September 2021 · Cartoons

The People’s Olympiad

Sam Wallman

In 1936, the Olympics were held in Nazi Germany, but the showcase for fascism and Nazi soft power did not go unopposed. six thousand athletes travelled to Barcelona for the ‘People’s Olympiad’, an alternative and explicitly anti-fascist games.

28 June 20212 August 2021 · Cartoons

Right-wing Queensland: a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Sam Wallman

Whose interests are interests are served when we uphold the narrative of an irreversibly conservative Queensland?

24 May 202129 June 2021 · Cartoons

Workers and unions: stand with Palestine

Sam Wallman

Tapping into a deep history, in May 2021 Italian dockworkers refused to load weapons onto a ship headed for Israel. A few days later, Palestinians held a general strike across all industries, the largest since 1948. Only 150 of 65,000 Palestinian construction workers in Israel showed up to work.

28 April 20211 June 2021 · Cartoons

The open-and-shut case against prison expansion

Sam Wallman

A new cartoon by Sam Wallman (after William Waltzman) for the Homes not Prisons campaign

23 March 202111 May 2021 · Cartoons

Using power builds power

Sam Wallman

'People think that using power is a limited resource, but using power builds power' (Sara Nelson, President, Association of Flight Attendants, CWA, AFL-CIO)

15 February 202118 March 2021 · Cartoons

Greetings from the Sydney Opera House: completed under workers’ control

Sam Wallman

After a long string of strikes, the final stages of the construction of the Sydney Opera House were carried out without any managers. For a month and a half, the workers experienced first-hand what they had long presumed – that they really didn’t need the bosses. They planned and made decisions democratically, won huge advances in pay and conditions, and together constructed one of Australia’s most enduring and beloved icons. The building embodies all of this, to this day.

20 January 202119 February 2021 · Cartoons

The housing crisis is a choice made by the state

Sam Wallman

Two thousand rough sleepers in Victoria who were offered hotel accommodation during the pandemic are now being hastily evicted. The government showed us how easily they can house people when it's considered a priority. They can't unshow us that. We can't unsee it.

19 November 202021 January 2021 · Cartoons

Social housing is not the same as public housing

Sam Wallman

Social housing is not the same as public housing.

Published in Overland Issue 239 Winter 2020 · Labour

May Day 2020

Sam Wallman

3 October 20202 November 2020 · Cartoons

Solidarity with the wharfies

Sam Wallman

Ever since the 1930s, whenever wharfies strike the bosses squeal: 'They are holding up medical supplies.' Wharfies always respond stating that they will: 'Priorities and unload any ship containing medical supplies.'

13 May 202024 June 2020 · Cartoons

Vale Jack Mundey

Sam Wallman

'My dream and that of hundreds of thousands or millions of others may come true: a socialist world with a human face, an ecological heart, an egalitarian body.'

10 March 202023 April 2020 · Cartoons

On panic buying

Sam Wallman and Miroslav Sandev

The images of working people fighting each other over toilet paper shouldn't fill you with feelings of contempt or superiority because you're not 'stooping' to that.

30 October 201913 November 2019 · Cartoons

It’s business, as usual! How to deal with IMARC protesters

Sam Wallman

Protect the right to protest, or protect the interests of mining CEOs – what will the Victoria police choose?

Published in Overland Issue 236 Spring 2019 ·

Guest artist for Overland 236: Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman

Cover and cartoons for this edition by comics journalist and labour organiser Sam Wallman.

14 October 20199 November 2019 · Unions

What became of the right to strike

Sam Wallman

As industrial organiser Jerome Small once said: ‘I’m not a robot and I’m not a donkey, so I should be able to stop working when I choose to’. Sadly, going out on strike is all but outlawed in Australia, thanks to some of the most restrictive laws surrounding workplace action in any OECD nation.

26 August 201915 September 2019 · Cartoons

Do a revolution already, will ya?

Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman listens to the signs.

20 May 201921 June 2019 · Cartoons

How a persecuted union movement fought back

Sam Wallman

This comic was commissioned by the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 General Strike and Clarrie O’Shea’s release from prison.

13 March 201912 June 2019 · Cartoons

What is a strike?

Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman reports from the pavement outside the Chemist Warehouse during the (ongoing) picket in Preston.

Published in Overland Issue 225 Summer 2016 ·

Guest artist for Overland 225: Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman

All artwork for Overland 225 by guest artist for the edition, Sam Wallman.

28 November 20161 May 2019 · Cartoons

Never forget Tyrone Unsworth

Sam Wallman

Remembering Tyrone Unsworth, the thirteen-year-old student who died in Brisbane last week.

4 November 201623 November 2016 · Cartoons

The path to voting Trump

Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman, currently on the road in the US, covers the election through the eyes of ordinary people.

18 August 20162 September 2016 · Writing

Read this!

Carina Garland, Sam Wallman and Jacinda Woodhead

Still mulling over ideas for your Fair Australia Prize entry? Judges Carina Garland, Sam Wallman and Jacinda Woodhead have come up with a reading/watching list that may help.

2 July 201617 August 2016 · Cartoons

Sunshine votes

Sam Wallman

Reportage from the Sunshine polling booth at the 2016 federal election.

24 March 20161 May 2019 · Cartoons

#INeedSafeSchools

Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman on how to ensure safe schools.

24 March 20161 May 2019 · Cartoons

#INeedSafeSchools

Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman on how to ensure safe schools.

26 February 20161 May 2019 · Cartoons

Chaplains versus the Safe Schools Coalition

Sam Wallman

Sam Wallman on religion versus equality in public schools.

Published in Overland Issue 221 Summer 2015 · Cartoons

Ain’t no border high enough

Sam Wallman

Drawings from time spent with an autonomous collective working to support people crossing Europe’s borders.

11 November 20159 February 2016 · Cartoons

I can’t believe it’s only 15 steps!

Sam Wallman

Start with yourself, but don't finish with yourself.

28 August 20156 October 2015 · Cartoons

This is me patiently explaining what mansplaining is

Sam Wallman

This is me patiently explaining what mansplaining is.

27 April 201511 May 2015 · Cartoons

The nation state of the internet

Sam Wallman

‘The nation state of the internet’, by Sam Wallman. First published in L’Internazionale, 17 April 2015.

Published in Overland Issue 217 Summer 2014 · CAL

Art

Leuli Eshraghi, Lily Mae Martin, Mahla Karimiyan, Sam Wallman, Merv Heers, Madina Sayar, Anton Pulvirenti and Alwy Fadhel

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Published in Overland Issue 216 Spring 2014 · CAL

Art

Keith McDougall, Sam Wallman, Abdul Adbullah, Joanna Anderson, Safdar Ahmed and Kate Parrish

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Published in Overland Issue 215 Winter 2014 · CAL

Art

Sam Wallman, Amy Hill, Matt Huynh, Patrick Kyle, Marc Pearson, Jo Waite, Javed de Costa, Angela Mitropoulos and Mary Leunig

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11 November 201315 November 2013 · Reflection

Cartoon: Protest at the Department of Immigration

Sam Wallman

Cartoonist Sam Wallman visited last week’s demonstration outside Melbourne’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship, which was protesting a massacre of Iranian refugees in Iraq and calling for Australia to offer asylum to the survivors.