Richard Toye
University of Exeter
This post is based on a paper delivered at the recent CIGH workshop on ‘New Approaches to Imperial and Post-Imperial Politics’.
The origins of this post lie in some photographic contact sheets I discovered in the Oxfam Archive at the Bodleian Library, dating back to 1985. These captured a significant mass lobby against world poverty that took place that year. What immediately caught my eye was the slogan “Hungry for Change,” a rallying cry from the 1980s, which brought back memories of my own experiences as a teenage volunteer in an Oxfam shop in Brighton.
Not only did the mass lobby involve school children traveling all the way from North Yorkshire and other far-flung places to participate, but the photos also underscored the fact that someone, likely Oxfam itself, found it worthwhile to document the event by hiring a photographer. The day’s activities were intended not merely as a protest but as an “image-event”.
But the research I’ve done on this topic isn’t just about this one exciting day. It’s about a broader phenomenon of political activism during the 1980s, focusing on the mass lobbying efforts around aid, humanitarianism, and the struggle against poverty. This era was marked by well-organized efforts by NGOs, churches, and concerned citizens who sought to challenge the dominant policies of the time.
Continue reading ““Anytown Joins Lobby For Fairer Deal For World’s Poor”: Mass Lobbies Against World Poverty in Thatcher’s Britain”
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