Nobody now thinks it bearable to sleep eleven in a room, and that even people with comfortable incomes are vaguely troubled by the thought of ‘the slums’. Hence the clatter about ‘rehousing’ and ‘slum clearance’ which we have had at intervals ever since the war. Bishops, politicians, philanthropists, and what not enjoy talking piously about ‘slum clearance’, because they can thus divert attention from more serious evils and pretend that if you abolish the slums you abolish poverty. ibid.
In 1936 the company filmed a family forced by poverty to leave their home and live on a beach. The Story of British Pathé II: The Voice of Pathé, BBC 1936
One official response to the crisis was the introduction of prefab housing. Pathé’s films extolled the virtues of the government’s quick-fix solutions. ibid.
Britain would gradually tackle its housing crisis but as Pathé’s films show millions were still living on the bread-line. ibid.
In London alone it’s estimated that some 230,000 people live under conditions which are unfit for human habitation. Probably not five in every hundred of these dilapidated roofs are water-tight. In one of these streets lives Molly, her mother, two brothers and baby sister. Five of them in two rooms. The whole place is rotten from top to bottom. The decaying woodwork is infested with vermin. Pathé Pictures Presents ‘The Great Crusade: The Story of a Million Homes’
My name is Joy. I’m about five foot three, measurements 36-24-36 and English. My little baby’s name’s Johnnie. Poor Cow 1967 starring Carol White & Terence Stamp & John Bindon & Queenie Watts & Kate Williams & Laurie Asprey & James Beckett & Ray Barron & Hilda Barry & Kenneth Campbell & Ron Clarke et al, director Ken Loach
I don’t like fresh air. It’s not good for the skin. ibid. White to Stamp
12 years is certainly a long time but it’s not the end, eh. Please, love, try and face it. ibid.
Oh God, I’ve never felt so lonely in all my life. We’ve two chairs. And our little coffee table. ibid.
Two-fifths of the children are malnourished in London. Mark Thomas Comedy Product s2e2, Channel 4 1998
The more we grow, the more poverty we create. The Four Horsemen, 2012
These are the down and out. Familiar images of displaced people on our streets, far removed from our lives. Most of us feel we could never end up like this yet some of us do. Down and Out in America, 1986
In the land of opportunity there are 34 million people living in poverty. 20 million a day go hungry. 2 million are homeless. Here in the heartland of America there is great devastation. The family farmer, the backbone of America, is being driven off his land. ibid.
Ten years ago the banks encouraged these farmers to borrow and expand. The policy has backfired, and now the Farm Credit system is in trouble. They are calling in old loans and denying old ones. ibid.
3,500 jobs a day are moving out of this country. The rubber industry has gone to Mexico. Electronics has gone to South Korea. Textiles to the far east. ibid.
The men who enter our building are not so good. They are drunk. They come inside and shout and swear. Born Into Brothels, 2004
Until 11.00 at night if they want curry or rice, I have to get it. ibid. Kochi
I keep thinking if I could go some place else and get education, I wonder what I would become. ibid.
I never really think about being rich. ibid. Tapasi
One has to accept life as being sad and painful. ibid.
My mother can’t take care of me. My father tried to sell me. ibid.
Without help they’re doomed. ibid. commentary
So far we’ve had two exhibitions in New York. ibid.
Her pimp set fire to her in the kitchen. ibid. witness
The gap between rich and poor in the UK is now wider than at any time since the Second World War. We asked four children to show us what life is really like growing up in Britain today below the poverty line. Poor Kids, BBC 2011
‘I think I’m poor because we only get £420 a month.’ ibid. Sam
Poor children are 2.5 times more likely to suffer chronic illness. ibid.
The thing that affects Page’s life the most is the damp that permeates her flat and many others in these blocks. ibid.
‘My sister donated this shirt to me because I needed a shirt for school.’ ibid.
Over one million homes in the UK are classified as ‘unfit to live in’. ibid.
There is an entire industry devoted to making money off of people who can’t pay. To Prison for Poverty, The Rachel Maddow Show, Brave New Films short 2014
Human Rights Watch finds private probation practices abusive. ibid. The Augusta Chronicle online article February 2014
And yet we are still throwing people into prison for owing money and not paying it back. ibid. The Rachel Maddow Show
Sentinel collects an estimated $40 million annually from approximately 35,000 probationers in more than 90 courts. ibid. caption
‘I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.’ Plutocracy: Political Repression in the USA I: Divide and Rule, Jay Gould, 19th century American railroad developer, 2015
Each mining town was a feudal dominion with the company acting as lord and master … The laws were the company’s rules. ibid.
1907: The most deadly mine disaster in US history occurred when an explosion killed 361 men and boys in a West Virginia coal mine. ibid.
Accidents in American mines were double that of Germany, three times more than England. ibid.
‘Freedom from industrial feudalism … freedom from the terrorism inflicted by hired gunmen … and the struggle for liberties promised in the Bill of Rights.’ ibid. 2003 American Labor History Theme Study
In 1912 coal miners in Kanawha Country in West Virginia issued a list of demands including a shorter workday, the right to organise, recognition of a worker’s constitutional rights to free speech and assembly, an end to the blacklisting of union organisers, and alternatives to company stores. The requested pay raise would have cost the company fifteen cents per miner per day. Instead of negotiating, the company hired a private militia to break the strike. ibid.
[Mother] Jones had been declared the Most Dangerous Woman in America. ibid.
Union organisers were blacklisted and beaten. ibid.
The West Virginian mine wars were part of a broader conflict between the forces of labor and the forces of capital. A struggle that claimed the lives of thousands of American workers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; thousands more were beaten, maimed, imprisoned, tortured and sent to early graves due to poor working conditions and dismal safety standards. ibid.
‘In all civilised countries the people fall into different classes having a real or supposed difference of interests … There will be particularly the distinction between rich and poor.’ ibid. James Madison
The ability of the wealthy to buy their way out of military services caused rage among the poor. ibid.
Irish immigrants were mocked for their accents, their religion and their overall impoverishment. They were also amongst the first ethnic groups in the United States to form labor unions. ibid.
‘You are made to hate each other because upon that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism which enslaves you both.’ ibid. Tom Watson, populist leader
Jim Crow laws enforced segregation and curtailed African-American voting rights. During the same time period poor white voters were also disenfranchised. ibid.
In California a genocidal campaign had reduced the indigenous population from 150,000 in 1846 to 30,000 by 1870. ibid.
The robber barons took every opportunity to bribe politicians and crush their competitors. ibid.
Congress became known as the Millionaires Club. ibid.
By 1900 something like 20% of all American workers were under the age of 18. ibid.
Police were also used to discipline the working class. In Tompkins Square New York 1874 7,000 workers protested unemployment only to be savagely attacked by police. ibid.
A spirited labor press emerged in all of the major cities. ibid.
Unions around the country were becoming increasingly militant. ibid.
‘Anarchy is on trial … Make examples of them, hang them … save our institutions, our society.’ ibid. Julius S Grinnell, prosecutor of anarchists