---
title: We French workers warn you... defeat means slavery, starvation, death
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/we-french-workers-warn-you-1942/
description: 'Home-front war-production poster: a crowd of French workers in caps raise their hands before a red wall notice headed ''Official Vichy Decree'''
section: Collection
---

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3. We French workers warn you... defeat means slavery, starvation, death

[![We French workers warn you... defeat means slavery, starvation, death, 1942 US poster: Home-front war-production poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/we-french-workers-warn-you-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/we-french-workers-warn-you-1942.jpg)

# We French workers warn you... defeat means slavery, starvation, death

Home-front war-production poster: a crowd of French workers in caps raise their hands before a red wall notice headed 'Official Vichy Decree' (partly hidden). The headline speaks in the voice of the French workers, warning American workers that defeat means slavery, starvation and death. The technique is fear-appeal, with the workers as a testimonial voice.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
We French workers warn you...
defeat means slavery, starvation, death

OFFICIAL VICHY DECRE[illegible]
[illegible] ages of 18 and 50 and unmar[illegible]
persons of fo[illegible]ex betw[illegible]
be obliged to [illegible] any wo[illegible]
necessary [illegible] in the super[illegible]
inter[illegible] o[illegible]nation

[signature: Ben Shahn]
[imprint: GPO 1942 O-491777]
[imprint: Poster A-25. War Production Drive Headquarters, WPB, Washington, D.C.]
```

Wall notice is partly hidden by hands and the poster edge; hidden letters marked [illegible].

[← We Clear the Way: The Corps of Engineers](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/we-clear-the-way-engineers-1942/) [What do you say, America? (Hitler) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/what-do-you-say-america-hitler-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)