Support
EDM 683!
Join new campaign to tackle child poverty and defend our
entitlements!
Dear
friends,
On 5
November John McDonnell MP tabled an Early Day Motion (below)
welcoming two extraordinary bills in the US Congress which aim to
eliminate child poverty and support mothers’ caring work. Ten MPs
from different parties have already signed it.
For the
first time since the US brought in draconian welfare reform in 1996,
there are proposals that are not divisive or punitive. We need
similar legislation to protect our rights in the UK.
Contact your MP. Urge them to sign EDM 683 now and get back to us.
This is just the beginning of a much wider campaign.
Join us now.
US CONGRESS BILLS ON CHILD POVERTY AND MOTHERS' CARING WORK
Session:
2012-13
Date tabled:
05.11.2012
Primary sponsor:
Sponsors: Dobbin, Jim; Durkan, Mark; Hopkins, Kevin;
Meale, Alan;
Shannon, Jim
Signatories as of 15.11.2012: Bottomley, Peter
(C); Caton, Martin (L); Dobbin, Jim (L); Durkan, Mark (SDLP);
Galloway, George (R); Hopkins, Kelvin (L); McDonnell, John
(L); Meale, Alan (L); Ritchie, Margaret (SDLP); Shannon, Jim
(SDLP); Sharma, Virendra (L)
That this House welcomes two bills
presently in the US Congress, the Rise Out of Poverty Act
(RISE Act) and the Women's Option to Raise Kids Act (WORK
Act), which make the elimination of child poverty the first
priority of welfare policy and recognise the right of all
mothers, including those on welfare, to choose to raise
their own children; believes that the UK would benefit from
a similar policy since four million UK children, one in
three, are living in poverty; notes that raising children is
hard work without which society and the economy could not
function; deplores that the primary carers of children,
usually mothers, are demeaned as workless unless they do
waged work; rejects workfare that forces mothers and others
to work for well below the minimum wage to keep their
benefits, inviting employers to bypass both the minimum wage
and pay equity; considers that contempt for mothers presumes
contempt for the children they care for; rejects attempts to
limit child benefits to the first two children while
dismissing additional children as extra; and reaffirms
humanity's assumption that every child is precious not only
to their parents but to all society, and that every primary
carer is entitled to resources and support for their
invaluable caring work.
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Why we
support EDM 683
This
government of millionaires is blaming single mothers, people who are
sick or have a disability, pensioners living ‘too long’ and
immigrants for the lack of jobs, the unaffordable houses, the low
pay. They are using the deficit as an excuse to take our jobs, lower
our wages, cap and cut our benefits and services, and drive us out
of our homes, while they get millions in bonuses and pay no tax.
In the last three years the richest 1,000 people (0.003% of the
adult population) have increased their wealth by £155bn – enough to
pay off the entire UK deficit with £30bn to spare. They can afford
to pay for the deficit they have caused –
why is
the Government shielding them?
Thirteen million people live below the poverty line in the UK. With
the welfare
reform
to be brought in next April, thousands
who are homeless or can no longer afford the rent are
expected to be relocated out of our neighbourhood and even our city,
away from our family, friends and support
networks – single mothers and people of colour whose incomes are
generally lower, will be disproportionately affected. One in five
mothers already skips meals in order to ensure her children
don’t go hungry.
Ending poverty is key to
economic and social justice in every area: our right to have
children or not; a living wage, pensions and disability benefits;
pay equity; breastfeeding support; healthy food; free public health
care; preventing our children being taken into care; protection from
rape and domestic violence, and racist attacks, including on asylum
seekers, LGBT people and others; stopping mothers and low income
people being jailed; halting the rise in prostitution for survival
and the criminalisation of sex workers . . .
Our planet is on the
brink of destruction – every year more droughts, storms, heat waves,
flooding . . . While the free market and its wars push us to the
point of no return, they treat the melting ice caps as a new
opportunity to drill for oil! Their greed is suicidal. Those of us
who live in countries of the South are the first and the worst
affected – but as flooding in the UK and Hurricane Sandy prove, no
one is immune.
Demanding resources for
mothers and other caregivers, and for those we care for, is
ecological and anti-war: it redirects economic and social policies
towards caring for people and the planet.
If the UK
government is going to copy the US, let them copy these bills.
Invest in caring, not killing!
EDM 683 is part of an
international campaign
Find out more about the
US bills and the campaign to get them passed:
Issued by:
Global
Women’s Strike
and
Women of Colour in the GWS
Single
Mothers’ Self-Defence
WinVisible
