Swansea this Saturday | & Reflections on Barking
The Fête is on the road again, if you're in Swansea this Saturday, come along!
Ffair Cymru
First up, if you’re in south Wales this weekend, you MUST! come to Ffair Cymru this Saturday 2nd May, 10am-5pm, for a brilliant day of coming together around what the people of Wales want for their country.
And if you’re not in the area, but you know people who are, please share the details with them. It’s a day not to be missed if you care about where you live and want people to take power on the decisions that affect their lives:
Reflections on the Fête of Barking
“Through other mums, through these little drop ins that I go to, I meet other mums, mums that live in this area, and I get to know about this area through them,” Amajit told us at The Fête of Barking a few weeks ago. “It’s like learning about the importance of a village, isn’t it? Yeah, like we need a village, really.”
The Fête of Barking was the most recent outing of our campaign to help bring our nations and neighbourhoods together, so we can decide – together – on the future we want.
Where it lands, the Fête is a programme of culture, arts, events, workshops, stuff for kids and parents, soapboxes to spotlight community organisers and venues, and everything great about the places where we live. The thread running through everything is participation – so people get to experience what it feels like to write a speech, make a jumper or zine, talk to their neighbours, join in community organising, and feel good doing it. All so we get to decide on the things that matter to us where we live, and have a joyous party with purpose at the same time.
Love Barking?
“What do I love about barking?” said Anusha, in between entertaining over 150 kids throughout the day, so the mothers could get some food, some free time and take part in Mothership’s Kitchen Table Conversations. “I love the fact that you have so many people from all sorts of backgrounds, like so many different cultures. I mean, I think I could have said hello in about 15 different languages today.”
Part of the reason we went to Barking was to see what people were really feeling on the ground, with the local elections just around the corner. Especially mums.
The London borough of Barking and Dagenham has the highest proportion of young people – 25% – of all local authorities in England and Wales. There are around 60,000 children under 16; and that means there’s a lot of busy mums.
It is also a lot of mums living in difficult times. The 2025 Index of Multiple Deprivation shows that Barking and Dagenham is ranked 9th most deprived local authority in England. Around 29% of residents and nearly half (42%) of children live in poverty.During recent workshops in Barking, mums focused more on community power than political action. Just like the 40% of people who didn’t vote in the last UK general election, many in the borough see no reason to.
Local mums
“I’m a single parent, and I don’t feel at all reflected in the decisions that are made on my behalf by the powers that be,” said local mum, Amy, who also co-runs the Mum&Mummer podcast, and was there with Mothership to talk to others.
“I don’t feel like I’m represented at all in the people that are leading this country, and I don't think any of them have any idea what it’s like to be a single income family, living in a world where the costs are ever increasing. There’s literally no room to breathe. And I’m fed up. I feel like all I do is work. A lot of the women that I’ve spoken to have multiple jobs, because mums do everything at the end of the day. We are pretty much responsible for everything, but we’re not included in the conversation, and I’m fed up with it. And it just feels like nobody’s joining those dots and saying, we can’t be expecting this one group of people – mums – to sort all of this out for everyone.”
The Fête is an invitation to explore these feelings, by creating a space where conversations can be different, in collaboration with local organisers and artists. Because who do you trust to run the country? Politicians, or your mum?!
Women in charge!
“I think women need to be in charge, or a lot more women need to be in charge,” said Imo, another volunteer with Mothership.
And what would that look like?
“I can imagine a fairer, more equal society would be amazing,” said Imo. “But for me, a big part of that is ensuring that our democracy functions and reflects what people are asking for. Part of that’s obviously what we’re doing [speaking to mums]. I’m also just interested in, you know, Britain as a country that invented a lot of this democracy stuff, and it went around the world talking about “this is what democracy looks like.” So it may be time to do a bit of that here and say, ‘Is this actually still working’?”
Power of community
“I love the UK. So I am second generation immigrant,” said Anusha. “My parents came here from Mauritius in Sri Lanka. And I’ve really been able to thrive, and because I’ve had so many opportunities because my parents came here. I just know that this country has given me so many opportunities.”
“I feel like we have a good community here,” said Grace, who works at the leisure centre. “You fit in right away. Everyone knows everyone, it’s a very inclusive, very welcoming environment as well. I’m all about seeing people, you know, seeing different faces, growing. I’ve been here my whole life. My dream for Britain would be to continue to promote wellness, continue to be healthy, inclusive, a growing country, proud country of every race, religion, Yeah, beautiful.”
Elsewhere in Absurdity
As well as taking Good Neighbours to Manchester with the Hey! Festival for a St George’s Day special, the crew of AI have been, as ever, all over the place, living the strategy.
- Clare was at the Amsterdam Complexity School on Climate Change, and stopped off for a beer in Cafe Brecht to remember the conversation she had with Charlie about a thing we could maybe do and call it Hard Art.
- Charlie and Miles had their tiny minds utterly blown by Suzanne Treister’s show at Modern Art Oxford, and may now have to start an eco space community.
