It is soon apparent from looking at the series that Firrell was drawn to the cultural as much as the political legacies of the international trade union movement.

The Amalgamated Engineering Union of Australia began representing the interests of Australian engineering workers in 1852. The union’s original banner declared its aims to be: ‘secure employment and wage justice with greater leisure in a peaceful world.’

Firrell re-states the text elements as a reminder that security and justice are still far from guaranteed.

In the UK, for example, so-called zero-hour contracts, where working hours and payment are not guaranteed, exploited working people until outlawed by a Labour government.