Manchester Friends highlight inequality
£1,090 raised by Manchester Friends’ inequality party
Manchester Quakers held a garden party on the theme of wealth inequality last month.
Jonathan Dale, who co-organised the event, said the party included: a talk on John Woolman’s prophetic stance on wealth inequality; a petition; and a closing Meeting for Worship. There were also children’s activities and stalls presenting Fair Trade and the Racial Justice and Peace Promotions Group.
‘When I first raised the issue of wealth inequality at a meeting of our Area Meeting’s Social Justice Group, I envisaged the usual campaigning format,’ Jonathan Dale told the Friend, referring to: probable discussions asking for the support of Area Meeting (Manchester and Warrington); a vigil on the steps of Mount Street Meeting House; and letters to politicians. ‘But Social Justice Group’s discernment was rather different. It wanted to make sure that the whole body of Friends recognised wealth inequality as critically destructive of Quaker Testimonies and true human community. Area Meeting wasn’t enough. But how could we get a wider involvement?’
Eventually, the Social Justice Group agreed to revive the AM’s discontinued annual garden party with a theme. Helped by the three other witness groups (Racial Justice; Peace Promotions; and the Environment) to join them, the theme was presented each month for half a year. This included ‘showing how badly wealth inequality affects the building of peace and avoidance of conflicts’, said Jonathan, as well as ‘how it’s embedded in historical and present racial disparities, and keenly relevant to reparations and hugely exacerbates global heating’. Friends also explored the destructive effects on society that Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett analyse in their book The Spirit Level. The theme was ‘fairly gently’ introduced into the ‘otherwise relaxed atmosphere’ by games, he said. ‘If you divide into equal tenths the financial gap between the wealthiest and the poorest people in the world, which decile would your wealth entitle you to be in? Most Friends were amazed, as we were all in the lowest decile. This is because the richest person has cUS$180 billion and the poorest nothing or less; so each decile covers US$18 billion. So there are a mere fifty or so people in the wealthiest nine deciles. Everyone else is crowded in this lowest one.’
Overall, the garden party raised £1,090, which will mostly go to organisations dedicated to reducing inequality. Additional donations of £125 each are being sent to the Equality Trust and Tax Justice UK. The petitions with around fifty signatures supporting a wealth tax have been sent to several party leaders.
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