January update

Thanks to our lobbying, Sheffield Green Party is putting a motion to the next Full Council meeting on 1st February asking Sheffield Council to publish pay ratios for both itself and the major companies it deals with, in support of the Equality Trust campaign. Please please keep up the pressure by contacting your councillors if you have not already done so. We also still need to get cross-party support for the fairness commission.

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Ask your Councillor to support the Fairness Commission

We need to ensure that all councillors support the Sheffield Fairness Commission and increase the likelihood any actions will be pushed forward. The national Equality Trust has a simple tool to help you contact your councillors, as well as a suggested letter. If you click on the Councillors name you will see the letter. To make it more specific to Sheffield, I suggest you replace the last line of each letter with something like:

“Such an action will set the ground for the forthcoming Sheffield Fairness Commission. I trust that you will support the work of the Commission in helping the Council become a powerful force for reducing excessive inequality, both in Sheffield and as part of wider actions across the UK. By taking these actions you can play an important part.”

You are, of course, welcome to personalise the message as you like:
http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=118&ea.campaign.id=12070

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Next meeting

Wednesday 1st February, 7pm at Quaker Meeting House – discussing the priorities of the Sheffield Fairness Commission (see below), with tea and biscuits! All welcome.

http://www.sheffieldquakers.org.uk/m/shqu/TRAVEL_MAP_0.pdf

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Sheffield Fairness Commission

Regarding representation of the group on the Fairness Commission, we received the following message from Lee Adams: “Thanks. I have consulted Alan Walker, the Chair, and unfortunately the commissioners are decided. They are personal invitations and they will not represent organisations or groups. The equality group is very welcome however to provide written evidence we will be putting out a call for this in February.”

The terms of reference for the Commission can be seen here:

http://sheffieldequality.wordpress.com/next-steps/fairness-commission/

The list of priorities for the Fairness Commission will be the subject of discussion of the next Equality Group meeting.

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News and Links

Stop RBS bonuses!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_rbs_bonuses_a

“I’m working 7 days a week to make ends meet because my wages haven’t gone up but everything else has. I don’t enjoy life anymore because I’m working all the time.” – stories and stats from the squeezed middle
http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/media/downloads/Squeezed_Britain.pdf

“unfair pay in the wider workforce also has adverse impacts on the wider economy and on all taxpayers. This is not only because of the obvious effect of low pay on suppressing spending, but also because levels of debt tend to be higher where pay gaps are wider. At the bottom end of the pay scale, there is a direct cost to taxpayers. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimates that pay below the living wage costs taxpayers £6bn a year in benefits and forgone revenue.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/23/vince-cable-executive-pay

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Go to the Movies!

I would strongly recommend the film Inside Job, a penetrating account of the financial crisis from an American viewpoint, narrated by Matt Damon. It will not offer you much comfort as it points out towards the end that virtually all the economic experts recruited by Obama to sort out the mess come from the investment banks which played a leading part in creating the mess in the first place – and also that many of the most distinguished economists from the elite universities in the USA lack objectivity because they have received large sums of money from these same investment banks.

You can watch it on your computer through this link, running time of two hours:

http://player.vimeo.com/video/25491676?autoplay=1

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Social immobility

Despite evidence that social mobility is low in the UK…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/10/oecd-uk-worst-social-mobility

…and that income inequality is likely to increase, which will push social mobility even lower…

http://andrewleigh.org/pdf/InequalityMobility.pdf

http://www.americanprogress.org/events/2012/01/krueger.html

…the belief that Britain is a meritocratic country where social mobility rules, may be driving public views of welfare reform…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/25/welfare-reform-not-expense-equality

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Live        Sheffield
Among       Equality
Equals          Group

January Campaigns and Notes

Did you know that it would take over a thousand years for someone picking potatoes for Tesco to earn the pay of their Chief Executive? There are three important campaigns this month that you can take part in, from the national to the local, to challenge the status quo. If you could set aside just fifteen minutes or so for all three, you would be keeping the issue in the minds of our representatives. Notes of the last meeting, covering the Fairness Commission and Workfare, are below. 
 
Avaaz tax avoidance campaign
Firstly, the lobby of Government on tax avoidance by the excellent online campaign group Avaaz (which is a great way of taking part in effective and socially conscious campaigns):
 
http://www.avaaz.org/en/goldman_sachs_pay_your_tax/
 
Lobby your MP for a more equal society
Our second campaign seeks to influence MPs, follow the link to take part:
 
http://sheffieldequality.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/lobby-your-mp/
 
Ask your Councillor to support the Fairness Commission
In Sheffield the Fairness Commission will soon start, but not all of the parties may support it; we need to ensure that all councillors support the commission and increase the likelihood any actions will be pushed forward. The national Equality Trust has a simple tool to help you contact your councillors, as well as a suggested letter. If you click on the Councillors name you will see the letter. To make it more specific to Sheffield, I suggest you replace the last line of each letter with something like:
 
“I am aware that the forthcoming Sheffield Fairness Commission is likely to look into these issues also. I trust that you will support the work of the Commission in helping the Council become a powerful force for reducing excessive inequality, both in Sheffield and as part of wider actions across the UK. By taking these actions you can play an important part.”
 
You are, of course, welcome to personalise the message as you like:
http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=118&ea.campaign.id=12070 
 
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Sheffield Equality Group Meetings
 
The next meeting of the group is Wednesday 1st February, 7pm at Quaker Meeting House, including a workshop on the fairness commission, discussion of universal benefit and fairer taxation, and a report back from the national Occupy conference in Sheffield. All welcome.
 
Meetings of Sheffield Equality Group are the first Wednesday of every month. Future topics include “Do we argue for less inequality, or income equality?”
 
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“If we cared about overcoming the effect that poverty and low incomes have on educational achievement, we shouldn’t tinker with the 15% of education but go directly to the source, the 60% of socioeconomic factors. If you want poor children to do better in school, forget about their education, just make them less poor.”
http://mondediplo.com/2012/01/14education
 
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Notes of January meeting
Apologies: June. Attending: Graham, Leela, Jack, Jason, Jean, Joe, Peter, Rachel
 
MPs Lobbying Letter
Group agreed it would be good to lobby MPs. Letter will go up on the website after checking with Graham B (Jason).
 
Fairness Commission
The group wishes to be involved in the commission and will contact Lee Adams (Jason). The next meeting will discuss what we think the priorities of the Comission should be. There was a suggestion we could focus on basics (food, shelter, water) and relate those to income inequality (e.g. poverty and benefit changes leading to homelessness, wealthy own multiple homes and pushing up house prices). To inform the discussion Joe will collate details on commssions elsewhere.
 
Workfare
There was discussion of the Government policy to force people into work if they had spent six months unemployed, or threaten loss of benefits. The feeling was that in any case compulsion was unjust, and that at least the work should be for non-profit making companies. The risk was that companies such as Tesco would use Workfare for cheap labour and not hire people on proper wages, and continue to not pay taxes that could support out of work people into proper employment. Jason suggested circulating a draft flyer that could be used for a local campaign. See www.boycottworkfare.org/ for more.

Lobby your MP

Please lobby your MP on income equality, asking them to curb executive pay and introduce fairer taxation. Below is an example letter, although please do customise it for your MP with anything relevant you have experience of, or are aware of.

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MP Contact Details

Brightside and Hillsborough (inc. Burngreave, Firth Park, Shiregreen and Southey)
Mr David Blunkett
Email: dbconstituency@aol.com

Central (inc. Broomhill, Nether Edge, Manor Castle, Walkley)
Mr Paul Blomfield
Email: paul.blomfield.mp@parliament.uk

Hallam (inc. Crookes, Dore, Ecclesall, Fulwood, Stannington, Totley)
Mr Nick Clegg
email: nickclegg@sheffieldhallam.org.uk

Heeley (inc. Arbourthorne, Beauchief, Gleadless Valley, Greenhill, Graves Park, Richmond)
Ms Meg Munn
Email: munnm@parliament.uk

Sheffield South East (inc. Beighton, Birley, Darnall, Mosborough, and Woodhouse)
Mr Clive Betts
Email: bettsc@parliament.uk

Not sure who your MP is? Find your MP.

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Example letter

Dear [your MP's name here],

I am writing regarding the appalling lack of Government action on bringing about a more equitable society in the UK. Whilst statements from Ministers constantly refer to fairness, this is not reflected in new policy. We are undergoing very severe and damaging spending cuts so measures to ensure wealthier people and companies contribute to dealing with our financial crisis are both fair and overdue.

It is currently difficult to identify measures capable of real impact that have a good chance of being adopted in the current political environment. Two specific ones I would ask you to support at present are:-

Curbs on Executive Pay
David Cameron’s statements indicating shareholders will be given a binding say over executive pay is welcomed. However, it has been widely noted that: this has not stopped excessive pay in other countries; the majority shareholders are themselves often highly renumerated; companies are likely to find loopholes to keep up renumeration in other ways. For proper oversight employees should be given more power in deciding executive pay levels in their companies, with non-managerial staff sitting on the panels responsible for this. Whilst there has been concerns this might be “tokenism”, the system works well in other countries where it is not approached in a tokenistic way, and benefits companies through making staff at all levels contribute to the direction of the company. It must be made very clear that pay levels for top executives have become grossly out of balance with those of ordinary people, and that this harms the cohesion of our society.

“Robin Hood” Tax
Please support a “Robin Hood” tax on all investment transactions. David Cameron has decided to stay out of the EU “fiscal compact”. His refusal to accept a financial transaction tax is clearly one reason why the deal “was not in Britain’s interests”. It is worth stepping back and considering why the City of London has become such a large financial centre. The UK Government made policy decisions over a number of years, designed to encourage banks to set up here as opposed to other countries. These decisions included bringing about a lax tax regime and led to excessive profits in what had become one of the most profitable business sectors anyway. If we are to re-balance the economy, I believe it is reasonable to risk losing a few companies within our large financial sector. After all, manufacturing still contributes far more to our economy and twice as much in taxes as the financial sector. However, this risk is reduced anyway because of the imminent new EU transaction tax. We should lead other countries by introducing a Robin Hood tax here and then urge the other EU countries to likewise use their tax for projects to improve sustainability. Other countries should then follow, as most nations see the benefits of the idea, they only hold back for fear of disadvantaging themselves relative to others.

Conclusion
Please continue to press the government on equality issues. Try to impress upon them the real anger that is being generated in this city by their failure to address this issues. Please support the specific points above and adequate funding for our vital public services.

Yours sincerely