The Long Shadow of Class (Film)
For details and photos of the film’s launch in London, Sunderland and Birmingham, visit Journey to Justice.
Category / Stories / Class & Education
How to effect change and inspire us all to develop a more just society.
1. What does an economically just society look like?
Chapter 1 explores what an economically just society would look like. Our speakers describe it as one where no-one would worry about making ends meet and where everyone would have a secure economic foundation to live a life of dignity. They discuss whether the UK is an economically just society or not, and question if it is possible to achieve.
2. How does class affect the way we think and behave?
Chapter 2 suggests there is a ‘class ceiling’ in the UK, an embedded hierarchy based on accent, education, self-presentation and privilege. Our speakers describe ‘classism’ which determines who gets ‘top jobs’ and which professions are rewarded and celebrated, regardless of talent. It is a ‘misrecognition of merit’ reflected in our media and is often internalised, determining how we see each other and behave.
3. The markers of poverty
Chapter 3 looks at what it is like to grow up as a child in a household experiencing poverty and how deeply that affects life chances. Our speakers describe their own experiences, how dealing with the effects of poverty can be all-consuming and how debilitating the social stigma can be, leading people to believe this is how the world is and nothing can change.
4. The system
Chapter 4 addresses wealth inequality – how deep it is and why it is increasing. Our speakers challenge the myth of meritocracy and explain how the system relies on economic injustice and the resulting waste of working-class talent. The decline in trade union membership and the ability of organised labour to reduce inequality is seen as a major factor, among others.
5. The key role of education
Chapter 5 describes how class determines educational experience and life choices. Our speakers focus on the barriers to more settled, higher-paid employment opportunities – such as how the narrow test-driven school curriculum sets up some children to ‘fail’; the lack of grants and other resources which prohibit access to higher education and the perception of the greater value of education at private schools and ‘top’ universities.
6. How to reduce class inequality?
Chapter 6 explores ways to reduce class inequality such as disrupting inheritance across generations, lifting groups in society more than others using taxation and making class a protected characteristic by law. Dr Ben Tippet argues for the implementation of a Green, Purple and Red New Deal to protect the environment, eradicate poverty and put feminist reproductive labour at the heart of our economy.
7. What can we do?
Chapter 7 considers how to effect change and develop a more just society. Speakers remind us that benefits we have to today – holiday pay, the NHS, the end of racial segregation – have come about because people organised in the past. They remind us we too can get involved and offer ideas aimed at galvanising action for economic justice.