Meeting for Sufferings: Economic violence
A statement on economic inequality was adopted by Meeting for Sufferings
A statement on economic inequality was adopted by Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) on Saturday 5 April. ‘Quakers in Britain commit ourselves to redress the growing inequality of wealth and income in our country… The progressive movement towards greater economic equality of the mid twentieth century has been in reverse since the 1980s. Britain has become one of the most unequal societies in the developed world, where wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a minority.’
The statement was drafted by the Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) Economics, Sustainability and Peace Sub-Committee in order to give ‘a Quaker response to the effects of the welfare cuts and the growing inequality in Britain’.
During discernment some were ‘puzzled as to who this is for’ and felt that it wasn’t suitable for the press as there wasn’t ‘something to shout from the rooftops’.
Helen Drewery, general secretary of QPSW, clarified that the text had been drafted as a Yearly Meeting statement, as defined under the ‘Speaking Out’ policy approved by Meeting for Sufferings in February.
The policy distinguishes between a ‘Yearly Meeting Statement’, which is intended to ‘establish in an agreed form of words where Friends stand on an issue of concern and are primarily addressed to Friends in the Yearly Meeting’, and a ‘Public Statement’, which is ‘addressed primarily to the wider world’.
The statement speaks specifically of cuts to welfare benefits: ‘Government expenditure cuts have imposed unacceptable burdens on those least able to bear them… We recognise that these crises and injustices spring from forces at work within the global economic system. These forces infiltrate our hearts and minds, capture our politics and threaten our common basis for life on earth. This is nothing less than economic violence, which challenges our Quaker spiritual commitment to peace.’
The subject of welfare reform has arisen repeatedly at MfS in response to concerns from Quakers around the country. Many Friends were supportive of the statement and the work that QPSW had undertaken to draft it.
One Friend commented that referring to ‘forces at work within the global economic system’ might give politicians a ‘get out clause’ when, in his opinion, many problems were a result of ‘home-grown political direction’.
Another Friend welcomed the statement but spoke of how ‘kindness and charity are not enough… justice has to be in here as well’.
However, the feeling of the Meeting was that, in the words of one Friend, ‘it’s a beginning, it’s not the end’. This sentiment was echoed by another Friend, ‘it is a start and that is what we need’. A hope was expressed that public statements would follow in the future.
The statement refers to activities Quakers have already been moved to undertake but goes on to say: ‘action that aims merely to alleviate the worst effects of inequality is not enough. As we wrestle with the implications of our testimony to equality, Quakers feel called to act more radically to tackle the underlying causes.’
A Friend highlighted how impressed they had been with an initiative – by an offshoot of the Occupy Movement in America –where millions of dollars of medical debts have been written off after being bought for a fraction of their value. This Friend reflected that actions ‘might make our lives speak rather than statements’.
