Results from our Greenbelt Seminar. By Sally Mann
In 2011, I learnt a new word – precariat[1]. It’s helped me understand class in the UK today. The precariat are replacing the old working class. They are the precarious proletariat facing multiple insecurities: unpredictable hours and income, career-less jobs, a lack of work-based status or community. Many work in the gig economy on zero hour contracts. The person delivering your Uber Eats is precariat. Professions are heading the same way; agency teachers, nurses and social workers, are all employed “as and when”, no-one paying into their pensions or paying for parental leave.
Precarity is stressful. It is also detrimental to social and community life. Who can commit to a weekly meeting (perhaps in a faith community) when you can’t predict work hours one week to the next?
Precarity is dangerous. Guy Standing predicted it would lead to the rise of popularism, far-right politics and social unrest. He’s been unfortunately accurate.
The precariat is the fastest growing class in the UK. 18% of workers, around 20 million people, are considered to be in precariat employment. This pushes up welfare budgets. 47% of all families claiming housing benefit in the UK private rented sector are in work. Last year, private landlords received £9.3bn in housing benefits payments, twice as much as a decade ago. While the poor are represented as being a burden on taxpayers, it’s those who pay low wages and charge high rents who drive up welfare budgets.
God only knows what this precarity feels like. Actually, God does know!
I imagine Jesus of Nazareth can relate to the precariat. The biblical word for Jesus’ occupation is ‘peasant artisan carpenter’, suggesting his family lost ownership of their land at some point, and sold their labour. His class was pitied in agrarian societies. Most likely, as a landless, jobbing carpenter from a tiny village (perhaps 400 people), Jesus of Nazareth walked down the Galilean hills to work in the regional capital city, Sepphoris, four miles away and visible from the poorer outlying villages. Sepphoris was comparatively wealthy with private bathhouses fed by aqueducts, an armoury and paved roads. During Jesus’ childhood the Roman Empire razed many of the buildings in Sepphoris to the ground, as punishment for an uprising. Jesus might well have walked to Sepphoris to work six days a week, in a kind of gig economy of his day, labouring under an oppressive regime, building homes that he could not afford to live in, noticing the aqueducts taking resources from the poor to benefit the wealthy, before walking uphill home. This was how Jesus of Nazareth spent the majority of his lifetime on Earth.
Class is a Jesus and Justice issue
The gospel includes economic redistribution as part of salvation. Jesus’ manifesto sermon in Nazareth riffed from Isaiah’s vision of shalom and included a promise of the Year of Jubilee – the restoration of land to the landless, the cancelling of debt.[2] Who can read Mary’s Magnificat and not hear the great Messianic reversal; the poor are filled, the rich sent away empty. The Kenarchy of God promises a different economy
In our book Jesus & Justice, Simon Jones chapter asks “Can we tax our way to justice?” Yes and AMEN. This is one issue where economic policies can go a long way to dethrone structural inequality. And the good people of Greenbelt agree! As part of our talk, we conducted an instant poll of the kids of policies that would best address in-work poverty. Here are the results (thanks to Rachel Humphries for the maths geekery).
(Those in italix were further suggestions generated in seminar conversations. They may not have got many votes, but they are great ideas)
| Policy | Number of votes | % (rounded) |
| Clamp down on tax havens | 88 | 19 |
| Raise minimum wage to UK living wage | 82 | 18 |
| Cap CEO pay at % of lowest/average worker pay | 80 | 17 |
| Cap rent at % of average pay | 56 | 12 |
| End 2-child benefit cap | 53 | 11 |
| One-off tax on wealth | 36 | 8 |
| Universal social housing | 26 | 6 |
| Tax use of new materials | 19 | 4 |
| Prohibit/limit buy-to-rent | 17 | 3 |
| White goods built to last | 9 | 2 |
| Infrastructure not owned by foreign companies | 2 | 0.4 |
Socialist politics are alive and well among Greenbelt attendees. There are so many effective ways to address the in-work poverty crippling the lives of so many working people. Tax Justice have campaigns for many of these proposals https://taxjustice.uk/campaigns/
Can the Church model an alternative “loconomy”[3]… listen to ideas from us at Bonny Downs in the full recoding of the talk and do get in touch at info@redletterchristians.org.uk with your community’s innovations and experiences.
Because we claim to follow Jesus, the Jubilee-bringer from Nazareth – and who now as even heard of Sepphoris?
Watch the full 35 min talk here
[1] Guy Standing, 2014 The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. Watch Standing’s TED talk here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnYhZCUYOxs
[2] Luke 4: 14-18 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%204%3A%2014-18&version=NIV
[3] Check out the Birmingham-based initiative https://loconomy.org.uk/ Tim is involved with.