28 November 2019

A talk by Will Stronge, Founder of Autonomy

Autonomy is an independent, progressive think tank with one focus: work.

Amidst the shifting political fault lines of the world today, one thing is clear: work is still the issue. It is not an overstatement to say that in the UK, and worldwide, we are experiencing nothing short of a crisis. For example, despite having record levels of employment (a fact that politicians regularly draw upon), real wages are at a historic low and ‘precarious’ work – defined by insecurity and uncertainty – continues to expand its share of the labour market. Perhaps even more distressing is the fact that the majority of those currently in poverty in the UK belong to working families; in this sense we can say that work is becoming increasingly useless for its ostensible purpose – that of providing a sufficient income for people to live comfortable lives. Coupled with this decline of the quality and sustainability of waged work, we’ve witnessed what can only be described as punishments for those who exist outside of work. Drastic cuts in welfare provisions and disastrous, disciplinary assessments that attempt to adjudicate how ‘fit to work’ people with disabilities are, constitute obvious symptoms of a society bent on the enforcement of work no matter the human cost. With these tendencies in mind, it is hard to hold either the mere fact of mass employment or the ideal of employment in high esteem.

autonomy.work