“Fight or Starve” reads a tattered flag held high by the workman in this Fred Ellis drawing. The worker, cap in hand, is urging the unemployed to demonstrate in Union Square on March 6th, 1930. The demonstration, organized by the Trade Union Unity League and the Communist Party, was one of the largest ever held in the Square, and conflicts between the police and protesters led to arrests, a court case, and renewed public support for the right of assembly. Cartoonist Fred Ellis was one of the leading radical artists of the 1920s and 1930s whose work appeared in Communist Party publications including The Daily Worker.

The image is part of the Labor Arts exhibit, Union Square, A National Historic Landmark which examines the events and images behind the commemoration of Union Square as a historic site.