Stamp Out Poverty campaigns for the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) – sometimes known as the Robin Hood Tax – a small tax on transactions by financial organisations (rather than individuals) that would raise billions each year to tackle poverty and climate change at home and abroad whilst also reducing the casino-like behaviour of the banking sector.
Visit stampoutpoverty.org and robinhoodtax.org.uk for more information
The think tanks Ekklesia and Centre for Welfare Reform have published an open letter to Iain Duncan Smith from Catholics and people brought up in the Catholic faith who support its teaching on social justice.
Read below and for the full text visit: https://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/21853
Dear Mr Duncan Smith,
We are fellow Catholics and people who were brought up in the Catholic faith. We are writing to express our concern at the impact on our communities of your welfare reform policies. We understand that your Catholic faith is important to you, and your approach is driven by a desire to improve the quality of individual lives. However, we believe that they are in fact doing the reverse. We would urge you to rethink and to abandon further cuts which are likely to cause more damage.
Of particular concern are benefit sanctions. We were shocked to learn that your Department recognises sanctions can lead to a deterioration in the health of a claimant. Yet sanctions continued to be imposed. This, as a punishment for what may be a clerical or timekeeping error, seems excessive. We would not expect prisoners in our jails to be punished in this way, and would be grateful if you would consider whether it is an appropriate way to treat people who are unemployed, sick, or disabled.
We are also very concerned at the way the Work Capability Assessment is currently managed and the change from Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payments. Both these systems are causing great harm to sick and disabled people as are the enormous delays in administering disability and sickness benefits. To become seriously ill or disabled is bad enough. To then have to wait months for help whilst unpaid bills mount up, perhaps fearing eviction or needing to use a foodbank, is distressing and damaging. The recent suggestion to reduce Employment Support Allowance – currently funded at a level that recognises the additional costs of illness or disability – to the rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance will cause further hardship
We appreciate that you believe the benefits cap encourages people to take control of their lives and find work. However the evidence suggests that it is in fact driving families into poverty and homelessness.The main reason families exceed the benefit cap is that they require high levels of Housing Benefit in order to pay excessive rents. As a result, thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes, which is disruptive to families and damaging to local communities.
We know you place great faith in Universal Credit to restore fairness to the system, but would ask you to reconsider many aspects of it, including the halving of the disabled child’s allowance. Disabled people, and families with disabled children, are already more likely to be living in poverty – it does not seem fair that they should lose more.
We are aware of your wish to promote personal responsibility and self-reliance, and we too believe these qualities are to be encouraged. However, we feel that for large numbers of people, policies aimed at promoting these qualities are having the opposite effect, pushing them further into poverty, and worse.
We would ask you to consider these words from Quadragesimo Anno, the Papal Encyclical written in 1931, as the world dealt with the Great Recession:
To each, therefore, must be given his own share of goods; and the distribution of created goods, which, as every discerning person knows, is labouring today under the gravest evils due to the huge disparity between the few exceedingly rich and the unnumbered propertyless, must be effectively called back to and brought into conformity with the norms of the common good, that is, social justice. (para 57/58)
The Encyclical went on to stress that this entitlement to a share of the wealth of the community was not dependent on work. In other words, when people are unable to work through ill health or disability, or unable to find a job, it is our duty to make sure that they receive the basic requirements of a dignified life; adequate food, shelter, warmth and security.
We believe that a supportive welfare state is an expression of Christian justice and compassion. When this support is removed, we may think we are saving money, but the consequential problems, like poorer mental and physical health, and educational underachievement, all bear a human and financial cost, and will have to be paid for in some way.
We accept that your reforms have been undertaken in accordance with your conscience, but we would ask you to accept in return that our concerns are genuine, and our experiences of increasing social distress are real. Our consciences, informed by our faith and experience in our communities, leave us with no alternative but to speak out when we see some of the most disadvantaged people in society being harmed.
We would like to enter into a dialogue with you, to explore how as citizens we can best support and enable our less fortunate neighbours, whilst treating them with dignity and respect. We have constructive proposals on how to make our welfare system work better, and in a way that is more compatible with Catholic and Christian values. We would not wish to find ourselves reliant on charity to survive, and are saddened that so many of our neighbours have become so in recent years. As Saint Augustine said, ‘Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.’
We would like to thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
We remain your sisters and brothers in Christ,
Steve Atherton, Justice and Peace Fieldworker, Archdiocese of Liverpool; Francis Ballin, Cardiff Justice and Peace Commission; Phil Barrett, Liverpool Archdiocese Justice and Peace Commission; Tina Beattie, Professor of Catholic Studies, Director, The Digby Stuart Research Centre for Religion, Society and Human Flourishing (DSRC), Digby Stuart College, University of Roehampton; Anne Booth, children’s author; E. Irene Brennan, Jean Monnet Profess of European Integrated Studies (retired) University of Westminster; Frances Brown, Banbury Justice and Peace Group; Joseph Brown, Banbury Justice and Peace Group;Terry Brown, Justice and Peace Coordinator, ArchDiocese of Southwark; Bernadette Callaghan, retired teacher; Sheila Cogley, retired social care worker; Michael Cook, retired academic; Margaret Cook, retired schools inspector, school governor; Frank Cottrell-Boyce, author and screenwriter; Denise Cottrell-Boyce; Henrietta Cullinan, Ekklesia administrator, London Catholic Worker; Brian Davies, Birmingham J&P Commission, former CAFOD Head of Education; Sir Tom Devine, OBE, academic historian; Dr Claire Dwyer, Reader in Human Geography, Co-Director, Migration Research Unit, University College London; Paul Donovan, writer and journalist; Rev Kevin Duffy, Deacon, Corpus Christi RC Church, Rainford; John Eade, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Dept of Social Sciences, University of Roehampton; Fr Rob Esdaile, Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Thames Ditton, Surrey; Hannah Flynn, Christians for Economic Justice; Pat Gaffney, Coordinator, Pax Christi; Mary Glennon, retired teacher; Mary Grey, Professor Emeritus, University of Wales, Chair, Living Stones of the Holy Land Trust, Hon President, Wells for India; Catherine Hale, independent researcher; Mary Hallam, retired teacher; Dr Alana Harris, Teaching Fellow in Modern British History, King’s College London; Stephen Hoyland, Ignatian Outreach – IGO; Fr Chris Hughes, Chair, Hexham and Newcastle Diocesan Justice and Peace Co-Ordinating Council; Fr Peter Hughes, Coordinator, Columban Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation; Barbara Hungin, Chair Middlesbrough Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission; Dr Deborah M Jones, Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics; Matt Jeziorski, Education Officer, Pax Christi; Ann Kelly, Administrator, National Justice and Peace Network; David Lodge, author and former professor of English at Birmingham University; Kathryn Lydon, retired social worker (mental health) and CAB volunteer; Fr Marc Lyden-Smith, Chaplain to Sunderland University and Sunderland Football Club; Dr Susan O’Brien, Visiting Lecturer, Margaret Beaufort Institute; Dr Carmen M Mangion, Birkbeck, University of London; Vincent Manning, Chairperson, Catholics for AIDS Prevention and Support; Bernadette Meaden, writer and Ekklesia associate; Tony McNicholl, Co-ordinator, Wrexham Diocese Faith, Justice & Peace Network; Virginia Moffatt, Chief Operating Officer, Ekklesia; Anne O’Connor, Editor, North West National Justice and Peace Network E Bulletin; John O’Brien, Accountant, Chair of Nottingham Ark; Dr Susan O’Brien, Visiting Lecturer, Margaret Beaufort Institute; Marie O’Sullivan, Advocate; Anne Peacey, Chair National Justice and Peace Network; Dr Terry Phillips; Fr Hugh Pollock, Chair, Lancaster Diocese Justice and Peace Commission; Geraldine Poole, trustee mental health charity; Gerry Poole, peace and justice campaigner; Fr Nick Postlethwaite, CP, Catholic Priest; Moira Potier de la Morandiere, Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist; Dr Marcus Pound, Associate Director, Centre for Catholic Studies, University of Durham; Dr Maria Power, Lecturer, Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool; Joe Prendergast, Project Assistant, Liverpool Hope University; Christopher Rawsthorne, retired headmaster; Josephine Rawsthorne, retired teacher; Jean Raymond; Frank Regan, Writer on Christian faith in dialogue with culture and politics; Dr Anna Rowlands, Lecturer in Catholic Studies, University of Durham; Councillor Jennifer Rowlands, Luton Borough Council; Jo Siedlecka, writer and journalist; Lee Siggs, Editor, Justice Magazine; Tony Sheen, Westminster Justice and Peace; Denise Sheen, parishioner St George’s Church, Enfield; Fr Shaun Smith, Hallam, Justice and Peace Commission; Ellen Teague, writer and journalist; Stan Thomas, retired social worker; Marian Thompson, Editor of Mouthpeace, Justice and Peace Newsletter,Liverpool and Shrewsbury Dioceses; Cate Tuitt, Vice Chair, London Cooperative Party; Union of Catholic Mothers; John Usher.
The monthly e-bulletin for the North West, linked to the National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN), is produced jointly by the dioceses of Lancaster, Liverpool, Salford, Shrewsbury and Wrexham.
NJPN North West Justice and Peace E-Bulletin July 2015
The monthly e-bulletin for the North West, linked to the National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN), is produced jointly by the dioceses of Lancaster, Liverpool, Salford, Shrewsbury and Wrexham.
NJPN North West Justice and Peace E-Bulletin June 2015
Warfare is good for the economy … Human lives will be worth less in the future … To recover from the financial crash we need more of the private debt that caused it. Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of neoliberal economics.
If campaigners for justice, peace and the environment are to offer more than sticking-plaster solutions, we’re going to have to roll up our sleeves and rebuild the economic system. The bottom line of any viable economy is that there is only one planet earth – not the three which would be required to give everyone the lifestyle typical of the average British person today.
But what would such an economy look like? Answers are closer to hand than you might think. From the writings of ‘new economists’ to the pioneering work of those who are getting on with the job, it is taking shape already.
And it is taking the shape of the gospel. The new economy will evangelise us: it invites us to follow Christ who, unlike us, was humble enough to take on the limits and opportunities of creation, and who rose from the Earth to reconcile us to it. This is no ‘dismal science’ as economics is known, but joyful art and sacred enterprise.
The Joy in Enough campaign is inviting Christians and all people of good will to join in building a new economy within the ecological limits of the Earth – and in doing so to recover our own true humanity.
We do not claim to have all the answers, but we have urgent and pointed questions. We challenge, among other things, the unacknowledged addiction to growth, the freedom of banks to create debt, the legal framework for rights to ‘commons’ like oceans and forests, the blinkered curricula of university economics departments, and the freedom of advertisers to colonise childhood and public space.
It’s a journey that turns fellow-travellers into friends across the movements for justice, environment, faith and business ethics. Let’s make it together!
Paul Bodenham is Chair of Green Christian. A second Joy in Enough conference takes place on 7 November 2015 in Bristol. It will feature green economist and MEP Molly Scott-Cato, and Jonathan Rowson, director of the Social Brain Centre at the Royal Society of Arts and author of the ground-breaking report Spiritualise: revitalising spirituality to address 21st century challenges. For more details visit www.greenchristian.org.uk/joy-in-enough
Paul will also be speaking at our Open Networking Day in Coventry on 19 September, on ‘Francisconomics: ‘The Saint, The Pope and the Economy of Enough’, which will look at these ideas in the context of the forthcoming encyclical on the environment and the spirituality of St Francis.
Where do you think your commitment to justice and peace comes from?
I think this was very much a home-grown thing, not given a name such as justice and peace. My father was a shop-steward and being a Scot I also heard something of the influence of Keir Hardie on the lives of working people. After raising her two children my mother trained to be a nurse and she too was involved in her union and when a local hospital was threatened with closure took part in a campaign to it. There was no song and dance about this; it was just what people did. Then when I went to train to teach in the early 1970s I was very inspired by what I heard of the life and changes in church in Latin America, this thing called Liberation Theology; reading the work of Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Ivan Illich, Celebration of Awareness, these titles alone imply a radical reading of the times; joining the Young Christian Students taking part in projects such as the Simon Community and Third World First (now People and Planet) and for this I have to thank the Religious of the Assumption. Again, I don’t recall this being called justice and peace. We were provided with many opportunities to become involved in the world beyond ourselves, to think out of the box.
What for you are the most important areas of concern today?
First, that we have not yet managed to shift thinking about security and peace out of the military box and second, that as a Church we have not yet learned the deep value of the practice and possibility of nonviolence. Failing in these two things has, I feel, stopped us making genuine progress is ridding the world of war and violence.
How mad is it that the UK Government has the 6th largest military budget in the world? We go on applying military solutions to problems that cannot be solved by weapons and armies: extremism in its many forms, poverty, climate change. How great it would be if our churches, schools, communities could engage people in discussions about what security means to them, tease out key issues and concerns, and then ask what investment and resources are needed to address them? This would begin to reshape thinking and prompt creative economic and political decisions making
As for nonviolence, for many the word still conjures up passivity, doing nothing, allowing oneself to be walked over. Yet we have only to look at key practitioners, Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mairead Corrigan, and the work of Pax Christi, to see that active nonviolence faces injustice, violence, the mis-use of power and aims to stop and transform them. Again, we need to invest in nonviolence – be educated about it, trained in it, develop a spirituality to underpin it so that we can confidently begin to apply creative nonviolent solutions to the challenges we face. The Jesuit Daniel Berrigan writes about the enormous energy, ingenuity, and money and so on that goes into war and war preparations and laments the half-heartedness, lack of energy and investment that goes into peacemaking.
What sustains you in your commitment?
Most of all people. The memory and energy of all those who have formed me to this point in my life – from family and friends, colleagues from my teaching days and my work with CAFOD and for the past twenty-five years the Pax Christi community. Their witness, sticking power and their friendships are a reminder that we need relationships that offer discernment about the important matters of life to stop us going mad, to stop us from trying to do things on our own. Being able to share a common world view with others, building communities with others around our concerns is vital. Then there are all those I meet here and overseas who work for peace and justice in desperately hostile environments. Whether it is the person in a parish who struggles to get a dialogue going about militarism in schools or a family in Palestine challenging laws that force them to live apart or those working with refugees in Syria worn down by the never-ending violence. If they will not give up the very least I can do is try to accompany them by small acts of peacemaking here.
I do also need some ‘time out’, quiet time when I can stand back a bit, take stock, reflect and pray, to remind myself of the bigger picture and of our real source of hope and courage.
What are your hopes for a Church like ours for the 21st Century?
Pope Francis and the way he is choosing to live out his role. His words reach beyond our ears and our brain; they touch something deep within us. How many times has he used phrases such as ‘we have forgotten how to weep’ and challenge us to ask the question, ‘who is my brother/sister?’ He makes it clear that we are get into the mess and muddle of the world – and not obsess about status or place. He wants us to be passionate, not lukewarm people. I find this very attractive, and of course very challenging!
All of this, I believe, is speaking in a fresh and vivid way to a largely secular society. It will therefore support and strength networks and organisations that have been doing the work of peace and social justice for decades. Maybe we will feel emboldened to see our work in new ways and if we have become stale or disillusioned, we will find the courage to change and work differently. Fear of change can paralyse us and rob us of hope.
Soon we have an election and after that a new (?) landscape within which to work. So we have to be ready to pick ourselves up from disappointments and see a host of new opportunities, new faces with whom to share our visions and passions.
TTIP (pronounced tea-tip) is no tea party. It stands for TRANSATLANTIC TRADE AND INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP, a free trade and investment treaty being negotiated between officials of the European Union and the USA. The chief EU negotiator has confirmed that “the European Commission will block public access to all documents related to the negotiation or development of TTIP, and that those documents will remain closed to the public for up to 30 years”. In this case, the public includes elected politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. However – draft negotiating positions will be shared with corporate advisers to the US government, who will then be free to share them with their European business counterparts. Hence, transnational corporations take priority over democratically elected national governments. In addition, negotiators have agreed to set up a body giving business a greater role in setting regulatory standards.
TTIP is un-transparent and anti-democratic
With tariffs already at minimal levels, the main goal of TTIP is to remove “regulatory barriers” that restrict the potential profits of transnational corporations. These so called ‘barriers’ are some of our most prized social standards and environmental regulations that we have fought hard for: labour rights, food safety laws, restrictions on GMOs, regulations on the use of toxic chemicals, digital privacy laws, limits on CO2 emissions and many others. Among the latest leaks we have learned that port inspections on food imports will be dispensed with and that the EU has called for a legally binding commitment that would guarantee automatic licences for all future US crude oil and gas exports to Europe undermining all efforts to address the impending climate crisis. TTIP will also open up public services to privatisation including the NHS, education.
TTIP is a race to the bottom in standards and regulations.
It is bad for ordinary people and bad for the planet.
In addition companies will be able to sue governments, in secret courts for losses resulting from public policy decisions. By this arrangement, known as the Inter-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) claims are settled by international arbitration tribunals made up of corporate lawyers who sit in secret and are unaccountable. Where ISDS has been included in other bilateral treaties, it has already caused havoc with public policy and democracy. For example, under a similar treaty Veolia, a French company is suing the Egyptian government for raising the minimum wage and Philip Morris is suing the governments of Australia and Uruguay over public health policies on the labelling of cigarette packaging.
There is growing opposition to TTIP. Public health and justice campaigners have joining forces with trade unions and consumer groups to oppose it. Find out more and join the campaign at: https://www.nottip.org.uk/; https://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/trade-justice/ttip; https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/campaigns/trade
The fight over TTIP and the other free trade deals currently under negotiation will decide what type of future we bequeath to future generations, and to the planet we share. It is a fight we cannot afford to lose.
The 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change (COP21) will take place in Paris 30 November—11 December 2015. It will be a crucial conference as it will need to achieve agreement, applicable to all countries, to keep the level of global warming down to less than 2oC.
Pilgrimages ‘for climate justice’ are planning to make their way to Paris from around Europe and the world. One that will be going from the UK is a small cycling pilgrimage from London organised by Westminster Justice & Peace Commission.
In preparation for this, Barbara Kentish, J&P Fieldworker for Westminster, Francis McDonagh from Westminster and I visited Paris in March to check out some possibilities for accommodation, to meet with members of Pax Christi France who will be co-ordinating some of the activities of faith groups in Paris during the session, and to attend their day conference on climate change, which was very full with some excellent inputs.
We also took the opportunity to meet with the General Secretary of the French J&P Commission, Denis Vienot, and compare notes. It turns out to be a case of ‘chalk and cheese’ since they have a national commission but no diocesan structures, whereas in England & Wales there is no national J&P commission but our Network of diocesan commissions and other groups and individuals which focusses on grassroots organising.
Some Network members have also worked across borders in the past year, such as Christian CND joining protests at the French equivalent of Aldermaston, and groups in Kent giving support to migrants in Calais through Secours Catholiques.
For actions, events and resources to prepare for COP 21 see: www.greenchristian.org.uk/climate-action
Ann Kelly
Download the latest newsletter below:
*** NJPN Action of the Week ***
Nepal was hit by a second massive earthquake, just two weeks after more than 8,000 people were killed and an estimated 8 million were affected by a devastating earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale.
As with other disasters, the British public have responded with extraordinary generosity, pledging £50 million to the Disasters Emergency Committee so far. Yet today Nepal is making a $3.5 million debt payment to the IMF, and a total of $210 million of debt payments are due this year. Funds are flowing OUT of Nepal at a time when they are desperately needed for the country to recover and rebuild.
ACT NOW: Please call on the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, Nepal’s two biggest lenders, to drop the debt
jubileedebt.org.uk/actions/nepal-drop-debt
