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We may be a little late in wishing you a Happy New Year, but that’s because it’s been all go ever since we came back from the festive holidays, with a really activist start to 2019!
Fat Cat Friday: Our annual analysis of the latest excesses of our not-so-great-or-good corporate leaders got plenty of coverage and also highlighted the gender pay gap as well as the overall pay gap. Women CEOs (yes, all six of them), earn only 54% of the remuneration of their male counterparts. Look out for more work on gender pay and equal pay from us throughout the year as we rank the FTSE 100 according to CEO pay, gender pay, corporate subsidies and unionisation in time for AGM season. Rest assured, we will keep up the campaign to shame the greedy bosses until it becomes socially unacceptable for them to keep carry on receiving these ridiculous pay packages.
Speaking To Power: Our inaugural community festival (created with The Playground Theatre) on Saturday 19th January was a huge success featuring musical and theatrical performances from local artists, film screenings (including a beautiful animation created by local mental health service users), panel discussions and interactive workshops – all to support and celebrate the Fight Inequality Alliance’s global week of action in protest at the wholly ineffective (and highly tasteless) billionaires’ jamboree at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It was especially poignant to be holding the festival in the grossly unequal borough of Kensington & Chelsea, scene of the appalling Grenfell Fire tragedy. The most moving event was the screening of My Grenfell Year, followed by a discussion with survivors and local activists on the lack of justice and redress achieved over a year later. Another key theme of the day was the global financial system putting profits before people, manifested in particular by the relentless privatisation and outsourcing of public assets (so beloved by those at Davos) which further drives inequality and poverty across the world.
For more details of the whole festival and its wider context, read Wanda’s article here.
Young Art, Young Voices: Our continued campaign to promote the voices and views of those most affected by inequality and poverty in our society had another boost this month as our Young Equality Champions had their hard-hitting art work showcased in Hackney’s Seventeen Gallery. Over 100 members of the public attended, and it has led to wider impacts including discussions with local councils about using the images as part of their equality and diversity training. The Guardian attended, doing a follow up on the UN special rapporteur visit, which will be released as a podcast in the coming weeks. And this is another opportunity to thank all of you who so generously donated to our Big Give appeals in 2017 and 2018. Your money has enabled us to do this vital work and support our young people to speak to power.
Davos 2019: In addition to our festival, the Trust, its supporters and local groups were active during Davos week while the gilded elites surveyed, to little effect, the mess that is their preferred economic model. We actively promoted the work of our partners in the Fight Inequality Alliance and co-ordinated a public letter speaking out against privatisation of public services which so fuels inequality and poverty across the globe.
Getting The News Right On Newsnight: The month culminated with Wanda piercing the fog of Brexit and highlighting the inequality that underpins and drives our current divisions, particularly the scandal that so many people can’t even get guaranteed working hours from one week to the next. If you missed it, then here’s the clip on the BBC website. We were also quoted on unequal pay in the Birmingham Post, the Chronicle and in the Independent. Wanda did a round of interviews and was quoted in a range of media on the campaign to have a BME person on the new Fifty pound note.
With your wonderful, ongoing support we can continue to get the message out that inequality is not inevitable, it can be reduced and we can all flourish in a better society. Thank you.
Best wishes,
Wanda, Jo, Rianna, John & Bill
The Equality Trust Team
You can help support our work in various ways: ACT to tackle inequality where you live by joining or forming a local group. DONATE to help us do more, the generosity of our supporters sustains our work. AFFILIATE your organisation to our affiliate programme to work closely with us. FUNDRAISE for us to give us more secure, longer term income. FORWARD this bulletin to people you know who might be interested in our work.
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LATEST BLOGS & COMMENT
Pick of the Month: Shocking Pay Inequality: Fat Cat Friday 2019
– Ahead of Davos: Speaking To Power Festival
– Hackney Hosts Hard Hitting Youth Art at Seventeen Gallery
– We Must End Throwaway Consumer Culture (Guest Blog)
LATEST LOCAL GROUP NEWS: The local groups have been busy and we’ve had an upsurge in enquiries about forming new groups, from Glasgow to Kent and from Bradford to Lancs & Cumbria. More details here…
KEY DEVELOPMENTS AND REPORTS
Pick of the Month: World’s Richest Get Richer, Poorest Get Poorer
– Debt crushing UK’s poorest families
– Already deprived regions hit worst by cuts
– Inequality itself breeds acceptance of inequality
– Employees more likely to leave unfair companies
– Shocking racial discrimination in jobs market
– Richest students just pay fees up front
– MPs think pay gap reporting should go further
– Age segregation a major problem in UK
– Sustainable equality: a major new report
– Millions more homes need to be built in the UK
INEQUALITY IN THE NEWS
Pick of the Month: The rise of the pauper’s funeral
– Historian berates billionaires at Davos
– Disability cuts: Tears are not enough
– Corporate welfare alive and well in Britain
– Govt faces fresh legal challenge on Universal Credit
– Big cut in Universal Credit sneaked out…
– Tycoon evicts tenants who now face homelessness
– Pay inequality in Edinburgh: with Equality Trust comment
– Pay inequality in Birmingham: with Equality Trust comment
– Single mothers win landmark Universal Credit case
– Two-child benefit cap to be relaxed
– Prisoners send donations to local food banks
– Now we might need a Minister for Hunger
– Payday loan firm stoops to new low
– Universal Credit roll-out ploughs ahead despite problems
– Fat Cat Friday shows excessive top pay and gender bias
BEST INEQUALITY READS AND LISTENS
Pick of the Month: Elites want to save the world (but not at their expense)
– Holidays in other people’s misery
– Climate change and inequality are linked struggles
– Making the rich pay more is common sense
– Equality Trust quoted in Hansard
– Inequality is a human rights issue
– The case for default union membership
– Panic on the slopes of Davos
– Inequality and selfie-dysmorphia
– Right to Repair movement gathers pace
– Beyond Davos: Fighting inequality on the frontline
– Tax the rich: Say a majority of Americans
– The realities of life on universal credit
– Co-ops: A good news story from the US
– Inequality and the prospects for another crash
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ONGOING SUPPORT!