A Precariat Charter

Tony Weekes is stimulated by some radical thinking

Do not be content to accept things as they are,
but keep an alert and questioning mind.
Seek to discover the causes of social unrest,
injustice and fear; try to discern the new
growing-points in social and economic life.

This brief extract from Quaker faith & practice (23.01) offers us a challenge. Guy Standing, in his new book A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens, offers one way of meeting that challenge. The word ‘precariat’ refers to members of a large and growing body of people, worldwide, who are, in Guy Standing’s own words, ‘living through insecure jobs interspersed with periods of unemployment or labour-force withdrawal… and living insecurely, with uncertain access to housing and public resources’.

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