Between The Lines

No time to be throwing out human rights

2012-02-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

The European Court of Human Rights has played a vital role in safeguarding citizen’s rightsThe Prime Minister recently took to berating the Council of Europe about the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).The Premier was looking for restrictions on the right to take cases to the ECHR in Strasbourg. Mr Cameron takes his brief on human rights from the rabid tabloid press which has whipped up a frenzy around the concept as though upholding them is in some way aiding criminals. A focus of the most recent hysteria has been the rights of prisoners to vote and the case of the Jordanian man Abu Qatada who it was ruled could not be deported because he would be likely to face a trial where evidence obtained by using torture could be used. Qatada has variously been described as being part of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden's "right hand man in Europe."Where these descriptions came from can only be speculated about but enough to say they suggest a less than fair trial maybe available to Qatada, not only in Jordan but also in the UK. Not that he it would seem is ever likely to come before a properly constituted court of law in the UK.Qatada is one of a number of men who has been held under immigration law overseen by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission for the best part of the past 10 years.The existence of the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) has not stopped this detention taking place but it has resulted in modifications. This meant that in 2004, some three years after detention without trial was established, under the Anti-terror crime and security Act, the law lords ruled it unlawful under the Convention. This then resulted in the control order regime, bringing detention in accommodation and the surrounding area, being established.The Human Rights Act brought in by the Labour Government simply amounted to the downloading of the ECHR into domestic law, thereby avoiding so many cases as in the past having to take the long and winding path to the court in Strasbourg. There was though still the ultimate appeal to the ECHR. It is difficult to see how Mr Cameron's proposal that the most trivial cases should not go forward could work. Who makes the judgement on triviality, a politician taking his or her brief from the British tabloid press.Under such a new construction what would have happened to cases like the one against the government back in 1978 when the ECHR ruled against the use of the five interrogation techniques by the British army in the north of Ireland. These the court ruled amounted to "inhuman and degrading treatment" and a breach of the Convention. Then there was the ECHR ruling in 1995 of unlawful killing in the case of the three IRA volunteers shot dead in Gibralter in 1988. In Britain, there have been ECHR decisions stopping the police retaining the DNA of innocent people indefinitely and restrictions on stop and search powers. How can this be bad?Human rights have been hard won over the years. The ECHR was established after the Second World War with the British ironically playing a crucial founding role in that process. The reason there is a backlog at the Strasbourg based ECHR is mainly because of the number of new countries coming under the auspices of the ECHR. It is having a civilizing effect.Having fought long and hard to obtain human rights now is not the time to go throwing them away. The vista of justice denied being whipped up around cases like that of Abu Qatada and the right of prisoners to have a vote needs to be seen off. It is just cheap populist political point scoring. Human rights are inalienable to each individual, not something to be given or taken away at the behest of some populist politician. This is something not universally understood. This allows the unscrupulous politician to reconfigure the whole idea of rights as in some way amounting to privileges to be bartered away in populist fashion. It is still difficult to fathom a supposedly educated nation supporting politicians who offer to take away their human rights.There should be no change in the Human Rights Act or the European Convention on Human Rights. If anything the Convention needs strengthening with the judiciary given stronger rights of enforcement, certainly not watering down in the name of short term populism.

Priest's role needs to change

2012-02-09T10:24:00.000-08:00

The role of the priest is an often lonely and unsupported one.
Former chair of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission Baroness Patricia Scotland said as much last year “The priests and religious are people too – they need friendship and comfort and someone to have a glass of wine with or watch the football,” said Baroness Scotland.
There has been much talk of the crisis that has engulfed the priesthood. This until relatively recent times amounted in the main to a shortage of those willing to take up the vocation.
The crisis though concerns more than lack of numbers. The abuse crisis that has engulfed the Church has caused many to question the role of the priest as it is presently constituted.
Some argue married and female priests are the answer. This is not the case, it is just as easy to have an authoritarian unaccountable married or female priest as it is a celibate male one.
The problem is the role itself. At present priests have too much power in the parishes. There is slightly more accountability now with parish councils having become more commonplace but these can merely amount to rubber stamping bodies.
I recall hearing about the parish in the Midlands where it had been agreed a sustainable heating system would be introduced. A new priest came in with his own ideas. He did not want this form of energy supply and reversed the decision. A parishioner told of her feeling of total disempowerment. The only way she could make a protest was to move to another church something she did not want nor should have had to do. She had been in the parish for years, the priest for literally five minutes.
The line management structure in the Church is very hierarchal. Direct responsibility is to the bishop and above. The nature of this relationship was underlined in the recent high court ruling in the case involving Portsmouth diocese, where the Church was found vicariously responsible for the actions of its priests. This related in the case in question to abuse.
This relationship can be disempowering for the priest who has no independent source of income or pension in the future. It is not a partnership of equals.
The role of priest needs to change. There is a need for accountability to the parish and local community. Priests also need support. One problem is that lack of a real job description, a recognition of what makes a "good priest" in the 21st century context.
All too often the role seems to gravitate between that of the policeman and social worker, taking in everything else inbetween. Many priests provide fantastic pastoral support to those in the parish. Others are more authoritarian, telling people what they must or must not do.
What of the role of the priest as an empowerer of the local community? The shop steward come community organiser role that demands skills that get the mass of the parish involved in working for social justice.
What sort of training is provided in the seminaries? What do they see as the job description they are trying to form young priests to serve?
The weekly homily is a plum spot for giving an inspiring message but I have always been struck by the ability of so many priests to talk pie in the sky rather than link to the every day life of those to whom they are preaching. This means many switch off. When the message is delivered in accessible form it can be disempowering.
This is a terrible waste, as drawing on my own childhood I remember clearly the passionate addresses of the Franciscan Friars then at St Anthonys, Forest Gate in east London. They inspired and got us all thinking about living the faith.
What few priests do seem to do these days is provide proper formation in the parishes. All too many lapse into the role of overseers of maintenance rather than mission.
Many ofcourse lack the skills themselves to develop adult formation of the missionary faithful but this support should be available. A better formation of priests and remoulding of the role to be that of the servant rather than the master of the parish community could transform the priesthood.
The role of the priests needs some serious consideration as part of a much larger look at the whole hierarchical structure of the Church. At present the role of priest is a lonely, largely unsupported one. Too much is expected. The priest cannot do everything. Then what of the excellent priests leaving the Church for a variety of reasons?
Democracy and accountability needs to be introduced at every level of the Church starting with the priest. The role needs redefining with training provided to meet the requirements. There also need to be support networks in the community for those taking on the role of priest. Only such change will bring about the sort of priesthood that can help take the Church forward in partnership with the parish communities

Time for change after 10 years of detention without trial

2011-12-23T02:08:00.000-08:00

A man known only as G will be marking the 10th anniversary this week of being detained without trial by the British state.
"I’ve been here 10 years now, no trial, no charge, no evidence produced to challenge. Me, my wife and children don’t know how long it will take to attain justice and freedom," said G.
G and another man are the only two who remain of the 13 originally picked up in December 2001, following the passing into law of the Anti-terror Crime and Security Act (ATCSA).
The men, mainly Algerian, were taken to Belmarsh Prison, where they were detained. “I was put together with the other detainees. We were kept a minimum of 22 hours in the cell and never saw the sky. I did not see my wife for six months,” recalled G.
In 2004 there was the House of Lords ruling that the ATCSA was unlawful under the Human Rights Act. This resulted in the regime, known as control orders being developed. Detainees were restricted to a house or flat, with stipulations about where they could move in the local geographical location and at what times. Access to phones and the internet were banned. They had to ring the tagging company regularly.
The process that has kept G and others incarcerated over recent years has been overseen by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC). This body operates under immigration law, dealing with cases where national security is in question. It operates with special advocates representing the detainee.
Lawyers for the detainees are not able to see all the material relating to why they are being held. The accused have never been told of what they are accused.
The government has been prevented from deporting the individuals concerned due to the danger that they may face torture or worse in the countries from which they fled. Some though have returned due to the mental torture being imposed by indefinite detention in the UK.
Two men who returned to Algeria were subsequently imprisoned in that country after receiving assurances before they left England.
Another Algerian man, Mustafa Taleb, was originally one of eight people accused of involvement in what became known as the ricin trial, where no ricin was ever found. Arrested in 2003, the case came to court in 2005 when all eight accused were cleared.
Then came the London bombings. A number of the acquitted men were picked up, including Mustafa Taleb, as well as G. They were served with deportation notices on the basis of being national security threats. Since that time these men have been held either in prison or under the house arrest style conditions.
Mustafa Taleb now lives alone, allowed out at set times and only able to move within a restricted area.
One person who has regularly visited him over recent years has been Bruce Kent, who has been appalled at what he has seen. “He has the marks on his body to this day from the torture and the British government want to send him back to the torturers,” said Mr Kent. “It is disgraceful and against British law to go on detaining people without knowing of what they are accused.”
Solicitor Gareth Peirce, who represents a number of the men and formerly represented the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four, sees parallels with the treatment of the Muslims today and the Irish. She claims the lessons of the Troubles have not been learned.
Mrs Peirce believes the Muslim men held in detention have been treated as guinea pigs by the British government to see how far it can push things. “The continuing experiment is dangerous and insidious in more than one way. It has become very clear that when one challenge is overcome the goalposts are moved and a new system comes in,” said Mrs Peirce.

The Troubles provides an important link, suggesting that the whole process of cutting rights at the behest of maintaining security under the aegis of anti-terror law has been a work in process for the past 40 years.
So the Prevention of Terrorism Act was introduced in 1974 following the Birmingham pub bombings. Described as “draconian” by its author, then Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, the PTA brought in seven day detention without charge. This was renewed annually.

Then as the peace process took hold at the close of the century and prior to 9/11, the Terrorism Act 2000 was introduced bringing in 14 day pre-charge detention.
After 9/11, the ATCSA was brought in bringing about the regime of internment with few limits. This has been refined since, with control orders and their successor the terrorism, prevention and investigation measures (Tpims)

The level of pre-charge detention went up to 28 days in 2005 after the Labour Government was defeated over its efforts to get 90 days passed.

So the plight of those individuals who remain detained without trial after ten years remains part of a work in progress. The last decade has simply been an extension of what went before in the Irish context, with the gradual extension of a security state that is accountable to no one. It has grown up in the shadows and Mrs Peirce is right those unfortunate individuals like G, Mustafa Taleb and others have become the guinea pigs for this process. And with the threat of civil unrest on the horizon, with the worsening economic situation, there can be little doubt that the security state will find more willing accomplices in government prepared to extend its powers still further. The big question for the rest of us is when will we say enough and insist that the rule of law is restored for all citizens of this country and that there will be no further detention without trial?

A fitting tribute to Bishop John Jukes would be to restore the World of Work Committee

2011-12-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

The funeral of Bishop John Jukes brought together people from across the church and labour worlds.
An auxiliary bishop in Southwark, Bishop John always kept working people and the social teachings of the Church at the heart of his mission.
Reading the obituaries, it was interesting to hear how he first worked in the civil service, taking on the role as representative at the Inland Revenue Staff Federation National Conference. He then decided to study agriculture at university, which led to him spending a year working on Romney Marsh. It is believed that at this time he became in contact with the Franciscans in Rye, which eventually led to his joining that order.
Later in life, he became chair of the World of Work at the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, where he served for 20 years from 1980.
Bishop John believed that Catholic Social Teaching had much to contribute to the world of work, going back to Rerum Novarum (1891). Indeed, he helped organise a centenary conference in Liverpool to mark this encyclical in 1991.
Each year at the TUC Congress, Bishop John celebrated mass for delegates. In his sermon at St Mary Magdalene's Priory, Brighton, in 1999 he urged Catholics to put gospel values into practice by becoming active members of trade unions. And he urged the TUC to promote ethical values to counter some of the negative effects of globalisation.
Bishop John was prophetic, predicting the injustice for workers of much of what has flowed from globalisation and unregulated markets. The loss of job security; degradation of the human being, individuals or groups forced to work in inhuman conditions.
Reading about how Bishop John shared a platform at a TUC rally in Hyde Park, with National Union of Mineworkers President Arthur Scargill, brings one up short. How far things have slipped since those days?
Earlier this year there was no Catholic Church representation on the platform for the 500,000 strong TUC rally in Hyde Park against the cuts and for an alternative way forward.
The decision of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales to do away with the World of Work committee in 2001 was one of the worst it has made in recent times. The thinking can only have been due to neo-liberal managerialist voices being given too much sway in the decision making process. By this time Bishop John had retired, moving to serve a parish in Scotland.
Those crucial links that Bishop John and those who worked with him at the Bishops Conference had built up with trade unions and business have long since elapsed. As a result the Church was totally caught out when it came to the present economic crisis which is actually all about the world of work.
Had the World of Work Committee still been in place much of the evidence based research would have been there regarding the state of the jobs market, growth, globalisation and the injustice of neo liberal development model.
The bishops would not have been cobbling together committees made up of theologians, MPs and others to get a handle on how it was going to respond to the government’s Big Society agenda.
There would have been a ready voice on subjects like cuts to benefits, the living wage, migrant labour, the trade unions, pensions and worker's rights. The response would have been one based on justice, not a charitable response to help plug the gaps being created by an ongoing voracious neo-liberal market system.
Had Bishop John still been in post he would certainly have had something to say about the wholly unjust attempts of employer organisations to claim they can only be competitive if given even greater freedom to sack people.
The Church desperately needs to restore the function of the World of Work committee, so that it has the authority to speak out on matters in the workplace. Given that most people spend a huge amount of their lives in the workplace, surely the Church should have a credible view on this aspect of life?
If the Bishops Conference of England and Wales wants to mark the passing of Bishop John, then the best thing that could be done is to restore this function of the World of Work to which he gave so much of his life. His passing provides a timely reminder of the expertise that used to reside in this area. The Church needs this expertise in order that it can speak out on all work related matters, after all, are we not all workers in God’s vineyard?

Coalition Government's attack on working people must be resisted

2011-12-04T12:47:00.000-08:00

The extraordinary attack of the Coalition Government on the lives of working people in the UK continues apace. There seems no need to bring in technocrats in the UK to perform to the will of the markets, as has been the case in Italy and Greece, given that the Coalition Government appears to act simply as the slave of capital with almost every move it makes.The first lie to nail is the one that says that the present crisis is all down to the last Labour Government. The myth cultivated by the Coalition Government - with the help of the right wing media. The truth is that the present economic situation is the result of the banking crisis of recent years. The frustration of people is that instead of making the bankers pay for their recklessness, they have instead been bailed out and told to get on with things pretty much as before. As the economy bombs with demand for goods disappearing the Coalition Government continues to bail out the banks. The latest contribution being in the form of £75 billion of quantative easing. This money was handed to the banks to further shore up their balance sheets, when it should have been handed out to the public with stipulations about spending inside a set period of time.While the present crisis in capitalism lurches on with no end in sight, those who own capital have seen the opportunity to dump the cost of the crisis on the workers. The Occupy London Stock Exchange camp outside St Pauls and its counterpart in the US have become so unpopular with the ruling class because they have refocused the agenda on the real cause of the crisis, namely capital and more specifically the banks.At a popular level, particularly in the media, there has been an effort to distract from this central theme by seeking to blame individuals for the crisis. So there has been a focus on benefit cheats, these lest we forget are those fraudulently claiming the likes of disability and unemployment benefits, rather than bankers trousering billions. The complicit role of the media in peddling this stuff can be seen from one simple fact, namely that £20 billion of benefits go unclaimed every year, compared to £1.2 billion lost due to fraud. Who would believe that was the case from the way the benefits issue has been covered over the past couple of years?Another myth we are fed is that everyone is living longer, so pensions have to be changed with workers retiring later and paying more. First, there is the question whether everyone will be living longer. The pre and post war baby boomer generation have lived long lives, due to good diets and the welfare support network put in place by successive Labour and Conservative Governments in the post war period. A major contributor to this improvement was the NHS.Today, some 60 per cent of the population are obese. The welfare support network is rapidly being dismantled to the point where services will only soon once again be available for those able to pay. Given this vista of development, the claim that the present generation will be living longer appears doubtful. Ironically, it will only be if the post 1945 settlement is defended and maintained that people will continue to live longer.There is also ofcourse the massive fiddling of figures that goes on with pensions. The fourth biggest economy in the world can afford to pay pensions. There is a huge surplus of over £50 billion in the National Pension Fund. The argument over public sector pensions also needs recalibrating with a focus on bringing private sector pension provision up to public sector levels, not dragging the latter down to a level that often amounts to virtually nothing. A properly funded state pension is the answers in the long term, not making workers pay more for less.Another area where there has been an effort to make the best out of a good crisis by capital is on the question of removing regulations. This lest anyone forget happened in the banking sector leading onto the crisis. But leaving that blip aside, capital insists for companies to be competitive there must be less protection for workers. It should be easier to sack them and more difficult for workers to access employment tribunals with grievances. What has been amazing is to witness the way so much of the media simply go along with this argument. Whenever there is a discussion on a programme like Newsnight or Question Time, where is the trade union voice? It is usually a combination of government ministers, business voices and then someone from a think tank. This results in a ridiculous circular argument concerning how for instance there can be a reduction in the 240,000 cases that go to employment tribunals every year. The one scenario never discussed is just maybe the employers ought to stop breaking the law and infringing workers basic rights. Maybe it is the employer’s unfitness for their role that should be the focus, rather than how much easier it can be made to exploit workers. This simple explanation rarely enters the media lexicon.This overall assault on working people needs to be exposed. As mentioned earlier the Occupy London has helped focus attention on some of these issues but more needs to be done. The unions were right to strike to protect pensions, it put down a marker that working people are not going to continue picking up the tab for rich people’s avarice. More resistance is needed, particularly if the government moves to legislate to restrict the right to strike even further.Although it seems unlikely that working people would accept such a scenario, if the economic crisis bites deeper and given the one sided nature of most the media then the mood music of fear could be created to legislate away these hard won rights. For an example of a similar work in progress – where liberties were taken away on the basis of a largely unsubstantiated crisis - look no further than anti-terror law and the war on terror. Once the mood music of crisis was worked up to a pitch the populace seemed willing to accept any nonsense no matter how flimsily justified.The present situation represents a real challenge to working people, with a government seemingly totally committed to the interests of capital to the exclusion of all else. The present programme of “reform” amounts to the dismantling of the whole of the post war settlement, including the welfare state, pensions and NHS, that created a better chance for the mass of people. The onslaught can be defeated with a new more just society being established with the common good becoming the binding mantra but there is still a long way to go if such a victory is to be won.

Inspiring women in the struggle

2011-12-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

I recently visited Elizabeth Rendall as she lived out her final days at a nursing home in South Woodford.
Elizabeth was propped up in bed with the sun streaming in through the window. She was as full of verve as ever, despite being heavily dosed with morphine due to the pain being caused by the cancer.
She spoke of the work, the need to move onward in striving for justice in the world.
This was typical of Elizabeth, always concerned to work for a better world in line with gospel values right up to her dying day.
I only knew Elizabeth for the past 20 years of her life but she certainly served God fully throughout her time on this earth.
Educated by the Ursuline sisters at St Angela’s in Forest Gate, east London, Elizabeth joined the order when she was 18. She then became a teacher at the nearby Ilford Ursuline school. Finally, she went on to Wimbledon where she was head for nine years.
It was whilst at Ilford Ursuline that Elizabeth taught Kathy Piper, who went on to work for the Catholic Institute for International Relations and later become chair of the Brentwood Justice and Peace Commission. “It was Elizabeth, as my teacher, who taught me to care about social justice as part of faith commitment, at the age of 14. I wonder now how many other people she inspired down the years to become involved,” said Mrs Piper.
Elizabeth then left teaching, working as a sister in a Welsh parish before she decided to leave the Ursulines and take up a role in education and research at CAFOD.
Elizabeth worked for 10 years for CAFOD particularly on its Renewing the Earth campaign. The environment was her real passion, with the destruction being caused by global warming a constant concern to her.
She worked on the environment at local, diocesan and national levels. Elizabeth also worked across faiths, involved with Christian Ecology Link and Operation Noah.
This commitment to the environment was lived out at her funeral which she insisted be conducted by a Columban priest due to that orders work for justice and creation around the world. The mass took place at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in east London, adorned with greenery.
Beyond the environment though Elizabeth was always there supporting the work. She marched against the various wars and supported the multi-faith group Peace and Justice in East London with its work for peace. She also supported the group’s work with the families of those being detained without trial in the UK.
It was in this work that Elizabeth came into contact with another remarkable Catholic woman Sarah Hipperson.
Sarah campaigned against detention without trial but before that she was part of the Greenham Common camp. It was back in the 1980s that Sarah upped and left the leafy London suburb of Wanstead to campaign against nuclear missiles being sited at Greenham Common in Berkshire.
Sarah eventually spent the best part of the next 18 years at Greenham Common, endeavouring to prevent a nuclear armageddon occurring. Then she helped establish a peace garden at the site in order that this particular struggle was not forgotten.
A former justice of the peace Sarah ended up serving several prison sentences for her direct peaceful actions in seeking the removal of the US missiles.
Now in her 1980s, Sarah has returned to Wanstead, where she continues the work for justice.
Another person doing work for justice is Sister Catherine Reily, who has been quietly supporting the Travellers at Dale Farm for the past eight years. She visits the site on a regular basis, supporting the families and helping out where she can. A quiet supporter but another steady witness to gospel values.
Sister Pat Robb has worked for years on behalf of refugees, standing up for human rights. Whenever I see Sister Robb, she always has a cause, some injustice that she wants taken up. A family in trouble a person being mistreated who has already suffered the effects of torture.
These fantastic women should be an inspiration to all in the Church, they’ve worked away really putting gospel values into action.
The institutional church has rarely been supportative of much of the work that these women have done but it is these witnesses to truth and justice that really live out gospel values. They are the true prophets and disciples of Christ in this modern age.
It is the witness of the likes of Elizabeth, Sarah, Catherine and Pat together with many others that sustain the rest of us at difficult times in a Church struggling to find its way in the modern world. These and others continue to battle away in the margins for social justice.
Surely, adopting a more inclusive approach to these and many other women would offer a real way forward for the Church in the 21st century.

Occupy London protest is symptomatic of a wider call for real change

2011-11-18T02:09:00.000-08:00

The protest of the Occupy London activists camped outside St Pauls Cathedral for the past view weeks has focused attention on a central demand for economic justice in the world.
Much of the media attention was drawn initially by the ongoing discourse between the church and the protesters. The cathedral authorities seemed to do a complete 360 degree turn when it comes to the protest.
There was initially some sympathy from the likes of Canon Chancellor Giles Fraser, then closure of the cathedral on some fairly nebulous health and safety grounds. Much was made of the £20,000 a day the cathedral was losing in receipts from the public.
Then the cathedral re-opened but the Church lined up with the Corporation in seeking a High Court order to remove the protesters from the area. Fraser resigned. Then the dean of the Cathedral Graeme Knowles resigned and the church withdrew from any court actions. It then went further practically uniting with the protesters demands by setting up an inquiry headed by investment banker Ken Costa to look at reconnecting the financial with the ethical.
The protest though had it not been for this ongoing disagreement would not have held the attention of the media for anything like the amount of time it did. Those who said the issue of corporate greed and injustice was getting lost, amid the disagreements between cathedral and protesters were wrong. The issues stayed at the top of the news for two weeks because of the dispute and the background international machinations around the Eurozone.
The media coverage made the whole encampment seem far bigger than it actually is. In reality there are around 100 tents taking a relatively small area around the side and partially the front of the cathedral. There is no problem for the general public to walk through the area or go up the cathedral steps.
Another media claim was of the damage being done to nearby shops. Well, there are five shops bordering the encampment: Starbucks, a Marks & Spencers - Simply Food, a camping shop called Blacks and a Natwest Bank. This is also an office entrance. Most of these shops will be profiting from the encampment, not losing trade. The nearby paternoster square, where the Stock Exchange resides, is cordoned off by the police, so the shops there may be losing trade but that is not really down to the protesters.
Another media criticism voiced by Evening Standard columnist Simon Jenkins is that it won’t achieve anything. Well, who knows Mr Jenkins, for some protesting is the only way to have a say.
To date, the failure to protest has seen governments everywhere simply shovelling tax payers money into the coffers of the banks with very little in return. Indeed for the most part the bankers have said thanks very much and continued paying themselves huge bonuses.
The wider question though is do these type of protests work? Visiting the St Pauls site there are the usual suspects, seen at road, anti war and environmental protests over the years.
There is a bohemian atmosphere around, with signs reflecting a national and global outlook. So there are “Greetings for the landless of India and Ektu Parishad” alongside “Sex Workers denied decriminalisation and safety rights” and “Giving to the poor is not enough – restructure so there is no poverty.”
The site is well organised with a clear programme of events, listed at what is called “tent university.” On a day I visited there were campaigners Global Witness on “the dictator and offshore paper trails, monetary justice and the need for effective protest and a session on the history of St Pauls with cathedral guide Ernest Woolmer. In the evening there was a film Battlefield on the Bolivian revolt at La Paz. The group run a paper with a 2,000 print run called the Occupied Times. The latest edition covered what had been going on with the cathedral authorities but included a number of interesting articles on the likes of faith and finance, the end of atomism, feeding the masses and what would Jesus do? Indeed this final call is resonant throughout the protest as it puts the situation of economic injustice today into a Church context.
The Church has been challenged to engage with the issue of ongoing economic injustice, where the mass of hardworking people are being made to pay for the largesse of bankers. So far the Anglican Church appears to have taken the challenge on and reacted positively.
Those who question whether protest works often quote the march of more than one million people against the Iraq war in 2003. This huge turnout they argue was ignored. At face value this was true but that march and a succession of others around the time did have a lasting impact together with other factors on the political system. There have been other protests since, such as in favour of combating climate change, for the living wage and regulation of undocumented workers, against the government’s cuts and the policy of privatising the forests.
The latter very successful campaign was largely carried out on the internet via mass email protest. There are now many different ways to protest, physically on the street or via cyberspace. The importance of peaceful direct action should never be forgotten, with actions like those of Plane Stupid with their occupations of the likes of the roof of the Houses of Parliament in protest at ongoing aviation expansion and resulting pollution.
What the elected politicians need to remember is that over the years all of these protests have been bringing in people from different races, classes and backgrounds. Overall there must be a growing mass of people dissatisfied with how society is being run today.
This amorphous mass at present lacks representation in party political form. All three of the main political parties sit largely on the side of capital and the minority of people who hold most of the wealth. This needs to change, the parties must come to reflect the feelings of this growing mass of discontent.
Failure to respond will result in violence. While the political class did its best to blame the riots in August on individual criminality, they were in reality another form of protest. What started as a peaceful protest about the death in police custody of another black man, grew into something far bigger and more dangerous. Mob rule took over. What politicians should have looked at is why the riots took hold so easily, the tinder ground that once tapped into so easily exploded around people. Whilst much of the rioting was straight mob violence, it was also a response to a polarised society that preaches consumerism and greed as virtues. The rioters had seen bankers, politicians, the police and the media with their noses in the trough, so thought why not the rest of us?
There have been other instances over the years where failure to respond to popular protest has resulted in it taking on other forms and ultimately come to violence. The war in the north of Ireland is one of the best examples, with peaceful protest in the form of the civil rights marches repelled in violent fashion. This in turn led to violence over many years becoming the only way of expressing dissent. In the end, talks began and the peace process is now underway in earnest but there were many lives lost as a result of a totally unnecessary conflict.
It will be interesting to see how those in power in this country respond to the growing protests from groups like Occupy London to the climate change activists to the trade unions striking over cuts to pensions. It is simply not good enough to just bleat out platitudes like we’re all in it together, there needs to be a real rebalancing of society in favour of the common good of all. Until this happens the protests will continue to come thick and fast, with violence more commonplace if those in power continue to cock a deaf ear to their pleas.

Treatment of Dale Farm travellers shows an intolerant society getting worse

2011-11-18T02:08:00.000-08:00

The site where the Irish Travellers lived at Dale Farm in Essex now has the look of a desolate battlefield.
On a recent day when I visited JVC diggers were completing the devastation, destroying further pathways to what had been a thriving community.
The cleared area has been dug up with huge coffin shaped ditches and deep gullies, supposedly to stop any Travellers getting back on the site. The area is littered with disconnected cables where the electricity supply has been cut off.
The deep religious conviction of the Travellers is in evidence everywhere, as wrecked statues stand piled up in the corner. A small shrine, where the ashes of one Traveller lay buried exists marooned amid a sea of mud.
In the midst of this chaos there are three dwellings still existing. The caravan of a woman with two deaf children and a man with cancer remain.
The Travellers have struggled to get generators from Basildon Council to get supplies back up and running. “The electricity was cut off for three days when the eviction took place,” said mother of four Michelle Sheridan, who confirms that the post is the latest service to be cut off.
Most of the travellers from the illegal site have parked up on the pitches of those living on the adjacent permanent legal site. There are 32 parked in this way.
“The council are now saying we are overcrowding this (legal) site, we need to get out and move on,” said Mrs Sheridan, who tells how the whole area is regularly scanned by a helicopter.
“We are living in muck,” said Mrs Sheridan, who tells how she had so far spent more than £100 going to the launderette in Basildon to clean clothes, now that the facilities for cleaning at the site have been discontinued.
Visiting the Dale Farm site now it appears as though since the media focus moved away the local council no longer feel under any obligation to even give a semblance of treating the Travellers with any respect.
“This is all about getting people off the site, they are doing what they like to people without any respect for human life,” said Sister Catherine Reilly, who has been a regular visitor to the site for the past eight years.
Local resident, Jo Campbell said she was “shocked and horrified that anyone could be left in such conditions.”
“The feeling among the travelling community of total rejection is palpable,” said Mrs Campbell. “I cannot get out of my mind that this is going on where I live.”
Another interesting aside on the day that I visited Dale Farm was the news that Kathleen McCarthy had accepted substantial undisclosed damages over a false claim made in the Sunday People newspaper that she was facing a police investigation over allegations of slavery.
The allegation arose around the time of the Dale Farm eviction, but concerned activities at Toddbury Farm, Bedfordshire, where Mrs McCarthy has relatives, The claims were found to be totally untrue.
A number of people noted the strange timing that saw the story about slavery at the Bedford site surface in the media at the time that Dale Farm eviction was about to take place.
The depressing lesson from events at Dale Farm and elsewhere is the way in which the public order solution has become so easily adopted as the only way forward. And in these cash strapped times, it appears that the cost is no problem.
The estimated cost of clearing the Dale Farm site was put at £18 million. What has this achieved? A number of lives have been destroyed and the problem has literally been shifted onto the adjacent legal site.
The insistence of a number of public figures, including the Catholic Bishop of Brentwood and the Anglican Bishop of Chelmsford, that sites needed to be found for the Travellers to move to before the eviction took place were ignored.
Would the £18 million not have been better spent providing the sites required for not only Dale Farm but other Travellers around the country?
The key to this whole situation resides in restoring the statutory obligation on local councils to provide sites for Travellers. This duty was removed in the mid 1990s.
The removal of the duty resulted in a return to the criminal justice solution. The Travellers moved around the country in a state of perpetual motion. There was no motivation for any local council to provide sites, because to do so when others were not merely made that authority a magnet for all Travellers.
The last Labour Government was moving to resolve the situation, asking local councils to identify potential sites and then move to provide provision. This however has all been reversed by the Coalition Government which appears to have returned to the public order fits all solution.
The public order solution is not limited to the Travellers world. Moves to make it illegal to squat in unoccupied buildings and drive the homeless off the streets is proof of an overall effort to criminalise increasing numbers of the poor.
The efforts to make protest more difficult are further proof of authoritarian tendencies in government.
Those who rely for their world view on the right wing media, which calls for protest to be curtailed and the jack boot of repressive forces to be given ever greater freedom would do well to revisit the 1930s comments of Pastor Martin Niemoller.
Speaking as the Nazis picked off one group after another Niemoller said: “First they came for the communists and I didn’t speak out because I was not a communist, then they came for the trade unionists and I didn’t speak out because I was not a trade unionist, then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me,”
So who now is left to speak for the Dale Farm Travellers and others being picked off by this increasingly authoritarian society?

Time for Irish community to punch its political weight

2011-10-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

The success of the campaign to save the Irish Post showed the power of the Irish community once mobilised into action.
Following the summary closure of the title in August by then owners Thomas Crosbie Holdings, staff and contributors joined together with supporters from the Federation of Irish Societies (FIS) and MPs.
An Early Day Motion was put down in Parliament by stalwart supporter Chris Ruane MP. This quickly gathered over 60 signatures across parties showing the strength of support in Parliament. There were 76 signatures in the end.
A meeting was held in Parliament to launch the Save the Irish Post campaign. The new owner Elgin Loan attended that meeting and must have been impressed with what he saw in terms of the passion and support shown for the paper. The liquidator then took control of the paper and Mr Loan bought it.

Mr Ruane is taking things on further in Parliament, seeking to bring together some media owners with MPs in a new initiative but there are real lessons for the Irish community in this campaign to save the Post.
It has long been a cry of some in the community that it does not punch its weight when it comes to the political stage. A few years ago Labour MP John McDonnell called for all the different organisations working in the Irish community to come together with others to effectively create a slate of political demands. Mr McDonnell compared the piecemeal approach of the community in Britain with the power of the Irish caucus in America, where for example no serious Presidential candidate would run for office without listening closely to what the Irish had to say.
These plans though never really materialised, indeed Mr McDonnell’s suggestions seemed at the time to rather annoy those then running the FIS, who may be considered they were already fulfilling such a role.
The terrain though has now significantly changed. There are massive demands that need to be articulated at political level. The economic downturn is hitting everyone hard but the Irish community has a high number among the most vulnerable groups.
The Irish community has been ageing, so cuts to the NHS, transport provision and pensions will all hit particularly hard. What of fuel poverty and lack of provision for dementia sufferers and carers.
The lack of affordable housing is another factor effecting members of the Irish community here and those coming over for work. The lull in the construction industry itself is hitting Irish employers and workers alike.
Then there are the longstanding needs of representation for Irish prisoners and the travelling community. The Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas and the Irish Traveller Movement have both done excellent work in these respective areas.
Finally, in this quick summary, there are the new emigrants flowing in every day from Ireland once again. This group will have other needs that may not even be recognised yet but need to be met.
So the community has many needs that must be heard at the top political tables up and down the land. What the campaign to save the Irish Post shows is that the community has the potential to develop a louder voice in the political arena.
The FIS has become a much more voluble body since the excellent Jennie McShannon took over as chief executive. It proved its advocacy credentials earlier this year with the effective census campaign to get Irish people registering their ethnicity.
Previously, there had been mobilisation to oppose proposals being put forward by Lord Peter Goldsmith that would have detrimentally effected Irish people’s rights to citizenship.
In Parliament, the mantle of leading the Irish caucus seems to be being taken on by Mr Ruane, who is part of the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly.
So there is a momentum gathering toward getting Irish issues heard more clearly in the political arena. There may though need to be some changes of approach in political tactics.
The Irish have traditionally been the bedrock of the Labour Party. Irish people have remained loyal through both thick and thin during the parties periods both in and out of government. The Labour Party has been good for the community. As the EDM to save the Irish Post proved there is strong Irish representation among MPs, but is there not a danger of the community being taken for granted by the Labour Party? Surely, links need to be strengthened with the other parties, particularly at this time when Labour is out of government at so many different levels across the country. Again the support for the Post campaign proved that not all of the other parties are hostile to all things Irish.
Then there is Ireland itself, maybe sometimes the Diaspora in Britain might look to parties like Sinn Fein for a little support in attaining some of its own demands, rather than it being a one way street. This is not ofcourse to downplay the historical context of Britain’s role as the partitoner of Ireland and occupying power.
These are all things for consideration in a wider debate in the community about how best its demands can be taken forward in the political sphere. The campaign to save the Irish Post is the latest in a proud tradition of the Irish community standing up for its rights, from the miscarriage of justice campaigns to the more recent census initiative. What these campaigns prove is just how effective a political player the community can be once mobilised. The challenge now in moving forward is how we build on these excellent roots

Planet Olympics has landed in East London

2011-10-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

The way in which the face of east London has changed with the arrival of the London Olympics says much about the society in which we live.
The area that makes up the Olympic Park has no doubt been transformed. Travelling out on the train, the Olympic Stadium, the aquatics centre and the cycling velodrome all make impressive architectural landmarks in the area.
Then there was the recent opening of the Westfield shopping centre, next to Stratford station with its impressive array of shops and restaurants.
I live about two miles or two tube stops from the whole Olympic site. In this area the impact of the games becomes ever closer, as it seems open space gets gulped up by the process.
The Metropolitan Police have taken a part of Wanstead flats (open grassland made up of football pitches and forest) to establish a temporary headquarters, with holding cells attached. There has been much local opposition to the structure as it is believed once the precedent has been established there will be more future encroachment on what is for all intense and purposes greenbelt land. It is owned by the Corporation of London, which has steadfastly opposed all building at least until now.
Elsewhere, any individual or organisation with some space to spare seems set on letting it out to visitors who will come for the games. A cricket pitch is to provide camping space for a number of Aussies, a rugby club is similarly making its grounds available to visitors. Many householders are looking to cash in by letting their properties out for the duration of the games.
It is this commercial aspect to the London Olympics that seems to override all else. The Olympics has resulted in a huge amount of development being poured into a poor area of East London. Indeed, when the Olympic bid was won, then London Mayor Ken Livingstone admitted it was the only real way he could see of getting development into this part of the capital.
One of the problems though has been that this whole commercial fest threatens to effectively come in as something entirely separate from the local community rather than being rooted in it. Perhaps the most obvious example of this has been the failure of so many local people to get tickets to any of the events. This occurrence ofcourse can be extended countrywide. Many of the tickets have gone to corporate concerns, again emphasising that it is corporate capital that counts in the UK and little else.
The Westfield centre is another interesting development. The owners deserve credit for making it a living wage zone; however, the whole structure is almost as something from an alien world parachuted into Stratford.
To put it in context, for the past 40 odd years Stratford has had the same shopping mall, a thoroughfare between the central road to London and the train station. Permanent shops exist around the outer reaches of the mall with some market style stalls down the middle. Sainsbury has been the one big store to position itself in the mall – the shop remaining pretty much unchanged for that whole period. A Morrison’s outside the mall, on the main road, was a more recent addition.
Now Westfield has arrived dwarfing all below it. No doubt Westfield will draw consumers in, just as other shopping extravaganzas like Lakeside and Bluewater have done, providing jobs into the future but the whole concept still remains alien to this locality.
A little way from the shopping centre is the Atherton Centre housing a number of swimming baths. I must admit a certain personal attachment to the place having learned to swim there myself. Now this community based centre is to be shut down. The Olympics is said to be providing other facilities, so the Atherton is no longer required. It is though a very long way to the aquatic centre from where the Atherton now stands and it is difficult not to think it will be far more costly to use the spanking new facility, than the old community based centre.
The overall concern with this Olympics is that it has been imposed on, rather than embedded in the community. An altar to the world of corporate greed, rather than a symbol of fraternity and sporting excellence. There will no doubt be a legacy from the games, new friendships made, much new housing in the area – a genuine transformation. It must be hoped that the churches and schools efforts to establish a legacy of peace does succeed. But it is difficult not to think it could have been so much more. Maybe sculptor Anish Kapoor’s Olympic monument with its strangely contorted form of the five metal rings says much about an identity crisis at the heart of this Olympic venture – a structure imposed on rather than part of the local terrain.

Trip down memory lane

2011-10-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

I recently turned 50, a time of reflection as to times past and what maybe to come. A week before this ‘significant’ anniversary, I went cycling with a friend in the Sussex countryside near Rye. It was something of a trip down memory lane, going around the area where we used to go on holiday as children.
The cottage where we used to stay, the village of Broad Oak and town of Rye all formed part of the tour. But perhaps the height of the trip was a visit to St Teresa’s of Lisieux Church at Horns Cross, Northiam. It is a little church built in the 1930s by the author Sheila Kaye- Smith, who together with her husband Theodore Penrose Fry lie buried in the graveyard.
As a family on holiday in the 1960s and 70s we used to go to the church every Sunday. On Thursdays, the then priest Canon Hopetoun Curry would come out in his allegro car to serve mass. There would often be five in the congregation, three of them being my Dad, who served, brother and myself.
In those days St Teresa’s was in something of a no man’s land served from St Andrews, Tenderden, which is in the Southwark Diocese, while the church is geographically in Arundel and Brighton.
This has now changed with St Teresa’s being served from nearby Battle in Arundel and Brighton diocese.
On the sunny day of our cycling trip we were sitting on a seat in the graveyard when the sacristan and her husband arrived. We chatted about the old days of Canon Curry, who served St Teresa’s for 50 years up to 1984. Other memories included Father John Hagreen, who succeeded Canon Currie and some of the families that had been around at the time. A lady called Edna Burton, who had been a friend of my Mums was buried in 2002 in the graveyard and had some new stations of the cross dedicated to her memory.
The most striking thing though on entering the Church was a link that had been made with Peru. There was one of the beautifully woven material clothes depicting Peruvian life on the altar. At the back were pictures of life on the barrios in Peru and the Columban priest Ed O’Connell, who I was told sometimes visits when he comes to England. There was a strong charitable and spiritual tie up between the people of the Lima barrios and those of St Teresa’s.
The significance for myself came because after leaving the University of Kent in 1983 I went into banking for a few years. It was mainly as a result of being involved with a group in my own parish of Our Lady of Lourdes in London that a link with Peru was established. The group known as the Association for Relief in Crisis Areas raised money to support projects in the south. The group also endeavoured to raise awareness as to the injustice of such situations.
One of the major projects was in Lima run by the Mercy sisters. In 1990s, two of us went out to Peru to see the project that involved supplying water and electricity to this barrio area. The Columbans were very supportative at that time, with Ed O’Connell playing a major role in the Peru Support Group. Ed later returned to the same barrios, where he ministers to this day.
The visit to Peru was life changing for me. While previously I had been content to work in the City of London, doing charitable work with some justice attached in the parish, now I wanted to work full time on social justice. The poverty of the barrios, combined with the spirit of the people had a lasting effect.
It took a couple of years from then to get out of the bank totally but eventually I moved over to social justice journalism and initially a lobbying support role for the non-governmental organisations on Cambodia, based at Christian Aid.
The whole reflection born of that day was just how the spirit works in mysterious ways. Going to St Teresa’s all those years ago. Then the growing involvement with social justice work in my own London parish, leading eventually to Peru. Then the return on the eve of the 50th birthday to St Teresa’s only to find that this church was now linked up to the same area of Peru. The fate element was added to, given that had we not taken a wrong turn at the start of the day and arrived an hour earlier at the church, we would never have met the couple or discovered the Peru connection. What a strange and small world we live in. The inter-connectedness of us all is something wonderful to behold. God certainly does works in mysterious ways

Allotment life

2011-10-09T04:49:00.000-07:00

Gemma and Sandy Sanderson have created their own self sustainable oasis at the Redbridge Lane West allotments in Wanstead.
The original motivation to take up the allotment came from Sandy’s doctor. A former publican he suffers with the rheumatic disease Ankglosing Spondylitis, affecting the joints. “The doctor said fresh air and exercise were a good idea, so we began looking at allotments,” said Sandy.
Gemma works for Barclays Bank in Canary Wharf. She sits at a computer screen for much of the week, so was also looking for a way to get outside and do something different.
The couple have lived in Gants Hill for the past seven years. “This site is well placed for us, on the bus route with toilets on site,” said Sandy, who remembers that the plot was originally just grass.
The transformation of the 60ft x60ft site in four short years has been amazing to behold. It has literally been customised for Sandy and Gemma.
The couple put in a number of raised beds with wide paths between, thereby enabling Sandy to work on his hands and knees. The area has a lot of stone in the soil, so it has been a common site to see Sandy’s backside in the air as he tunnels down removing stone. The stone has then been used for the paths. The sifted soil and compost have then been put back into the lined beds.
Gemma and Sandy have a big commitment to sustainability in all that they do. This means growing the crops in organic fashion, without bringing in any pesticides or other chemical agents. They have also tried wherever possible to recycle materials. This has meant using wood reclaimed from skips to build all the borders fences and raised beds. “When people do loft conversions there is always a lot of wood going spare. If it is in a skip, you can knock on the door and most people are quite happy for you to take it away,” said Sandy.
The couple have also picked up information as they have gone along. One of the great advantages of allotment life is the ready social circle of information that is available.
One piece of advice was to stew comfrey leaves and use the resulting liquid as a feed for tomatoes. Another tip concerned filling trenches with cardboard, soggy newspapers and manure as a preparation for growing things like sweetcorn and squashes.
Sandy and Emma were given cabbage and broccoli from fellow allotment holders when they first started work on the plot. Now many allotment holders come to them for advice. They recently got a highly commended award in the Redbridge Allotment awards.
“In the summer months we don’t buy any veg or fruit,” said Gemma, who admitted that in the early days they tended to get gluts of certain crops like runner beans but they have now learned to stagger things.
There is also much storage at home. Tomato chutney and jams require preparation. Then potatoes and onions can be stored away once dried off. For crops like beans, freezing is the way to keep the crops for the lean winter months. “We need to look at buying another freezer now,” said Gemma.
Another striking element about the allotment are the flowers on display. Most have a purpose, like the marigolds keeping white fly off the crops. Then there are the imposing sunflowers, which as well as presenting a striking image also provides seed to feed the birds.
The plot is well stocked with fruit. There are strawberries, logan berries, raspberries and tag berries – a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry. There are lots of blackberries around the borders of the plot.
There are five compost bins and a number of water butts.
In the push for self sufficiency, the Gemma and Sandy are now looking to move into bees and chickens. The chickens will have to be at home, though the bees might yet be seen in Redbridge Lane West. “Sandy bought me a bee keeping course for Christmas last year. We finished the course in June and got some bees and a hive in July. There will be honey next year,” said Gemma.
Many allotment sites have bee hives but they are not permitted at Redbridge Lane West. “At one site we were told that production doubled when bees were introduced,” said Gemma, who hopes that bee hives may in time be permitted at the Wanstead site.
Gemma and Sandy certainly recommend allotment life. They spend most of their weekends at the plot, with Sandy making the odd visit in the week during the summer. “We love it. We come down with the coffee and sandwiches and make a day of it. There are decent people around to chat with so there is a social network as well,” said Gemma.
“They call allotments green gyms, what could be a better way of getting healthy,” said Sandy. “There is the exercise involved in working on the plot, then the goodness you are getting from the food produced.”
One day when the couple retire they hope to get a slightly bigger area of maybe around an acre to push the self sufficiency dream on that bit further. It would then be possible to grow a bit more, as well as keeping animals like pigs and sheep. That though is for tomorrow, today Gemma and Sandy continue to work their oasis at the bottom of Redbridge Lane West.

Church must move from maintenance to rediscover mission role

2011-10-09T04:41:00.000-07:00

Near to where I live in east London plans have been unveiled to establish a homeless hostel. There are a number of homeless people who roam up and down the main arterial road through the town. Many call at the Catholic Church looking for some support and sustenance.Supposedly when the hostel is established most of these homeless people will be able to go there for support. The response from the local suburban community says much about the society in which we live. A vociferous little bunch of people have opposed the establishment of the hostel. They quote the fact that it is an area where there are schools and care homes. The implication is that the elderly and young are at risk from the homeless. There seems to be a belief that because someone is homeless this automatically means they must also be criminal and addicted to some form of drug. Some 150 people have signed the petition against the hostel with newspaper reports suggesting that local Catholic schools have registered concerns with the council. A real case of not in my back yard (nimbyism).The Catholic Church is central to this situation. It sits near to where the hostel would be built with the two Catholic primaries also in the vicinity. There will no doubt by members of the Church among those supporting the homeless but others opposing the hostel. The interesting thing is that the local churches generally have not entered into the debate at all. They have publically largely stood by silent on the sidelines. No doubt some may argue this is a civil matter. But this story raises a question that applies to the Church countrywide, namely what has happened to the role of mission as opposed to that of maintenance? The Church of mission is involved and reaches out to the community. It is integral. The social teachings of the Church are not kept in a box, secret from the parish community, but talked about and lived out day in day out. A church that was engaged in such a way would not only be supporting the homeless but asking why there are so many homeless people in the fourth largest economy in the world. In the type of situation described, the Church would certainly have had something to say, discussed it publically and had an official stance.
A test of the value of a Church in the local community is what would happen if it were knocked down tomorrow. Would it make a difference? It may mean locals don't have parishioners cluttering up their streets with their cars every week. Less pollution, so a positive impact in reducing global warming. It could effect those parents that want to get their kids in the schools but what else? If on the other hand it is a church of mission then it would make a big difference to the community. Support of the homeless, refugees, the elderly, a caring community that lives in an environmentally sustainable way - it should be a beacon of how to live together. There are no doubt plenty of churches across the country reaching out doing the work of mission in their communities. There are though those that clearly are not. These churches are doing the work of maintenance, seeing themselves as a refuge from the outside world, not a part of the community. There is a disconnect, an obsession with procedure, whether it be how eucharistic ministers dress or the order in which the congregation come up for communion. In terms of the local community, these churches are spectators not participants. Far too many churches have erred over recent years toward the maintenance model which provides an easier life. The church of maintenance does not challenge what goes on beyond it's doors. It offers nothing to the young, who drift away once confirmed It is not vital and in the worst case scenarios represents simply managing decline.The way forward is to rediscover the church of mission, reaching out, engaged and living out the social teachings. It is a church peopled by those who have some formation and understanding of what it means to be a Christian in society today. The social teachings are alive and being lived out. It is a vital living Church that has a crucial role to play in the community. Rediscovering the church of mission is the only way forward for the church today.

New economic model needs to be found urgently

2011-10-09T04:35:00.000-07:00

There does appear at least at rhetorical level to be recognition on the part of the leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband that the present neo- liberal economic system is busted. He together with the Trades Union Congress has asserted that a new way of doing things must be found. The TUC ofcoure has gone much further mapping out real alternatives to bring about change.
This position is in stark contrast to the Coalition Government which in a strange contortion appears to be trying to address issues like the deficit with another dose of the same neo liberal orthodoxy that helped create the problems in the first place. Deregulation, privatisation and the sanctity of the market were all rubrics of neo-liberal economics as promoted in the first instance by the government of Margaret Thatcher but then continued by successive Conservative and Labour administrations. How quite the destruction of the public sector to the benefit of the privateers is supposed to address the question of the deficit is a question that remains unanswered.
The situation existing now simply cannot continue for much longer. There are the gathering clouds of an economic storm in the Europe and the United States. Talk of revisiting the banking crisis of 2008, when famously the world was said to be hours away from the cash machines stopping, now abounds. Incidentally, if such a scenario does ever happen, the riots and looting seen last August will seem as nothing in comparison.
There is enough evidence around that the present economic system is just not working and needs to change. Yet strangely the government carries on in the same way. As recession bites deeper, the amount that people have to pay towards pensions increases. The train operating companies are given a free rein to increase their prices, operating in the sort of bubble, only previously seen in relation to banker’s bonuses. A similar attitude seems prevalent when it comes to the energy companies, which are also forcing up prices and increasing fuel poverty.
When it comes to constructing a new economic system, the first thing that needs to change is the emphasis on vested interests and greed. At times over the past 30 years it seems that policies from the privatisation of the railways and energy to the Private Finance Initiative systems of funding for building new hospitals and schools seem totally premised on a few people making a profit to the cost of everyone else.
A new way of doing things must put the morality of the common good at its centre. The treatment of people and the environment in which they live must be a main pillar, as must an inclusivity that recognises the inherent worth of every human being from the baby in the cradle to the elderly person at home.
This would mean the workers who produce the product, whether it be boiler components or the education of a child must be put first. Part of this construct must be decent wages and terms and conditions of work. No more bosses being paid one hundred times more than the workers.
The role of the parent must be respected and remunerated in the society. The role of parent needs to be set alongside that of a job, not taken, as it is now, as some make do and mend add on that apparently everyone knows naturally how to do.
In terms of the type of economy for the future, there needs to be a major move toward green technology. This is where the future lies.
There must also be a return to the land, with people producing more of their own food. This helps create self sufficiency but it is also a vital part of every human beings education to be in touch with the earth. There are moves to provide more spaces so that people can grow more of their own food, such as allotments and shared gardens etc but there needs to be more.
There should also be more time for leisure and education in a new economic model. This would mean less time needed at work, allowing more time with family and friends, as well as on education. The concept of education in its most basic sense needs to be recaptured from the bastardised version that now seems to dominate in educational establishments around the country. Exam factories have little role to play in expanding the mind.
There are some nascent signs of a debate developing in terms of what a new economic model should look like. But this needs to be accelarated, with a wide coalition of interests including the unions, Labour Party, environmentalists, progressive employers, faiths and others all having a part to play. Change would be better implemented in a peaceful and equitable way rather than coming as a phoenix from the ashes of a devastated economic meltdown.

Economic system should be focus of pro-life agenda

2011-10-09T04:32:00.000-07:00

The biggest threat to sanctity of life today is the voracious economic model that defines nearly every aspect of our daily lives.
This particular variant of market capitalism runs completely at odds with the teaching of the Church. Where the Church places the human being and sanctity of life at the centre of its concerns, the market capitalist model only sees value in the individual as a unit of exploitable labour. Increasingly, if an individual, whether a student or pensioner, cannot “benefit the system’” then they are seen as having no net worth.
The results of having pursued this un-Christian form of development over recent years have become recently apparent for all to see. A dislocated society, a loss of community and humanity, with individuals only seeing value in their own material possessions. In its most clear form this lack of values is typified in the looter who takes the flat screened TV or the politician who falsely claims the same item on expenses.
Gradually, each building block that makes up a sustainable community has been eroded by this form or economic development. Take the family. The economic system now decrees that both parents must work. This can have a destructive effect on the development of the child.
Rosemary Keenan, chief executive of the Childrens Society, highlights how a child can be shifted between different service providers. A child minder before school, a breakfast club at school, a child minder after school and finally the parent for, as one study found, the remaining 40 minutes of the day.” The child experiences different adults with varying ideas of what is and is not acceptable,” said Mrs Keenan. “Children need consistent care from an adult to whom they can relate.” A decent economic model would recognise the role of the parent and reward it accordingly.
Add into this mix that fact that one in five of those aged 16 to 24 do not have jobs and the failure of the economic model becomes all the more apparent.
Work is a central part of human life, yet the economic model today does not provide work for a growing number of people. It provides less than fulfilling work for an even larger group. The Church’s social teachings highlight the integral value in work to the welfare of human beings. There is a need for people to not only have work but retain a dignity in what they do.
Over recent years, people have increasingly worked longer hours for less money. The exploitation has been justified on the basis of the need for businesses to make ever more profits. Less and less of these profits are redistributed to workers and citizens in the form of wages and public services.
The common good has not been served by a growing elite of uber –rich individuals and corporations effectively making monies on the backs of everyone else and failing to pay the requisite taxes. There is an obvious impact of these policies on the common good.
The elderly are another group not valued by the economic model. They are seen in the main as a cost rather than an asset. There is the need to provide a pension, health care and care itself as the individual gets older. Given that the neo-liberal system is in crisis this has seen successive governments seeking to cut pensions. The needs of the elderly are all viewed as ‘costs’ to society.
The final solution ofcourse is euthanasia, which seems to be being quietly shephered in via the back door of the NHS. Once an individual has outlived their value to the system then they can be let go.
The Church has been outspoken in opposition to euthanasia, as it has with abortion. However, in this age particularly the Church needs to find a new voice that embraces the real attack on the sanctity of life that is the very system of economic development being pursued in this and other countries. The lack of value put on parenting, the failure to provide a future for children, unemployment, exploitative work practices and the attitude to the elderly should all form part of the life agenda.
The Church needs to develop its critique of the neo-liberal system, thereby redefining its declarations on life issues. Pope Benedict has begun this process with the encyclical Caritas in veritate but this needs to be continued. The teachings of that encyclical need to percolate down to the faithful, not be put in the safe with all the other social teachings that we rarely hear about from the pulpit.
The world needs to hear the voice of the Church on the question of economic justice, never has the system been in such turmoil or so in need of a moral compass. If the Church can recalibrate its voice on matters of what sanctity of life means, then it can play a greater role in the world on the side of the poor.

Irish Post to return to the streets in weeks

2011-10-07T03:35:00.000-07:00

The Irish Post newspaper will be back on the streets in a weeks after being bought up by London based Irish businessman and Loot magazine owner Elgin Loane
Previous owners, Thomas Crosbie Holdings had announced that the title would stop trading as of 19 August 2011, going into liquidation.
Now, following the formal liquidation two weeks ago, Mr Loane has beat off business rivals with a successful bid.
Mr Elgin, who initially apprenticed in Birmingham as a printer, qualified as an accountant in England and owns a number of print and media based businesses with offices in London, Birmingham and Manchester.
“The Irish Post has a long and proud tradition of serving the expatriate community in Britain for over forty years and must be continued for the benefit of both the incumbents as well as the growing population of Irish people heading to Britain,” said Mr Loane.
Irish Post journalist and Save the Irish Post campaign member Fiona Audley was delighted with the outcome. “This is a victory for the whole community,” said Ms Audley. “Now we are planning the future, which will see a bigger and better Irish Post coming out for the readers.”
Labour MP Stephen Pound, who supported the campaign to save the Irish Post, said: “This is brilliant news. The Irish Post offers a window onto the Irish community that needs to be kept on. Now it needs to be supported,” said Mr Pound. “There has been a gap in the week without the paper, so it is good to know that the paper is back.”

Can the Irish Post be saved?

2011-09-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

It is almost 18 months to the day since the great and the good of the Irish community sat down for a celebratory meal to mark the 40th anniversary of the Irish Post. Now,Thomas Crosbie Holdings, the owners of the Irish Post, have announced that it will cease trading, with the loss of 12 jobs. So what went wrong?
The Irish Post was founded in 1970 by journalist Breandan MacLua and accountant Tony Beatty. It was the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland which had by then extended to Britain. Irish living in England, Scotland and Wales felt part of a suspect community, every time a bomb went off in Britain eyes seemed to turn to those people of Irish descent, staffing the hospitals, working in the schools and building the roads. The British establishment media ran government propaganda about the Troubles, two feuding tribes with the army trying to keep the peace between them. The Irish community needed a voice.It was the Irish Post that came to provide that voice under the stewardship of Brendan MacLua and later editor Donal Mooney. The staff worked hard to bring out a high quality product that gave the Irish a voice. It told the truth of what was going on in the north of Ireland and campaigned relentlessly on injustices such as the Birmingham Six, Judy Ward and the Guildford Four. Later it played a significant role in bringing to wider attention cases like those of John Mathews, who would otherwise have become the new miscarriage of justice victims. The paper also covered other aspects of the community, the cultural side with events like Irish dance,the language, poetry and sport. There were other needs like those of the elderly, the homeless and prisoners. The Irish were strong in the trade union and labour movements - this was reflected in the paper. The Irish Post worked, it performed a public service and turned a healthy profit.The paper continued to prosper. Somewhat ironically it was the ending of the Troubles that spelled some problems. The Troubles meant that events in the north of Ireland dominated much of the national news agenda over 30 years. They transported what was otherwise, for the British media, a regional backwater to become the dominant national news story. As peace took hold, news from the north subsided to regional status as far as the national media were concerned. It also provided less of a focus for the Irish Post.The paper adjusted covering much news from the Republic, as well as focusing on more peaceful matters in Britain. The paper continued to campaign, covering the deaths of Irish prisoners in Brixton prison and surprisingly for some the abuse of British soldiers in barracks. The deaths at Deepcut and other barracks featured early in the pages of the paper.The readership, though ageing, remained loyal. Executives at the paper looked to draw in the new generation of younger Irish emigrants coming to work in Britain. This was a difficult ground for the Irish Post to crack, it did not seem a natural buy for this computer literate generation. A big break came with Ken Livingstone's election as Mayor of London. Livingstone had always been loyal to the Irish community, playing his own part in the past at exposing injustices. So when elected, he introduced the St Patrick's Day parade in London. The Irish Post under new editor Norah Casey became a key player, gaining much needed public profile. The event has grown and the Irish Post prospered from the association. The ownership of the paper has changed hands twice, first being bought by Jefferson Smurfitt and then by Thomas Crosbie Holdings for £1.3 million in 2003. Sadly, sales have been on the decline, going from around 30,000 a decade ago to around 17,000 today.The paper though has continued to serve the community, providing a cohesion and space for its issues. The paper championed the Federation of Irish Societies (FIS) campaign to get the Irish to register for the census earlier this year. A couple of years ago the paper gave much coverage to the dangers to the Irish of proposals effecting British citizenship. The paper has provided one of the few fair voices on the plight of Irish travellers and prisoners. There have been problems. There has been a tendency at time to duplicate the role of papers like the Irish Times and Independent, producing Irish news for the Irish in Britain. Why would they buy the Post to get what was available elsewhere, the niche always has to be the affairs of the Irish in Britain and how they relate to the mother country. The steady hand of a McLua or Mooney has clearly been seen lacking in coverage of issues like the Catholic Church and the relationship with the British Crown. There seems to be something of an identity crisis at the paper regarding these issues, but then that maybe true of the Irish generally so in a sense again the paper is only reflecting its constituency. What is certain is that there should be a future for the newspaper. There would be some restructuring required, moving out of the expensive rented accommodation in Hammersmith to a more humble abode. Maybe some sharing of other functions with similar players in the field. There will also need to be a recognition of who the readership are and what the paper is for. The readership is ageing but surely the money of a 65 year old is just as good as that of the 25 year old?
A group led by the Federation of Irish Societies and made up of Irish Post management and staff members and supporters in the wider Irish community is now seeking to save the paper. “The Federation of Irish Societies will do all we can to defend our community interest in the Irish Post; contributing to drawing up a realistic rescue plan and seek potential backers from the business community. In this, we will work with and seek support from the Irish Embassy, members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Irish in Britain and politicians throughout the Irish Diaspora,” said Jennie McShannon, chief executive of the Irish Post.The loss of the Irish Post would represent a sad day. The Irish make up the second largest ethnic minority group in the UK today, and as the past teaches they need a voice for their issues. Let’s hope that the ongoing effort to save this once great institution prove successful so that that voice is not lost forever.
* For more information see savetheirishpost@hotmail.co.uk

A new economic model is answer to riots

2011-08-22T02:25:00.000-07:00

There has been much focus on retribution in the aftermath of the riots in England. The courts have handed out some truly draconian sentences for what in the normal run of things would be considered minor offences. Some politicians have even attempted to climb onto the moral high ground to talk about single parents, family breakdown etc. What next bankers on how to live frugally?Some rather more useful comments came from east London priest Monsignor John Armitage who spoke of the greed and selfishness in society and the demise of family life. Oldham priest Father Phil Sumner pointed out that simply vilifying those who committed the crimes will achieve nothing beyond making matters worse. "People don't accept the values of society until they value themselves. They feel excluded by society and left behind, so they don't care what society says," said Father Sumner, who lamented the growing margins.
Picking up on the family theme, Alison Gelder, chief executive of Housing Justice, expressed her exasperation that "no one talks about the need to find a way out of the situation we are in where, even if there are two devoted parents, they both have to work full time just to afford a decent home." "I want a world where parents can afford to choose to be at home with and for their children, right up to school leaving age," said Mrs Gelder.Family breakdown, community disintegration and the increasingly alienated class of people who do not share in the wealth of our celebrity led culture all form part of the problem.Work has been lauded as a far more superior function to bringing up children. Indeed in most cases both parents have to work in order to raise children. A recent survey found that the average child had just 40 minutes with their parent.The binding idealogy that determines the society in which we live is market capitalism. It is a machine that has come to dominate everyones lives. If you do not serve the machine you have no part in the society or value to it. This has particular implictions for the old and young.
Other attributes of the most recent form of neo-liberal capitalism have seen the promotion of greed as a virtue. When in the 1980s Oliver Stone made his film Wall Street, the intention was that the main character Gordon Gecko would be viewed as the epitomy of all that is bad in society. The phrase greed is good became synonomous with the character. However, instead of exposing the appalling society being created, the Gecko figure became a role model for many in the banking and trading worlds. Roll on 25 years and we had the banking crisis. Now the riots, I am what I have and if I cannot get it through "legitmate means" I'll take it anyway.The evolution of the neo-liberal market economic system has seen the rich get richer, whilst the mass of poor get poorer. The polarisation of rich to poor has now reached epic proportions. The workforce is now made up of people working longer for less pay. Family life has been one of the main casualties of this process. If society really wants to get to grips with the problems thrown up by the riots then a new economic system must be developed with different values. People not profit must be put first. Family life should become a central tenent of this model. This is not be confused with the idea of a model family. Single parents, two parents doesn't matter. What does matter is that space is made for parenting and bringing up children. The role of the parent must be recognised, rewarded and celebrated.Community needs rebuilding. The society must get away from this purile self seeking individualism. Giving something to the community should be lauded. Schools and education have a role to play. Education should be open to all free and for all of their lives, something people can step in and out of. Schools should not just be exam factories preparing the child to become a cog in a corporate wheel.Failure to address these issues will lead to more riots and a truly ugly society. The super rich will retire to their gated communities protected by security companies, whilst disorder reigns beyond the gates. The margins will grow, with the prison populations expanding. More lives will be wasted. The choice is stark, begin putting our society back together again, which requires a new economic model or continue towards the abyss, blaimng individual criminality and gang culture.

Riots expose communities falling apart

2011-08-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

The recent riots in London showed a glimpse of how close to the edge many communities have become.

Remember, London is the wealthiest, most diverse and integrated city in the land, yet the equivalent of a match in the tinder box resulted in days of rioting and looting. This then spread across the country.

The touch paper that seemed to set off the whole series of riots began in Tottenham where a black man Mark Duggan was shot dead by the police.The Independent Police Complaints Commission were called into investigate but all of the usual hallmarks that have typified the deaths of civilians in police custody over recent years came into play.

The family of the dead man were it seems literally ignored. The shooting occurred on Thursday yet by Saturday they had still not seen the body. Tensions in north London toward the police have run high for many years, partly due to a number of deaths in police custody. Nationwide there have been shown to be a disproportionate people from black, irish and other minority ethnic communities among those dying in police custody. There have been moves to address the issue over the years but there are still a frightening number of people still dying at the hands of the police.The process lacks credibility among many communities, with the odds loaded against the family of the dead individuals. In worst case scenarios they are almost treated like criminals themselves. At the end of the process, when an inquest has taken place, no action is usually taken against the police. Even when inquest juries have brought in verdicts of unlawful killing against the police, the Crown Prosecution Service has today rarely moved to prosecute.Over the years this has had the effect of destroying any belief in the system that people in these communities may have held. On the police side it breeds a belief that they are above the law, whatever happens, even if someone dies in custody they will not be held to account.It is against this background that the march of the family and friends of Mark Duggan last Saturday needs to be set. The march went off peacefully but at the police station the marchers were kept waiting for hours before the police engaged with them. This no doubt built tensions. Having been on a number of similar demonstrations myself in east London I know the feeling of tension that can build up. On a couple of notable occasions on marches to Forest Gate and Ilford Police stations to make similar protests, the tensions rose and the things could have gone either way, riot or restrained peaceful and dignified protest. In both cases, due to the families concerned and the response of the police the events passed off peacefully.On Saturday, the peaceful protest seemed somehow to then morph into a violent protest. This then spread in the community leading to the violent scenes portrayed on television. There no doubt was mindless violence and looting by opportunists looking to prosper at the expense of others. However, the way in which this protest developed and later spread across London and beyond, suggests other underlying factors prompting the situation.Many of the youngsters in these communities face a bleak future, with a lack of jobs and prospects. In an increasingly atomised world, strings that may have linked them to communities no longer exist. What strings there are hold many to the gang culture. This was seen in evidence during the riots, as groups of youngsters in hoodies on bikes seemed to take over parts of London. Into this bleak scenario feed the celebrity led culture that worships wealth. You are what you have. Given that most of these youngsters have no means or prospects to obtain these material goods, why when an opportunity comes to just take it would they resist?The cuts made by the present government have simply exaserpated a bad situation. Funding for youth clubs and educational centres has been withdrawn. It was these services that provided what little bit of cement there was holding together many of these communities. The removal of these last links has effectively proved to be the straw that broke the camels back and almost brought the whole lot crashing down.Much of the media focus has been on the police. Ironically, despite the way the police have mishandled the situation from the Duggan case in Tottenham to failure to keep control of the streets, the outcome will no doubt be more resourcing for the police. However, this misses the point. For far too long there has been a focus on the police as the answer to social problems. Put more police on the streets and everything will be all right. This is simply wrong, police at best are social dustmen dealing with the outcomes of societal failure, they cannot be the solution.What the riots should teach is just how little real community cohesion there is in many parts of this country. The cement that kept communities together has been constantly chipped away to the point now where there is very little left. This was the underlying situation that only needed the blue touch paper lite to go up in smoke. What is required is not more cuts that take the little vestage of cohesion away but a root and branch effort to build community. This will involve investing in work for people, providing affordable housing and a real prospects of a future for today's youngsters. The riots brought the country to the edge of the abyss, failure to address the root causes or taking a strictly public order approach as a solution will mean that the next time the whole scenario could be far worse.

Change needed to a system that rewards the rich at the cost of everyone else

2011-08-10T07:19:00.000-07:00

The deal struck to avert the US deficit crisis was typical of others agreed around the world on the subject of deficit reduction. The crux of the matter being that the public services that the majority of people rely upon are to be savagely cut whilst those with massive wealth will not pay a penny more in taxes.So the poor pay, whilst the rich continue with business as usual.The super rich, who in a number of cases are responsible for the economic crisis in the first place, escape all responsibility for their actions. In the banking world where the seeds of this crisis were sown, high earners continue to operate in a bubble, seemingly oblivious to the damage they have caused. The champagne continues to flow as the latest bonuses are pocketed, some ofcourse directly paid for by the tax payers who bailed out the banks.On an individual and corporate level tax avoidance is the name of the game. Companies move their operations around the world to the area that demands the lowest tax take on their profits. They also seek areas with weak labour laws that make it difficult for trade unions to operate, so making it easier to directly exploit workers. Super rich individuals minimise tax payments.Turning to the situation in the UK, all of these processes are going on in microcosm. As Labour MP Jon Cruddas pointed out recently, the poor are being made to shoulder the £18 billion burden through the cuts imposed by the Welfare Bill whilst the tax on the banks raises just £3 billion. The government has largely been conducting a smoke and mirrors exercise with its Big Society agenda. Whilst cast in the rhetoric of charity and volunteering, the reality is that it is about people doing services either for less pay or no pay at all. The short sighted attitude to the charitable sector was recently underlined by the research group False Economy which found that 2,000 charities were being hit by funding cuts due to less money being available to local authorities. These are the very same charities, like the Citizens Advice Bureaux, whose services will be needed all the more in these times of economic austerity.The whole process of deficit reduction seems to be a giant sized con trick perpetrated by the very rich on everybody else. As public services are cut, the ultra rich continue as though nothing has changed. The capitalist media plays its role building the cult of celebrity around the rich, making excessive wealth out to be something to be admired and aspired to rather than simply the fruits of a modern day version of the robber baron. The question remains as to how long the mass of people across the world are going to continue bankrolling the lifestyle of the ultra rich. How long will those who pay tax be prepared to see their public services trashed? The politicians seem powerless to act. In the US, President Obama clearly wanted to tax the rich more but did not have the necessary support in a Congress dominated by the representatives of the ultra wealthy. Looking to individual politicians to make these changes in the modern world is just wishful thinking. The media continually portray the world as though it is all down to individuals. In reality, there is little difference between political leaders, these days, they mainly sing from the same hymn sheet of defending the wealth of the rich and powerful to the cost of everyone else.It was not coincidental that in past decades, there were higher taxes on the rich and a more equitable distribution of wealth. This was because there was a strong civil society and labour movement. Politicians in the past were just as opportunistic as those today but they had to act more equitably because the society had checks and balances to make sure this happened. Today these checks and balances seem to have disappeared, with corporate power the only deciding factor in town. None of these factors make for a functioning democracy or indeed contribute to the common good. If things continue in the direction they are going then there will be civil unrest, as the injustice on the mass of people continues to be perpetuated. Only root and branch change from the present busted neo-liberal economic system will see any progress being made toward a more just and equitable world.

How decayed communities fell to looting

2011-08-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

There has been much focus on the performance of the police during the London riots. But the police are social dustmen. They deal with the results of social problems; they are not a solution.
What the riots denote is just how much communities in the inner cities have decayed over recent years. The latest cuts simply take away the last remaining bits of cement that had been holding the crumbling edifice together.Hope for many young people has been taken away, yet at the same time the materialist celebrity culture is fed to them 24 hours a day – you are what you have. Once this dangerous cocktail of dispossession, hopelessness and shops crammed full of goodies is brought together, who can be surprised that, with a little co-ordination via social networking sites, a peaceful demonstration in Tottenham should have turned into rioting and looting. It is time for politicians and media commentators to realise that community is falling apart in this country and we are closer to the abyss that anyone has been prepared to contemplate.

Norwegian tragedy should act as wake up call

2011-08-05T02:21:00.000-07:00

The initial reporting in the UK of the killing of 77 people by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway said much about the media mindset surrounding such events.
There was an immediate leap to link the killings to Al Queda and Islamic terrorism.
As soon as it was established that it was not an Al Queda attack, but a right wing fanatic the tone changed. It was no longer an attack on our society but the acts of a crazed mad man.
Even, once the facts were established, this did not stop a number of politicians and commentators here continuing to rehearse all the old clichés about terrorism, despite the total disconnect with what had occurred in Norway.
The old adage of never wasting a good crisis sprang to mind as some in the media and political class used the opportunity to stir up the vista of fear to frighten people.
It seemed that another effort was being launched to use a tragedy in another country to justify more authoritarian measures taking away liberties here. The old cry of the dictator: give me your liberties and I will provide security resonated out once again.
Fortunately though these sentiments were not being voiced in Norway, where Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called for a response that brought "more democracy and more openness." This was exactly the response needed to such an attack on innocent people and democracy. It also reflected a country clearly secure in its identity, not seeking to look for a scapegoat for societal ills.
An extreme right wing fundamentalist Christian, Anders Breivik was anti-Muslim and anti-left, hence the shooting of the students at a socialist youth camp. He is apparently an admirer of the English Defence League in this country.
There has been a worrying synergy growing up over recent years between fundamentalist Christians and the far right with common ground developing over a hatred of Islam and anti-immigrant xenophobia.
It is interesting to see some of these fundamentalists seemingly stuck in a time warp, referring everything from environmental catastrophe to economic breakdown back to the old left/right divides of the Cold War era. For these individuals, there is always an enemy out there that has to be confronted, whether it be communism, Islam or simply the other.
The far right in this country has not been slow to exploit possible links to fundamentalist Christianity, targeting Catholics in particular for recruits. The BNP has in the past quoted Papal encyclicals like Rerum Novarum out of context in order to justify its creed.
Two years ago at the time of the European elections, the BNP ran an advertising campaign claiming that Jesus would vote for the party. Church leaders spoke out but the party ended up winning two seats in the European Parliament.
The tragic events in Norway need to be put in a proper context of the crazed killer motivated by extreme right wing idealogy. The most comparable individual to Breivik is probably Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, not the 9/11 or 7/7 terrorists. He no doubt will be dealt with through the criminal process in Norway, which is what should happen. And hopefully, given the Prime Minister’s comments, there will be no resort to cutting the liberties of Norwegian citizens in the aftermath.
What these events do is to serve notice of the growing danger of the far right in Europe, with its appeal to the increasingly disenfranchised amongst the population.
The Norway tragedy show the dangers that extreme right wing ideology can bring about in disturbed individuals. Communities need to come together to counter the threat of the far right, whilst those charged with protecting the people from the threat of terrorism should refocus their efforts on the real dangers rather than getting caught up in an often illogical focus on Islam.

When are the rich going to be made to pay for the deficit they did so much to create?

2011-08-03T02:15:00.000-07:00

The deal to fix the US deficit once again reflects how every financial crisis that occurs in the world today seems to be being dumped at the door of the poorest people. The deal reflects the same type of thinking as seen in this country when addressing deficit reduction, namely the average to badly off have the public services they depend on cut whilst the rich - who in the main caused the crisis - pay not a penny more in tax. How long will people be prepared to tolerate this internatioanal con trick being perpetuated by the very rich to the cost of everybody else? When will a politician emerge with the guts to say to the rich, you created this crisis, now pay your share to sort it out.

Hacking crisis reveals problems of an increasingly devalued trade

2011-07-16T08:54:00.000-07:00

It was three years ago at an employment tribunal hearing in Stratford, east London that I first got a glimpse of the darker side of News International.
The tribunal was hearing the case of Matt Driscoll, a sports reporter on the News of the World, who had been dismissed finally by the company in 2007.
The process of getting rid of Driscoll though began two years previously, with warnings. Emails revealed that then NOW editor Andy Coulson wanted to “get shot” of him “as quickly and cheaply as possible.”
Driscoll got sick but was still subject to a barrage of phone calls emails and visits to his home insisting he see the company doctor, despite his own GP saying he must distance himself from the source of his stress.
Driscoll won the day with the tribunal declaring there had been “a consistent pattern of bullying behaviour” from senior NOW managers. He was awarded £792,736 in compensation for unfair dismissal and disability discrimination.
The Driscoll case showed a glimpse of the atmosphere of fear that the newspaper could create amongst its own employees, let alone what it considered to be sources for news stories. It was an unhealthy culture that has only recently come to light.
The last editor of the NOW Colin Myler seems to have steadied things down a little at the paper, from the days of hacking, but few will be regretting the loss of a paper that was obsessed with scandal.
The demise of the News of the World and the wider debate now opening up on the media raises a number of questions. The concern must be that once again the broad brush approach will be taken that all journalists are bad, just as all MPs and bankers were suddenly tarnished as a result of the scandals that erupted in those sectors over recent years.
The truth is that proper investigative journalism has a vital role to play in any functioning democracy. It acts as a check on those holding power and exposes the ongoing injustices being perpetuated against the often weak and vulnerable. The true task of the journalist must be to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
The problem has been that over recent years fewer and fewer media operations seem to be operating to that mantra. One of the recurring questions over the tabloids is how much better it would be if they turned their investigative skills on corrupt companies or abuses in government, rather than exposing which celebrity is sleeping with who.
The tabloids ofcourse would argue that the public don’t want that type of news, they seek salacious tittle tattle – it’s what sells papers. To a large degree this is true, it is no use the great British public suddenly becoming prurient about these matters when it is they who buy the NOW, Sun and Daily Mail in their millions.
The papers that do the more investigative work like the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and Independent sell in the 100,000s.
What is more even these “quality” papers have been drawn down market over recent years by what they have seen sells the tabloids. So they also devote increasing amounts of space to celebrity and less to real investigations.
There is a lot of truth in the claim that the public gets the press it deserves. Maybe the wrongdoing at the News International titles is reflective of a society driven by greed and an anything goes mentality. Rupert Murdoch afterall worked practically hand in hand with the government of Margaret Thatcher in selling the neo-liberal revolution that has created the society we have today. And it was Mrs Thatcher who helped Mr Murdoch smash the unions at Wapping.
One of the major reasons that the media is the way it is in the UK is due to the pattern of ownership. A very few large corporations and individuals own and dominate the media scene. So many of these owners go hand in glove with some of the corporations that should be being vigorously investigated by their papers. An incestuous relationship has built up. Editors may claim independence but the slavish way in which they follow the dictates of the owners is nowhere more clearly seen than in the Murdoch empire. Mr Murdoch decides which party his papers will support in a general election and they do. Equally, he is a Eurosceptic which is another view reflected in his papers.
What is needed is a root and branch examination of media ownership. There needs to be more diversity, allowing trust funded operations to proliferate. It is ironic that at a time of mass media communications by the likes of the web and social networking that ownership has actually concentrated. This needs to be broken down with the plurality of media being restored.
The values of journalism also need to be restored. It is ironic that with the internet explosion, the number of journalists producing papers has shrunk, becoming more desk bound. Many local papers due to “technology” are now produced by a handful of journalists.
The accountants who unfortunately control so many newspapers do not understand journalism and the need to build up sources and networks. For them, a body not tied to a desk, scanning websites is wasting time. This needs to change, good reliable relationships are crucial to being an effective journalist. It is unhealthy for journalism and society to reduce the journalist’s role to that of a glorified word processor, increasingly dependent on Public Relations industry for news.
All of these matters need to form part of an examination of the media industry. Ownership and what we should be looking for in a healthy democracy from journalism are crucial questions that need to be answered. Individuals need protection but any reform must not go too far by tying journalists hands to the extent that wrongdoing gets even more difficult to expose. It is crucial in looking at journalism that we do not throw the baby out with the bath water in seeking to clearly right the wrongs of the past

Tributes to Ronald Reagan show prevalence of historical amnesia

2011-07-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

There was much publicity recently about the 100th anniversary of the birth of former US President Ronald Reagan, who died in 2004.Amongst the events staged was the unveiling of a statue of the former President outside the American embassy in Grosvenor Square in London.The surprising thing about all of the eulogising that went on about Reagan was that it should come so relatively soon after he left office in 1988. Historical revisionism has become all too commonplace over recent years but the gap seems to be narrowing as to when is an acceptable period has passed before the mythologising can start.One of the most surprising things about the case of Reagan has been how the left has almost seemed to be outdoing the right when it comes to heaping praise on the old war monger. So for example there was New Statesman political editor Mehdi Hasan writing in the Guardian in glowing terms as to how Reagan had ended the cold war, was not a neo-conservative and fought less wars than successors.Tell the women of Greenham Common who opposed Reagan's government siting of nuclear warheads in this country about his peaceful intentions or people in Libya who were bombed by US warplanes flying from British airfields in 1986. And what of the people of Grenada, who woke up one day in 1983 to find their island had been invaded by US troops.In the Catholic sphere also there have been the views of author John O'Sullivan who wrote the President, the Pope and the Prime Minister (2006). O'Sullivan told in a lecture delivered in Kracow how the former President found common cause with Pope John Paul II on disarmament, capitalism and the ethics of liberation theology.Again the approval of Reagan is difficult to sustain. A man who accelarated the arms race to the point where either the Soviet system or the western capitalist one would crash. The recent banking inspired crash coming just two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall proves just how close run the race was between the two superpowers and the relative economic systems. The far more interesting question, rather than whether Reagan was a peacenik, is what would have happened had there not been an arms race between the superpowers? What would it have meant for world peace and addressing poverty, if so many billions had not been expended on war?The epithet from another left wing paper that Reagan was actually a war criminal holds far greater credence, especially when looking to his record in Latin American and the Iran/ Contra scandal. Reagan came to power at a time of ongoing civil wars in Latin America. Archbishop Oscar Romero had been killed by US backed thugs and the Reagan administration simply upped the amount of backing being given to that brutal right wing government. Similarly in Guatemala the US government backed a government that deployed death squads against its own people.The slaughter was appalling but all fell nicely into the deniability zone for Washington until later years. Then there was Nicaragua where the Sandanistas came to power bringing education and healthcare support to the whole population. This ofcourse did not fit with the American model for Latin America which despite the rhetoric of new frontiers etc saw in reality native populations subjugated by brutal dictators in order to deliver for US owned multinational companies. What happened to Nicaragua was similar to what has happened to Cuba ever since Fidel Castro took power in 1959. The force of the US military and intelligence estate was deployed against them. This action was fuelled by the concern that other countries seeing relative prosperity in neighbouring countries, like Cuba and Nicaragua, would want to emulate them. Not good news for US multinationals.As a result the Reagan administration backed the Contras in Nicaragua against the Sandanista government. There was cross funding of these operations to get round the US Congress funneling arms to Iran to provide funding. What Reagan's administration did would no doubt have led to impeachment in another era. But these were different times with the right wing taking power in American and Britain, dominating the media, academic, economic and political spheres. So the old B movie actor was able to bluff his way through, escaping sanction.The legacy of Reagan lives on with us today with a rampant capitalist economic system and wars raging on an almost constant basis. Despite the recent economic disaster the neo-liberal market model of Reagan and Thatcher based as it is on Gordon Geko's private greed mantra continues to dominate the world. Arms spending continues to spiral upward with Britain and America among the worlds leading arms salesmen. There has never been a world less at peace and more set on the path toward economic and environmental destruction. This is the true legacy of Ronald Reagan.

Church must speak up on trade union rights

2011-07-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

The recent strike action taken over government plans to cut public sector pensions brought forth calls from ministers for more legislation restricting trade union activity.
Education secretary Michael Gove echoed sentiments previously voiced by business secretary Vince Cable and London mayor Boris Johnson that a worker’s right to strike may have to be restricted.
Mr Gove claimed public opinion would not be happy with strike action being taken by teachers and others, pointing the way toward more repressive legislation.
This public opinion summoned up by politicians to suit their own political agendas is a curious phenomena. Supposedly in Mr Gove’s case it excludes the 6.5 million members of trade unions in this country. So when does a trade unionist stop being a member of the public?
What public opinion amounts to in this instance is a mythical force dreamt up by politicians to justify their repressive policies on behalf of employers and business – it has no credence at all amongst most of the workforce.
What government ministers constant sabre rattling about restricting strikes does denote is a global effort to cut the power of organised labour or put another way make it easier to exploit people.
In Spain for instance, the decades old rights to collective bargaining have come under threat as the employers representatives suddenly pulled back from signing an agreement. The negotiations had been ongoing since February but following the election of the right wing, the employers sensed a change of atmosphere and moved to block the agreement. Now the government has announced it will legislate to reform collective bargaining.
In Canada, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers are in dispute with Canada Post over staffing and conditions but rather than reach agreement the employers seem set on a path that would see the Conservative government legislate to force the workers back to work.
In the US, there have been the efforts in Wisconsin of Republican Governor Scott Walker to cut pensions, increase health insurance and curtail the collective bargaining rights of workers.
The move brought a vociferous response from public sector workers, taking action that included blockading the governor’s mansion.
In Tennessee, Indianapolis and Ohio there have also been attempts to restrict collective bargaining with different groups of workers.
So it can be seen that governments are making use of that old adage, never waste a good crisis, as they justify attacks on organised labour on the basis of the need to address the deficit.
What the actions of the public sector unions demonstrate is how important it is to resist this onslaught on the common good. Pensions are but the latest thing being cut on the back of the economic crisis. Yet a closer look at many pension schemes will find that most are in surplus, the shock deficit headlines are usually conjured from manipulating figures to the effect that everyone in a scheme will claim their full pension on one day – this is never going to happen.
Then there is the National Pension Fund that is used to fund the state pension. It takes in funds from national insurance contributions and has been billions of pounds in credit for years. The Treasury has borrowed against this money to fund other projects. So the claim that decent pensions cannot be afforded is just bunkum.
The Church must speak out on these matters of worker’s rights. Speaking ahead of her address to the National Justice and Peace Network annual conference (15 to 17 july) TUC deputy general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Catholic teaching recognises that the relationship between an employer and a worker is a fundamentally unequal one and that therefore unions have an important role at work and in society, building solidarity and providing a voice for working people," said Ms O'Grady, who was echoing teaching going back to the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) that recognised the injustice of a situation where the worker with only his or her labour to sell is pitched against the overwhelming power of the employer. As such the Church has always recognised the right to be a member of a trade union.
In his encyclical, Laborem Excercens (1981), Pope John Paul II stressed that the interest of labour must take precedence over those of capital.
More recently the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004) states that unions are “a positive influence for social order and solidarity, and are therefore an indispensible element of social life.” Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols recently indicated that the Church would welcome an approach from the trade unions as part of the ongoing discourse on how it will respond to the Pope’s call for a greater role in the sphere of social responsibility. It must be hoped that this discourse can be established and that the Church will articulate a louder voice on the rights of workers and the importance of the role that trade unions play for the common good of our society.
* For more information on the NJPN conference - Justice at Work see http://www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/

There are many costs to volunteering

2011-07-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

A central element of the Big Society debate has been the role of volunteering in providing services.
One non-religious charity which draws particularly heavily on volunteers is Oxfam, with its highly successful network of bookshops largely run by volunteer staff. It is not unusual for there to be one paid manager running a busy shop, with the rest of the staff being volunteers. If that manager is away the shop will be entirely run by volunteers.
The variety of staff employed by an Oxfam bookshop also nicely illustrates some of the issues around volunteering. First, there is the retired person, living on a reasonable pension, looking for something to do to fill their time. They take on the volunteering job and enjoy the experience.
Next is the person, who cannot find work, they will be receiving a benefit from the state while working a number of hours for Oxfam. Taken to an extreme, this could be seen as the state subsidising Oxfam. Between these two positions come a plethora of situations from students to mums and dads who may want to keep their hands in for a few hours between child minding duties. The looming question ofcourse must be why does a charity devoted to reducing poverty and suffering in the world not feel able to at least pay the minimum wage to those working in its shops? They would no doubt claim lower labour costs in the shops, enables more money to be sent out to poorer people in other parts of the world but is that justified?
Oxfam is not alone in using volunteer labour, many charities use volunteers in their offices. This is often justified on the basis of leading to a full time paid job in the longer term. Beyond the charities there has been the debate about MPs interns. All of these areas offer examples of people volunteering to work for nothing.
Taking this analysis onto the Big Society, another element has to be added. This involves the case of the person put out of work due to cuts but whose role has been taken by a volunteer. This is the most costly form of volunteering because the person put out of the job may now be on benefits. Potentially the volunteer who has replaced them may also be on benefits and volunteering for a set period of time. Then there is the training cost of replacing a skilled worker with a volunteer. This also raises the question of what happens if the volunteer then finds paid employment and leaves.
So the whole question of volunteering is nothing like as simple as it has been portrayed by the proponents of the Big Society. The public relations spin put on this idea is that of the middle class person able to give up a few hours a week to volunteer at their local library or some other public service. The hidden costs are not acknowledged, even for this mythical person with time on their hands there could be unseen impacts on family life.
Volunteering costs, it is not as simple as replacing paid employment with someone who will do it for nothing. The real concern about the Big Society is that it is all about a variant of volunteers replacing paid workers. It does not value the work of those being replaced and seeks only to make savings on public services.
This is not ofcourse to say that volunteering should be banned. Offering to do some worthwhile tasks for the good of society is a laudable aim but it is when volunteering becomes part of some overall scheme to exploit that the problems arise.
It is a very basic right to receive a wage for work done. Not paying a person for their labour costs somewhere along the line, whether it’s the Oxfam shop or the volunteer run library.

Discrimination against the travelling community inside and outside prison

2011-07-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

The Coalition Government’s retrograde approach to the travelling community appears set to continue with the eviction of 100 families at Dale Farm in Essex
Dale Farm nicely illustrates the countrywide problem of lack of site provision, with Basildon Borough Council having been trying to remove the families for years.
Now, the council has court approval for the eviction. And at these alleged cash strapped times for government, the council has been granted £5.85 million to cover policing (£4.65 million) and the cost of the eviction (£1.2 million).
The immediate thought has to be would not such a large amount of money be better spent on buying appropriate land where the travellers could settle? Surely nearly £6 million would have bought enough land to not only cater for the Dale farm families but a sizeable number of the rest of the travelling community in the UK.
Instead, the government and local council seem to think it a much better idea to throw the families off the land, disrupting their lives and putting the educational futures of their children at stake.
The problem of lack of sites for the travelling community was being addressed by the last government which put an obligation on local councils to identify areas for sites. This policy has been abandoned by the Coalition Government which has sought to return to the simple criminal justice approach, constantly moving the travelling community on from one place to another.
The effects of criminalising travellers has been highlighted in an excellent report from the Irish Chaplaincy titled Voices Unheard. The research conducted in prisons over the past year found that around 1 per cent of the prison population is made up of Irish Travellers (IT). This amounts to between 2.5 and 4 per cent of the minority ethnic population in prison. The cost of holding these prisoners works out at between £23 and £38 million a year.
Some 51.7 per cent of IT were in prison for crimes relating to the unlawful obtaining of property while burglary accounted for 36.4 per cent.
Once in prison, travellers feel even more discriminated against than on the outside. The whole prison system can appear like a hostile environment. Report author Conn MacGabhann found it difficult initially to get members of the travelling community to come forward and speak out. It was safer to remain anonymous.
One of the real problems discovered was how the lack of literacy among travellers stopped them getting onto courses to learn a trade. It also makes doing those courses regarded as important to show a prisoner is trying to improve him or herself more difficult. Prisons largely run on paper and if the prisoner lacks those basic literacy skills it makes navigating a way around the system even more of a problem. This adds to the isolation.
It was found that 26.1 per cent of IT prisoners had one or more mental illnesses, a figure that rose to 64.7 per cent in the case of female prisoners.
The Prison Service seems to have been blissfully unaware of the situation regarding IT prisoners, not conducting any monitoring of the prison population.
This has not helpedl, so it must be hoped that the recommendation from the Irish Chaplaincy for proper monitoring of the traveller population is taken up. Other recommendations from the report include that when there are five or more IT prisoners in custody then regular meetings of a prisoner group should be facilitated; there should be a traveller representative to help with reception, induction, monitoring and delivery of services and there should be cultural awareness, equality and diversity training for prison staff.
So it would seem, the attitudes being displayed toward the travelling community, as exemplified by the situation at Dale Farm, are being replicated in the prisons. How many more IT prisoners will there be for instance as a result of the eviction process at Dale Farm?
There has been some real progress made on travellers issues over recent years, with moves to recognise what the culture is all about. The effort to provide sites was also welcome as it sought to redress a position in the country made worse by the repeal of the Caravans Act in 1994. The Caravans Act had put an obligation on local councils to provide sites but this was repealed under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act passed by the Conservative Government. The policies of the present government seem in line with the past Conservative administrations.
The attitude toward the travelling community is truly one of back to the future. What is needed is for a greater tolerance to be shown toward these peoples. Lack of funding is no excuse, given the amount of money that is apparently easily available for evictions.
The sites should be provided as previously planned and the moves continued toward addressing the real issues of discrimination identified in the Irish Chaplaincy report on prisons. Returning to the failed and expensive public order approach is simply no answer, building more problems that often finish up being played out in the prison system.

Growing cult of militarism should cause concern

2011-07-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

There has been a growing militarisation of British society over the past decade, with soldiers increasingly viewed as some higher form of life.
This militarisation takes many forms. Pax Christi recently drew attention to the visits made to thousands of schools each year. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) admits that the visits are “a powerful tool for facilitating recruitment.”
The excellent organisation Forceswatch pointed out that the army visited 40 per cent of London schools from September 2008 to April 2009, with a disproportionate number of visits to the most disadvantaged areas.
The government has suggested an expansion of cadet forces within schools to encourage the military “spirit” and that ex-soldiers mentor youngsters.
Another sign of the growing profile of the military in society is the charity Help for Heroes. The charity has raised millions of pounds to help out those soldiers returning home wounded from the various conflicts where British troops are deployed. It has high profile support from the Royal, sport, media and dramatic spheres. It does good work and receives incredible levels of publicity but never asks the question why it has to exist?
Why is a charity like Help for Heroes having to provide money to support returning wounded personnel? This is an MOD responsibility, the government sent the soldiers into these conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Something else Help for Heroes does not ask is why are British forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and what of the expanding mission in Libya?
The attitude to Help for Heroes reflects an almost psychic numbing among the public. They see the tragedy of returning wounded military personnel and dig deep to give to a charity that helps out. The charity has laudable aims so receives massive media exposure but why are the questions of justice not being asked, namely why are the troops deployed and being damaged in this way?
At other levels there seems to be an increasing profile for the military in society. The number of times attending football matches and other sporting events there seems to be a special day for the armed forces. So the pitch will be surrounded by marching soldiers before the kick off of a match. There will be a collection for Help for Heroes.
Then there is armed forces day, which seems like a general fest to celebrate an increasingly militaristic culture.
All of these elements are factors in the growing profile of the military in society. The heroic image is reflected in a belief if something needs doing properly then the military are the ones to call into to do it. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair was believed to have a particularly liking for the can do attitude of the military.
A closer look ofcourse at the militaries record over recent decades would ofcourse suggest a somewhat patchwork record. The Northern Ireland conflict, Iraq and Afghanistan can hardly be called overidding successes, indeed many would argue the very opposite. Though in defence of the military, in most of these recent conflicts it has never been set out exactly what the objectives were supposed to be.
Any criticism of the military is generally a taboo in the British media. It is rare for the British army to be criticised for its actions at home or abroad and there is always ready media access given for any soldier who wants to voice his or her opinions regarding equipment shortages.
Once committed to a conflict overseas, any criticism of our boys – who are afterall killing foreign people in their countries in the name of Britain – is considered in terms of betrayal.
The rising cult of militarism could become a dangerous thing. The effects of the myth that if you want something done give it to the military can be seen increasingly in society. Indeed, the government is pushing at an open door with many schools on the subject of military involvement. It is worrying that some schools, particularly in the Catholic sector, seem to be so popular with parents not because of the holistic education they offer but the military style discipline. Some parents it seems would like nothing better than to send their children to military academies.
The politicians too seem to be recognising the danger of the rise of the cult of militarism. It was notable that the Prime Minister seemed to have had enough recently when he exasperatingly suggested that the military chiefs got on with the fighting and left the talking to him.
The politicians no doubt see the danger of the military man or woman being built into some sort of mythical creature who gets things done. Following this construct to the logical conclusion results in the military in the end taking over totally, as has happened in many countries around the world.
Whilst today this country is a long way away from such a scenario, the continued erosion of civil society combined with some of the potential major crisis of the next few years could make it a far more likely happening in the future.
So in that respect the efforts of Mr Cameron to slap down the military chiefs should be welcomed.
People need to open their eyes to what the military are all about and not simply go dewy eyed at the sight of a soldier in uniform. The military deserve support but they are not perfect and must be made accountable for their every action like any other public servant.

Living sustainably in east London

2011-07-10T04:51:00.000-07:00

The sight of Aileen and Michael Brownlee's house in St Marys Avenue, Wanstead is striking, not due to its architectural elegance but the presence of solar panels and photovoltaic tiles on the roof.The Brownlees had the system fitted 18 months ago as part of an ongoing effort to live in a more sustainable less carbon heavy way. As a result of having the system fitted, last year the Brownlees were able to live totally off the energy generated from the roof for six months of the year. Hot water from the boiler was supplied by the solar panels while electricity from the photovoltaic tiles powered the house during the day. The excess electricity generated goes back into the grid at an advantageous rate of return. This has meant that there has already been a substantial payback as a microgenerator of energy. Michael had the system fitted because it is the right thing to do but for those counting the pennies this type of system also makes sense. Energy costs are already rocketing upward so the system will pay back more rapidly as time goes by. "Supermarkets should be having these tiles on their roofs, then they could power the shop totally, not to make money out of the tariffs being paid by government but in order to stop destroying the planet," said Michael, who believes that no new construction should be being built now without some sort of sustainable energy system as part of it. "There has been lots of interest from people walking down the road, knocking on the door and asking about the system. Some have gone on and got it themselves," said Michael, who believe such renewable energy systems are a crucial way of getting away from reliance on the ever decreasing oil supplies in the world.Michael recalled that the first thing the family did was to grow their own vegetables in the back garden. "This started in basic fashion but has now advanced to seven raised beds and a small pollytunnel," said Michael, who recalls that last summer they did not have a meal that did not include something that had been grown in the garden. The most recent addition to the growing complex is an imposing greenhouse that will ensure that plants can be brought on ahead of time, without having to rely on the ever fluctuating climate outside. Composting waste material for garden use has also taken off in St Marys Avenue, resulting in the Brownlees now putting out just one black sack of waste rubbish a week compared to the previous three or four they regularly used to do. "I've also taken a decision not to use air travel," said Michael, who runs his ship broking business in partnership with his two sons Dominic and Ben. "I won't deny I have done a lot of air travel in the past but it is unsustainable. We have reached the point where oil productiion has peaked and it will be all downhill as far as oil supply is concerned from here on in. Peak oil has happened, I talk to the guys in the industry, they all acknowledge it now. In a very short period of time we are going to be back to village economics again. People need to realise this and learn to live with the consequences, too many remain in denial," said Michael, who is also trying to drive less and walk more. "My intention is not to buy another petrol car but get an electric one, when there is a bit more choice and the price becomes more sensible," said Michael, who will then be able to supply the car by way of a charger with elecricity generated from the photovoltaic tiles on the roof. The next project for the Brownlees is to plant some English apple trees at the bottom of the garden. "You can buy a tree that will give you apples from September. These things are available. They may not produce pristine perfectly round fruits of the type that the supermarkets crave but there is great flavour. It is important to keep these heritage things going," said Michael, who always makes the effort to buy British products, ideally sourced locally.He would also like to have chickens, though this may depend on the fox population in the area.. "A neighbour keeps bees, so we get honey from him," said Michael, who believes a barter type system is one thing that the local Wanstead Transition Initiative could encourage. So people who grow vegetables, either at home or on their allotments, could exchange with others. Somone might swap potatoes for carrots or apples. "If you explain to people, they will come round," said Michael. The Brownlees support the idea of the transition communities, believing that the concept of the more resilient less oil dependent community will be essential to develop for the future. "We all have to get things going ourselves, it is no good waiting for governments or corporations to act. Some people are no doubt in complete denial about what is happening to the world but you cannot opt out we all need to pull together in community," said Michael. * For more information on theWanstead Transition Initiative see: www.transitionwanstead.org.uk

Working for social justice, bringing about the common good

2011-06-05T04:32:00.000-07:00

One of the most shocking facts recently revealed by Bishop William Kenny was that if arms spending was stopped for three months the world could be fed. Some US$1.25 trillion a year is spent on war.
Another alarming fact is that by the end of this century the population of the world will have come down to 1 billion due to the ravages caused by climate change. Putting that into context children like my nephew, who is now 11, and those younger will probably be nearing the end of their lives - and be at their most vulnerable - when these horrendous changes take place.
These injustices should really inspire people to get involved. Human beings have been put on the earth by God. They have been entrusted to care for God’s earth and participate in a just world. What is just about so much money being expended on the means to kill each other and destroy the earth, while two thirds of the world live on less than a dollar a day?
As Christians we are not called to go to the Church as a place of sanctuary, allowing the “real” world to go by outside untouched. As followers of Christ, we are called to act to bring transformative kingdom values to the world. This means getting involved.There is real concern that people in the pews are just not engaging anymore, there is a lack of formation in the work of social justice. Research conducted by Catherine Waters Clark has found that just 12 out of 22 diocese have paid J&P resources. CAFOD partly fund 8 out of 12 diocese. The average age of a justice and peace person is 55 to 60. Most dioceses are working on fair-trade, poverty, the environment, homelessness, migrants and asylum seekers.The generation that was inspired by Vatican II really looked beyond the Church walls, saw the challenges and got engaged. As with much else in the Church there is every sign that much of this work has stopped or at best moved to the periphery in those generations that came after Vatican II. This suggests that the structures of formation have declined.The society ofcourse in which we live has changed beyond all recognition also since the Vatican Council of the 1960s. The last 30 years has seen the domination of the neo-liberal market model of development. This is an extreme form of capitalism that leads to hero worship of those who feature on the rich list but derision for the single mother struggling to get by on the sink estate. It is a society that when crisis hits seeks to pass the burden of debt via cuts onto the poorest and most vulnerable in society, rather than increasing the taxes on the richest.For those involved in social justice – which by definition should be all Catholics – many of these changes in the world are dispiriting but Catholic Social Teaching says we have to press on.There is a new awareness now arising out of the Pope’s visit and the ongoing domestic political situation of the need to get involved in the work for social justice. The Caritas Social Action Network has organised a series of conferences bringing together different individuals and agencies involved in the work of social justice. It is conducting a mapping exercise to find out what is going on across the country. The next stage of this process should involve finding out exactly what is happening at grass roots parish and schools level in terms of social justice work.The work of justice and peace in particular has long been underfunded, with those involved often feeling like pariahs in their own parish and beyond. But in reality these people are the prophetic voice of the Church, questioning the injustice of the arms trade, the challenges of climate change and inequity of the economic system. They are not a sect or wing of the Church but are essentially doing what all should be doing.It is though not all bad news. As Rosemary Read, the president of the National Council of Lay Associations rencently pointed out: apartheid is no more, there is peace in Ireland, the fair trade movement has taken off and become mainstream and much international debt has been cancelled. There have been huge achievements by a relatively small group of people. Imagine what could happen if everyone got involved – there could be genuine transformation of the world for kingdom values.The Church though needs to step up to the mark. There must be proper resourcing provided for justice and peace, not marginalising the work by restricting funding. The processes for formation need to be re-established and they must be bottom up, not top down. Our Church leaders must be more prepared to speak out on matters of justice not just keep a safe silence. Silence often equates with approval for the whole edifice of injustice outlined at the start. We live in an unjust world and it is high time that we as Church began playing a far more active role in bringing about its transformation for the common good

Land reform not nuclear power needed to combat climate change

2011-06-05T04:19:00.001-07:00

It was good news for the future of the planet to learn that Germany will be phasing out all nuclear power installations over the next 10 years.The Germans response to the horror that recently unveiled in Japan at the Fukishama nuclear plant following the earthquake was the appropriate one. People took to the streets in protest at the dangers posed by nuclear power. The feelings of people against nuclear power were also reflected in the recent elections in Germany. All in all the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel were left in no doubt as to what course of action they should take over future energy provision. As a result, the German government has taken a bold step to replace the 23 per cent of nuclear provision with renewable energy sources.So what has happened in this country, well hardly a whimper of dissent, certainly no street protests of German proportions. While the German people recognised the danger and acted appropriately, the British continued to dwell in their insular comfort zone, complaining about Europe. Despite the evidence of devastation from Japan, the Coalition Government is committed to continue with the ill thought out programme of new nuclear power stations laid down by the last administration.Indeed, not only was there no protest over the dangers of nuclear power but previous opponents of the industry like environmentalist and writer George Monbiot declared his conversion to this form of energy as a result of what he saw in Japan.There has been a narrative developed in the public discourse here that equates combatting climate change with the need to adopt nuclear power. The cost of this misconception in human and environmental terms in the form of a crisis like Fukishama should be clear enough for all to see. The irony of using such a destructive technology as nuclear power to allegedly save the planet must surely be lost on no one.

It is extraordinary that people with children are not concerned about these issues. It is the future of the planet that is at stake and it will be the children of today who pay the price in the world of tomorrow. The effects of climate change will hit the present generation of youngsters hardest and the nuclear option is only likely to add to the appalling legacy that that today's adults are leaving to their children.It is high time that the threat of climate chage was taken seriously. Nuclear energy is no solution, as Japan proves it is dangerous and costly. What is required is to get back to a much simpler way of living. Local communities need to be rebuilt around their energy needs and locally produced goods. This will mean getting back to the land. In order for this to happen one vital prerequisite is land reform. A recent study found that if all the land in the world were divided equally amongst the present population then everyone could have four acres. This would be more than enough to sustainably support individuals and families. However, in reality large swathes of the world are owned by a small number of individuals. One of the largest landowners in the world is our own Queen. If there is truly to be land reform along the lines needed for people to get back to a more agrarian and less environmentally destructive way of life then there will have to be a land redistribution.But before any of this can happen there needs to be a recognition that the present economic system is not working, indeed market capitalism of the type being practiced now is not only responsible for destroying the planet but also for disempowering the very people who could bring about the change. Human beings have changed from being citizens to consumers, shorn of the power to make change outside of anything beyond a transactional notion.People need to get back democratic power. The way in which the Germans have rejected the nuclear industry proves that democracy is stronger in some countries than others. But if the world is to move to a more sustainable way of living, involving getting back to the land and production at a local level, then the democratic leavers need to be restored uiniversally. Only then can developments like the land reform needed to get back to a truly localised form of agrarian production be accomplished.

Church has to live up to living wage promise

2011-06-03T04:40:00.000-07:00

The concept of the living wage has really taken off in London with campaigners claiming that more £70 million has been put into the pockets of the poorest people over the past 10 years.
Among the highlights have been getting the London Mayor to adopt the idea for staff within his remit and setting a guiding level for the living wage each year. The present mayor Boris Johnson recently set the living wage level at £8.30 an hour for the next year.
Another big success was getting the organisers of the 2012 Olympics to make the site a living wage area. This saw games organiser Locog confirm that the £700 million of contracts would be awarded only to companies agreeing to pay the living wage.
Others signing up to the living wage include HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered and KPMG from the private sector. In the public sector there were four hospital trusts and local authorities like Tower Hamlets, Islington, Camden, Greenwich, Ealing, Waltham Forest, Hackney, Hounslow and Lewisham signing up. Some 12 universities, two museums and four central government contracts have become living wage employers. The idea is now spreading out beyond the capital to Oxford, Norwich, Preston and Scotland.
There has been political backing with Prime Minister David Cameron describing the living wage as “an idea whose time has come.” Labour leader Ed Miliband has also supported the idea.
Now the living wage campaign has set itself wider targets, seeking to get Tesco to use some of its £3.8 billion profits to pay all its 280,000 staff the living wage. At present the groceries giant pays its cleaners and other lowest paid people the minimum wage. The living wage campaign wants the company to pay the £8.30 living wage in the capital and £7.20 outside.
The idea of a living wage came from America but the motivation here came at community level where due to poverty pay people were having to do two and three jobs a week to try and keep their families above the poverty line. As Deborah Litman, a national officer at Unison and vice-chair of the London Living wage campaign pointed out “two thirds of low income households have someone in work.”
As a result the community organising group London Citizens began the campaign for a living wage. Research was commissioned from Queen Mary University to find what the level of wages should be for people to be able to live above the poverty line in London. The initial rate was set in 2003 at £6.30 an hour.
Low pay does not make sense for workers, employers or society as a whole. Employers who have taken on the living wage report better motivated staff, less turnover and absenteeism. It is also good news for the tax payer as previously companies paying low wages have effectively been subsidised by the payment of tax credits to bring people up to a minimum standard of living.
The Churches have played a central role in the living wage campaign. It was endorsed in its early days by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor when he was Archbishop of Westminster. The present Archbishop Vincent Nichols has continued support for the living wage campaign. Bishop Thomas McMahon of Brentwood has been a keen backer of the campaign for the past 10 years. He recently drew comparison with the days of Cardinal Manning and the 1889 dock strike when the Cardinal said that "a worker’s wage should be sufficient to keep his wife and children, to provide them with decent housing and a healthy diet and to educate them." Southwark Diocese too has backed the campaign.
Catholic churches and parishes make up around 45 per cent of the membership of the community organisers London Citizens that have pushed the living wage campaign. The big question though is are the Churches practicing what the preach?
The Million Minutes organisation have set it as a criteria for any organisation they give money to that they must be paying the living wage to all workers. Danny Curtin, the founder of the Million Minutes initiative to raise funds via a mass sponsored silence for youth based projects has his doubts. "It is very very sad that there is any diocese or church organisation that is not paying or making the living wage a priority. And I know there are different diocese not paying the living wage," said Mr Curtin. "If the Church is supporting the living wage campaigns it should be leading by example. We should be treating employees well with dignity in the workplace."
In 2002, Church Action on Poverty conducted some research in Greater Manchester across 190 churches from the Catholic, Anglican, United Reformed Church, Baptist and Methodists. They found that of 850 people employed by the Churches, two out of three were paid less than the living wage (set at £5.80 for outside London at that time). In another sample of Church organisations it was found that of 145 people employed by 21 organisations, 57 per cent were not receiving a living wage. Among 20 church schools some 7,850 employees were being paid less than the living wage out of 20,000 low paid employees in schools in the Greater Manchester area
“When Church Action on Poverty surveyed the pay of church employees in Manchester, we found that nearly 2 in 3 church employees and about half of Christian organisation employees were paid less than a living wage. This very disappointing situation has not changed much on the ground since then, despite some very promising commitments by some of the churches on a national level,” said Niall Cooper, director of CAP. “It is essential that the churches lead the way in paying a living wage. Not just because it reflects gospel values, but because it will enable them to speak out prophetically and clearly when other employers exploit and degrade vulnerable people. We will continue pressing the churches on this issue.”
Among the diocese supporting the living wage, Westminster claim “the overwhelming majority of staff directly employed.. are paid at or above the London Living Wage".
"The pay of a small number of staff falls below this level. This principally reflects the limited financial resources of some of our parishes. Adopting the London Living Wage as a minimum pay level has been considered by the diocese and discussions on how this can be achieved will continue,” said a spokesperson for the Westminster diocese.
A spokesperson for the Brentwood diocese said: "The living wage has been put into effect in the diocesan offices at Cathedral House and the Trustees of the Diocese of Brentwood are in the final stages of agreeing a policy to recommend the payment of the living wage for all those employed by parishes around the diocese.”
Southwark Diocese failed to respond.

A look at the how the Methodist Church has gone about implementing the living wage offers an interesting lesson on how important it is to follow through on commitments.
The Methodist conference first declared in 2003 that “pay and benefits should be set in relation to need. Four years later, it declared that “all Methodist employees should be paid the living wage.” However, this did not happen, the Methodists found that few knew about the ruling outside of those directly involved in employment relations. Anomalies became apparent with two people sitting next to each other doing similar work but both being paid a different living wage. Other various comments came forward like staff did not want a pay rise or “we don’t get the living wage” from some clergy.
Something had to be done so in 2010 the conference decreed that “there should be a workable plan for implementation on the basis of costs.” The plan put in place was implemented by the Joint Public Issues team working for the Methodists, Baptists and United Reformed Church. Implementation meant all those in the Methodist Church who could afford to pay the living wage were told to do so. If there were genuine reasons in a local situation why not then they would have five years to implement with help from the Joint Public Issues team that would help with business plans and such like.
Dr Paul Morrison, a policy advisor with the Joint Public Issues team working for the Methodists, Baptists and United Reformed Church, recommends education and campaign work on the living wage both inside and outside the church. “A Church paying the living wage should be pleased about it,” said Dr Morrison. “Church members should ask employers do they pay all staff the living wage.”
So what the Methodist Church experience teaches is that it is no good organisations just committing to the living wage, there has to be an active audit style process undertaken to ensure that the various parts of the organisation are complying with the directive.
There is still a long way to go with CAP particularly keen that the Catholic and Anglican churches start stepping up to the mark when it comes to paying the living wage. For the moment it would seem many of the churches are talking the talk but not walking the walk on the living wage.

Bruce Kent tells of his irishness, miscarriages of justice and peace

2011-05-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

Bruce Kent’s involvement with matters Irish has come in all shapes and sizes throughout his life. A serving soldier in the North at the Palace Barracks outside Belfast for a few months in 1948, a helper to Sister Sarah Clarke’s in her efforts to support Irish miscarriage of justice victims and a steadfast battler for prisoner’s rights and peace.
Bruce recalled when serving as a priest being asked where he was from. “I’d say Golders Green, and then the silver mines of Tipperary, where my great grandmother came from,” said Bruce, who reveals that is mother was a devout Irish Canadian Catholic.
His short time in Ireland as part of the British army nevertheless opened his eyes. “I remember seeing the papers at the back of churches in Gaelic. Then realising that all the history we had been taught in England was about Henry VIII and his wives. There was nothing about Irish partition or the civil war – it was pathetic that this was not brought up in school,” said Bruce, who realised at that time the depth of the prejudice.
Bruce Kent has spent much of his life involved with miscarriage of justice issues. Most recently he has been pressing the case of Raymond Gilbert, who remains in prison for a murder in a Liverpool bookmakers in 1981 which he insists he did not commit. The other man convicted of the murder, John Kamara, was freed by the Court of Appeal in 2000. Gilbert remains in prison partly because he will not admit to any guilt.
Bruce's involvement with the issue though really took off at the time when Sister Sarah Clarke was supporting the families of the Irish miscarriage of justice victims. “Sister Sarah used me to find safe houses and places for relations to stay when they came over visiting,” said Bruce, who was impressed with the efforts of Cardinal Basil Hume on behalf of the Conlon family. He is though dismayed that the Church today is not taking up prisoner’s issues and particularly those of miscarriages of justice.
Bruce suggests that if 10 per cent of those in prison today are innocent then that amounts to 9,000 people which is a real scandal.
One area where Bruce has been particularly involved over recent years has been with those Muslim men being held in detention either under control order style house arrest or in prison. One individual he has supported has been Mustapha Taleb. He was originally arrested and tried in connection with what became known in media parlance as the ricin plot. No ricin was found and Taleb together with a number of others accused was cleared in the courts. This though did not stop him being picked up in 2005 and placed under a control order. Since that time he has been detained in prison and then released again under control order style detention. “He and the others being detained in this way don’t know who has accused them or what they are accused of,” said Bruce, who sees Taleb as being in this limbo situation of detention for many years to come as his case eventually reaches the appeal court then the supreme court and the European Court of Human Rights.
Bruce sees this means of detaining people under anti-terror law for long periods with no recourse to a properly constituted court of law as having its antecedents in the Irish situation and successive Prevention of Terrorism Acts. He sees real parallels between the way the Irish were treated in the years of the Troubles and the Muslims today. “The difference is that the Irish did have support right up to Cardinal Hume, the Muslims have no one,” said Bruce, who believes the present approach to addressing terrorism, is likely to increase resentment and help create terrorists.
The former priest believes that the attitude to nuclear power and particularly nuclear weapons is reckless. He sees humankind not acting as a trustee for the world but storing up dangerous nuclear waste that has a life running into thousands of years.
The anti-nuclear campaigner is disappointed that there has been so little progress toward abolition of nuclear weapons. He does not believe countries are serious about getting rid of this dangerous technology. Of the big five countries on the UN Security Council, only China favour no first use. They have talked of limited deployment of nuclear weapons and are willing to start negotiations on abolition. “How can we tell Iran they should not have nuclear weapons when we are committed to developing a new generation,” said Bruce, who is pleased that the Church has spoken out for abolition. “Individuals like Cardinal Keith O’Brien and the Bishop of Brentwood Thomas McMahon have been marvellous in speaking out on the issue,” said Bruce, who is keen that the link between spending on nuclear technology and poverty be made more clearly by the Church.
Bruce is also concerned about the attacks on Libya of recent weeks, pointing out that under Article 42 of the UN Charter every other means must be pursued before a war is started. “In Libya and many other recent conflicts this has clearly not been the case,” said Bruce, who admits that he always enjoys his trips to Ireland talking on issues of justice and peace. “It is always like a breath of fresh air to me,” said Bruce.

Living wage campaign proves collective action works

2011-05-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

The success of the living wage campaign in London over the past decade provides a good example of what can be achieved with collective action.
The idea came from the grass roots of trade unions and community organising groups. Low wages meant cleaners and security staff working in Canary Wharf and other areas of the capital having to do two or three jobs a week to try to keep their families above the poverty line.
As a result the community organising group London Citizens began the campaign for a living wage. Research was commissioned from Queen Mary University to find what the level of wages should be for people to be able to live above the poverty line in London. The initial rate was set at £6.30 an hour.
London Citizens spoke nicely to the senior managers of companies and when this did not work a more direct approach was taken. The latter in one case involved taking lots of small coinage and banking it slowly at an Oxford Street branch of HSBC. A meeting with then chairman of HSBC Sir John Bond followed.
A big break for the campaign came in 2004 when then London Mayor Ken Livingstone agreed to set up a Living Wage unit that would set an annual rate. The first rate was set at £6.70 in 2005. Now, the living wage stands at £8.30 an hour while the minimum wage is £5.93.
Private companies have increasingly adopted the living wage, with HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered and KPMG among those signing up. In the public sector there were hospital trusts and local authorities like Tower Hamlets, Islington, Ealing and Lewisham which became living wage employers. All together it is believed that £40 million has been put into the pockets of the lowest paid over the last 10 years.
Unions like PCS have taken actions in favour of low paid workers most recently at Buckingham Palace and previously down the road at the Palace of Westminster.
The living wage though makes sense for the employer as well as the worker. There is better morale among staff, which leads to lower turnover and improved productivity.
Now the living wage campaign has set itself wider targets, seeking to get Tesco to use some of its £3.8 billion profits to pay all its 280,000 staff the living wage. At present the groceries giant pays its cleaners and other lowest paid people the minimum wage. The living wage campaign wants the company to pay the £8.30 living wage in the capital and £7.20 outside.
There are also plans to pressure other companies via shareholders at AGMs. A Living Wage Foundation is being set up that will operate along similar lines to the Fairtrade Foundation, awarding a mark of recognition to good employers.
Following on from the living wage campaign community organisers and unions called for a regularisation of undocumented workers. These demands came together in the Strangers into Citizens campaign that looks to introduce an earned citizenship for those who have been in the country a number of years, without papers, but contributing positively to the country.
The living wage and regularisation campaigns compliment each other because having a minimum living level for wages stops unscrupulous employers from using migrant labour to undercut the existing workforce.
The payment of low wages has been a scandal over the years, given it not only robs the worker of the value of their labour but also provides a welfare payment from the tax payer to unscrupulous companies. So a company can pay low wages knowing that the state will pick up the difference with other tax credit payments. This is the welfare cheating that is all too absent from the populist press.
The success of the living wage campaign over the past 10 years is a cause for celebration, a real example that collective action still works best when it comes to obtaining justice for all.

Blue Labour should not denigrate the past

2011-05-01T04:43:00.000-07:00

Blue Labour must learn from Labour's past not simply denigrate it.
The latest idea to spring forth in this era of Big Society politics is that of Blue Labour. In simple terms it could be summarised as a left response to the Big Society agenda.The main architects of the idea are academic Maurice Glasman, Labour MP Jon Cruddas and Mark Stears, an Oxford University academic.Professor Glasman developed the idea out of his own experiences with community organising in London Citizens. Based on the principles of US academic Saul Alinksy, community organising brings together faith communities, student bodies, trade unions and others. Community organising focuses on bringing large numbers of people together to exert pressure on public and private bodies to achieve the aims set by the membership. There have been successful London Citizens campaigns arising from the grass roots including the living wage and Strangers into Citizens campaign, which aims for a regularisation of undocumented workers.Blue Labour is defined as a small-C conservative form of socialism that attempts to return to the roots of the pre-1945 Labour Party through encouraging the political involvement of voluntary groups from trade unions through churches to football clubs. Put simply its flag, faith and family a mixture of social conservatism and economic interventionism. "The resources for Labour's renewal lie within the practices and history of the Labour movement. Blue Labour reminds the party that only democratic association can resist the power of capital and that the distinctive practices of the Labour movement are built upon reciprocity, mutuality and solidarity," says Professor Glasman, who talks of getting away from the commodification of labour by finance and the need for the democratisation and regulation of capital. The attraction of the idea to the Labour Party leadership is no doubt its effort to win back what are perceived as parts of the working class that have been lost, while retaining those parts of the middle class (or middle england) which according to new labour folk law have been won over. Not surprising then perhaps to find former Blairite work and pensions minister James Purnell supporting the new movement. He believes the way forward is a combination of new and blue labour.Blue Labour attacks both New and Old Labour. Glasman accuses New Labour of just letting the market run wild, unregulated. Then, the withdrawal by New Labour from the economy led to a manic embrace of the state. "New Labour's public sector reforms were almost Maoist in their conception of year zero managerial restructuring," said Professor Glasman who typifies the New Labour approach to the economy as at best managerialist."Old Labour was worse. Entirely disengaged from democracy in the economy, its renewal in our cities or in the party and held in thrall by an administrative and rational conception of the state and the use of scientific method to achieve its ends, by the 1970s it could barely generate the energy to win an election, let alone redistribute power to ordinary people," says Professor Glasman.The danger here is that the Blue Labour supporters themselves adopt something of a return to year zero approach, denying history. It is not a very progressive way to move forward by claiming all that what went before was wrong. Some of the democratising of industry ideas Glasman alleges to promote were closest to fruition when Tony Benn was an energy and industry minister in the Wilson and Callaghan governments of the 1970s. It was a time when there was some genuine democratisation of the workplace beginning to take place, with legislation like the Equalities Act passing onto the statute book.It is wrong to denigrate the state, as it was the very vehicle that produced the NHS, the welfare state, decent comprehensive education and helped alleviate poverty.Similarly there seems to be an underplaying of the role of trade unions in community terms. Despite the media rhetoric, trade unions have been and remain some of the most democratic organisations in the land. They play a vital role linking to all the parts of community that Blue Labour believes so important. It was the unions who came out in their 100,000s recently to demonstrate against the government's cuts agenda. There needs to be a more nuanced approach from Blue Labour as to where the trade unions fit into this brave new world.Cruddas has been a favourite of the unions for years, supported by many of them in his bid to become deputy leader of the party three years ago. He understands the trade union movement and will no doubt have ideas as to where they would fit into the blue labour project. His own positioning in Blue Labour makes perfect sense, declaring recently that he was "a big fan of the big society." And in terms of his own formation, highlighting that Bobby Kennedy and Pope John XXIII played more important roles than Keir Hardy and other Labour Party luminaries. Cruddas and the other promoters of Blue Labour will have a careful line to tread if their ideas are to resonate with the wider labour movement. The unions cannot be alienated. The role of the state cannot be denigrated, the argument has to be for a new type of state not anti statism. The other danger for Blue Labour is that it just does not define clearly enough what it stands for, in steering a course between new and blue it could end up a mere child of the ill fated third way, much trumpeted previously by Blair and Clinton. There does no doubt need to be a way found to create the broad tent that Labour used to occupy across the races and classes. Plotting such a path though must involve learning the lessons of the past in order to build for the future, not simply adopting the position of the historical amnesiac.

Does the Church have the tools to address social actioo challenge

2011-04-27T01:49:00.001-07:00

The Catholic Church has taken a most welcome initiative since the Pope’s visit to engage more on the question of social action drawin?g on Catholic Social Teaching.
This process was set in train at a meeting of the Bishops Conference in November. A conference followed in Liverpool in February titled Common Endeavour with a brief to underline both the relevance of CST and the practical contribution of the Church to define and build a new culture of social responsibility.
A seminar followed on 9 February at Archbishops House looking at Catholic Social Teaching and the philosophy behind the” Big Society.” The most recent event saw delegates from organisations involved in the area of social action, politicians and commentators drawn together to discuss Building a New Culture of Social Responsibility.
At the latest conference Archbishop Vincent Nichols Archbishop Nichols compared the implementation of Catholic Social teaching across the country to a vast number of corner shops. “We want to find a way of knitting them together,” said Archbishop Nichols, who urged developments that would see the Church speak with more authority based on its social justice work. He also indicated the Church would be prepared to take bold political stands on behalf of the poor and vulnerable.
These are all encouraging developments. Concerns about the process so far have been the skewing toward the government’s Big Society agenda. Archbishop Nichols though recently made it clear that the Big Society must not be a cover for cuts or people volunteering for work that would otherwise be paid.
The organisation being charged with carrying this work through for the Bishops Conference is Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN). The CSAN was founded to great fanfare in 2003. As part of the international Caritas family it was to carry out the work of social justice in the domestic sphere. The overseas role had been done by CAFOD for many years.
CSAN has had a somewhat disconnected evolution over the years. It is an umbrella organisation, representing 37 bodies working on social welfare issues. There has been some good work done in the areas like mental health and the elderly but the scope has been very much restricted.
There has been little liaison it seems with the National Justice and Peace Network, despite that body having originally put forward the idea of CSAN in the first place. Indeed, there was something of a spat between the organisations last July, at the time when the last chief executive of CSAN, Philippa Gitlin left.
How these two organisations co-operate together in the future when it comes to realising the Church’s overall aim for greater impact on social action could be significant.
If the NJPN want to receive future funding they are going to have to establish a stronger link with CSAN. It is clear that the Church is going to channel any money it has for this project of social action through CSAN. NJPN’s main funder over recent years, CAFOD, is increasingly reluctant to fund its work.
NJPN is also the one organisation to make links with the world of work and the trade unions. The organisation was one of a number on the recent TUC march against the cuts and for an alternative. It’s annual conference this year also focuses on justice at work. TUC deputy general secretary Frances O’Grady together with former Labour MP John Battle and Labour MP Jon Cruddas will address the conference. Mr Cruddas and Mr Battle are also closely involved with the Bishops Conference in moulding the response to the call for social action from the Pope.
One criticism of the CSAN process is that it is incredibly top down. Lords, MPs and Church organisations officially involved in social work. There has been little from the grass roots in parishes, diocese and beyond.
The whole area of the world of work used to be a department of the Bishops Conference, this function clearly needs to be restored within CSAN. This must include links with unions and employers. There must be grass root input.
The aim of the Bishops Conference is clearly to beef up CSAN to become the domestic equivalent of CAFOD, with representation at parish and diocesan level. Indeed, Archbishop Nichols admitted as much when he said the bones of such a development represent the next step.
From CSAN’s point of view it needs a clear mandate as to what its role is to be. It will be difficult to become the domestic CAFOD for an organisation with such an umbrella structure. It will also have to build some important bridges, not least with justice and peace and other grass root networks. There also needs to be some confidence built up in its own ability to deliver.
The importance of grass root input will be crucial to the final outcome of this bold initiative from the Bishops Conference. At present the view of unions and others being directly effected by the cuts are not being represented in the CSAN forum. This could result in an unbalanced view in favour of the Big Society agenda being presented. If the debate is balanced up then the outcome is likely to be more representative.
Archbishop Nichols has been at pains to stress the importance of what is happening to the poor and most vulnerable in our society, so he would definitely want such a balance of viewpoints. CSAN need to move this debate forward in a more bottom up way, as well as developing its own organisation to take in functions like life and work. Only then can a proper analysis be conducted that will result in a decent response to the challenge to engage with the social action agenda.

Immigration story is good news

2011-04-21T05:27:00.000-07:00

It must be election time because the Tories are rolling out immigration as a subject for public debate once again. So the public were recently treated to another diatribe from Prime Minister David Cameron on the need to control migration.The Prime Minister quoted a number of instances of the abuse from sham marriages, to undocumented workers and abuse of student visas.
While the PM paid a short tribute to the contribution of migrants to the NHS and education the overall tone was negative. Immigration was something to be confronted and repelled.
It was one of the most depressing elements of the last general election campaign that not one party had the integrity or confidence to talk positively about the benefits of immigration. All pretty much took the same line that there were too many people coming into the country and it had to be stopped. The subject came up in all three televised leadership debates.
Instead of stopping migrants coming in the government should be celebrating those already here and looking to the needs of the future.
There is never any mention of the ageing population of the UK with the ratio between young and old closing all of the time. Only recently the number of over 60s outnumbered those under 16 for the first time. The economy today is not sustainable without new younger workers coming in.
The simplistic answer from government seems to be there are lots of people around the country on benefit, who should be forced into work.
Migrants have contributed positively to this country. A government study in 2007 estimated that migrants had contributed £6 billion to the growth in the previous year
Where would the NHS and care sector be without the migrant workers coming in from countries like the Philippines?
One in 10 students at the universities come from countries outside the EU, providing fees of on average £20,000 a year. The overseas students to a degree help keep the universities going. Some of the heavy handed moves from government have already threatened parts of the education system by cutting off the supply of students from overseas.
All of these factors are positive outcomes from immigration. What we have had over recent years is a debate hyped by the right wing media to the effect that immigration is a bad thing. It is only to be viewed in terms of being a problem in need of confronting and reducing, ideally to either no immigration or one person coming in and one person going out. It's absurd.
The interesting thing about the Cameron's speech was how it once again exposed the illogicality of the Coalition Government. So he speaks of the need for migrants coming to this country to be able to speak English, whilst cutting the budget for ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) classes. There is talk of enforcing border controls, while cutting the staff of the Border Agency.
Immigration is another area where policy really should not be being made on the back of headlines that pander to racial prejudice in a population more than ever looking for scapegoats in these difficult times.
There are issues to be raised such as the use of migrant labour to undercut and keep wages down. Also the question of providing the public services in the requisite areas to meet need.
What is needed on the question of immigration is a more balanced look at the issue. A look that considers benefits as well as drawbacks. An examination that sees the massive benefits brought to our culture and economy by people coming into multicultural Britain. These positive elements need to be recognised not ignored amid a desire to win votes by appealing to insecurities across the nation.

"Allies" have no credibility as liberators of Libya

2011-04-04T05:00:00.001-07:00

The ease with which the military intervention in Libya was enacted shows how battle hardened the world has become to war. Few lessons seem to have been learned from the adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq, regarding how violence begets violence and that the best way to resolve a dispute is not to rush to conflict at the first available opportunity. It has been extraordinary to witness in this country, having been relentlessly told for the past 18 months how money is short, that an open ended conflict in Libya can apparently be so easily entered into. The devaluation of life in these conflicts is frightening to behold. Journalists and media commentators loosely talk about “taking out Colonel Gaddaffi.” The effects of firing cruise missiles into a country or bombing an area are reduced to the level of computer game contemplation. A building is blown to bits,yet the ugly site of the true results - human body parts strewn around the area are not part of the fare served up for popular consumption. Those in the media never seem to learn anything from past conflicts. As soon as the military intervention was declared, the mainstream media switched to selling the war mode. This always involves clinical lectures from assorted journalists, drooling over the power and lethal nature of the weaponry at hand. The pinpoint accuracy of various weapons is emphasised, this despite the repeated cases in the past of it being proven to be most unreliable. In the event, there is always damage to unintended targets like civilians. Indeed, in past conflicts some of the weaponry has been so accurate that it hasn’t even hit the country intended in the first place. This time, when civilians were killed, feverish reporters assured the watching audience that the rebels regretted the loss of life but still the onslaught must go on. Supporters of the intervention would argue that Colonel Gadaffi had to be stopped from killing his own people. This is valid claim. The intervention is also backed by a UN resolution this time, rather than the illegal approach adopted by the British and Americans to attacking Iraq in 2003. The concern though has to be that it is Britain, the United States and France carrying out the intervention. To put it bluntly all have form in the region. Britain used to run Libya and was the big imperial power in the Middle East until the Americans took over. After the Iraq adventure, no one in the region will see Britain and America, even when backed by UN resolution, as liberators. This incredulity will be rightly stoked by the fact that many of the weapons Colonel Gadaffi has been turning on his own people were supplied by the British and Americans. Indeed, David Cameron was only recently on a tour of the Middle East, with a number of arms dealers as part of his delegation. The concern must be that the invading countries will be seeking to make Libya safe not for its people but for their own economic interests. They will be seeking to ensure a new leader who can be relied upon to deliver oil and other commodities for western corporations. Were Colonel Gadaffi to stay in place the prospects for such companies would not look very rosy. It has also been alarming to see some who so fervently opposed the war in Iraq seemingly using the same arguments that they opposed in relations to invading Iraq to justify the Libya action. There is a real lack of intellectual rigour going on, if not historical amnesia. The criticism made by supporters of the intervention will be: what would you do then sit by and let Colonel Gadaffi kill his own people? No, that obviously shouldn’t be the case but the reality is that Western nations do not act for humanitarian purposes, only economic ones. Otherwise, why did they not intervene in Rwanda to stop the genocide. What of Burma? Indeed, looking to the future will the military action be expanded to take in Bahrain, Yemen and Saudi Arabia as they turn against the people revolting against their tyrannous regimes. It would be nice to think that this intervention in Libya is for purely virtuous humanitarian reasons but history tells a different story. There is also every danger that the action will further destabilise and already unstable region. Learning the lessons of history should include looking to just how the US/British action in Afghanistan over the past decade has destabilised not only that country but Pakistan as well. Violence is not the way to win change or create democracy. Leopards do not change their spots and neither do imperial powers.

Paying the earth with nuclear power

2011-04-04T04:54:00.000-07:00

The news of the explosions and leakages of radiation from nuclear plants in Japan has caused growing concern around the world. The devastation caused by the earthquake and Tsunami was bad enough without the whole thing being compounded by a man made disaster in the form of nuclear fallout. The leak of radiation offered once again a glimpse of how deadly dangerous the products of the nuclear industry are, no matter what justifications are made for their use. The events in Japan reminded me of a meeting some 15 years ago with a campaign group called the Stop Thorp Alliance Dundalk. At the meeting in Dundalk on St Patricks Day I heard about the devastation being caused in the Irish Sea by emissions from Sellafield in England. There were the stories of deformed fish being caught and Dundalk having five times the still birth rate of any other town in the EU. The protesters were taking a case against the Irish Government for not protecting their citizens from dangers posed by the plant. They were also pursuing the plant owners British Nuclear Fuels. Later, agreement was reached that emissions into the sea by the plant would be reduced. The Irish Government took up the call in 2001 for Sellafield to be shut down. It did not succeed in this aim but the clear anti-nuclear feeling among the Irish public was being reflected by the actions of the government. The nuclear industry has always been a precarious one. It has spent inordinate amounts of money on public relations in order to portray the industry as safe and efficient. The need for the PR offensive arose due to a growing lack of trust in the industry, due to accidents at home and abroad. At home, Windscale, which had a major fire in 1957, was renamed as Sellafield. The image though of nuclear power took its biggest hits from tragedies overseas, most notably Three Mile Island (1979) in the US and Chernobyl (1986). The effect of Three Mile Island was to see a real decline in the building of nuclear reactors in the US. Chernobyl represented the worst nuclear accident thus far, causing many countries to think again on the advisability of nuclear power. There is still a 35 kilometre uninhabited zone around the area to this day. After these accidents the nuclear industry was in decline, yet somewhat ironically it was the threat of global warming that revived the technology in the eyes of governments. Having been discredited as too dangerous and expensive to use as an energy source, nuclear came back when governments were looking for technologies that did not produce excessive carbon emissions. So it was that nuclear energy was reborn. The industry has also ofcourse always been umbilicaly linked with the military use of nuclear technology, namely in the bomb. As the Cold War thawed so the threat of destruction caused by nuclear war seemed to decline, though many argue today with more countries now members of the nuclear club – including India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel – that the world is a more dangerous place than when the US and USSR stood toe to toe. It is ironic that nuclear technology should have suddenly managed to reinvent itself in the form of a carbon free energy source as a way to save rather than destroy the world. Successive British governments have certainly been quick to argue for escalation, committing to a new generation of nuclear power stations as part of an overall strategy to cut carbon emissions. Ireland has not been so foolhardy, having seen from their side of the Irish Sea just how dangerous the technology can be. Dublin based environmental writer Father Sean McDonagh has argued against the use of nuclear power on green grounds. He questions whether nuclear energy really is a green alternative to fossil fuels. “Whilst it is true that very little fossil fuel is used to produce electricity in nuclear plants, an enormous quantity is needed at almost every phase of the nuclear process which begins with uranium mining,” says Father McDonagh. “Nuclear waste is carcinogenic and toxic and fossil fuels will be needed to transport and store nuclear waste for umpteen generations. At the end of their 30 or 40 years life-span, vast amounts of fossil fuel will be needed to decommission nuclear plants.” Britain and Ireland are surrounded by wind and seas, the reservoir for renewable technologies is immense, so why any government in these islands should be looking to nuclear options seems a total mystery. “If the money and research which has been poured into nuclear energy for the past 60 years was diverted to renewable forms of energy the human community would not be dependent on this dangerous technology,” said Father McDonagh, who speaks from experience having been part of a campaign in the Philippines in the mid 1980s to stop President Marcos building a nuclear plant on a fault line surrounded by four volcanoes. The campaign was successful which was fortunate given that one of the volcanoes Pinatubo erupted with devastating effects in 1992. The lessons to be drawn from the Japanese nuclear disaster are that this technology does not represent the answer to global warming. The potential damage of a nuclear accident of the type seen in Japan, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island far outweigh any benefit there may be in reducing carbon emissions. The residue of nuclear power will already be with us for centuries to come. The challenge for today is not only to rid the world of nuclear weapons but also decommission all nuclear technologies - the risks are too much for the earth to stand

Talking to Tony Benn

2011-03-31T10:34:00.000-07:00

Tony Benn was out there at the head of the TUC march last weekend arguing for an alternative to the cuts. In many ways the theme of the march provided a good subtitle for Mr Benn’s life, staying strong to his principles, arguing for a fairer and more just way of organising society. “Every generation has to fight the same battles, again and again,” says Mr Benn who still speaks three or four times a week at meetings around the country. At 86, it is not unreasonable to say that the former Labour cabinet minister has seen it all before. As such he remains dubious about the so called allies’ intervention in Libya. “The West has decided to intervene supposedly to stop civilians from dying. Yet in Bahrain they have sent troops into crush the revolt and Yemen is also using force against demonstrators,” said Mr Benn. “It is not logical and it means in effect we have gone to war with Libya. Not that this is anything new, Britain used to run Libya.” As a former energy minister in the Labour Government, Mr Benn has always been concerned about nuclear power. He does not believe the industry is trustworthy and will repeatedly lie to protect its own interests. He recalls when in office not being told that plutonium was being exported from British power stations to the US to be used in nuclear weapons. “We were effectively running bomb factories for the Pentagon,” recalled Mr Benn, who believes the destabilisation of the Japanese power station Fukishima provides a timely reminder of the danger of nuclear power production. “The earthquake provided a reminder that nature is our master. I hope and believe it will make people ask questions about the nuclear industry. It is dangerous and when I was in charge of it I realised I could never believe a word those running the industry said,” said Mr Benn. What the industry is good at is reinventing itself. Most recently this has seen the nuclear industry gaining a rebirth as a means to cut carbon emissions in the fight against global warming. Mr Benn points out that this has happened before, some 10 years after the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Then it was sold as cheap, safe and for peace. But this was false; it is not cheap once the cost of clear up is taken into account. It is not safe as Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and now Fukishima show and it does not promote peace,” said Mr Benn, who does not believe the public are being told the truth about the nuclear damage being done in Japan now. The former energy minister hopes that the tragedy in Japan will cut short any plans in Britain to build a new generation of nuclear power stations. Mr Benn believes that David Cameron is a straightforward neo-liberal Thatcherite. “The attack on the NHS is something Mrs Thatcher would not have dreamed of,” said Mr Benn, who can never recall a time of such public anger. The fact that the mass of people are now being made to pay for the irresponsibility of the banks is fuelling much of that anger. He is though optimistic about the prospects of the Labour Party under Ed Miliband, which he sees getting more back to its fundamentals after the New Labour neo-liberal experiment foundered. He believes that Mr Miliband will be more respectful of the trade unions and the people who they represent remembering that it was the unions which put him in place. “It is going to be the popular movement that shapes how the Labour Party reacts,” said Mr Benn, who remains loyal to his democratic socialist principles. He quotes the creation of the National Health Service as one of the most socialist things ever done by a Labour Government. “The NHS remains the most popular institution. People won’t accept a world dominated by wealth and money, a world where the rich benefit at the expense of everyone else,” said Mr Benn. “Socialism is about democracy, people taking control.” Mr Benn still believes in the programme of industrial democracy that he put forward in the early 1970s, which would have seen 25 areas taken into state ownership remains a useful blueprint for today. Today, these would include banking, health, education, energy resources and railways. “The government plays a very important role in shaping the economic policy. It has to do more than manage how capitalism runs,” said Mr Benn. The state of the traditional media is not something that inspires hope in Mr Benn, though he does take heart from the different sources of information now made available through the internet. This has helped inspire some of the popular revolts in the Middle East and North Africa. In Britain, Rupert Murdoch’s interests dominate broadcast and print media. Meanwhile, the BBC represents the British establishment. “There is no trade union news, it is all about the financial markets, it is a view from a rich man’s world,” said Mr Benn. “The BBC refuses to mention the Morning Star which carries trade union and international news.” He is though keen that the BBC is not sold off to Mr Murdoch. The arrival of Wikileaks on the scene has also helped to set many people free. “Wikileaks is important because information is a source of power. In the old days governments wanted to know everything about everyone with no one knowing what they did. Wikileaks has changed all of that, bringing a transformation of power to the people,” said Mr Benn, who believes Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and US military source Bradley Manning are important figures in helping to liberate us. It has been a long held theory of Mr Benn that there are real radical reforms every 40 years. The last big change came in 1980 when Thatcher came to power bringing the neo-liberal capitalist model. Previously there was the Labour Government of 1945 and the reforms of the Liberal Government of 1906 and formation of the Labour Party. So there should be major change coming over the next few years, whether it will be caused by economic meltdown, global warming or a combination of the two no one knows. What Mr Benn though is sure of is that if the change is to be for the betterment of humanity it is likely to come from the struggle of the mass of people for justice and democracy. Who knows, maybe the changes have already started with the popular revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, where next London?

FIS urge Irish to register on census

2011-03-13T09:48:00.000-07:00

The Federation of Irish Societies (FIS)is keen that Catholic churches play a major role in its campaign to get Irish people resident in Britain to register on the census.
The census which takes place on 27 March could be the last such count as the government has suggested it may do away with the process.
At the time of the last census in 2001 there was a major undercounting with just 670,000 people registering as Irish. It is believed that the Irish community amounts to well over 2 million in Britain.
The campaign organisers suggest that if the number counted in any one given area last time is multiplied by 2.5 that would give a more accurate representation.
FIS chief executive Jenny McShannon pointed out that public bodies like the local and health authorities make decisions on community needs based on what comes out of the census. A failure to accurately represent the number of Irish people can have serious detrimental effects on later resourcing decisions. “For example there are higher incidences of cancer among Irish people, a higher mortality rate generally and a genetic disease that can hit one in five of the Irish population – these are things the authorities need to know,” said Ms McShannon.
The genetic disorder is the liver disease known as haemochromatosis which involves an iron overload in the system. If left undiagnosed it can lead to diabetes and heart problems. Ms McShannon points out that what can happen is an Irish man comes into a hospital drunk suffering with haemochromatosis but the staff put it down to the alcohol and miss the underlying condition altogether. A better understanding of the Irish community would stop this type of problem occurring.
A combination of reasons are thought likely to have contributed to the failure of the Irish to register in the census last time. These include a misunderstanding between nationality (national identity) and ethnicity, confusion over the eligibility of recording other household members as having Irish ethnicity and people not reading the question properly.
Significantly while 90 per cent of first generation Irish people registered on the census in 2001, just nine per cent of second generation registered.
One second generation Irish man backing the campaign is TV presenter Terry Christian who explained that last time he did not realise he could register as Irish. “This time I will be ticking the box, as will all of the rest of my family,” said Mr Christian.
Among high profile Catholics backing the campaign are chairman of Sunderland FC Niall Quinn and former Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy, MP. Other high profile supporters include Wolves football manager Mick McCarthy, footballer Kevin Kilbane, Sir Terry Wogan and Big Issue founder John Bird.
The FIS are hoping to reach the second generation Irish group through the Catholic Church and a number of public meetings around the country. After a House of Commons launch in January, there have been meetings in Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham and at the Welsh Assembly.
Former Labour Mp Kevin McNamara was part of the original campaign to get Irish as a separate ethnic group on the census. “It is important for the Irish to stand up and be counted, particularly at this time with the government saying this might be the last census,” said Mr McNamara, who is keen that the Catholic churches play an active role in pushing out the message to register for the census. “It would be great if the churches could have the leaflet in the porches.”
Mr McNamara, who spoke at the Liverpool meeting, believes there is a real danger that integration can lead to sameness. “Multiculturalism is not about separation but celebrating diversity. It is important for people to say where they come from otherwise they won’t know where they are going to,” said Mr McNamara.

Is Red Nose Day just about cheap publicity for desperate celebrities?

2011-03-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

The population has over recent weeks had to endure the irritating build up to Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day.
The event offers an opportunity for comedians and entertainers to do something to help the poor of the world – both at home and abroad. The event has been supported by the public in their millions, since its inception in 1988.
Red Nose Day sits together with Sport Aid, Children in Need and other great charitable fests organised to help the less well off.
Charitable activities to help the poor are ofcourse most laudable and to be encouraged.
One of the problems though with events like Red Nose Day is the crass celebrity led nature of the process.
One programme in the lead up to Red Nose Day was titled Famous, Rich and in the Slums featuring comedic actor Lenny Henry , Eastenders actress Samantha Womack and former newsreader Angela Rippon visiting poor people in the slums of Africa. Can it get much more patronising?
The celebrities are lauded for giving their time and taking the trouble to find out what is going on. Another side is that this is easy cheap positive publicity for the celebrity class. It is a sad society that can only understand poverty and suffering viewed through the lens of their own priveliged rich celebrities.
These fundraising fests in the main simply reinforce the stereotypes about poverty in the world. The subjects are victims to be showered with pity. They pull on the heart strings, people react and give generously. They do not address the real causes of poverty and what can be done to eliminate it.
In this country, what of the structures that mean one in five live under the poverty line? The fact that 9,000 elderly people died over the past year due to the cold. And that it is the poor and vulnerable who are being hit by the austerity budget to cut the deficit. These questions do not arise as part of Red Nose Day.
These TV celebrity led charitable affairs in the main simply reinforce unhelpful stereotypes about the poor.
The people who contribute are made to believe they are really making a difference, while reinforcing their generally negative views about the helplessness of the poor.
They give no dignity to the victims, simply providing them with a bit part in a warped soap opera of suffering.
The all important element missing is justice. If justice were part of these events, then the links that keep so much of the world - at home and abroad - poor would become apparent.
The fact that many in this country could not enjoy the lifestyles that they do, were it not for the suffering of others, needs to be pointed out. The economic system that dominates throughout the world demands that so many people remain poor.
If some of these points were made and a vision for real change offered then there would be a point to these fundraising affairs.
At present they are at best band aids for suffering, at worst a means to massage celebrity egos and reinforce unhelpful stereotypes of the poor.
If the celebrity class want to do something useful then they should learn about the causes of poverty at home and abroad. Then they could use their positions to inform about these matters. It would be interesting to see because no doubt were they to move out of the passive self publicising charitable role then they would soon find demand for such appearances would drop off. Imagine, the arguments about too little tax being imposed on the rich in this country (a subject close to home for many celebrities) or the need to curb arms exports to Africa.
These various fundraising events have gone on for decades now but how much difference have they made? The world is more unequal than ever. No doubt there have been important changes made at individual level by much of the work done by these events but do they not just obfuscate the whole injustice of the bigger picture.
Giving to charity is a very simple way to feel good and salve consciences. Questioning why the world is set up in such an unjust way is a much more difficult challenge to undertake. This requires that justice be put to the forefront and that charity does not replace it.

Faith and unions must unite against cuts

2011-03-13T06:50:00.001-07:00

The Trade Union Congress is organising a march against the Coalition Government’s cuts agenda on 26 March.
The TUC have called on faith communities to join the March for the Alternative and be part of that movement but how do they intend to engage with those people in order to get them onto the streets.
So far the approach seems to be one of follow us. This is an approach last deployed by the Stop the War Coalition at the time of the protests against the Iraq war.
On that occasion, there was a genuine opportunity to form a mass movement to not only stop the war but to become something else that would unite all of those groups which have become so disenfranchised over the years. Stop the War failed in this respect but could have gone so much further than just marching, marching, marching.
The question now is will the TUC and others seeking to create a proper movement against the cuts agenda have learned any lessons? Simply telling the faith communities to follow the unions will not work.
Many in the faith communities are ofcourse members of trade unions. There has though been a parting of the ways on a number of narrow issues.
In any coalition of interests there are going to be differences of opinion but these need to be accommodated in favour of the common good. Catholic Labour MP Jon Cruddas has outlined the need to recreate the broad Church concept of the labour movement bringing together faith groups, trade unions, the charitable sector and Labour Party supporters under the banner of commonality that unites.
For this to happen though there needs to be some genuine outreach on both sides.
The example of the Catholic Church and the unions does not offer much encouragement of any outreach going on from either side.
On the Church side, while the hierarchy seem quite happy to conduct meetings with bankers in the City of London and sign up to the Coalition Government’s Big Society, they do not meet with the representatives of the trade unions
On the union side, a number of leaders who were Catholics positively disavow their faith roots. One leader of a major union was keen that his name did not appear in a list of the top 100 Catholics in a Catholic magazine. Others simply don’t seem to want to speak to the Catholic audience. There are exceptions. The general secretary of the Communication Workers Union Billy Hayes has spoken out about his Catholic roots and how they led him to trade unionism.
The reservations of both faith and union leaders are understandable but they need to be overcome and a dialogue established. Most faiths do not believe in a society where a small number of people keep all the wealth for themselves – it runs contrary to the common good.
In the Catholic case, how can the Church be making a preferential option for the poor if it will not speak to those bodies that play an active part in ensuring a more equitable division of resources in that society?
The unions too need to drop their hostility to faith. Many trade union leaders developed the very values that led them into union work from their faith formation. It is particularly surprising the number of union leaders who are Catholics.
It is no good for those who are committed to change and want to build broad coalitions for the purpose to shut themselves off in isolated silos. This is what is happening at the moment in the case of the leaderships of the trade unions and faith communities.
There are though some encouraging signs. The National Justice and Peace Network has embraced the TUC’s campaign and encouraged its members to come out and join the march on 26 March. The annual conference in July is about Justice at Work, bringing together Frances O’Grady, deputy general secretary of the TUC, Jon Cruddas, John Battle and the Movement of Christian Workers.
Community organisers London Citizens have been the most successful body in bringing together faith, unions and educational bodies to work for social change. Their work is the best sign of the broad movement being recreated.
So there are some encouraging developments but much more needs to happen if faith groups and the labour movement are to truly mould into a much larger body for real change based on justice. The barriers need to be broken down, with the common good becoming the aim that can unite all.

Stability in the Middle East demands more than cheap oil for the West

2011-02-21T03:24:00.001-08:00

The various popular uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa have been a cause of real hope for change in the region.
The protests began in Tunisia and spread like wildfire, with the biggest scalp claimed thus far being that of Egyptian Hosni Mubarak. At time of writing popular revolt has begun in Libya, with things unclear as to what will happen in that country and others beyond, such as Saudi Arabia.
The popular revolts are to be welcomed in countries where the mass of people just struggle to survive while a small number enjoy opulent wealth.
The rheoric of Britain and America has been all about the need for law and order, stability and democracy in that order,. There has been support for the protesters in a real politic sense, namely it would be silly to get the wrong side of people who could be about to take over the government of these countries in a very short space of time. Concerns though have been expressed regarding the overall question of stability in the Middle East.
Stability in this context is an interesting concept, because when decoded what it really means is that the arrangements to get cheap oil out of the region be maintained. Oil is the essential concern of the developed world when it comes to matters in the Middle East. The duplicitous role of Britain and America in calling for democracy in these situation, given their joint histories in supporting and underwriting brutal dictators across the region, should be clear for all to see.
President Mubarak would not have survived as long as he did in Egypt had American aid not been underwriting his tyrannous behaviour. Saddam Hussein was another friend supported by Britain and America with arms and aid in order that he would provide the sort of brutal order required in Iraq to secure oil for the west. America and Britain had heavily supported the Shah in Iran before his fall in 1979, giving way to the islamic fundamentalist regime of the ayatollahs. The likelihood of an Iranian style scenario is now one that clearly worries the developed world countries.
The pattern of powerful developed world countries supporting tyrants who keep their people down and deliver for First World corporations is a well trod path. On those few occasions when an alternative system that promised a more equal distribution of wealth, education and health care for the masses does surface, America in particular has often reacted with great brutality to stamp it out. Cuba, and Nicaragua in the 1980s, provide good examples of this policy in action.
It should though be added that developments over recent years in Venezuela, Boilivia and a number of other Latin American countries in establishing independence and sovereignty over their own raw materials has proved a cause for hope. New models of development delivering for the mass of people in those countries appear to be functioning well.
Countries like Britain and America profit hugely not just from the cheap oil received but from the whole paraphanalia of repression put in place to maintain this status quo. Both countries are major players in the arms industry, selling into conflict situations and making huge profits as a result.
These corrupt and unjust arrangements should cause real concern because our governments are effectively doing these things in order that we can have cheap oil. There are many direct links between the poverty suffered by two thirds of the world and the relative prosperity of those in the other rich third.
The popular uprisings must be supported, with the people allowed to elect their own leaders who will deliver for the people.

Second class treatment for the elderly has to stop

2011-02-19T05:50:00.001-08:00

The report of the health service ombudsman showing that elderly people are being mistreated in hospital recently hit the headlines.
One patient who was transferred by ambulance to a care home arrived bruised, soaked in urine, dishevelled and wearing someone else's clothes. In another case, a man's life support system was switched off despite a request from his family to delay doing so for a short time.
Other cases told of a person denied a bath or shower for a number of weeks and another not given water.
While the report is shocking it should not come as any surprise. For a number of years now elderly people have complained about the second class treatment they routinely receive from the NHS.
A growing concern is just how frightened many elderly people are about going into hospital, not due to any illness but for fear of not coming out. The simple failure to feed and water people when in hospital can cause real problems, especially when ill.
There are already increasing reports of what could be called an informal policy of euthanasia operating across the land. This does not involve any direct intervention to kill people off but amounts to simple neglect to intervene and provide the support needed.
My own experiences with elderly parents have taught that whether dealing with health, social services or the care home sector there is need for a strong advocate looking out for the interests of loved ones. There is no doubt that elderly people who are regularly visited in hospital or care home, with a relative or friend looking out for their interests is less likely to be abused. Indeed, given the content of the ombudsman’s report one has to fear for the elderly person alone without support.
So why have things come to this sorry state? One problem put forward by some health professionals is the targets and box ticking mentality that has developed over recent years. The nurses are drawn between providing the care required and the need to reach targets. Maybe our hospitals have changed from centres of care to conveyor belts of process? There is no doubt a pressure to clear beds quickly.
The danger in the present climate is that any criticism of the sort to be found in the Ombudsman’s report will be seized upon by those in government as an excuse to privatise the NHS. However, the politicians really need to look a bit closer to home.
Many of the problems of the NHS and other public services emanate from the politicians. They do not seem to understand the processes of how things work. The constant setting of targets is something taken from the business world, yet successive governments have attempted to apply it across the public services from cutting cancer waiting lists to exam tables in schools.
The populist call is for more nurses and doctors, get rid of the managers and bureaucracy. The reality is that there needs to be logistical support to keep frontline staff in place and functioning.
What all of this indicates is a political class detached from reality in many cases and taking the populist drivel of the tabloid media as a basis for creating policy.
If a politician has come down the now well trodden path of researcher, political advisor, MP and then minister, what experience do they have of running anything?
This inexperience in how things work has caused many of the problems of our public services today.
The reality is that there are no doubt too many managers and bureaucrats in some services. There could be change and reform but dare anyone think the unthinkable that actually some things might have worked better the way they were before all the interference began.
The education and health system of the past may have needed changes but it did not need to be butchered by ideologically driven market obsessed governments.
The report of the health ombudsman should give serious pause for thought. There no doubt needs to be change but prior to action being taken the question needs to be asked as to how we reached this sorry state in the first place.
What has happened to so empty the NHS of the caring, dedicated culture that has been its hallmark since inception? How do we get it back? Perhaps it is time to take rather more notice of those working in our public services, rather than continually devalue them by seeking to measure and cost everything they do. Certainly the ombudsman’s report is a sad reflection on a service that has lost its way.

Time to resist onslaught on worker's rights

2011-02-17T03:01:00.000-08:00

The latest attempt by the Coalition Government to get everyone else to pay for the deficit caused by the bankers seems to be manifesting itself in an attack on the working conditions of ordinary working people.It would seem, the cutting of the jobs, wages and pensions of those working in the public sector, is but the start. Other moves intended to make life easier for capital include changing rules for employment tribunals so that employees have to have been employed for two years not the present one before they have right of recourse. They will also have to come up with a fee. This is intended to dissuade people from going to tribunal, the potential wrong doing of an employer is apparently to be protected because it will make him or her more profitable.Then there is talk of cutting health and safety laws. Whilst the tabloid press regularly drag out the most ludicrous example of health and safety practices that it can find in order to attack the whole concept of safety at work, there are people dying due to employer negligence. An average of 220 people have died each year at work for the past five years. This figure though was down to 152 for 2009/10 no doubt due to a stronger safety culture. The industries with the worst records are construction (42 in 2009/10), services (41) and agriculture (38). Health and Safety laws are there to protect people's lives in many cases, not some fluffy soft option to make employers lives more difficult.The idea of relaxing these rules is negligent in the extreme. Indeed the whole attitude of the Coalition Government to regulation is reckless. This was recently epitomised by Environment minister Chris Huhne declaring that no new regulations will be brought in without an old regulation going out. How ludicrous? Regulation ofcourse is something else that makes life more difficult for capital. Again, regulations come in for a reason, namely because there has been some abuse going on. And if anyone needs an example of what happens when an industry is not regulated properly, look no further than banking. It was so called ‘light touch’ regulation that enabled the banking crisis to happen.Then there is talk of strengthening laws to make taking strike action more difficult, a flashback here to the early Thatcherite days of the 1980s when the law was used as a means to outlaw much industrial action.In Ireland, they have cut the level of the minimum wage to help business become more competitive. Surely it can only be a matter of time before such a move comes to this country.
A major change in favour of employers has been the switching in April of the indexation of increases in benefits, tax credits and public service pensions from the Retail Price Index (RPI) to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI will always be lower as it does not include elements like morgage interest payments and council tax. This will cost workers dearly while presenting billions in savings for companies. This will be especially true in the area of pensions.
What all of these moves betray is the latest restructuring of the capitalist system in favour of the employer and against the worker. In specific terms it proves that despite the banking crisis the fundamentalist neo-liberal market system continues to dominate.
The banking crisis may have brought the whole system to the brink of collapse in the autumn of 2008 but never mind that is all a long time ago now. The taxpayer has bailed out the banks, the bankers continue drawing huge bonuses whilst everyone else pays for the consequences. Basically the wheels have been put back on the busted neo-liberal market wagon, so that it can trundle on to the next great crisis destroying more lives along the way. Given that governments still seem unaware of just how much debt the banks are still hiding and that many of these debts appear larger than the countries where they reside, the next crisis maybe a lot closer than many realise.
It is time for working people to say enough is enough and demand justice in the workplace. The TUC is organising opposition with the big march in London on 26 March. Other community groups have raised some protest but with this onslaught on the lives of working people continuing unabated by this government needs to be resisted. It is time those who caused the crisis started paying a lot more of the cost for its resolution. If we are all in this together, then surely capital has to take accepting some of the pain, instead of offsetting it against those who create the wealth. The common good demands no less.

Should the Church commit to the Big Society?

2011-02-17T02:52:00.000-08:00

The Church seems to be taking an increasing interest in engagement with the Big Society (BS) agenda. On 1 February a conference hosted by Caritas Social Action Network in Liverpool explored various elements of the Church's work in the area of its social teaching. There will be a further conference on 6 April. While CSAN it would seem is the chosen tool for delivering up Church agencies and activists for the BS agenda, the question remains as to whether this is a good direction to be taking?The BS is an idea that came from the Conservative Party manifesto. It is in theory about devolving power and responsibility to the lowest levels in society, like families, groups, networks, neighbourhoods and locally based communities. The work is to be done by community organisers, neighbourhood groups, volunteers, mutuals, co-operatives, charities, social enterprises and small businesses.The type of projects envisaged could be running a forest, a library, transport services or shaping a housing project. Five parts of the UK have been designated so far for community projects- Liverpool, Eden Valley, Cumbria, Windsor and Maidenhead and the London Borough of Sutton. (Liverpool recently withdrew.) The whole concept though will roll out right across the country over the coming years. The funding for the BS is to come, partly, from money gained from redundant bank accounts. The localism legislation that enables things like parish councils to be established, allegedly taking power from the larger state bodies, also dovetails into the BS agenda.In theory, much of the BS rhetoric sounds like good news, a real back to grass roots action, building community. The concept though would have more validity for many if it was not being set against the background of the government’s cuts agenda. In this context it looks like an effort to get people to do something for nothing. Jobs that were previously paid, now being done for nothing by those volunteering out of charity or coercion in the case of those forced to volunteer as a condition for receiving benefits.Another concern is that while the cuts agenda has been justified on the back of the deficit, in reality it appears to be being used as a reason to decimate the state and public sector. Public sector workers jobs are being lost, pay frozen, terms and conditions made worse and pensions cut. The government theory is that the private sector will come in to take over much of what is being done by the public sector. The concern is that the BS could well be just providing cover for cuts.The Catholic Church interest in the BS seemed to take off after the Pope’s visit. Much of the language of the BS seems to chime in with Catholic Social Teaching, with references to concepts like subsidiarity, the common good and dignity in work. The BS also seems to offer the Church a chance to occupy a clear position in the public space. There have been concerns over recent years with the growth of fundamentalist secularism, some of which was reflected in certain policies and attitudes of the last Labour Government that the position of faith in the public square was under threat. It seems a clear aim of Archbishop Nichols in particular to stake out this space for Catholicism. Given as some have pointed out that much of what the BS professes to be about is already being done by the Church in many shapes and forms, it seems a good opportunity to advance on a number of fronts.There is though also another concern which is that some in the hierarchy yearn for a return to the days of old when the state was smaller and the Church held much more power over the people. Developments of the modern world, most notably that of the state as a force to intervene, usually for good in the case of the eradication of disease and poverty, have not always been appreciated by the Church. This anti-statism surfaced again under the last government as a growing state seemed to be increasingly encroaching on the Church’s domain, particularly in the area of education. Given these attitudes the new government’s small state/BS agenda found a resonance with the Church. The danger for the Church is that it effectively gets co-opted by a right wing government. In its desire to join the BS, it forgets those being put out of work by the cuts agenda and fails to consult with trade unions. If the Church colludes in the BS simply picking up the pieces from these destructive policies, it could be seen as providing charity but denying justice. In the words of Pope John XXIII charity must not become justice deferred. On a more positive note, Church charities and organisations are already doing much of the work of the BS; this could be an opportunity to do more. It could offer an opportunity to be outspoken on matters of injustice. The BS could be taken over as a model for justice. The BS could work, given the right circumstances. The New Economics Foundation has prepared some excellent material as to how this might be possible. Among the suggestions is that social justice needs to be made the main goal, meaning a fair and equitable distribution of social environmental and economic resources between people, places and generations.There needs to be recognition that the state has a significant role to play, even if it is as "a smaller more strategic state" planning for a long term sustainable future.In order for people to be able to give up their time to do volunteer work there needs to be a shorter paid working week. "Because the ‘Big Society’ implies a big demand for unpaid time, and because some people have so much more control over their time than others, we propose a slow but steady move towards a much shorter paid working week, with an ultimate goal of reaching 21 hours as the standard," say the NEF.
The BS must also be sustainable, reducing the carbon footprint." Cutting carbon emissions and reducing society’s ecological footprint must be integral to the ‘Big Society’, shaping the way homes, institutions and neighbourhoods are designed and managed, as well as how people and organisations use energy, travel, shop, eat and manage water and waste... It must give priority to preventing illness and other kinds of risk, so that fewer people have problems that need fixing. It must help to loosen our attachment to carbon intensive consumption and give greater value to relationships, pastimes, and places that absorb less money and carbon." The New Economics Foundation analysis certainly offers some food for thought as to how the BS agenda could be adapted to serve the common good. The concern must be that the BS is really all about picking up the pieces of devastating changes being socially engineered on society under the aegis of the cuts agenda. It would be more credible if the BS was being introduced at time of economic plenty. The lack of funding for the whole process is it’s really achilles heel.There could be some mileage for the Church in this agenda but it needs to be very wary . It should also be talking to and articulating the concerns of the likes of the public sector workers about to lose their jobs and the welfare claimants about to be forced to do "voluntary" work. The Church must not lose its voice on the need for justice, indeed some would argue it could do with finding a much stronger voice on behalf of the poor. The BS agenda cannot be dismissed out of hand; it does potentially offer opportunities to do good. The Church though needs to be aware of these problems and be ready to sup with a very long spoon when dealing with what is a very right wing government set on implementing the next stage of the Thatcherite neo-liberal revolution.
* This article is based on a paper Paul Donovan presented at the National Council for Lay Associations meeting on 6 February

Promoting the common good should mean higher taxes on the rich

2011-01-27T07:19:00.000-08:00

The news that the collective wealth of the 1,000 richest people in the UK rose to £335.5 billion over the past year, provides ample food for thought at the start of Poverty and Homelessness Action Week (30/1).
The wealth of this exclusive group increased over the past 12 months by 29 per cent from its previous level of £258.24 billion. Despite the worsening economic situation, this marks the largest annual increase in the wealth of this rich elite.
Some 53 of the richest 1,000 are billionaires. The level of wealth accruing to this elite has increased incredibly over the past 13 years, going from £98.99 billion in 1997 to £335.5 billion today.
What these figures denote is an increasingly unequal society that has enriched the already mega-wealthy at the cost of the mass of people. This ongoing impoverishment is confirmed with a look at how the amount of gross domestic product (GDP) dedicated to wages and salaries has declined over the past three decades. So while in 1976, wages and salaries accounted for 65.1 per cent of GDP, this had reduced to 52.6 per cent by 1996. The election of the Labour Government in 1997 did lead to some rebalancing of the wealth indices, with the introduction of the minimum wage and improvements in the public sector. This led to wages and salaries accounting for 55 per cent of GDP. However, this was also the period when the wealth of the richest 1,000 increased threefold.
Labour MP Austin Mitchell has suggested that the richest 1,000 could easily give up 25 per cent of their wealth, providing £84 billion toward deficit reduction. “This redistribution would reduce and probably eliminate the need for draconian cuts,” said Mr Mitchell.
When other factors like the very low level of tax that many of these billionaires and millionaires pay in the UK, despite having their businesses based here, are taken into account the argument becomes all the more attractive.
The whole injustice of wealth distribution is a subject in urgent need of debate.
Never has the slogan “we’re all in it together” been less appropriately applied than is the case of the Coalition Government’s plans to reduce the deficit.
The focus has been on the need to cut public services, freeze public sector workers pay, cut jobs and reduce pension rights. The concept known as the Big Society (BS) has become the backdrop for much of this austerity package. While the BS offers an opportunity to return some power to local level, those powers when coupled with funding reductions make the concept a somewhat empty vassal.
What the aforementioned figures reveal is a society skewed horribly in favour of the rich and against the poor. There is no way that such a distribution of wealth can be said to favour the common good.
It has been extraordinary to witness the way that so many individuals and institutions, including the Church, have gone along with the government mood music of we’re all in it together. Where has the argument for higher taxation on those who earn the most been heard? It is an argument that Church leaders need to be making, rather than simply looking for crumbs to fall from the Big Society table.
Mr Mitchell’s idea of taking 25 per cent of the wealth of the richest 1,000 would be likely to prove difficult to implement but higher taxation on those who have done best out of this wholly inequitable division of wealth in our society makes perfect sense.
Back in 1976 when salaries and wages made up a greater proportion of GDP, levels of taxation were far higher on the rich. Tax rates above 80 per cent plus on those earning the most were not uncommon. The society was more equal and cohesive as a result. It has only been the tax cutting mantra, that took root under the Thatcher governments and was then continued by Labour, that led to the low level taxation regime we have today.
Yet this mantra has no logic. If the country wants better services then they have to be paid for. It is not possible to have something for nothing. And those who earn the most - and usually have got most out of the system - should pay more tax. The same argument applies to funding the deficit.
It is difficult to understand why the Church has not made the argument for higher taxation, rather than remaining silent. The Church is not a political party seeking election, so why not make the argument for higher taxes on the rich in the interests of the common good?

Time to end control orders, detention without trial and restore the rules of the game

2011-01-07T03:06:00.000-08:00

Human rights activist Bruce Kent recently called for an Algerian man who has been held under a variety of forms of detention - including control order - to be tried or released. "It shocks me that someone can be detained in this way without any chance of defending himself against whatever accusations there may be. This is not the justice I was brought up to believe in," said Mr Kent.The call came just as the Coalition Government was debating what to do about control orders. The man, Mustapha Taleb, had been subject to a control order over the period of his detention since January 2003. At present he is being held under control order style conditions, pending the efforts of successive govenments to deport him to Algeria. Mr Taleb fled Algeria in 2000 after being arrested and tortured in that country. He was granted political asylum a year later. In January 2003, he was arrested on suspicion of involvement with what became known as the 'ricin plot' in north london. The subsequent trial in 2005 found that there was no ricin or plot, with Mr Taleb among those acquitted of all charges.Following the acquittal he was free for five months before being detained again in prison until January 2006. He was then placed under strict house arrest in north London. In August 2006, he was again sent back to prison until July 2008, before being released into control order style conditions again.He has never been told what if any accusations there are against him to justify his detention. Mr Taleb is not the only individual being held in such conditions. I visited another Algerian man known only as G some four years ago ( see Guardian 28/3/2007). He was under similar restrictive conditions, living in a flat with his wife and two children. There were limited times when he could go out of the flat. He wore a tag and had to check in with a security monitoring company several times a day. There was no internet access allowed and he could only be visited by individuals vetted by the Home Office. Today, he is in exactly the same situation as he was four years ago, still under control order style detention, living under the threat that he could be returned to Algeria where he would face torture and imprisonment. The only route out of this horror for both G and Mr Taleb appears to lie with the European Court of Human Rights. Both have been held on the basis of the oversight of the immigration tribunal the Special Immigration Appeals Commission. The crucial point about these cases and indeed the whole control order system is the dangerous precedent that has been created of detaining people without trial. The whole debate over control orders has been framed in terms of the need to find an alternative. The truly Kafkaesque situation of holding people without telling them of what they are accused, seemingly indefnitely in some cases, on the basis of unseen intelligence, has it would seem been conceded.It is this point that is so crucial, because once accepted that some people are so dangerous that they can be detained outside the rite of habeus corpus, then that principle can be extended to all sorts of categories. What the control order regime has briefly revealed is the whole paraphalia of the security state that has been allowed to grow inexorably under the aegis of the war on terror. It is a true glimpse of the authoritarian police state growing up in the shadows of our justice system. The time has come to restore the rule of law in the UK, get rid of control orders and the other hybrid forms of detention based on the same concept. The threat from Islamic terrorism is nothing like as great as this country suffered from the IRA during the Troubles, so why have measures been taken that go way beyond anything ever contemplated during that very real war. A return of the rule of law would mean that an individual can be detained only so long as the courts will allow. If the accusers do not have the evidence that will stand up in court the individual concerned should be allowed to go free. To paraphrase a former Prime Minister, it is now time to restore the rules of the game.

High time the Labour Party began to oppose

2011-01-04T09:43:00.000-08:00

The political landscape upon entering the new year looks uncertain. After making an assured start the Coalition Government began to rock around at the end of last year due to a number of indiscreet comments made to journalists by its Liberal Democrat members - most notably the Business Secretary Vince Cable. The comments followed growing signs of resistance from groups most effected by the cuts, like the students and public sector unions. What this spat and the resistance thus far displayed have shown is the weakness of the foundations underpinning the Coaltion Government.Given the aforesaid, it has been difficult to understand the approach of the Labour Party. After a blaze of publicity to greet his election as party leader, Ed Miliband appeared to go to ground. Little was heard from him, except seemingly when making interventions to point out he was not in the pockets of the trade unions.While the Coalition Government has been trying to dump the deficit at the door of the last Labour Government rather than the bankers, Miliband has been trying to make a clear break with new labour. This has meant denouncing certain former policies, most notably the Iraq war. This was no doubt the right thing to do but there is a very real danger of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It could create the perfect storm scenario of the Coalition Government seeking to lay the blame for the deficit on the last Labour Government while Miliband seeks to repudiate some of the past. The result being that much of the good done by the last government, not least in its response to the banking crisis, will get lost. In personnel terms, Miliband clearly tried to tie in the Blairite wing of the party by giving the shadow chancellor's job to Alan Johnson. He also seems to be testing the loyalty of Ed Balls by giving him the shadow home secretary's job in the short term at least - a role in which the former education secretary has remained incredibly quiet. The decision to consult over two years before coming up with clear policy can be understood but again could be construed as lacking definition. What all of this mood music suggests is that while the members of the Coalition Government are clearly unhappy with each other, the Labour Party opposition is in no hurry to exploit the divisions. Talking to many Labour Mps at Westminster it is difficult to find one who does not think that the Coaltion will run the full five year term. Yet recent events have show how brittle the Coalition really is and that it could be unseated at any time given a determined effort. The reality seems to be that the Labour Party does not want to be in government, it would far rather occupy the oppositon benches, while allowing the Coalition to impose the unpopular cuts. What signs there have been of where the Labour Party is heading have not been encouraging. When not attacking the unions, the leadership seems most concerned about what has happened to the "squeezed middle" - no doubt code for middle england. Clearly the Blairite strategists that argue the party has to take middle england to win power, never mind the traditional working class support, still holds sway.The reality is that all three parties reside on the right of centre wholly committed to the neo-liberal market agenda. They are about serving big business and capital to the cost of the mass of the working population. The Conservative Party are serving their traditional class interests. The Liberal Democrats have been exposed for the principle-less party they have always been. Meanwhile, the Labour Party continues struggling to find its soul.
The Labour Party though is not lost. What will be crucial is how it reacts in the coming months to the growing opposition on the streets from the different groups being hit hardest by the Coalition Government's cuts agenda. If it genuinely sides with the opposition and indeed is transformed by the spirit of protest, then a reconnection with its traditional values and support base is not out of reach. If however, the Labour Party continues to criticise the opposition, in the form of the likes of the trade unions and students, then it will remain a busted flush. There needs to be redefinition and clear differences established between the parties. So let's hope, the Labour Party can reconnect with its traditional base and come forward with some coherent alternative because a health democracy demands a decent opposition.

Protests over coming months will test democracy

2010-12-15T02:27:00.001-08:00

The coming year seems likely to be one where there will be protest on the streets, much of it emanating from the implementation of the Coalition Government's cuts agenda.Recent weeks have seen the students out protesting about the increase in tuition fees, up to as much as £9,000 a year in some cases from 2012. The public sector unions will soon be joining them on the streets as they face pay freezes, pension reductions and in many cases job losses. Other vulnerable groups such as the disabled and elderly will also have reason to protest as again the cuts hit them hard. The response from government to these actions will be interesting to gage. Over recent times government has increasingly seemed to ignore the demands of people protesting on the streets. The clearest example of this response came with the February 2003 march against the pending Iraq war. Around 2 million people swarmed onto the streets of London representing a massive level of opposition to the war. Yet the government carried on regardless, a real slap in the face for democracy.The impotence of the march as a way to get change has led to other means of protest being developed, like the Plane Stupid group's actions on the roof of the House of Commons. This draws media attention and public interest.Unless a march is of the magnitude of the 2003 Iraq protest, the media tend to ignore it, that is unless there is violence. There can be little doubt that but for the violence that occurred around the student protests, they would not have received anything like as much coverage in the media. The overall tactics of the police in the student protests seem almost guaranteed to inflame the situation. The line of communication between police and student organisers was clearly not effective. The students don't trust the police and there is a growing belief that tactics like kettling - keeping people confined in a small area unable to get out for a number of hours - are being used as punishment to put people off coming out to protest again in the future. There can be no place for such an approach in a democracy and it is surprising that the tactic has not been challenged in the courts under the Human Rights Act. What ofcourse the police's short sighted tactics will do is cause a hardening of attitudes on the side of the protesters. It will push even the most placid onto a new level of defiance. If people have a genuine grievance, it will not just go away because the police decide they will try to wipe out the possibility of legitmate protest. The protest will simply assume another form, which could be more violent.Unfortunately over recent years the response to protest on the streets has largely been a public order one. The police have been allowed to encroach further and further on the right to legitimately protest, to the point now where via tactics, like kettling, they are trying to remove that right altogether. Over recent years, those in government have chosen to largely ignore street protest, preferring instead to listen to the often paid lobbyists of vested interests who make their livings in and around the Palace of Westminster. Access to ministers and politicians has become an important currency in this world. This access and power to influence is sadly becoming as easily bought and restricted now in the UK as it has been in the US for many years. This approach is undemocratic, as it increasingly shuts out the legitimate concerns of the mass of the electorate. If a proper functioning democracy is to be restored in the UK then this power to buy influence needs to be ended and polticians need to wake up to the perfectly legitmate demands of the mass of people being expressed on the streets and in other perfectly legtimtate ways of protest.So over the coming months we are likely to not only see a battle as to who pays the price for the cuts but also what sort of democracy we have in the UK. The success of the protest against cuts is likely to depend on how effectively the different interests can coalesce together to form a mass protest movement, the health of democracy will depend on how the government reacts to those demands, in whatever form they materialise.

Pilger film shows need of Wikileaks

2010-12-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

A new film from investigative journalist John Pilger underlines why the work of the internet whistleblower Wikileaks is so important.

In the film, the War You Don’t see, Pilger looks at the public relations exercises undertaken to make sure that the public never get to know what really goes on in war. Journalists have unfortunately become complicit in this process.

The film opens with footage of an appalling slaughter by US forces in Iraq, where people were gunned down, but this then switches to World War I with sights of some of the grisly sights from that conflict. Pilger recalls the conversation between the editor of the Manchester Guardian of the time CP Scott and Prime Minister Lloyd George, who declared that “if the people really knew the truth about the war it would be stopped tomorrow but they don’t know and can’t know.”

This mantra has pretty much guided every conflict involving the British Government in the intervening years since 1918. The subtlety of the process required to make the unacceptable acceptable to the public has grown over the years with the increasing power of the public relations industry over that of independent journalism. Too many have all too easily traded the role of inquisitor for that of sipher of official truths.

One of the best examples of how the media has sold its independence short is the practice known as embedding. Some 700 reporters were embedded with American and British forces when they attacked Iraq. This results in, as the former BBC correspondent Rageh Omaar admits, the type of collusion that saw the fall of Basra reported 17 times before it actually happened. This approach, as lawyer Phil Shiner points out, also made the reporting of human rights abuses committed by US and British forces unlikely in the mainstream media.

The contrast comes with the few independent journalists who went into Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing out appalling stories of brutality and murder. The mainstream networks were not interested, not even by way of balance to the one sided nature of their own coverage.

Pilger pushes the question of balance, why are the accounts so one sided in favour of the war making establishment? Where are the dissident voices?

Perhaps the time that the whole balance issue is most clearly exposed comes with the coverage of Israel. Pilger grills the BBC particularly as to why Israel’s “chief propagandist” Mark Ragev got a free run at the top of a news with no countervailing balancing viewpoints. This meant that stories like the shooting of those on the aid convoy into Gaza earlier this year by Israeli soldiers is told almost entirely from the Israeli perspective.

The Israeli approach to public relations is aggressive and blunt. They make life so difficult for any journalist trying in whatever way to show the other side that they either end up towing the official (Israeli) line or steering clear of the subject altogether. The Glasgow Media Group’s Greg Philo tells how a senior producer told how they “wait in fear for the phone call from the Israelis” after doing a piece on that country.

The work of Wikileaks and the independent journalists becomes all the more important in this context. The unpalatable truth that emerges from the film is that the public have been led into disasterous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without ever being given the truth of the situations concerned. Truths like the growing number of civilian casualties. So while 10 per cent of victims in the First World War were civilians, this figure had risen to 90 per cent by the Iraqi conflict.

The unanimity of the mainstream media in shutting out almost everything except the official version of events is truly frightening. It can only be hoped that the revelations of Wikileaks and this film help spark a process that leads to more of the truth getting out there as to what really is going on and in whose vested interests the various wars are being pursued.

There is a wider point for journalists on the need to question official truths. Too many journalists are all too willing to follow officially set guidelines on whatever the leading crisis of the day is set to be, whether it be war, financial crisis or climate change. It is vital for journalism and democracy that independent voices can be heard and that those that govern us are made accountable for what they do.

*The War You Don’t See is on ITV at 10.35pm on 14^th December

Proper formation will help define true vision for justice and peace

2010-11-17T02:07:00.001-08:00

Archbishop Peter Smith recently picked up on a column that I wrote for the Universe back in July questioning the lack of spiritual formation going on in the justice and peace movement.The piece followed on an extraordinarily successful National Justice and Peace Network Conference looking at the issues of food security and the environment.The conference was well attended, with internationally renowned speakers like Vandana Shiva and Shay Cullen taking part. The event was a real cause for hope and unity.There have been other more encouraging developments since, with Live Simply about to launch its Catholic Social Teaching website. When the site goes live at the end of November it will provide an important resource that can help with that formation process.The need for a formation process struck me again recently when in conversation with a friend of mine about a justice and peace group that we had both been involved in. The group had achieved a number of things, converting the parish and then the local borough to fair trade, setting up a support structure for a refugee centre and helping with people being detained without trial in this country. So there was plenty of action going on. What was lacking was formation in the faith. The underpinning as to why this was going on at Church sector, rather than elsewhere. The lack of formation often means that, as in the case of the group mentioned, the roots are lacking so it ceased to endure. CAFOD used to be a big backer of the pastoral cycle style formation with its experience, analysis, reflection, action and celebration methodology. This though has declined over recent years with a greater emphasis on the postcard style campaigns that involve simple actions to put pressure on decision makers in society. The present leadership of the NJPN don't seem to get the need for formation, which is strange given that for a number of years Rosemary Reed was employed as the fieldworker to do exactly such work around the country. There seems to be a belief that the role of network revolves almost entirely around running the annual conference. There have been some regional meetings arranged with invited speakers but no ongoing process. No doubt, part of the reason for this development is the very limited NJPN resources. The change and reduction in funding from CAFOD last year made things a lot more difficult. In these cash strapped times it is a shame that the institutional church cannot find resources for this important work, just a few of those pounds raised for the Pope's visit could go a long way in the justice and peace world.The resourcing point accepted, though, there does need to be a serious reflection on the role and purpose of the NJPN. When the structure was established it was not in order to run one major conference each year with a few satellite meetings throughout the year. It's mandate was to support and strengthen the work of social justice across the land, through liason and co-operation. Surely formation must have a role to play in this?There also needs to be some serious political analysis undertaken. While much effort goes into putting on the annual conference, there has never, to my knowledge, been any discussion as to where the movement stands on general political developments. There are obviously plenty of people involved in justice and peace who are active in single issue campaigns, trade unions, on local councils and some as MPs. Yet there is never a debate about the political situation of the moment. This is incredible when you think NJPN has existed through the birth of Thatcherism, its neo-liberal child new labour and now the Con/Dem coalition. All this has gone on without a serious political debate regarding what the response to these developments should be.This lack of political analysis brings me back to Archbishop Smith's talk to the justice and peace community in Southwark. He quoted my piece at some length but didn't really address the question of formation. The response he was suggesting to the challenge to "analyse what is going on in the world and work out a process as to how to inculcate transformative kingdom values into that world" was engagment with the Big Society agenda of the Coalition Government.On this issue Archbishop Smith seems to be echoing a uniform position coming out of the Bishops Conference for England and Wales, namely that the Big Society is a good thing with which the Church should engage. This may well be so, but there needs to be a little wariness regarding the subject. Just because the Big Society has borrowed some language from Catholic Social Teaching like solidarity, subsidiarity and community does not make it reflective of transformative kingdom values. The launch of such a programme at a time of austerity and cuts should set alarm bells ringing. Were it being launched at a time of prosperity there would be more credibility. Critics argue that it is nothing more than a way of appealing to people's charitable nature in order to get them to do work that was previously done by paid employees.The position of the Church should be that of a constructive critic, yes the Big Society may offer something that can be engaged with for the common good. But it might also be a very destructive programme aimed mainly at cutting costs and jobs. Only time will tell as to which way it will go.Perhaps another area J&P activists should be looking toward rather than the Big Society should be to oppose the savage cuts that the Coaltion Government recently announced in its spending review. These cuts with their emphasis on reducing welfare for the poor and cutting public sector jobs amount fairly and squarely to dumping the cost of the banking bail out on the backs of the poor and vulnerable. If we are to be a Church that makes a preferential option for the poor, we cannot sit by and let this happen. This is the area where justice and peace activists can join with the trade unions, disabiliy and elderly groups, students and other bodies set to oppose this very unjust settlement. A proper analysis of the politics of the present politifcal agenda as well as equipping activists with the theological formation to take on this work would definitely mark a way forward for the justice and peace movement.

Welfare for big business is the real benefit scandal

2010-10-29T02:25:00.000-07:00

The real scandal over housing benefit is i) the rip off rates that private landlords have been able to charge and ii) its use as welfare assistance for tax avoiding companies. The real scandal that the Coalition Government should focus on is the large companies who operate in this country, use the facilities and pay poverty wages to their staff. The low pay then results in the tax payer having to make up the difference through welfare like housing benefit. This is effectively a welfare subsidy from the tax payer to big business. The icing on the cake comes with the news that many of these same businesses then employ tax avoidance practices in order to not have to pay tax in this country. This is the real welfare scandal not the poor people on housing benefit

Capitalism doesn't make people happy

2010-10-28T02:42:00.000-07:00

A recent poll looking at what makes people happy came up with some interesting findings.Top of the list in the happiness stakes with a 97 per cent rating was spending time with friends and family. Next came an interesting job with 92 per cent, then being in a relationship, 85 per cent, and hobbies and sport, 80 per cent. Seventh in the ten criteria with 64 per cent was having a high income. This last finding was particularly relevant in the consumer driven world in which we live which often via the media and advertising world emphasises material wealth above all else. The poll accompanied the publication of a report from three charities CAFOD, Tearfund and Theos, titled Wholly Living: a new perspective on international development that focuses on the idea of human flourishing.This critiques the present neo liberal economic model which advocates the pursuit of growth at any cost.The failure of this model, according to the report, sees millions in the developing world suffer due to poverty, sickness and powerlessness, while in the developed world similar dissatisfaction comes from job insecurity, overwork, consumerism, anti-social behaviour and family dislocation. "In the UK as economic growth has risen, well being has flat-lined, social capital has declined and inequality has increased," said Chris Bain, the director of CAFOD.The amazing thing is that none of this is particularly new. Back in 1968 during his 82 day bid to win the Democratic Presidential nomination, Robert Kennedy questioned the wisdom of evaluating everything in terms of the value of Gross Domestic Product. Socially the 1960s and 70s were far more progressive in many ways.During the 1970s there was the talk of the 25 hour week and people retiring when they reached 50. It was felt automation of processes would result in far more free time for people to spend on leisure or educational pursuits. This was remember before anyone had even thought of the internet. It was an exciting prospect but clearly a frightening one for those with their hands on the levers of power. Then came the rise of the neo-liberals to positions of power around the world, most notably with the election of Ronald Reagan as president in the US and Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister in Britain. From that point any dream of early retirement or more leisure time receded. Instead, the power of organised labour was weakened, restrictive employment laws implemented and the Murdoch led media became a propaganda tool of government. In short, people were forced to work longer hours for less pay, resulting in greater profits for the few and a growing inequality in society.Little changed over the years of a Labour Government that signed up totally to the neo-liberal creed. This was particularly evidenced in Europe where the business lobby pushed the British Government to obstruct wherever possible any socially progressive legislation. This saw attempts to restrict the length of the working week, the blocking of full employment rights for agency workers and most recently opposition to the extension of materinity leave entitlements.This backwards attitude has seen right wing media commentators scoff at the French because they come out and protest when their government seeks to make everyone else pay for bankers largesse. They also object to seeing the pensionable age rise over 62.Similar actions by government in Britain have not thus far brought forward anything like the same oppositional protest. The report also focuses on the need for "a new democratic global green economy with human and environmental sustainability at its heart." The environment has to be factored into any future economic model and human flourishing. To date successive governments have treated sustainable development as a luxurious add on, easily disposed with at time of economic difficulty. This timely report should form part of the debate as to how the world is ordered in the future. It is high time that there was a more even distribution of the world's wealth. The poll proves that not everyone is obsessed with material wealth, many want community. The report suggests a Prime Minsterial commission to take these ideas forward, it would be a good way to start a process that could help us all rediscover some of our own humanity

Progressio's plight

2010-10-28T02:37:00.000-07:00

The news of the precarious situation that the humanitarian agency Progressio now finds itself in with the government cutting funding must be a source of regret for all Catholics.
It faces a potential shortfall in funding threatening 15 jobs in the organisation at home and abroad.
Progressio has a proud record stretching back over 70 years to its founding in the 1940s by Cardinal Hinsley.
Originally called the Sword of the Spirit, it was renamed the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR) in 1965 before its most recent metamorphosis into Progressio four years ago.
A major strength of the organisation has been its ability over the years to read the signs of the times. It provided aid via sending out skilled workers overseas but also developed an education and advocacy role at home. The latter function brought international injustices to the attention of politicians, opinion formers and media.
The development of the education and advocacy role, under the leadership of Mildred Nevile, saw the organisation again well ahead of its time, doing something that would later be copied and effectively taken over by the big agencies like Oxfam, Christian Aid and CAFOD.
Attending the then CIIR conferences in the 1980s and 1990s there was a feeling that they really had their finger on the pulse of coming developments. It was the place to be if you wanted to be ahead of the game.
One notable initiative saw renowned US political thinker Noam Chomsky invited to address a conference in the early 1990s.
There were also important initiatives on the drugs trade and the importance of trade unions as central structures in building community. It was borrowing from the south to inform the north.
Important relationships were built with those in struggle across the world from Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua to the ANC in South Africa. CIIR had strong links with those involved in liberation theologians like Gustavo Guttierez, Jon Sobrino and Albert Nolan.
In the latter 1990s, the organisation did seem to start losing its way, getting bogged down in managerialism and seemingly non-plused by the spirit of the new Labour government.
Inward looking structural reorganisations took up too much time and emotional energy. The organisation also came to rely more heavily on government funding.
At the close of the century there was the problem of the changing role of the organisation, with the big agencies increasingly doing their own advocacy and education work and the link with the Church growing ever more tenuous.

Things though have steadily improved over the past decade under the leadership of Christine Allen. Progressio, as it then became called, seemed to rediscover the ability to read the signs of the times. It began speaking out on controversial issues like the use of condoms in Africa. It saw the crucial nature of the environmental argument and started to take a lead on some of the more controversial aspects like the need to stop terminator gene technology.
One of the pleasing things about Progressio is that it practices what it preaches. The latest annual report indicated that it had cut its carbon footprint by 25 per cent as a result of reducing flying and other measures. So it is walking the walk as well as talking the talk.
It has also moved to restore links with the Church, with its campaigns officer focusing on this work.
Progressio has ofcourse been mistaken over the years to allow its dependency on funding grow to the 60 per cent level it now finds itself. Relying on government funding in such a way is always precarious and also opens the organisation up to accusations of co-option. The non-governmental label gets tainted.
It must though be hoped that the present crisis is but a wake up call regarding matters such as funding. Progressio does seem to be heading in the direction, importantly regaining much of its prophetic role. What must also be hoped is that the Church reacts with generosity to its present perceived plight. For many years now Progressio has been the poor relation to CAFOD, particularly in terms of the funding it receives from the Church – an almost exclusive CAFOD preserve. There does though have to be room in the Church’s remit for two such vital organisations reaching out across the world. It must be hoped that the Catholic in the pew and their representatives in the hierarchy realise what an important organisation they have in Progressio and react with the requisite generosity in order that it can continue doing its vital work.

Combatting climate change demands immediate action

2010-10-28T02:28:00.000-07:00

There is a worrying indication that the need to combat climate change is becoming the latest victim of the Coalition Government's cuts agenda.
Prime Minister David Cameron has boasted that this will be the greenest government ever but the reality as opposed to the rhetoric tells a somewhat different tale. Two recent examples illustrate the point. First, the decision to provide very limited funding to the new Green Bank, to fund sustainable technology initiatives. The £1 billion provided, contrasts to the £6 billion originally suggested - a real drop in the ocean compared to the hundreds of billions spent on bailing out the banking system. The second example concerns the decision to remove caps on rail fares thereby enabling them to rise inexorably. This will have the effect of driving people back onto the roads, so increasing carbon emissions. A possible answer if the Coalition government wants to cut the transport budget with regard to rail is to reduce the amount that the private train operating companies are taking to reward their shareholders, better still take the railway fully back into public ownership. The depressing fact that such actions portray is that the penny has clearly not dropped with this government that climate change is real and the time to combat it limited. It is difficult not to think that the disproportionately large media play given to the little band of climate skeptics has done much damage in this respect. The incident concerning the East Anglia emails furore did much damage to the climate change argument. They suggested a disingenuous attitude to the subject. There seems to have been little attention drawn to the timing of this story coming as it did immediately before the UN summit on climate change in Copehagen last December. The overall effect has been to create the impression that climate change is a subject still up for debate – the contention being it may be true, it may not. This portrayal of a debate resulted in more people doubting the existence of climate change. This is a futile argument, there is no doubt about the existence of global warming. First there are the authoritative and voluminous reports of the likes of Sir Nicholas Stern for the last government and the UN climate change panel. Second, the experience of nature around us. In London, there is the example of rising water levels with the River Thames. The Thames Barrier put up in the early 1980s to stop London flooding was pulled up 10 times in its first 10 years of existence. Over the past 10 years it has been raised more than 64 times.It is high time that the Church in this country spoke out more loudly on the need to combat climate change. The leadership of the Church in England, Wales and Scotland should take a lesson from the Pope, who has not only spoken out regularly on the need to act but also moved to make the Vatican State carbon neutral. This has included fitting 2,500 solar panels to the roofs.The hierarchy in this country should act in similar vein pointing out that addressing climate change is not an either or for government. The churches and schools should also be practicing what they preach, moving far more quickly to a zero carbon existence. Carbon neutral technologies like solar panels need to be fitted to all Church buildings.Combating climate change must be the highest priority and factored into any economic decision making. As agencies like CAFOD have warned the increasing rate of climate change is having an incredible impoverishing effect throughout the world.This is another area where the Church needs to be heard. The Church in this country has not made enough of a preferential option for the poor when it comes to the cuts agenda. Standing with the poor should mean articulating the need for budgetary savings to fall far more heavily in terms of taxes on the rich rather than cuts being made to public services. There is a nagging feeling that some Church leaders seem to be colluding in this "we're all in it together" rhetoric that says everyone has to suffer. Let's not forget who caused this crisis - the bankers - so they should be paying a proportionately higher amount of the costs. This is the type of moral leadership we need from the Church, not being afraid to be unpopular but having the courage to speak out on the needs for economic, environmental and social justice.

Why the one sided take on cuts agenda?

2010-10-19T03:26:00.000-07:00

The way in which the cuts agenda has been covered in much of the media, exposes just how supine most outlets have become to parroting official truths. Once again as with past narratives the raisen d'etre for the central theme, namely that everyone must feel the pain has been accepted without question. As a result most have colluded in this crude piece of propaganda that amounts to making the weakest and most vulnerable pay for the avarice and irresponsibiliy of the bankers. The occasional voice that has sounded calling for social justice in the form of far more of the burden for the deficit falling on the rich through higher taxes, have been shouted down immediately. When will journalists start to do the job they have been trained for, namely, to report and hold to account decison makers, not act as a wing of the PR industry, simply parroting official truths.

Time to start taking dementia seriously

2010-10-10T05:31:00.000-07:00

The growing problem of dementia in society was once again highlighted by a report from Kings College London that found 35 million sufferers worldwide costing £380 billion in social care
This amounts to 1 per cent of GDP worldwide or equivalent to the 18th largest country in the world.
The report commissioned by Alzheimers Disease International predicted that the number of sufferers would grow to 66 million in the next 20 years and up to 115 million by 2050.
In Britain there are 820,000 people who have dementia, around half of these suffer with Alzheimers. This figure is expected to double by 2050.
The dementia business seems dominated by statistics, what though must never be lost sight of is the terrible suffering it causes.
Our family had to deal with dementia when my Dad became a sufferer.
He steadily grew worse over the years. It must be frightening to deal with as the disease takes over your life. Reading Dad’s diaries after he died, it was apparent how his thought processes were breaking down as detailed chronicling of each day declined to where it was one or two points and then nothing. One particularly sad entry, showed a desperate loneliness as he revealed it was getting difficult to remember things he’d done that morning.
It is the process of seeing your loved one transform into someone who cannot remember your name that can be so debilitating for all concerned.
Dementia and the care needed with the illness is something that is fortunately beginning to gain more attention. In our case, there was little help for many years.
When the bean counters are throwing the numbers around, there should be a little more focus on some of the damage being done to those unpaid carers, on whom the burden often falls.
In our case that was mainly my mother, who for 18 months, prior to Dad going into a home was the main carer. She was 80 years old at the time, in need of care herself if anything, not dealing 24 hours a day with a husband in the advanced stages of dementia.
Dad was always a strong willed person, in control. This was a positive thing for most of his life but once dementia hit, this type of drive became negative. He would try to climb out of windows in the middle of the night. If he got out he would wander round the town.
That 18 months of caring for my Dad took its toll on Mum. The stress no doubt contributed to her loss of eyesight, hearing and other ailments.
And it is people like my Mum who end up bearing the burden of the dementia time bomb. Government does not want to pay for the condition. There is a period with dementia where you are virtually left in limbo. For us it was during that period when my mother was in the main caring for Dad.
While you don’t want the health service taking on big brother powers to take away loved ones, sometimes people need help. The system is too willing to let individuals go through their own private hell as they struggle to provide the care required.
Dad finally went into a home in October 2005, the first of three before he died in August 2008.
Homes though are another world that the dementia sufferer and carers have to endure. The whole sector has pretty much been farmed out to the private sector. There is a lack of regulation in an area that patently needs regulating. Dementia sufferers are in many cases as vulnerable as babies. The scope for abuse is immense, as was evidenced last year by a government report that found homes over using drugs to sedate dementia patients. Otherwise known as “the chemical cosh.” Government has moved to provide specialist training and more regulation but the danger of abuse remains constant.
The worry is that those who own the homes see them in the main as profit centres. The staff are often on low wages, for a job that if being done properly requires a high level of expertise.
A good home will seek to stimulate the dementia sufferers. They will be kept in a safe and caring environment. The worst homes are really warehouses of dementia sufferers waiting for death.
Dementia has gained a greater profile over recent years. This is no doubt due to a number of factors, first the growing number of sufferers and subsequent impact on those involved in caring and other duties.
Around 25 million people, or 42 per cent of the population, are affected by dementia through knowing a close friend or family member with the condition.
Second, in our celebrity dominated world, the instances of the famous like Cliff Richard, Fiona Philipps and John Suchet having relatives effected has led to greater publicity.
So there has been improvement in terms of the growing public awareness of the condition. There is still though much that needs to be done. The level of funding for research to find an answer to the disease is lamentably low compared to other conditions like cancer and heart disease. While cancer attracts £600 million a year in research funding, dementia gets just £50 million.
The attitude among medical practitioners to dementia needs to change. A doctor on a documentary presented by Fiona Philipps commented that you would not send a cancer patient away and say come back when the conditions worsens, which is what happens with many dementia cases.
There have been breakthroughs like the rember drug but there is the question of the cost and availability.There also needs to be a real focus on care. It should not be left to the relatives of the dementia sufferer to pick up the care duties unaided. There should be more help in the home and proper regulation of care homes. All of these matters need to be addressed in order that our society can deal more humanely with the victims of dementia

Celebrate Dagenham victory but long way to go to achieve equality

2010-10-10T05:29:00.000-07:00

The excellent film Made in Dagenham focuses on the strike of the women workers seeking equal pay at the Ford plant in 1968.
A cleverly constructed film, it deals with inequality on a number of levels. So there is the basic dispute itself between the management and women workers, who insist they should not be getting half what the men are for doing the same grade of job.
This leads to other frictions such as in the male dominated trade union. The senior officers end up trying to collude with Fords management against the women.
Then as the dispute goes on it stops the work for the men as well, so they are laid off. This causes tensions between the men and women. This tension is reflected in the marriage between two of the central figures Rita and Eddie O’Grady.
It is all resolved by the end, with the women winning a famous victory. They get substantially what they were seeking from Ford and with the intervention of then employment secretary Barbara Castle the equal pay act comes into effect two years later.
If there were a sequel film though it would have to focus on what has happened - or not happened - to bring about equal pay in the 40 years since the equal pay act became law.
Women are still discriminated against in the workplace, the difference being – as with many forms of discrimination – that it has become more covert.
As a result of the Dagenham strike, the women initially got 92 per cent pay parity with men. Today, despite equalities legislation and the culture change the gap is 17 per cent in full time jobs and 38 per cent for part time. Women tend to be disproportionately represented in the lower paid and part time end of the jobs market. At the other end, things are little better with women making up just 2 per cent of Chief Executive Officers. A mere 17 per cent of directorships are held by women.
At Parliamentary level things have gone backwards in some cases. So in the Scottish Parliament, the number of women members has fallen from 39.5 per cent in 2005 to 37.4 per cent in 2010. There was similar decline in the Welsh Assembly going from 50 per cent to 46.7 per cent in the same period. By way of comparison, some 27.7 per cent members of the Afghanistan and 25.5 per cent of the Iraqi Parliament are women.
At the present rate of progress it will take another 200 years before women get parity with men at Westminster.
In the trade union world things have faired little better.
While the unions have been at the forefront of the push for greater equality in the workplace, they themselves remain unrepresentative of women in the most part.
Women do hold senior union positions, like Frances O’Grady, the deputy general secretary of the TUC, but on the whole women are not represented proportionately at the top tables compared to the level of membership they make up.
So there is still much to be done if equality is ever to be attained in the workplace. The cuts agenda being pursued by the Coalition Government threatens to hit women disproportionately hard. Given the idealogical desire of the Coalition Government to seemingly dismantle the public sector, where 70 per cent of jobs are held by women, the effects likely to result are obvious.
The discrimination against women means that they already dominate areas of low and part time pay mean that they will suffer the brunt of the cuts. Families too will be hit hardest.
The Made in Dagenham film has come out at a timely moment, just prior to the details of the cuts being revealed. The film reminds everyone of the injustice of a system that treats women as second class citizens.
The victory of the women marked a high point in defeating sex discrimination in the workplace but the 40 years since has only seen slow progress towards true equality. The danger must be that if the cuts agenda being proposed by the Coalition Government goes through in full, it could prove yet another step back for women’s equality. The struggle for equal pay goes on but there is still a long way to go.

Combatting climate change cannot become cuts victim

2010-10-10T05:26:00.000-07:00

What is becoming apparent is that the Coaltion Government's cuts agenda appears to make no allowance for the need to address climate change. David Cameron's protestations that this will be the greenest government ever do not stand up to scrutiny, The rhetoric may say the government is taking climate change seriously but the reality suggests it regards the challenge as at best something that can be put on the back burner until more prosperous economic times return. This cannot be allowed to happen. If the government is serious about climate change and economic recovery it should be investing heavily in green technology and reducing the countries reliance on oil.
Putting up rail fares to price people into their cars and cutting investment in industries involved in producing wind turbines suggests this government is heading in exactly the opposite direction. The need to cut carbon emissions and seriously address climate change cannot wait, it has to happen now. No economic decision - including cuts - should be taken without considering its implications for the planet, to do otherwise will result in us all reaping a terrible price in the long term.

What is the point of the Labour Party?

2010-09-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

The questioning of Ed Miliband's victory in the Labour leadership election because the trade unions supported him really does beggar belief. The Labour Party was set up by the trade unions to represent working people, why on earth should they not have a say in who leads the party? The fact the Labour Party has so often failed to serve the interests of working people whilst being bankrolled by the unions is the greater charge. It seems ironic that just as with Tony Blair, his predecessor, Ed having secured union support is now already seeking to distance himself from those who founded and fund the party. What would be more heartening would to see a Labour leader who embraces the unions rationale, opposing the cuts agenda aimed at making the most weak and vulnerable in society pay for the largesse and irresponsibility of the bankers

Travelling community comes under pressure in Europe

2010-09-24T02:18:00.000-07:00

Once again it would seem anti-traveller sentiment is gathering momentum across Europe, with President Nicolas Sarkozy leading the way with his deportation of the Roma to Romania and Bulgaria.
The President has moved to dismantle 300 illegal camps and squats, claiming they are "sources of illegal trafficking, of profoundly shocking living standards, of exploitation of children for begging, of prostitution and crime".
A recently a leaked memo from the French interior ministry indicated there may have been deliberate targeting of the Roma in contravention of the French constitution and international law.
Some 5,000 Roma (gypsies) have so far been deported this year back to Romania and Bulgaria.
The French government reaction came after violence flared in July between police and Roma in the Loire Valley town of Saint Aignan.
There has been shock amongst many of the population in France and internationally at the severe actions taken by the President, though support from others. Some 100,000 people recently rallied against the policy.
Internationally, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has also warned France of the possibility that infringement proceedings for discriminatory application of the Free Movement Directive may be launched. "I personally have been appalled by a situation which gave the impression that people are being removed from a member state of the European Union just because they belong to a certain ethnic minority. This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the Second World War." said Ms Reding.
There have though also been robust actions taken in Italy to demolish travelling community camps.
Hostility to the travelling community in Britain and Ireland has been more muted. The most open hostility came last year when 115 Romanian Roma were driven from Belfast.
Yvonne McNamara, director of the Irish Traveller Movement, likens the upcoming eviction of Britain’s biggest camp, Dale Farm in Essex to actions taken in other parts of Europe. “No provision has been put in place for the families being evicted from the area,” said Ms McNamara.
Roma and Irish Travellers are protected by the Race Relations Act 1976 in Britain, yet this does not stop discrimination of an open and institutional nature being widely practiced against this minority. In its worst form, this resulted in the murder of 15-year old Irish Traveller boy Johnny Delaney in Ellesmere Port in 2003.
Traveller children regularly experience discrimination at school with the ITM reporting nine out of ten children experiencing racial abuse, while nearly a third have been bullied or physically attacked.
The story of Irish Traveller Kathleen Stoke’s youngest son is instructive. All four of her children were bullied at school. Her youngest son fought back and was expelled. “When he went to another school, my second eldest advised him not to say that he was a traveller,” said Kathleen, who lives in Dagenham. “He hasn’t, so now he is just seen as being Irish and is not bullied.”
Chester based GP, Joseph O’Neill has told of the worst health conditions that exist among the travelling community with asthma, bronchitis and chest pain all more commonplace. In the area of mental health, self reported mental illness was 19 per cent compared to nine per cent in the general population. The travelling community has the highest level of maternal deaths among ethnic minority groups, with a miscarriage rate of 29 per cent compared to 16 per cent for the general population.
The worse health conditions no doubt contribute to a life expectancy that is 10 years less than for the settled population.
The major touchstone subject that causes most animosity regarding the travelling community in Britain is lack of site provision.
The level of opposition to traveller encampments struck home recently when nine acres of agricultural land in Essex was bought by 16 local householders for £180,000. Agricultural land costs on average around £5,000 an acre, so in this case the locals were so concerned about the possibility of travellers moving in that they paid four times the going rate to stop that eventuality. The Essex example is not unique.
The vociferous opposition to travellers moving into an area, no doubt has much to do with the hysteria whipped up in the media. The image of people who create a mess wherever they go and commit crime does not make them popular.
The reality is usually somewhat different. It is ironic that the very qualities that the most vitriolic newspapers like the Daily Mail and Daily Express claim to uphold are most prevalent in the travelling community. Most gypsies and travellers marry at a young age. They have stable relationships, with teenage pregnancy outside marriage is rare. Family life is sacrosanct.
That said maybe the travelling community and their advocates need to do more to break down some of the negative stereotypes that cause such blatant racial hostility.
One aspect that seems to cause particular resentment is the creation of unauthorised sites on land owned by travellers. This involves a piece of land being bought ostensibly to keep horses. Electricity and water supplies come in for the animals. Then overnight caravans move in. Application is made for retrospective planning permission and a site has been created. As evidenced in a recent Parliamentary debate, this type of development is creating real friction between the travelling and settled communities across the country.
The travelling community ofcourse claim this only happens due to lack of site provision.
The lack of provision has been contentuous ever since 1994 when the Conservative Government repealed the Caravans Act 1968 which put a statutory obligation on local authorities to provide sites. As a result, travellers was put into a state of perpetual motion, continually being moved on from one place to another.
The last Labour Government did move to address the issue, pushing local authorities to identify areas under the regional spatial strategy that could be used for sites. The government then provided a fund to develop the sites.
The Coalition Government has done away with this strategy, returning in main to the public order approach. The one sop is offering some financial incentives to local authorities to provide sites There is a clear hostility across Europe to the travelling community, often born out of ignorance. Developments in France and elsewhere indicate a further step backwards toward intolerance toward this much maligned minority.

Rights of the elderly need defending

2010-09-16T01:49:00.000-07:00

The sign of a civilised society should be how it treats its old people. If this maxim is accepted then the increasingly ugly inter-generational tension that seems to be building in the UK does not augur well for the future.As the baby boomer generation reaches pensionable age, there is a growing public discourse that seems to pitch the old against the young. Put simply the charge is that the baby boomer generation (born 1945 to 1965) had all the benefits - they grew up with the health service, have homes, received welfare and a free education - with those who wanted to go onto higher education receiving grants for the purpose.
Now, they receive a state pension, fuel allowances, free travel passes and other benefits. The debate continues that the young are resentful of all this. They increasingly charge the baby boomers with destroying the planet, contributing to the national debt and having the best of all worlds. The younger generations claim they will be lucky to ever own their home outright, have huge loans to service if they want to go onto higher education and job prospects are not good. Life will also be different in a world dogged by climate change. All of this and they also have to pay for the upkeep of the elderly.There is a quite rabid debate developing. It gives no credit to the massive contribution made by the elderly to society. The taxes paid over the years. The free childcare provided courtesy of many elderly people for their grandchildren. The massive amount of voluntary work done. At the worst end of this debate, some seem to be suggesting that elderly people should even pay some sort of super tax for being old. This type of development really would destroy any notion of the society in which we live being civilised.Some facts about the elderly population could prove helpful at this juncture. In 2009, there were 12 million pensioners living in the UK, 7.5 million women and 4.5 million men. This represents 19 per cent of the total population. By 2050, the number of people of state pensionable age is forecast to be 16 million, which will represent 21 per cent of the population.Average life expectancy in England stands at 77.7 years for men and 81.8 years for women. There are though wide differentials according to where a person lives. So a man in Blackpool will live on average to 73.2 years compared to his counterpart in Kensington and Chelsea, who lives on average 10.5 years more. Some 2.5m pensioners are living below the official poverty line in 2007/8 defined as 60 per cent median population income (equivalent to £158 a week before housing costs). Some 61 per cent of pensioner couples struggle by on £15,000 or less. 45 per cent of single pensioners have an income of £10,000 or less. The state pension is £95.25 a week.Some 3.5 million older people live alone. One in five over 80s suffer with dementia, with this ratio closing to one in three for over 90s.These statistics give a snapshot of what it is like to be old in Britain today.
The lack of sympathy for the elderly population is reflected in recent moves to increase the pensionable age from 65 to 68 over the coming years. This is justified on the basis of people living longer and society not being able to afford the cost. There is also the growing concern over the closing ratio of pensioners to those in work, with the figures moving toward 2:1. Recently, for the first time the number of people over 65 exceeded those under 16. The cost issue is largely a misnomer. The National Pension Fund which takes in money contributed via natioanl insurance to provide for the state pension is £52 billion in surplas. This figure is set to rise to over £100 billion in the coming years. The increase was helped by the change in 1980 linking pension rises to the prices as opposed to the earning index. This is soon to change back but according to the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) had the link not changed the state pension today would be £158.60 not £95.25.So overall, it can hardly be said that elderly people have an easy life. Fortunately, many are increasingly finding a collective voice through organisations like the NPC. Grey power has for many years played a significant role in the political scene in America but in Britain the response has been more muted.
As the attacks continue though, from extending the retirement age to cutting pensions and benefits, grey power here has the potential to be a very potent political force, with pensioners representing 19 per cent of the population. What is more, they are far more likely to vote than other younger groups. It is time that the pensioners voice was heard louder and more clearly. The way forward though is for young and old to join together in solidarity, because the one certainty in life is that one day most of us will grow old.

Untold side of Catholicism

2010-09-10T06:23:00.000-07:00

Many Catholics have wondered in the weeks running up to the Pope's visit whether they live in a foreign land. The negative tone in much of the media, seeking to put all Catholics under one easy to fit label as at best strange and worst deranged has caused much discomfort.
The constant highlighting of the cost of the state visit - Catholics do pay taxes too by the way - has been blown up out of all proportion. There are millions of Catholics who do contribute quite a lot to the welfare of this society.
Take the case of Kerry Norridge who will speak at the vigil in Hyde Park with the Pope. Brought up in a stable family in Oxford, he fell into the drug culture during his teenage years and was a heroine addict by the age of 20.
Kerry cut off from his family and did various jobs, like selling the Big Issue, just to pay for the drugs. “I was running away, never dealing with> the issue. It got dark and lonely and I felt very isolated,” said Kerry.
A fellow hostel dweller encouraged him to go to Narcotics Anonymous and it was from there that the long road to recovery began.
Following rehabilitation he went to the Cardinal Hume Centre (CHC), where he stayed in one of the hostels and got help with employment and life skills. “This was a fantastic move for me, they are positively focused at getting people into a meaningful life,” said Kerry, who is now living independently in a flat in north London and doing a drama course to become an actor.
It is this type of work done by the CHC that is the kind of Catholic social action that the likes of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens never mention when attacking the Church.
The work that goes on quietely in the back streets, based on the Benedictine ethos that all are welcome and no one will be judged. The CHC give their help unconditionally so as to get people back on their feet and back into mainstream society.
As well as homeless hostels the centre has an employment team, family centre, immigration advice service, English classes and adult education.
There are many Catholic orientated organisations doing the work of social justice across Britain. In the area of homelessness there is Housing Justice and the De Paul Trust.
Both work with the homeless and advocate for this group of vulnerable people. Alison Gelder, chief executive at Housing Justice, and Cathy Corcoran, her counterpart at the CHC, both warned recently of the level of suffering that will be caused by the Coalition Government’s plans to cut housing benefit.
The De Paul Trust is also involved in work with prisoners, where the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT) also fulfil an important advocacy role.
PACT have developed a mentoring system that helps prisoners to have a better chance of not re-offending when they get out of prison. The support of family and friends has proved crucial in keeping prisoners away from crime once released.
Overseas there is the work of CAFOD and Progressio. CAFOD has become one of the most effective humanitarian agencies in the land, responding quickly to disasters like the Pakistan floods and Tsunami in South East Asia. The success of CAFOD comes from its ability to plug in directly to the generosity of the Catholic community, with most of its funding coming from that source.
CAFOD also run excellent projects across the world giving people and communities the chance to live dignified lives. Many of these projects> follow a similar ethos to CHC, only in an overseas context.
Progressio has been a visionery organisation over the years, often reading the signs of the times well ahead of others, who boast far greater resources. Most recently this has involved pointing out the injustices of some of the actions taken by big corporations seeking to get control of seed> stocks and the food chain via GM production.
Then there are the faith schools. Whilst fundamentalist secularists campaign> against these institutions many non-believers in the real world clamour to get their children in due to the ethos and good academic records.
These are just a few examples of the Catholic Church engaged and involved in a very practical way at home and abroad. It is a massive contribution to the> welfare of society. It is important that this work is recognised and not lost amid the desire of some fundamentalist secularists to portray the Church as sex obsessed and irrelevant

Why are people not more angry with the bankers?

2010-09-01T01:56:00.000-07:00

The question that occurs as the Coalition Government announces one cut after another is why are people not more angry about the bankers?It was afterall they who largely created the deficit in the first place. The taxpayer was forced to step in to bail out the bankers or see the whole system crash. The consequences were thought too dire to apprehend: cash machines no longer giving out money, businesses unable to access credit and quite rapidly the whole system declining into anarchy. The banks had to be saved, which the Labour Government of the day did by effectively nationalising a number of them.It was from this point that the problems started. The government should have taken effective control of the banks and how they operate. Instead, it allowed management teams in the banks to pretty much continue as before. The system was fixed so that not even the banks could fail to restore their institutions to profit. Interest rates were cut but the banks were not forced to pass the cuts on to morgage holders. What they did was partially pass on the cuts to borrowers while handing them on in full to savers. Instead of making credit available to struggling businesses they shut up shop. Meanwhile, as bank balance sheets started to be restored they continued with business as usual regarding the payment of high salaries and huge bonuses to themselves.Why did the government not insist on the banks that it owned opened up credit lines to business? Why were savers, many of whom include the elderly, so savagely hit? The banks should have been made instruments of social justice, operating for the common good. Instead, they have been effectively bailed out by the taxpayer and then continued with business as usual. Losses have been effectively nationalised, while profits continue to be privatised at the behest of the market.The Coaliton Government, with its cuts agenda, has creatred a process, whereby the poorer members of society are being made to pay for the largesse of the rich.The Coaliton Government together with many complient voices in the media has done its best to blame the deficit on the past government. It was the profligacy of Labour that caused this crisis, so the story goes. This is a less than subtle PR line designed no doubt to soften the blow of making the mass of people pay for the avarice of the rich. It is much easier to sell a line that blames the last government rather than the bankers. If the bankers were blaimed all of the time then there might be a lot more anger around and less acceptance that everyone else should pay for the behaviour of this small group of irresponsible individuals.This is not ofcourse to say that the last government was blameless. The weakening of the regulatory framework by splitting the task between the Bank of England, Treasury and Financial Services Authority made the crisis far more likely to happen. Had Prime Minister Gordon Brown not been quite so enthralled with City bankers in suits then much of the damage could no doubt have been avoided.What the banking crisis should teach is just how close society now resides to the precipice. Anarchy was not far away in the autumn of 2008, as the banks threatened to crash on mass. There needs to be a step back taken to look at how our society is organised and in the interests of whom. An examination of Catholic Social Teaching could well provide a way forward. CST emphasises the need to work for the Common Good. The Church teaches that people are here to adminster wealth on behalf of the mass of people, not monopolise it on behalf of a small group of the priveliged. There needs to be some responsibility exercised in plotting the way forward. If this path of action is not taken there is every chance that next time the banks or some similar key institutions crashes there will be no second chance. There will be anarchy on the streets and the law of the jungle will reign to the detriment of all. There needs to be fundamental change now, not simply putting the wheels back on a vehicle that is already broken.

Community organisers must not be compromised by government money

2010-08-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

Community organising has been very much in the ascent since the Coalition Government came to power proclaiming its Big Society agenda.
Prior to the election, Conservative Party leader David Cameron made no secret of his admiration, pledging to create a National Centre for Community Organising and fund the training to be carried out by “independent third parties such as London Citizens UK, who have proven track records in training community organisers and activists.”
Now in power the plan to fund the training of community organisers appears set to move ahead with Neil Jameson, the executive director of London Citizens and Citizens UK, an early visitor at a Downing Street reception. “We have been talking to the Coalition Government about the work we do,” said Jameson, who was keen to emphasis that the organisation would not be giving up any of its independence if it took up the state’s shilling.
Jameson explained that Citizens UK, the parent body of London Citizens, would be offering professional training in community organising at a cost to government. At present this training comes free to those who form part of its 150 strong membership organisations. This training has also been offered on a subsidised basis to the likes of the Oxfam, the Salvation Army and Church organisations.
The concern of many is that the organisation could be compromised or co-opted if it gets too closely embroiled with government.
Community organising as practiced by London Citizens has taken off in the capital over recent years. The work began in the early 1990s, drawing on the community organising model of Saul Alinsky in 1930s Chicago.
Community organising is about bringing people together and empowering them to achieved change in their own lives through political activism. It seeks to build relationships with those who hold the power and by direct civil action if the initial approaches fail. The most famous US son of the movement is President Barack Obama who trained as an organiser when younger.
The first organisation in the UK was The East London Communities Organisation (telco). Set up in 1996, it proved successful in bringing together different faith groups, schools, trade unions and other community based bodies.
South London Citizens and West London Citizens followed Telco. It is planned that North London Citizens will come into being over the next 12 months. Outside the capital the organisation was less successful, setting up in Liverpool, North Wales, the Black Country, Sheffield and Bristol. None of these survived, withering due to lack of funding to support sufficient organisers in the regions. “I guess we grew too quickly in the early 1990s,”said Jameson. “The first generation of organisers were on their own in the city where they worked. If the organisation does not encourage political action then it ceases to exist.”
The organisation has since retrenched in London looking to build its strength before once again expanding outside the capital. “Ideally we would like £120,000 in the bank before organisers relocate. Then they would work their butts off to achieve the aims,” said Jameson, who confirms plans to extend out to Cardiff and Milton Keynes over the next 12 months.
In London, the organisation seems to have gone from strength to strength. Membership organisations pay annual fees ranging between £600 and £1800 depending on size. For this the leaders of the membership organisation receive training and become involved in campaigns at local and national level. LC also gets funding from a number of trusts.
Among the national campaigns have been the living wage and Strangers into Citizens. The living wage campaign started in east London with research funded by Unison looking at the amount required per hour to live above the poverty line.
The campaign involved direct meetings with the heads of the likes of HSBC Bank and then direct actions at branch level. Successes followed with Barclays Bank becoming a particular advocate of the living wage for its lower paid workers in the cleaning sector. NHS trusts were also targeted, resulting in cleaners and security guards winning better wages. Finally, London Mayor Ken Livingstone took up the cause, creating a living wage unit in his office that set the living wage level for all of those employed by the Greater London Authority. Boris Johnson continued the work when he took over as Mayor, most recently setting the rate at £7.60 an hour. The campaign claims to have put £20 million in the pockets of the lowest paid families since 2001.
Johnson also became a flag waver for another leading campaign to regularise undocumented workers. He supported the Strangers into Citizens campaign that is seeking an earned amnesty for people who have been undocumented and worked here for a number of years. The Liberal Democrats also picked up the sentiments of this campaign during the election with their call for an amnesty for undocumented workers.
At more local level community organising means working with the police and others for safer streets, cheaper housing and better environment.
The power of community organising in bringing politicians to account is best seen at the assemblies. These are huge stage-managed affairs, attracting a couple of thousand people. Two of the most recent held at Westminster Central Hall were for the national party leaders prior to the general election and before that for London Mayoral candidates. The candidates were asked pre-arranged questions, put by selected leaders from the platform. It is about publically holding the politicians to account. There is no debate and no questions from the floor. The assemblies provide a great photo opportunity for the media of democracy at work but in reality are controlled with iron discipline. Member organisations commit to bring a number of people with them and are held to that pledge.
One member of a housing charity recalled that when they turned up with six rather than the pledged 10 people it was “a bit like being put on the naughty step.”
”There is a Stalinistic feel,” he said. Some member organisations also challenge the democracy of London Citizens. One deputy head teacher of a primary school recalled back in 2004, the first assembly that brought together Telco and South London Citizens. The packed meeting were to vote on seven areas to work on. The top four would go ahead for implementation. Seventh in the voting was the London Olympics, yet within a couple of months the hierarchy of London Citizens seemed somehow to have elevated the Olympics to top spot.
One Catholic priest thinks the organisation addresses middle class issues, not necessarily those of the community where they exist. He feels they adopt campaigns and then shuffle them according to political expediency. "They don't stick with issues, only those they can win and get kudos for," said the priest, who also saw the danger of co-option in taking government money to train community organisers. “There will be questions as to who will be boss, if the government is paying they will decide, not the community.”
Jameson though remains steadfast on this point, insisting community organising is about civil society. “We want to work with those on the side of civil society rather than the state,” said Jameson.
There is though clearly concern about co-option by government, if too much funding is accepted. Funding always comes with strings attached. Perhaps one sign of growing disquiet is the declining role of trade unions in London Citizens. At one point there were 20 branches from Unison, PCS and the Unite, today this has reduced to eight. Union branches also used to be well represented at assemblies, now there are few to be seen – replaced it would seem by school children.
Could the reduction have anything to do with the fact that in the case of the public sector some see the London Citizens getting into bed with a government that is committed to putting a good number of their members out of work?
Jameson though has a different explanation, saying that the unions saw things in a very single issue way. So there would be a campaign at a hospital for the living wage, “once this was achieved, they said thanks and we’re off.”
Whatever the cause there is certainly some soul searching going amongst those involved in community organising. This form of political organisation has made great strides, engaging faith communities in real action that has achieved change like the living wage. Large numbers have been mobilised. The danger now is that in taking government money, much of this work could be compromised. The growing concerns about internal democracy may also be causing some to question the work of community organising. Whatever the truth, it must be hoped that the astute leadership of London Citizens are aware of the dangers and do not risk destroying what has so far been a positive experiment in real grass root citizens activism.

Defiance in the face of house demolition

2010-08-18T02:44:00.000-07:00

The house of Salim and Arabiya Shawamreh has been demolished three times by the Israeli army over the past 14 years.
The Palestinian couple, with the help of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), have rebuilt the house three times. The last occasion was in 2001, when the house was designated as a peace centre.
Salim takes up the story of the struggle, he, his wife Arabiya and their six children have had to establish a home in Anata, East Jerusalem. “ I went by the book, applying three times for a building permit between 1990 and 1994. First, I was told I was outside the zone and planning area for the village,” said Salim, who revealed how the Israeli authorities continually push to keep Palestinians in the designated village areas so that the rest of the land is open for Israeli settlers.
The second time he applied, he was denied the permit because the authorities said the land sloped. “I could have flattened the area out very quickly with one of the bulldozers that they use to knock down our houses,” said Salim.
The third denial was because the authorities said there were two signatures missing on the application for a permit. A solicitor tried over several months to get details of the names but without success.
Every time Salim applied for the permit, it cost US$5,000. In the end Salim just got on and built his house. Things were ok for a while but then on 9 July 1998, there was a big commotion outside. “They had brought 300 soldiers to demolish our house. We were given 15 minutes to get out before the bulldozers moved in,” recalled Salim. “I protested and got kicked to the ground. My wife and children stayed inside the house and were attacked with teargas.”
The house was flattened. “We had planted 52 trees around the home. We had chickens and ducks,” said Salim. “The trees were cut down, the animals killed. We were left with nothing.”
The Red Cross gave the family a tent and the ICAHD came along. The family decided with the ICAHD to rebuild the house. The shell was up inside a month but then the army arrived again. “The soldiers came at 4 am in the morning with machine guns and bulldozers. The house was demolished for a second time and the tent taken. We were told we had to have permission for the tent from the Israeli authorities,” said Salim.
Israelis and Palestinians came together again to rebuild the house. It was completed on 9 July 1999. Two months passed and no demolition. The Shawamreh family moved in to the house. Then on 4 April 2001, they woke to find it once again surrounded by soldiers with two bulldozers. “The area was surrounded, the furniture thrown into the street and the house demolished,” said Salim.
The house was then rebuilt again. It was agreed with the ICAHD that it would be used as a peace centre. It was completed in July 2003 and has remained standing since that time, though a demolition order was placed on the propery in June 2009.
Arabiya recalled the problems that the children endured as a result of the demolition. “The children regressed at school. They had psychological problems, waking up in the night crying and screaming,” said Arabiya. The children who were young at the time of the demolitons were most severely effected, with her younger children doing better later at school. “I wish there could be peace and we could live normally,” said Arabiya.
The Israeli authorities have overseen the demolition of 24,000 homes, making 160,000 people homeless, since 1967. “Only 8 per cent of the demolitions are anything to do with security,” said Linda Ramsden, the director of ICAHD UK. “It is about dispossessing the Palestinian people, putting them into Bantustans.”
Linda explained how the ICAHD formed in 1997 from the peace movement in Israel. It was made up of those Israelis appalled at the way its government was treating the Palestinians. They went to the Palestinians and asked how they could help. The rebuilding of houses was agreed upon as the best thing they could do.
Linda explained how in the early days, the ICAHD would get notice of a house demolition and people would go to chain onto the building. “Now though the Israeli forces cordon off the street so we can’t get near to the houses, though we try to block the way,” said Linda, who revealed how this slowed the demolitons down and helped bring the actions to the attention of the international community.
The ICAHD has managed to rebuild 162 houses in the West Bank and east Jerusalem area over the past 13 years. Just 12 of these houses have been demolished by the Israeli authorities.
There have been casualties on the way with US citizen Rachel Corrie among those killed while undertaking the work.
The houses are rebuilt all of the time but the ICAHD has a focus on a summer camp that takes place over two weeks in July each year. At this time people come in from across the world to help with the work. Last year, some 43 Spanish people took part with the Spanish government paying for the whole project. This year there are people coming from the UK, US, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland for the camp. “The summer camps offer the opportunity to join with Israelis and Palestinians in rebuilding a house over two weeks. Then the house is handed over to the family,” said Linda.
Salim explains the house rebuilding programme very much in terms of political resistance. “We tell the families that maybe they will get their home, maybe not. They and us maybe arrested. The promise is that we will not leave them. If we have to rebuild the house ten times we will,” said Salim, who says the Israeli authorities think twice before attacking the area if they know there are people from other countries there supporting and doing the work. Salim recalled how the Israeli criticised the Spanish government over the housebuilding last year. “They have also tried to close down ICAHD and stop people sending money,” said Salim, who wants people in the UK to help the Palestinians to get justice. “We need to get this occupation off our backs. We would ask people to boycott Israeli goods because they are coming from the settlements. They are coming from stolen land, from the blood of the people,” said Salim.
* For more information see ICAHD UK, PO BOX 371 Leatherhead KT22 2EUTel: 05602 409976 info@icahduk.org www.icahduk.org

Transition town initiatives need encouragement

2010-08-07T09:08:00.000-07:00

There is much going on at a local level to address climate change and reduce oil dependency.This is important because as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico proves, it is getting more dangerous and difficult to obtain oil from the earth. Where once oil was regarded as an infinite resource, it is now clear that this is not the case.The point when oil supplies are set to peak is now predicted for 2015. Things may even be worse as there seems to be some doubt as to the validity of figures concerning oil reserves. Many do not realise just how dependent the world is on oil, it is not just a matter of running cars or heating. Some 97 per cent of all our food is oil dependent. Plastic is an oil derivative product. Clothes and shelter are linked up with oil.So the lack of oil is a serious problem in terms of development and survival. Add in the devastating effect that using oil has in terms of climate change and a vicious circle is complete.
Fortunately, there are things happening to address oil dependency. The transition town initiative has built a model that people can use to reduce oil dependency.
There are now more than 180 such intitiatives across the country, including places as diverse as Totnes, Lewes and Exeter. The idea involves a small group of people coming together to discuss ways in which the local area can become more self sufficient and less dependent on oil. It is about building resilience, ready for the day when oil really does become scarce.
For the transition initiative to work, more people must become involved. This can be done initially by showing films, raising awareness about issues like climate crisis and peak oil. Then there must be a move to action.In Exeter, there have been a number of initiatives taken including buying four acres of land for a community farm. Anyone is welcome to come and take part. A couple of farms outside Exeter have also got involved, agreeing to solely supply organic products for the local community. The next move is to raise £190,000 that will enable the purchase of a property that will become a not-for profit co-operative store providng local organically produced food for the people. There are other initiatives to teach people how to produce their own crops and cook. Many of what were once the basic skills of life have been lost in a supermarket led fast food world, where sticking ready prepared meals in the oven has become the norm. Among the farming community there is increasing sympathy for transition style initiatives. One Cornish farmer, Victor Barry, has been farming organically for years. This has meant using horses to plough his fields, thereby cutting the carbon footprint to nil.The transition initiatives also take in other elements of local life like transport and energy systems. Some towns have gone as far as bringing in their own energy generating means like wind turbines, others have sort co-operation with energy companies to work more sustainably.So there is much going on but more needs to happen if the country is to ween itself off oil and save the planet - why delay?

Justice & Peace activism in need of formation

2010-07-29T01:25:00.000-07:00

The recent annual National Justice and Peace Network conference drew more than 350 people to spend a weekend debating food security. It was a great opportunity to network with others working for social justice across the Church and beyond.
A question that sprang to mind was just how is the work of social justice in the Church being conducted at present? Attending the NJPN conferences it is difficult not to see it as an ageing movement, still made up of the children of the 1960s and 70s. This generation has faithfully struggled to live out the teachings of Vatican II but where are the new people, where’s the renewal?How many parishes actually operate justice and peace groups now? The commitment at diocesan level is certainly pretty sketchy with few diocese having workers and some lacking commissions. There is a definite belief amongst the hierarchy that while doing social justice is a constituent part of practicing the faith, but in terms of resourcing it is an added extra that can be done without. CAFOD has been a big backer of justice and peace over the years, providing funding for workers and the NJPN. Recently though CAFOD has seemed less enthusiastic in its support, whilst continuing to utilise the very valuable network that NJPN offers. A more recent player to emerge on the scene has been the Citizens Organising Foundation (COF) with its community organising via groups like London Citizens. This has proved a good way of getting whole parishes and schools signed up to the work of social justice. The living wage, regularisation of undocumented workers and debt reduction have all been valuable campaigns. Many J&P activists are active members of this organisation which is planning to expand out across the UK.What is lacking though is any real formation of people engaged in the work of social justice. The days when CAFOD actively pushed the pastoral cycle with its experience, analysis reflection, action and celebration aspects seem long gone.
The pastoral cycle was widely used by Christian communities pursuing justice based on liberation theology in Latin America. There was real formation in terms of social justice and the political sphere in which it operates, centred on a firm foundation of Church teaching.
Now unfortunately such formation work has given way to rather superficial campaigns that often involve deluging government ministers with postcards imploring them to act. Whilst this has a place, it should be an end in itself. It needs underpinning with justice theology and should be seen as a starting point to go on to something else.Community organising is no better at providing a process for the formation of people. It targets people in parishes with control of the purse strings. Once signed up, a few people are selected for leadership sessions but the organisation as a whole operates in a very disciplined hierarchial way. Member schools and parishes are summoned to fill out big halls for assemblies that are incredibly stage managed affairs, with no questions from the floor allowed. Community organising is more of a method than a process.
It was process and formation of people in the work of social justice that used to be so prevalent in justice and peace. This seems to have been lost. It is almost like running around like headless chickens wanting "to do" all of the time without any reflection or analysis. There is a feeling if we do enough - whether that is buying fair trade products, marching, protesting or acting ethically - then the world will become a better place. Whilst at one level this is no doubt true, at another the question of why the world is not a better place arises, and what motivates people to wish that it would.
The challenge for J&P is to get that process of formation back, that ability to analyse what is going on in the world and work out a process as to how to inculcate transformative kingdom values into that world.
There is an urgent need for these formation processes to begin again at a number of levels. There is the challenge of getting more people involved. Then there is the challenge of how people are moved on once they become engaged. Many want quick fixes, rather than putting in the time, looking at the structural causes of the problems and acting. Work for social justice is a lifelong commitment not a quick fix.
It is high time that the Church recognised this commitment and devoted some proper resources to the formation of communities steeped in social justice. At present this vital work is being too easily sidelined

Inaction sends the wrong message

2010-07-28T01:34:00.000-07:00

The big danger of the failure to bring any action against police officers involved in the death of Ian Tomlinson is the message it conveys to other officers. There has been case after case over recent years of deaths in police custody and never do charges or disciplinary action materialise. Not surprisingly the deaths keep occurring, because the message to the police is that they are above the law. This is a dangerous situation for the public as it makes the streets less safe - due to the police

Terror review offers hope for restoration of liberty

2010-07-14T07:01:00.000-07:00

The news that the coalition government has announced a review of anti-terror legislation including 28 day pre-charge detention offers hope for a return of some basic human rights.
The announcement was made to coincide with a decision to extend 28 day pre-charge detention for the six month period. A debate on renewal under the Prevention of Terrorism Act had to be undertaken by 25 July 2010.
The review will also include control orders and reform of Section 44 stop and search under the Terrorism Act 2000. The outcome of the review will be a real test of the coalition government’s colours regarding human rights. It follows on a Labour Government which was one of the most authoritarian in recent history.
To find the antecedents of 28 day pre-charge detention requires going back to the Guildford and Birmingham pub bombings of 1974. The first Prevention of Terrorism Act was introduced following the Birmingham pub bombings. Described by then Home Secretary Roy Jenkins as "draconian" this piece of legislation brought in seven day pre-charge detention. One of the first people detained under its provision was Paul Hill of the Guildford Four, so it had a good record for entrapping the innocent from the off.
It was subsequently used over the years to detain hundreds of thousands of people at the ports, airports and beyond. The detention period could be anything from an hour to seven days. Some 86 per cent of people were released without charge. The way in which the PTA was used effectively made a suspect community of the Irish. It also had the effect of stopping people getting overtly involved in the politics of the North.
The PTA came up for renewal each year. In the early 1980s the Labour Party changed to opposing the renewal, only to later abstain when Tony Blair took over as shadow home secretary in the early 1990s.
The next major change for pre-charge detention came in 2000 with the passing into law of the Terrorism Act. At a time of unprecedented peace, pre-charge detention was extended to 14 days. The timing of this move coming as it just as the peace process was underway in the North and 9/11 had yet to happen, proved to many that anti-terror law had little to do with preventing terrorism and everything to do with cutting back on human rights.
After 9/11, the government made an even more audacious grab for liberties bringing in the Anti-terror crime and security act which allowed for the indefinite detention of foreign nationals if they were felt to pose a threat to national security and could not be deported.
In 2004, the law lords ruled this legislation to be unlawful, resulting in proposals to bring in control orders and 90 day pre-charge detention.
A mighty battle raged over the 2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act resulting in the creation of the control order regime and agreement to 28 day pre-charge detention. The Blair government was defeated over 90 day pre-charge detention. There was a further attempt to up pre-charge detention in October 2008 under Prime Minister Gordon Brown failed due to a combination of opposition and the overwhelming effect of the financial crisis.
Human rights organisation Liberty point out that no one has been held for longer than 14 days since October 2008.
Liberty also point out that Britain has the highest level of pre-charge detention in the western world, with the US and Spain having two days, Italy four days and Spain five days. "Six months in Whitehall passes a lot quicker than 28 days in a police cell without knowing why. The Coalition has bound itself together with the language of civil liberties. Now it must reduce the longest pre-charge detention period of any western democracy," said Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty.
How the Coalition government deals with the issue of control orders will be another test of its mettle on civil liberties. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both opposed them in opposition. Then Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman described control orders as “pure kafka” and “an affront to British justice.”
Liberty describe control orders as allowing “suspects to be indefinitely tagged, confined to their homes and banned from communicating with others without police interview, charge or trial.
“The effect of this legislation is that some people have been subject to detention and community punishment for over seven years on the basis of the Home Secretary’s suspicions and secret evidence which the suspect will never see.”
Concerns over backtracking by the new administration have surfaced with the revelation that two new control orders have been imposed on the Pakistani students Abid Naseer and Ahmed Faraz Khan. These two men won their appeal against being deported to Pakistan after no charges were brought against them relating to an alleged terror plot. Though the appeal was won the adjudicating body the Special Immigration Appeals Commission effectively branded them terrorists.
Three other control orders have been renewed bringing the total in force to 12. It will be interesting once the review is complete to see if control orders are banned and the paraphanalia of secret evidence the surrounds their imposition outlawed. Liberty are also submitting to the review that phone tap evidence should be admissible in court so making it easier to bring cases to court. The Coalition Government’s review offers hope of a rolling back of the anti-terror legislation and a restoration of liberty. However, a more cynical individual might suggest many of the most pernicious elements of these laws like control orders and 28 day pre-charge detention will simply be repackaged under new names or made “more accountable.” It would certainly be a rare thing to see a government giving back real liberty, after so many others having chipped away at this edifice for so long.

Need for journalists to question official truths

2010-06-30T01:46:00.001-07:00

There is no need of of direct censorship in Britain, mainstream journalists have become so self censoring that they reproduce the official truth as a matter of course.
The best example of this phenonoma at work is what have become known as the dominant narratives of the moment. Over recent times, the first of these was the war on terror. This followed the attacks on America of 11 September 2001. There was an unprecedented reaction from the American administration, strongly supported by Britain.
The rhetoric of war was quickly deployed as the terrorist threat was hyped up. A “war” followed against Afghanistan, later to be followed by another on Iraq. Both assaults were justified by the need to defeat this evil known as terrorism but nicely coinciding with US and British strategic economic interests in the regions concerned.
The hyping of this unprecedented threat led at home and abroad to the shredding of human rights. Detention without trial, whether by the US military in Guantanamo Bay or British police and intelligence services in Belmarsh Prison, became commonplace. The practice of extraordinary rendition was deployed – effectively kidknapping people and taking them to countries where torture could be used to get the information required.
There was the routine abuse of prisoners in holding centres like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
Other liberties like the right to protest were also curtailed. A variety of authoritarian paraphanalia was developed, from control orders to ID cards, all legitimised on the back of the need to defeat terrorism.
During all of these post 9/11 developments, most in the media simply accepted the official version of events. The consensus that the threat posed by a group known as Al Qaeda – little of which was known prior to 9/11 – was as great as that of Nazi Germany under Hitler was taken without question.
The whole war on terror narrative was so easily sold. There should have been more questions about Al Qaeda, the 9/11 attacks and the destruction of human rights. The only winners have been the arms and oil companies.
The war on terror had a long duration as the dominant narrative, that only came to an end with the banking crisis. This crisis rocked the world and became the new narrative. This time there were references to the 1930s and the worst crisis ever. Again few questions that needed to be were asked. The media world accepted the disaster narrative and it fanned out. All economic news was bad news. It became an easy story to take some negative statistics, stand in front of a few shops that had closed down and predict gloom and doom. When there was good news, like more jobs being created by a supermarket chain, this became an add on to the main bad news story.
The narrative on this occasion was tinged by a need on the part of those who largely own and control the media for a change of government. The continually preached armageddon scenario was bad news for the Labour government which had adopted a Keynsian approach, pumping money in to stimulate demand and trying to get people spending again. Yet the news was all bad, suggesting things would get worse.
The economic crisis has now morphed into the present narrative which concerns the need for cuts in order to reduce the national debt, incurred mainly by the banking bail out. This has been sold again in apocalyptic terms. The war images have been run out yet again. The Dunkirk spirit called upon, as everyone must tighten their belts. The caveat here ofcourse is that some like the pensioners and public sector are being asked to tighten their belts that bit tighter that the bankers who created the crisis in the first place.
The media has been operating as an echo chamber for the narrative of national austerity. Few are again questioning the line. The present debt is nothing like that incurred during the post World War II period when the country was literally bankrupt. Yet at that time the NHS and the welfare state were created. Few ask why the very same institutions in the City of London who created the crisis in the first place are now effectively setting the terms as to who should be picking up the bill.
As can be seen from these examples there is no one cause that can be singled out for the basis of a narrative. It is a combination of factors including governments, business interests - particularly arms, oil and banking - and concentration of media into fewer and fewer hands. All of these factors contribute to creating narratives that are favourably generally to a rich elite and against the interests of the mass of people. The development is bad for democracy.
The question for journalists is why do we accept these narratives so easily without asking even the most basic of questions. The ease with which each of these narratives has been sold to journalists amounts to a type of self-censorship. The faculties of a questioning mind, inquisitiveness and a desire for truth seem to have been suspended indefinitely. It is not all bad news ofcourse, there are honourable exceptions to these dominant narratives. Brave work such as that conducted by journalists Stephen Grey to expose extraordinary rendition and the advocacy and writing of lawyer Clive Stafford Smith on Guantanamo Bay. But these are few and far between. The majority have gone along with the official truths, put out to keep the people down by engendering fear and to the benefit of vested interests. It is sad day for journalism and democracy when so many media operations have become not much more than covert wings of the propaganda world of public relations. Somehow journalists need to win back their independence and inquisitiveness. A healthy democracy demands more than the parroting of official truths

Long journey for Bloody Sunday relatives

2010-06-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

The final judgement of the Saville inquiry into the deaths of 14 people on Bloody Sunday took me back to a day in the summer of 1994.
I was sitting in the front room of John Kelly, the brother of Michael, 17 when gunned down by the paratroopers on 30 January 1972.
John and the whole Kelly family wanted justice for Michael. It was 22 years since that horrific day but the family remained almost in a time warp unable to grieve or move on because justice had been denied them. Michael’s picture hung on the wall, a memory of a life destroyed.
Later I met with other relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims at the Pat Finucane Centre in Derry. They all had similar stories to tell of loved ones lost and the need to attain truth and justice before they could move on.
The declared aims of the Bloody Sunday Justice Campaign at the time were that the British government admit that all those killed were innocent, that the Widgery Inquiry report be repudiated and that those responsible for the murders be brought to justice.
The relatives though were a long way from attaining those aims. Lieutenant Colonel Derek Wilford, the officers commanding 1 Para on Bloody Sunday, had recently bragged that “quite honestly I owned the Bogside in military terms. I occupied it.” The one admission that the campaign had attained came in a letter from then Prime Minister John Major to SDLP leader John Hume that the victims “should be regarded as innocent of allegations that they were shot whilst handling firearms or explosives.”
The marches continued through the London streets every January to mark the atrocity of Bloody Sunday with similar events taking place in Derry every year. The relatives continued to represent their case to ministers in the North and London. Media interest ebbed and flowed. Channel 4 News did some good revelatory investigations. Derry based journalist Eamonn McCann produced his excellent book Bloody Sunday in Derry. Then came Don Mullan’s Eyewitness Bloody Sunday and the films followed. The pressure was building at the same time as the peace process was gaining momentum. It was made clear to Tony Blair by the Irish government that Bloody Sunday remained a road block on the path to peace process.
For many in the North, Bloody Sunday had become symbolic of the whole Troubles period. The protest had been organised by the civil rights movement against internment. It drew on the peaceful protest of other similar movements in America and beyond. The brutal actions of the army on that day in murdering 14 civilians effectively marked the end of peaceful protest. As has been well documented, in the days that followed Bloody Sunday young men were queuing up to join the IRA. The conflict was to last another 25 years, claiming 3,500 lives.
The big breakthrough for the relatives came when in 1998 as part of the choreography for the Good Friday Agreement, Prime Minister Tony Blair set up the Bloody Sunday inquiry to be led by Lord Mark Saville.
The inquiry initially took evidence in Derry, then moved to London because the soldiers were concerned for their safety in the North. John Kelly and the other relatives attended Westminster Central Hall over the period of a year, when the inquiry took the soldier’s evidence and that of a number of politicians, including Edward Heath, the Prime Minister at the time of Bloody Sunday.
The relatives at this time struggled, juggling jobs and home life as they shuttled between London and Belfast to hear the testimonies of those who killed their loved ones. The Irish community in London did much to support the relatives at this time.
I met John Kelly again at Westminster Central Hall when he heard testimony from Solider F who shot dead Michael. It was a difficult day but John felt better for at last having heard and seen the man who killed his brother.
That was all some years ago. The relatives have been kept waiting a long time to learn the findings of Lord Saville and his fellow judges. At last on 15 June the report was published. The blame was laid fully at the door of the British army. Soldiers were judged to have shot down innocent civilians. Some were said to have lied to the inquiry. The Widgery Inquiry, set up after Bloody Sunday, and widely regarded as a whitewash was totally repudiated. The British government accepted responsibility for the killing of its own citizens by its employees. Prime Minister David Cameron apologised, expressing his deep sorrow and declaring the killings to be “unjustified and unjustifiable.” Effectively, the demands of the Bloody Sunday Justice campaign had been achieved. The one question remaining was whether those responsible for the killings had been brought to justice. Some relatives want to see the soldiers concerned in the dock, prosecuted for the crime of murder. For others the findings of Lord Saville have so comprehensively put the blame on the army and repudiated the victims that they feel enough is enough.It has been a long hard struggle for the relatives of those who died on Bloody Sunday but at last they have achieved justice and truth. The question is where next? It has been suggested that some sort of truth and reconciliation process maybe needed on a wider scale. This no doubt would help the healing process but needs to be handled very carefully, with different groups all too willing to adopt their own hierarchies of suffering. Only time will tell, but for the meantime all credit has to go to the relatives who campaigned so long for justice – their success is something that people in struggle everywhere should share.

Football shows what worker power can achieve

2010-06-11T05:08:00.000-07:00

The world of professional football should represent a beacon of light for those in struggle against oppressive employers everywhere.
The workers have managed to wrestle away a large junk of the value emanating from the owners of the means of production. This success was reflected in the recent report on the Annual Review of Football Finance from Deloitte which found that wages were taking up 67 per cent of revenue.
The power of the workers has translated into huge salaries of up to £150,000 a week in the case of some Premier League footballers. These levels of pay do not ofcourse translate right down the leagues but even a full time professional in the Blue Square Bet Premier League (the league below the Football League) could expect to be earning more than most of the population.
The workers in the football industry are represented by the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) which must be the most successful trade union in the land. What other organisation is doing so well for its members?
It was not always thus ofcourse, when there was the maximum wage in place back in the 1950s. In those days the players were paid an average of £15 a week , not much more than those who came to watch. Many top players would travel in the bus alongside those coming to watch the game. This all changed with the successful campaign led by the PFA and its then chairman Jimmy Hill. The campaign culminated in a 100 per cent strike ballot that threatened to bring the game to a total halt in 1961. The Football League capitulated and the maximum wage was gone. Within months, England captain Johnny Haynes was the first £100 a week footballer.
Once that sealing was removed players wages began to rise. It was though when England won the World Cup in 1966 that the power of the players really began to increase as players like Bobby Moore took on celebrity status. Though even in those days the players still had their feet on the ground, as was evidenced by the story of Jack Charlton spending the night of the famous day asleep on the sofa of a complete stranger after being stranded at Leytonstone Underground station in east London.
Footballers were well paid from the late 1960s onward, but it was not until the advent of the Premier League in the early 1990s that wages took off to reach the astronomic levels that they now hold. Television brought millions of pounds into the game and the player’s labour took on far more value.
The combination of Sky buying the rights and the Murdoch empire using its other media like the Sun and News of the World it to promote the game helped it to dominate the media. The competition of other media outlets also contributed to the success of the whole football brand.
The way in which the present World Cup has come to dominate the news agenda is testimony to how the appeal of football has grown. Going back to England winning the World Cup in 1966, even then football did not take over the news agenda to the extent that it does now over say an injured player's foot or what might happen in the next match.
Player power clearly came to assert itself, particularly in the 1990s, due to a combination of the work of the PFA but also the growing role of the player’s agent. These individuals recognised the value of the player as a commodity to the clubs and used it to their own and the player’s advantage. Many players ofcourse, such as the highly sort after Aston Villa and England star James Milner, have the PFA to represent them in an agent capacity.
The players were hyped up and the fans came to see the players. Competition between clubs and players meant that it became a sellers market. As a result, ticket prices rose and so did players wages. The irony of this situation was that the working class supporter, who loyally supported his club, was having to pay out, in part, so that the player, who he used to travel on the bus with, could earn the astronomic wage that his skills warranted. Though, the role of TV fees in players wages cannot be underplayed either.
The plus was that the club owner was not receiving as much of the value emanating from the means of production as had previously been the case.
The recent developments that have seen billionaires buying clubs, in some cases to satisfy egos and others to simply park their debts, underline the need for some realignment of football finances very soon. And indications are that it will be the players wages that they come looking for. “The record wages to revenue ratio of 67 per cent in the Premier League in 2008/09 is a concern, and we expect wages growth to outstrip revenue increases again in 2009/10. This will further reduce operating profitability, a decline that cannot continue indefinitely. However, clubs have the opportunity, via the revenue uplift from the new broadcast deals from 2010/11, to get wage levels down to a more sustainable share of revenue. It’s not the first such opportunity. It remains to be seen whether they grasp it,.” said Alan Switzer, the director of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte.So there will be a further challenge for the PFA to confront. While footballers wages are obscenely high compared to many other trades and professions, in terms of a live example of what can be achieved when workers come together collectively in a strong trade union there is probably no better. When government comes calling to cut wages and jobs in the public sector, the unions there should turn to their members - and those who have not joined - and say look at what the footballers have achieved by using their collective power as providers of the means of production? Then maybe another onslaught can be resisted

Perverse media take on killings

2010-06-10T02:12:00.000-07:00

The recent tragic shooting dead of 12 people by Derrick Bird at Whitehaven in Cumbria dominated the news headlines.
A major tragedy of this type comes up roughly every decade. So prior to Bird, there was the shooting dead of 17 children by Thomas Hamilton at a school in Dunblane in 1996 and nine years before that 16 people were killed by Michael Ryan at Hungerford.
The media approach though does not seem to change, camping out in the area, determined to drag the story out, regardless of the impact on a stunned local community.
The story itself was simple enough. Cab driver Derrick Bird for whatever reason lost control and shot 12 people dead before turning the gun on himself. The story at best had two days plus life, even allowing for basic reporting followed by the list of experts giving analysis as to why he took this action. But this was not to be, media organisations had moved substantial resources to the area concerned and they were going to get value for money or put another way at least four days news coverage regardless of the feelings of the town.
The story was simple enough but new leads had to be found to stretch it out. This resulted in speculation over motive and then the inevitable blame game. The police were the first culprits, although there is nothing more they could have done. Then there was a clamour for legislation, the sure fire knee jerk reaction to any tragedy in this country. The fact that making more laws rarely improves the situation - and invariably makes it worse - never seemed to register.
An interesting point concerned the other stories of the week where deaths were preventable but there was no focus on providing solutions because they would be unpalatable for the ruling class.
The first of these was the attack by Israeli forces on an humanitarian vessel taking supplies into Gaza. Israel has been treating the people of Gaza abominably for years but little ever happens. Shamefully, the United States remains silent whatever atrocity the Israelis commit.
The killing of the nine people on the humanitarian vessel was wholly avoidable if pressure had been brought to bear on Israel whereby it knew there would be very real sanction if it took such lawless action. No such action was or will be taken. The ongoing appeasement of Israel it seems continues. This will ensure another future tragic loss of life, given that violence begets violence.
There was further loss of life in the same week as the dead bodies of more British soldiers returned from Afghanistan. The British army should not be in Afghanistan and the blood of every individual killed in that conflict is on the hands of those in government who continue to pursue this futile war. Further death is preventable in Afghanistan if the troops are brought home immediately. At a time of fiscal austerity it is an ongoing anomally that spending on conflicts like Afghanistan and Iraq appear to be outside of any budgetary cutbacks.
Little media space was given to the life saving strategies that could prevent further loss of life in the Middle East and Afghanistan compared to the amount of navel gazing that went on surrounding the one lone gunman in Cumbria.
The situations all involve killing but the polticial contexts are all different. The killings in Cumbria were emotive and probably impossible to prevent. On the other hand, the situations in Gaza and Afghanistan could be resolved and lives saved given the political will. Action by governments in pulling people back from these theatres of war and pursuing peace making policies would prevent death and eventually lead to justice and peace - why does it not happen?

Zahrah Manuel - a life of struggle

2010-05-28T02:12:00.000-07:00

The funeral of Zahrah Manuel was a true celebration of life. Zahrah died suddenly at the age of 22. She had endured cerebral palsy for all her life yet during that time with the support of her mother Preethi lived life to the full.
Life though was a struggle, not so much in terms of the cerebral palsy but the way in which our increasingly inhumane society reacted. Preethi has been a devoted mother to her daughter, giving up her career and committing her life to getting the care support needed on a daily basis. She has also had to fight for her daughter’s most basic rights.
The first battle was to get into a primary school. The school had been adapted for disabled people but did not want Zahrah. A sit in by 25 people at the education authorities offices in Camden helped ease the way to Zahrah being accepted.
A similar thing happened come the time for secondary education. Again Preethi fought the battle this time going to the high court after the school her daughter was going to turned her away on the first day, saying they were unable to cope.
They again won but Zahrah decided she did not then want to go to a school that so clearly did not want her. Instead another school that was most inaccessible, spent over £100,000 adapting their premises so that Zahrah and other disabled children could attend. The head and staff at this school clearly understood what sanctity of life really meant in practical terms.
Preethi and Zahrah’s battles really centred around the right to be included. One individual in the opposition camp on inclusion is Prime Minister David Cameron. Mr Cameron opposes the idea of inclusion, preferring instead that disabled people be treated seperately, so are educated together in special places. Preethi publically challenged Mr Cameron to come and meet Zahrah but he never took up the opportunity.
Inclusion of disabled people is such an important issue that goes to the heart of our humanity. It shows people care and have solidarity with one another. It sets us apart from the jungle. Seperating people out marks a backward step to the world of asylums and locking people away, who don’t fit in with societal norms.
People with disabilities in the view of society also have amazing abilities. World renowned theoretical scientist Professor Stephen Hawkings has suffered with cerebral palsy all of his life, yet has a brilliant mind. Had Hawkings been shepherded off to an asylum at an early age, the world would be a far more ignorant place in terms of the understanding of the workings of the solar system.
Kim Peak, who died last December, was a savant with a truly remarkable memory. He could read and memorise books. His abilities became known internationally with the story of his life, played brilliantly by Dustin Hoffman in the film Rain Man.
The life of Kim Peak marked another move forward for people of disability. His life could have been very different if it were not for his father Fran. When Kim was a child his condition was known as “idiot savant” which in those days meant he would spend the best part of his life in a mental institution. But Fran was not going to let this happen and became his son’s primary carer and guide through life.
Preethi played a similar role for Zahrah, devoting her life to that of her daughter. The battles that they won together have moved things forward for disabled people across the UK.
It is important to remember that despite commentary to the contrary we live in a quite ignorant and intolerant world. The gains for disabled people have been achieved by the hard struggle of the likes of the Manuel, Peak and Hawkings families. The advances do not come about because some government minister or think tank suddenly decide it is the right thing to do. In this world, rights have to be fought for, won and then defended.
Zahrah may now have passed on but the number of friends and relations who attended her funeral are testimony to the fact that she will never be forgotten. Others who have never known her will owe much in terms of the quality of life that they are able to enjoy.

Students case tests coaltion over human rights

2010-05-21T01:26:00.000-07:00

The reaction of the coalition government to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) decision will determine how serious it will be on human rights.
Siac's ruling that the two students Abid Naseer and Ahmed Faraz Khan cannot be deported to Pakistan, while labelling the former as an al-Qaida operative, underlines the total injustice of the secret evidence system.
The two men were part of a group of 12 originally arrested at Easter last year over an alleged terror plot. All the men were released within three weeks without charge, with those who weren't British citizens served with deportation orders on the basis of them being a threat to national security. Most have gone back to Pakistan but a few stuck it out, Naseer and Khan challenging the deportation.
The decision exposes many of the vagaries of the system of justice based on secret evidence that has grown up here since September 11 2001. It also creates a very dangerous precedent whereby individuals can be effectively tried on the basis of information they cannot see or challenge. A judgement is then reached which places them in a state of limbo - labelled terrorists but effectively trapped in Britain. There can be no appeal because they won the case.
Sarah Kellas of solicitors Birnberg Peirce, who represented the men, summarised the situation: "The decision of Siac today in respect of the two students we represent is in fact, for them, the worst of all worlds.
"On the basis of secret evidence which it refuses to disclose to the students, the court tells the world, in its judgment, that they are closely connected to an al-Qaida plot to cause explosions in the UK.
"The court acknowledges they have not been told why it comes to this conclusion, yet these young men have been branded publicly and thereby exposed to personal danger for the rest of their lives.
"Siac moreover refused them permission to appeal against its decision on the basis that they had 'won.'
"At the same time Siac has decided that neither can be deported to Pakistan without the probability that he will be tortured.
"The risk of such a fate has, of course, been heightened but in all likelihood created by the Secretary of State's claim and Siac's decision."
The latest judgement, coming at the start of the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, represents an immediate challenge.
The Liberal Democrats, to their credit, opposed much of the paraphernalia of the secret state built up by the Labour government over the past decade. They voted against the renewal of the control order regime under the Prevention of Terrorism Act - the Conservatives abstained - and against the extension of pre-charge detention to 90 days and then 42 days.
The Liberal Democrats have also opposed the detention of children in immigration centres. Liberal Democrat MPs like Sarah Teather were good in opposition at raising the question of Britain's complicity in torture abroad and involvement with extraordinary rendition and Guantanamo Bay.
The test now comes in government as to whether they will act to end the system of justice based on secret evidence.
The latest decision of the Siac certainly represents a challenge because it points to some sort of control order style detention/surveillance for the two students concerned, possibly in perpetuity.
This case represents an early test of the new government's human rights credentials. Will it act to truly role back the secret evidence system of injustice or lapse back into continuing to progress the authoritarian model of justice based on secret evidence?
The decision it takes will be a good indicator as to just how seriously the new coalition government does take human rights

New Government must address poverty on the streets

2010-05-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

The Cardinal Hume Centre is situated in Westminster, just around the corner from Whitehall and down the road from Parliament.
The powerful and wealthy share the same streets with the homeless, drug users, the undocumented and unemployed. The problem is that the powerful and priveliged seem oblivious to those around them who struggle to get by on a daily basis.
This sanitation process between the two groups was nowhere more in evidence than at the recent general election when the issue of poverty rarely came up in a contest that at times came to resemble a series of the X-factor.
This is in a country where more than one million children live in overcrowded accommodation, drug addiction is on the increase and 500,000 plus undocumented workers struggle by in the twilight zone. All of these people can be found on the streets around the Palace of Westminster and many finish up at the Cardinal Hume Centre (CHC).
The Irish descended chief executive of CHC Cathy Corcoran is appalled at what she has seen. “I am genuinely ashamed, at the depths of poverty in this country,” said Corcoran. “When a mother does not know where the money is coming from to feed her children, it is the same poverty as is seen overseas. When we did a survey of people coming here, it was shocking the number caught up in that situation.”
The CHC comprises a 32 bedroom hostel for 16 to 21 year olds and an eight bed hostel for people in recovery from substance misuse. There is a one year limit on staying in the hostels, with the emphasis on moving people to live independently and get employment. There are english classes, IT training , adult literacy, parenting and life skills, immigration and employment advice plus work experience available.
The family centre is where women can bring their young children, then attend other classes in the building. The drop in primary healthcare service has a GP and psychiatrist available. It offers general counselling and alcohol/drug counselling and treatment. The CHC also runs a mentoring system.
The problems faced are numerous and varied. Nian Baban attends the family centre most days with her three year old. She also has a nine and seven year old and lives in a one bedroom flat with her husband. The family have been living in the flat for 11 years and have been seeking to get larger accommodation. Baban explains how difficult it is for her and three children to all sleep in one 10 x 6 ft room. Her husband sleeps on the sofa. “We are nearly divorced, our relationship has suffered due to these conditions. I have depression,” said Baban, who is one of 2.3 million people living in overcrowded conditions in the UK, according to the National Housing Federation. 3,000 households in Westminster are living in temporary accommodation.
The drug culture that it is so easy to get caught up in can destroy lives as the story of Kerry Norridge proves. Brought up in a stable family in Oxford, Norridge fell into the drug culture during his teenage years. By the age of 20 he was addicted to heroine. “I found I couldn’t hold down a job or sustain relationships,” said Norridge. “I became parasitic with girl friends. They provided somewhere to live, food and a mother figure. I did driving jobs, worked on building sites, they never held my attention for long.”
In the end in his late 20s he left his partner and cut off from his family in order not to cause anymore hurt. He then did various jobs, like selling the Big Issue, just to pay for the drugs. “I was running away, never dealing with the issue. It got dark and lonely and I felt very isolated,” said Norridge, who admits to reaching an all time low when he thought he was about to die in “a sad lonely way.”
A fellow hostel dweller encouraged him to go to Narcotics Anonymous and it was from here that the long road to recovery began. He applied to Westminster Substance Misuse team who then put him into detox and rehabilitation. He came to the CHC. “This was a fantastic move for me, they are positively focused at getting people into a meaningful life,” said Norridge, who while living in the hostel learned basic things like washing his clothes, housekeeping and budgeting. He is now living independently in a flat in north London and is on a drama course to become an actor. “At Easter my parents came down. I made food, we went sight seeing, it was beautiful,” said Kerry, who is keen to stress that if the right type of help is offered people in his situation can get out of the underclass and start building a life.
The CHC sees a lot of undocumented workers around the area, working in the twilight zone, often exploited. One policy that would help this group is a regularisation (or amnesty).
Amina Shor came to the UK from Lebanon in 2003. She is struggling to bring up three children, having split from her husband. She has learned English and wants to contribute. “I am on income support but want to get out to do something for the future. After August I am going to apply for citizenship,” said Shor.
It must now be hoped that with the election over, that members of the government can find their way down the road to CHC and others dealing with the symptoms of poverty in our society. It is no good for those who hold power to occupy the same pavement space as the poor and conduct a dialogue of the deaf. Real change can only happen if the two sides come together genuinely committed to finding solutions.

Need to break away from financial dictatorship

2010-05-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

The recent riots in Greece that greeted the news of an austerity package for that country could point the way to similar outcomes across the world.
The objection of the Greek people was that events over which they largely had little control, being conjured up by a combination of the financial, business and political stratas, were now resulting in hardship for the many. Cuts to jobs, pay and conditions were all to be born by ordinary people struggling to survive.
The scenario in Greece and other countries is not that different to what is faced in Britain. Here reckless behaviour by bankers has put the country into such debt that it is going to take decades to resolve. Strangely, the perpetrators of this injustice seem to have largely escaped too much public opprobrium due in part to the helpful smokescreen of MPs expenses which blew up at such a time as to distract public attention.
Meanwhile, the bankers have continued largely unaffected, drawing their bonuses, continuing live life in a bubble now largely subsidised by everyone else. The banks have also been helped out by the cutting of interest rates that has enabled them to restore their own balance sheets. So the cuts have been passed on in full to savers while only partially to borrowers. They have also shut up shop on credit for struggling businesses, thereby forcing many of them out of business.
The final act in this tragedy now seems set to take place with the arrival of a coalition government that can declare it is all worse than expected and impose swingeing cuts on public services. Education, health and transport infrastructure are all likely to suffer. There will be real dangers, especially for the most weak and vulnerable in our society.
One of the more irritating outcomes, following the general election has been the constant reference to the money markets and City of London as the arbiters of the countries future. Afterall was it not many of these same people who brought about the crisis in the first place? There are more than 6.5 million people in trade unions in this country, yet there views are rarely given air time. It is almost as if the mood music is being created for the formation of a national government of neo-liberals.
It is time that the unions and other civil society organisations were brought into the debate over the future of the economy in Britain. It is beginning to seem as though the country has become the preserve of some sort of financial dictatorship. Simple justice demands that those who helped create this crisis should be made to pay more fully for the consequences.
Beyond the immediate demands, there must be a whole restructuring of the British economy. There needs to be a move away from dependence on the financial sector. This should include major investment in green technology, which can lead to the resurrection of the manufacturing sector. It is ludicrous at the moment that much of this technology being used in Britain has to be imported from abroad. There also needs to be a move toward a more carbon neutral way of life. A greater emphasis needs to be made on producing from the land.
There is a real danger that instead of using this crisis as an opportunity to chart an environmentally sustainable way forward that the old argument about not being able to afford green development will be deployed. The world has changed the argument of economic growth regardless of environmental consequences no longer stands. The worry is that this penny has not dropped with many politicians who think only in short term time spans. Again the trade unions and civil society need to be heard in this debate. If once again the only voices heard are those of the money markets, this new environmentally sustainable way forward is unlikely to be chartered.Failure to make the voices of the many heard will result only in the present economic crisis being dumped on the most weak and vulnerable with the way forward being plotted regardless of the consequences to the planet and the common good of all.