When I walked through London on Tuesday, feeling guilty for my lack of spare change, there was a pertinent juxtaposition: the posh department stores for the affluent and those who sat in front of their change pots, heads bowed. It was horrible. I felt ashamed. I smiled, but that’s all I could do in that moment and I walked past wishing I could do more. But I had no idea where I could even start. This situation is a direct outcome of our current political, social and economic system that allows for “the rich” to be rich “because the poor are poor”. Anyone who questions this need only look to articles by writers such as Susan George, who reveals the disproportionate amount of wealth the rich have accumulated since the 2008 financial crisis: “There are now more ‘High Net Worth Individuals’ with a much greater collective fortune than in 2008 at the height of the crisis. Five years ago there were 8.6 million HNWIs worldwide with a pile of liquid assets of $39 trillion. Today, they are 11 million strong with assets of $42 trillion. Small businesses are failing in droves, but the largest companies are sitting on huge piles of cash and taking full advantage of tax havens”. (newint.org/features/2013/07/01/debt-europe-austerity/) Compare this with the housing crisis we currently have here in the UK, as it does in this article, and it is ridiculous: “there are 1.5 million empty commercial and residential buildings in the UK and 110,000 homeless people – thats about 10 empty buildings per homeless person”. How is that even a thing? Why do we consistently fail to acknowledge the humanity of so many people? This article displays how important direct action is in challenging these injustices, as sometimes giving to established charities isn’t “immediate” enough. We all have a responsibility to question the status quo in whatever way we can, and I have such respect for these people and how they have done that. Please do give this article a read: theguardian/commentisfree/2014/dec/26/love-activists-empty-buildings-direct-action-homelessness
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 14:07:50 +0000
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