I have been asked to post this message by Carolyn Atkins of the People Together Project. In June 1998 the People Together Project in the State of Victoria in Australia ran a community summit on the widening gap in our society between those who have income and opportunity and those who do not. In workshops in eight areas - education, health, employment, transport and power utilities, family support services, legal issues, housing, and income and taxation - it was demonstrated that the widening gap between rich and poor is indeed a reality. The summit attracted over 800 people and one of the many outcomes was the following Resolution, which expressed the vision of a fair and just Australia. People Together is a non-political, advocacy and research community-based organisation that seeks to promote the importance of community and democracy through various projects. We are trying to get the message of the Widening Gap Community Summit Resolution out to as many people as possible and gather support for the sentiments it expresses. We would be very grateful if you could: 1. Express your endorsement as individuals by sending an email message by return email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2. If you are a member of a community group seek their endorsement and let us know by sending a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] 3. Forward this message on to other individuals or groups who may be interested. 4. Use the Resolution in letters, speeches or discussions to help spread the word. The Widening Gap Community Summit Resolution: Towards Bridging the Gap At this Summit the people, together, resolve that: In Australia the gap between people is widening and it does not have to be this way. A fresh message needs to be spread widely. Our message is: Australia is a community, not a market. Our governments are trustees of the common wealth, not vendors of it. We acknowledge markets as one part of how our community thrives. If the rules of the market alone govern a community they will destroy it. A community cooperates and looks after its own. Markets, through competition, set each of us against the other. Winners take all, losers despair. Insecure, we become fearful. Fear makes us reluctant to defend what we sense is slipping away: that vague, great notion that Australia is a place that gives everyone a fair go. Despair and insecurity are not economically rational. Fear stymies prosperity. Every person has the right to food and shelter, care in sickness, defence at law, dignity in work, and the opportunities and pleasures that education opens. The land that abounds in nature's gifts can afford to provide at least these basic needs for all of us. To this end tax, equitably reckoned, is legitimately sought from all of us. The shared business of citizens, directly and through elected representatives, is to debate with tolerance the best ways to shape events together to meet every person's basic needs in a way that sustains the land. Warnings are sounding, but before events shape us and our country into something we hardly recognise, and find difficult to love, we must act together to bridge the widening gap. People Together Project 622 Lygon Street, North Carlton, Victoria 3054 Telephone: 03 9347 0022 Facsimile: 03 9348 1961 Mobile: 015 565 303 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] c:\eudora\attach\EMAILR~1.DOC
