An analogue radio switches between stations, catching fragments of words and
voices, before tuning in to recollections of different people’s relationships to the
villages of Pendeen and St Just, located on the Penwith Peninsula at the far tip of
Cornwall. The radio transmission forms the soundtrack to Cornish artist Callum
Mitchell’s film Gorthwedh (2019). (...)
“When Did You Last Buy a Joint of Beef?”: East London Big Flame and the People’s Food Co-op
Essay
2017
Just before Christmas in 1973 a small group of people living on the Lincoln Estate in Bow, East London, set up a food co-op. Their reason for doing so was simple: rising inflation and stagnating wages. Since the beginning of a Conservative rule in 1970, rent, food, and other consumables had been going up in price, whilst wages remained the same. In short, people had to spend an increasingly high proportion of the money they earned just to get by. They named their venture the People’s Food Co-op. It aimed to provide for everyone in need on the Estate and was run by the residents themselves. (...)
