We build - Social Democratic Party

Tamássi Zoltán

Erscheinungsdatum: 1947

Beschreibung

Size: A1 1 Sheet (cca. 84 x 59 cm). Zolt n Tam ssi s outstanding political poster for the 1947 elections in Hungary is one of the greatest examples of propaganda art ever created It carries the message that the rebuilding of the country devastated after World War 2 is of utmost importance for the Hungarian Social Democratic Party The symbol of this message is a messenger standing on a steel beam which hangs from a crane chain in infinite space He s right arm is in the air waving a red kerchief The same red colour is used for the simple one word slogan of the poster We build p t nk in Hungarian Beneath the slogan we can find the name of the Social Democratic Party The artist Tam ssi was famous for his ability to design well polished concise symbols that were able to transmit extremely compressed but clear messages and this is one of his best most important works The Hungarian parliamentary election of 1947 which later became infamously the blue ballot elections were held on 31 August 1947 The Hungarian Communist Party which had lost the previous election consolidated its power in the interim using salami tactics This fact combined with the weakening of the opposition and a revised electoral law led to further Communist gains It was Hungary s last remotely competitive election before 1990 In the summer of 1947 in the presence of Soviet arms Hungary prepared for a new election The Communists intended to exploit the situation that arose as a result of the disarray of their main rival the Independent Smallholders Party to gain a clear majority in the legislature Their campaign s central theme was the party s national character during the coalition years the Communists had presented themselves as the champion of national interests and as heirs to the nation s tradition During these preparations two events clearly indicated the politicisation of economic issues and the economic significance of political decisions Upon pressure from Moscow on 10 July the Hungarian government announced its abstention from the conference that was discussing the Marshall Plan for Europe s postwar reconstruction which as Joseph Stalin realised was an attempt of the United States to counter the Soviet military and political dominance of central and southeastern Europe by economic machinations Slightly earlier a State Planning Office was created the three year plan as urged by the Communists in the previous year was enacted and on 1 August its implementation began It was after these further steps away from the Western democracies and towards a Soviet type system that elections were held They took place on the basis of a new electoral law which excluded about 466 000 people almost a tenth of the electorate from the vote on grounds of membership in the pre war fascist party more parties participated with only fascist ones still prohibited In order to further guarantee success the Communists severely rigged the elections 50 000 fraudulent votes were cast for them but nevertheless managed to increase their vote share to a mere 22 and failed to attain an absolute majority even with the other parties of the Left Wing Bloc Though the emasculated and demoralised Smallholders only scored 15 the groups that had seceded from them did well the Democratic People s Party of Istv n Barankovics came in second keeping alive a real opposition and showing the strength of popular commitment to pluralism and Zolt n Pfeiffer s Independence Party did not lag far behind the Social Democrats However the Smallholders left wing thwarted a coalition initiative from the two main opposition parties and the old coalition remained The manageable Smallholder Lajos Dinny s remained as Prime Minister and dutiful fellow travelers from the other parties were named to the cabinet for the sake of preserving the parliamentary facade Even this turned out to be completely redundant very soon thereafter with the gradualist approach abandoned and salami tactics accelerated The Cominform came into bei. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 681

Bibliografische Details

Titel: We build - Social Democratic Party

Erscheinungsdatum: 1947

Einband: Paper, offset lithography.