n By Keith Hatch
A photographic exhibition developed by a Unite member has been touring libraries across South Yorkshire with a message of solidarity and community.
The Voice of the People project has been organised by Unite Community member Les Monaghan (pictured left), with assistance from artist Smizz and designer Chris Down, and is challenging the views of some residents by encouraging conversations that explore how much working people have in common.
It tells the stories of local people through images and words, focusing on the impact of austerity on them and their communities – but also how solidarity can make a difference to people's lives.
The exhibition started in Doncaster and has now visited a number of rural pit villages across the region.
The images cover issues ranging from homelessness to the loss of essential services, and many of those involved are members of Unite Community South Yorkshire, or people who have engaged with the branch’s regular public street stalls.
Les said, “We opened the Voice of the People project in late November at two libraries in Doncaster, and by this summer it will have reached about 18 of Doncaster’s 25 libraries.
“I started with photographing Unite Community members but have also taken portraits of members of the public who have spoken to us at stalls and told me their stories – how austerity has continued to impact on their lives and communities.
“The idea of the Voice of the People project is to show that things can be different, and real alternatives exist when people come together who want to make changes and improvements to the lives of the people in their communities.”
All the subjects of the photographs are given the opportunity to do a vox pop about subjects close to them, and members of the Unite Community branch have been keen to get involved.
The other driving principle behind the project was to exhibit the prints in venues that were free and accessible to as many people as possible, which is why Les has been talking to libraries across South Yorkshire.
One person photographed was Catherine McAndrew. Catherine is a member of the Unite Not For Profit sector who now works for the Land Workers’ Alliance, and she used the opportunity to express her concerns
Featured – Jo Diviney pictured in Les' exhibition
over the current food system and how she feels much of it is based on slavery and exploitation of migrant workers.
Catherine said, “I can’t look at fruit in the same way, now I know how some of the people who pick it are treated.
“The UK is completely reliant on migrant workers to harvest our food. Most migrants come under the Seasonal Worker visa. The visa does not allow them to change their employer even if there is a problem.
“They often arrive with thousands of pounds of debt from paying for flights and the visa. If they don’t meet their picking targets (often around 20kg of fruit an hour) they can get punished and their hours taken away from them.
“I know a group of workers from a cherry farm who went on strike against this. Their employer told them they would arrange their travel home but instead dumped them in London with no way home and no way to work legally.”
Stories like those in the exhibitions can start conversations, and it has made a real difference to the way people can perceive their neighbours.
Les gave one example where he was asked by a local librarian to talk to a conversation group in one library. They would meet twice weekly to catch up and have a chat, but sometimes their discussions would be quite negative.
Les explained, “I was asked if we could use the exhibition as a conversation starter, as the group tended to have quite loud views on migration, asylum seekers and Reform, as well as young people.”
“I just used the images to start a discussion. Soon many of the group began to recognise that they had been misinformed, and the cost of living crisis they were facing had nothing to do with the groups they were blaming – but it was the rich that were the problem.”
Les says that the photographs humanise people and make them real members of the community, who share a lot in
47 uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2026
common and want just the same as everyone else with food, housing and a safe place to bring up children.
The villages around South Yorkshire are often linked to old mining communities that were totally solid during the Miners’ Strike, but since then have been in steady decline, and have a mistrust of outsiders.
The exhibition, Les feels, “is a way to discuss political literacy and challenge the view, held in many rural and working class areas, that migration is the problem when it’s really the wealthy, powerful and those who make decisions around money that are the reason that many pit villages, like those scattered around the South Yorkshire countryside, are struggling.”
The initiative has been getting a lot of support from local Unite branches. Richard Bennett, Unite Doncaster, said, “Our branch supports the exhibition because it gives the silent majority a voice.”
Les is now exploring ideas of how the concept of the Voice of the People can move to libraries beyond South Yorkshire and how he can work with Unite branches in other areas to bring not only the existing images but include a number of photographs from these communities as well.
He has already begun making photographs and stories with members in Hull and Sheffield, and hopes to tie in with Unite events over the rest of the year.
Les is also keen to talk to other Unite branches and bring “the Voice of the People” to their community. Who knows where that might lead?
VIEW MORE
Scan the QR code to view the digital edition of Voice of the People
Photos by Mark Harvey and Les Monaghan
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