Ezio: grepping test/*.py for (name)'= self.assertEqual' gets 182 hits in 15 different files. If you are generically opposed to name localization, please take your case to pydev. I also found 'unless = self.assertTrue' and am sure I have seen others in the stdlib and test files.

For (name), there is 1 use of 'e' and 'asseq', 5 of 'equal', and 175 of 'eq'. (In one place, 'eq' was only used once after being defined. I would not bother.) If you have a strong preference for 'eq', I will consider it, though it almost seems too light.