Whose World is the World?

Made with a group of London Teachers

This set of twelve laminated posters made by the Poster-Film Collective, provides a historical perspective for teaching in a multicultural school. Each poster is 20″ x 30″ in bright three-colour silkscreen prints. They form a coherent set but are designed so that they can be presented one by one or in groups. They have been produced primarily for use across a wide age range in schools and within further education.

The posters present history as experienced by workers, peasants and slaves rather than as the story of heroes and kings. They put forward ways of understanding why there is an unequal distribution of wealth throughout the world, showing how the question of racism cannot be separated from the worldwide development of Western economic power over the last 400 years.

FUNDED: Original 1979 silkscreen version (500 sets) produced with no grant aid. Reprinted on litho in 1982 (2000 sets) with funding from the GLC.

SYNOPSIS: In attempting to develop a political poster culture in Britain the Poster Film Collective, whilst still creating single image/text relations in posters, recognised the limitations of this form, and tried to develop a new form more akin to ‘wall newspapers’. By 1979 when “Whose World is the World?” was produced they had already made several series of posters designed to work in relationship to each other and to carry quite complex information or ideas. This poster set was made primarily for use in secondary schools. It attempted to provide a historical perspective for teaching in multicultural schools, showing the links between the question of racism and the worldwide development of Western economic power. Unlike other ‘exhibition’ forms poster sets could be mass-produced and sold cheaply. This set has been used widely in schools and colleges throughout the country.

WAS AVAILABLE FROM: THE POSTER FILM COLLECTIVE, BCM PFC, LONDON WC1N3XX