The Precariat Charter - Professor Guy Standing

Professor Guy Standing will discuss the ideas in his new book 'A Precariat Charter; from Denizens to Citizens" in Wellington on Thursday 19 February at St John's Church Hall, Willis Street at 5:30pm.

Guy Standing's previous book "The Precariat" described the 'rapidly growing number of people facing lives of insecurity, moving in and out of jobs that give little meaning to their lives. In it he argued for a 'politics of Paradise', in which redistribution and income security are reconfigured in a new kind of Good Society, and in which the fears and aspirations of the Precariat are made central to a progressive society. His new book is an attempt to formulate an agenda that could be the basis of a political movement, based not on a utilitarian appeal to a majority but a vision of what constitutes a Good Society. He says as it was time for the Magna Carta and South Africa's Freedom Charter, it is now time for a Precariat Charter.

Guy Standing is Professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is also co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network.

All welcome. If you would like to attend. please register here. Please pass on this invitation to anyone else you think may be interested.

Reminder: Sir Edmund Thomas - The Enduring Legacy of Neo-Liberalism - Connolly Hall, Guildford St, Wellington, Wednesday 11 February, 5:30pm

Sir Edmund will argue that the gross inequality in income and wealth which besets New Zealand is the outcome of the neo-liberal economic measures of the mid-1980s and early 1990s and the culture of liberal individualism and unfettered free market ideology which it spawned. A breakdown in social cohesion and a sense of community is the result. The first step towards achieving a more equal and just society, he contends, is to identify the enduring features of neo-liberalism which need to be arrested and reversed. But reforms to counter these features are confronted by a plethora of mantras and myths purveyed by the rich and powerful. The stimulus for change is deadened and the culture of the post-neoliberal free market ideology persists. Sir Edmund examines the ways in which a credible threat to the economic order could be mounted, such as to bring about the adjustment to capitalism necessary to achieve a more equal and just society.

Sir Edmund Thomas

After graduating from Victoria University Law School in 1957, the Rt Hon Sir Edmund Thomas became a partner in Russell McVeagh in 1958 and a Queens Counsel in 1981. He was appointed to the High Court in 1990, to the Court of Appeal in 1995, and an Acting Judge of the Supreme Court after that Court had been established in 2004. Sir Edmund was a member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand from 2003 to 2008. He is a prolific author, having over 85 publications to his name, including the leading work on the judicial process: The Judicial Process: Realism, Pragmatism, Practical Reasoning and Principles (Cambridge University Press, 1985). He was awarded a Doctorate of Laws (LLD) in 2009 for his contribution to jurisprudence. He is presently a Distinguished Fellow at the Law School at the University of Auckland.

All welcome. If you would like to attend please register here. Please pass on this invitation to anyone else you think may be interested in attending.

Thanks to Humanist Society

We are grateful to the Humanist Society of NZ and the NZ Humanist Charitable Trust for making available the funds for Professor Standing’s travel from the UK, and enabling the Fabian Society to provide the two lecture opportunities with Professor Guy Standing in Wellington and Auckland. The Humanist Amsterdam Declaration of 2002 declares that: ‘Humanists have a duty of care to all of humanity including future generations.’ For this mammoth task Professor Standing’s writings suggest a way forward. In ‘The Precariat’(2011) , Professor Standing writes ‘A good society needs to have people of empathy….’ This is an ideal with which Humanism concurs.

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