Title: Basic needs in Britain 1976
First published: 1976
Description: A radical paperback booklet which looked at unmet needs in Britain in 1976 - and the struggle by many to have them met. Writers John Clark and Jon Danzig, part of the Oxford based Campaign Co-op, conducted original research across the United Kingdom to compile sections on:

 1. Unmet Needs - The Hungry in Britain
 2. Unmet Needs - The Cold in Britain
 3. Unmet Needs - The Jobless in Britain
 4. Unmet Needs - The Homeless in Britain

The background to the booklet was the government's massive £3,000 million cuts to public expenditure for 1977-78 and how the poor would be able to fare. The booklet's first article asked, "How many of the world's 460 million starving live in Britain?" The article continued, "The real answer is not 'None' but 'Nobody has bothered to find out.' What is known is that nutrition deficiency among Britain's poorest families is getting attrociously worse." The report went on to claim that many of Britain's poor could only afford a diet equivalent of 1,265k cal per day. This was less than the United Nations recommended minimum intake, and even less than the average calorific diet per person in Bangladesh at the time of 1840k. cal per day.

Another report about Britain's homeless claimed, "100,000 people are homeless.. 800,000 houses are empty... 200,000 builders are jobless.." The article that followed stated, "Here in Britain over 10 million people are badly housed. Over a million dwellings are officially classified as unfit for human habitation. Nearly three million are without one or more basic amenities."
The back cover of the booklet cited Sir Keith Josepth, then head of the Conservative Party's Policy & Research Department, as stating: "There is now little - if any - basic povery in Brtain." This was crossed out in red. (To save printing costs at the time, the red crossing out was done by hand by Campaign Co-op volunteers on thousands of copies of 'Basic Needs in Britain' that were distributed across the UK). Rubber stamped alongise Sir Keith's statement was the word, "Rubbish". The bottom of the back cover lamented: "Farewell the welfare state."

Part of the 'Basic Needs in Britain' report was published by the New Internationalist magazine, which had commissioned Campaign Co-op to undertake original research about basic needs in Britain for a special edition of the magaizne, that more usually reported on poverty in third world countries.

Other contributors and researchers for "Basic Needs in Britain" included Ellen Buckingham, Juliette Laird, Alec Jenkings and Tess McMahon. Campaign Co-op described itself at the time as, "a new Oxford based co-operative. It is just one of many groups striving for a fairer Britian and questioning ways to do it." 

Campaign Co-op had previously been accoladed for launching "Campaign Coffee", the prelude in the United Kingdom to the 'fair trade' movement. Around 3 tonnes of coffee were imported by Campaign Co-op from Tanzania to the UK. 20,000 jars of 'Campaign Coffee' were sold across the UK, with literature about the plight, and poverty, of the coffee pickers. As part of the coffee campaign, the co-operative also published a booklet, "The World in Your Coffee Cup." 

Campaign Co-op was part of the Oxford vegetarian wholefood shop, Uhuru, which still exists today, although Campaign Co-op disbanded in the late 1970s. John Clark went on to work at Oxfam, the World Bank and the United Nations, and [Jon Danzig][1] continued his career as an investigative journalist and later writer/director.


  [1]: http://www.JonDanzig.com
Subjects: Poor, Social conditions, Basic needs, Unemployed
Places: Great Britain
Time periods: 1976
LC classification: HC260.P6 C5