Welcome to the ninth issue of Among Equals the quarterly campaign update from The Equality Trust. Please support our campaign by printing a few copies to distribute.
Supporter & local groups conference: 12th November
Our second annual conference for supporters and local group campaigners will take place on Saturday 12th November in London.
"relevant, inspiring, provocative"
"engaging and participative"
"I enjoyed meeting like-minded people"
It will be a fun and interactive day with workshops providing an opportunity to learn more about our work, develop new skills, meet other equality campaigners and help shape our future plans.
Entry is free and open to:
- members of our supporter programme
- those involved in a local equality group
If you do not yet fall into one of these categories but would like to attend, please sign up now to ensure you receive your invitation in September!
Become a supporter here and join a local group here
After the riots, help us win the peace
Life in our unequal society has become characterised by the widespread breakdown of trust and social cohesion, while low social mobility is coupled with ever-increasing status competition.
In the aftermath of the recent riots, we have been working hard to ensure that perspectives on the impact of income inequality are prominent in the debate, both to shed light on some of the causes and to provide positive ideas for preventing these scenes from being repeated.
To find out more, including how you can help ensure our message gets out as widely as possible, please visit this webpage.
Living in Scotland or Wales? Ask your representatives to sign our Pledge
Before the UK general election in 2010 we launched our Equality Pledge.
Thanks to the hard work of our supporters and local groups the pledge was a great success and we signed up 75 Westminster MPs across all parties who committed themselves to tackling income inequality. Post-election their numbers have risen to 86.
We are now also asking Members of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly Members to sign up to an Equality Pledge.
Please write to your representatives today and encourage them to join our
call for a better society.
101 MPs support our motion on income inequality
Our parliamentary Early Day Motion (1775) on income inequality has attracted 101 signatures, putting our motion in the top 4% of most well supported EDMs. When taken together with the Equality Pledge, this means we now have the support of 20% of all MPs and an excellent basis for further parliamentary work.
We'd like to thank the cross-party sponsors Caroline Lucas, Tom Brake, Peter Bottomley, Jeremy Corbyn, Bob Russell and Roberta Blackman-Woods – as well as everyone who wrote to their representatives.
Income inequality takes centre stage
Brand new and unique in the UK, Interrogate! festival 2011 is taking an in depth look at income inequality, its impact and what we can do about it.
Through performance, debate, comedy, film, music, workshops and podcasts, Interrogate! aims to inspire people to take action. Speakers and performers include folk legends Spiers and Boden, authors of The Spirit Level Kate Pickett &
Richard Wilkinson, comedian Mark Steel and many more.
The festival takes place 23rd – 25th September at Dartington Hall in Devon. To find out more and book tickets visit: dartington.org/interrogate
Petitioning the government for a more equal society
You may have heard about the new e-petitions scheme. If an e-petition relates to government policy and gets 100,000 signatures, it may be considered for debate in the House of Commons.
Check out these e-petitions on the subject of income inequality:
- Call for a fairer economy created by Paul Crichton: epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/409
- Reduce income inequality for a fairer, safer and happier society created by Alexander Parsonage: epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/9169
Thinking global, acting local
Gideon Calder reports from Newport:
" The Newport Equality Group set sail properly in April, having been discussed in emails, corridors, pubs & cafés since late 2010. Our membership is diverse and growing. What's striking is the range of directions from which people arrive at their
concerns about inequality... and also how readily and widely it resonates. We have already met with Newport's Westminster MPs and Assembly Members and all four are now public supporters.
Newport's local group is the first in Wales. We kind of like the uniqueness, but also hope it's temporary. At every meeting we wonder whether to rename ourselves the 'South Wales' group, or use some other grander label. But we haven't, for two main reasons. We believe that local groups are best kept local. Wales is a diverse place, and the city of Newport occupies a very particular corner, with a history and aspect all its own. We also feel that Newport itself could do with a louder voice in the Welsh conversation. So we want to remain a Newport group, while hoping others soon speak too.
On 1st November however, we’re looking for a Wales-wide audience. We have organised an event at the Senedd, in Cardiff – the home of the Welsh Government. Richard Wilkinson will speak, alongside Assembly Members from
Labour, Plaid Cymru, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Welsh Green Party. All AMs will be invited, along with representatives from a mixture of Welsh walks of life. We’re hoping it will help a conversation about the harms of inequality to really kick off in an urgent, Wales-wide way.
We’re just constructing a website and always welcome email contact via equality.newport@gmail.com ”
Events with a TET speaker
- Interrogate! festival, Devon 23rd-25th Sept
- East England Co-op Society, Ipswich 29th Sept
- Human Rights Symposium, London 21st Oct
For more dates and information please visit our Events Diary.
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