I traveled to Egypt in 1155 BC, during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses III, one of the last warrior pharaohs who successfully repelled the invasion of the so-called "Sea Peoples." However, his reign was not without its challenges, as his government faced the first known and meticulously documented workers' strike. My goal was to interview the scribe Amenakht, who recorded this event on the papyrus now known as the "Strike Papyrus," housed in the Egyptian Museum of Turin, Italy. Amenakht reads us an excerpt from his report (the first record of the event), in which he describes the movements of the workers at the tomb of Pharaoh Ramses III that day. Unfortunately, and as has often been the case in governments throughout history, I was forbidden from further investigation into this case and was definitively ordered to leave the land of the Nile. Nevertheless, I have been able to bring you a piece of that history from over 3,000 years ago, in which the workers of that era, just like those of our own, also fought for their rights.
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WORKERS' DAY!
NOTE: The final poster is an ironic play on words in which I blur the lines between the struggles of the ancients for better conditions and modern struggles in the same arena.