The scandalisation of the faithful and religion (7/2009)

A profound transformation in the relationship between the labour movement and the faithful is a prescient necessity. Socialists seek to meddle in every matter of common interest under the sun whereas Christian democrats draw from the Christian tradition. The origin of the doctrines, writings and observations of the pedagogues of the 19^th century was the Acts of the Apostles where charity manifested itself in those who “sold all their possessions and gave the money to the poor”.

 Secular matters are temporal and are governed by the Old Testament. In the Old Testament we read of the early call to nationhood of the Jews under King David. Some imagine that social democracy is inimical to Christianity or, more accurately, the Judaeo-Christian tradition. This is untrue. The long, slow, difficult transition from nomadic existence to political existence and stability is fraught with many wars, pitfalls and lurches backwards into slavery and exile in the early Jewish tradition.

In modern times we witness a transition between Kantian free thinking and primitive materialism in 18^th century Germany and France to the out workings of Rousseau and Voltaire’s atheism in Regicide France. Later came anarchism, socialism, syndicalism, existentialism, Stalinism, Trotskyism and ecology, a socially impairing and tragic course which made France prey to foreign invasion and conquest. France has spread its errors to the furthest corners of the globe and has become a land of thieves and criminals. There the police make no effort to enforce constitutional rights on property, the person and attrition. In Ireland people must shed their long held views on cooperation with civil policing.

Stalinism has fallen and we are now faced with the collapse of free market, unregulated capitalism. 

We must return to a society which perished at some time between the rise of the Norman Church –State dichotomy in 1066 and 1214. The anti clerical views of the British media in the 21^st centaury is not a sign of progress but a sign of moral ill health. (Only a tiny fraction of the Catholic clerics accused of scandalous behaviour of the quarter  of them charged have been found guilty by the courts. These allegations are based on the suggestions of impropriety by “spiritists  and mediums” (Isaiah) and as we know them today, psychiatrists and Humanists. There is no higher form of humanism than the Christian humanism of the Bible).

Revolution?

Revolution means “a turning around” or “turning backward”. Such a turnaround or moral renovation is a turning away from violence and atheistic barbarism.

Teutonic mists. The wealthy Germans and the poor Irish: 2 (05/07/12)

Teutonic mists. The wealthy Germans and the poor Irish: 2 (05/07/12)

There are many myths in England about the generosity of the Nordic and German Welfare States. The reality is that the bureaucracy eats up the wealth of Germany and the unemployed are destitute and homeless. The Northern European system of the Danish and Norwegian monarchies make for predictability in social relations. The Swedish welfare state is a myth.

In Germany the Hartz 4 social reform made under Hans Muentefering cut Social Assistance (Sozialhilfe) from 124 Euros a month to 90 Euros a month. Only the Christian Democrats opposed this manoeuvre by the Social Democratic Party. Rent allowance is also paid to the needy in Germany. As in Britain, there is a financial incentive to claim Disability Allowance (Behindertegeld). The German Christian Democrats, Lefts (Linken), to which Sinn Fein is allied, and Social Democrats showed their faces to the disabled by allowing experimentation with the stem cells of aborted foetuses. The German Disabled Federation condemned this diabolical scheme.

In Ireland those not qualifying for unemployment assistance which is not limited to the German qualifying period of one year receive 187.40 Euros a week indefinitely as long as they are capable of and available for work.Social Assistance is paid at the same rate as unemployment benefit.There is generous rent allowance.

People do not understand that the equivalent of the National Manpower Service, the government Careers Advisory Service, justly abolished by Thatcher in the UK, employs one hundred thousand bureaucrats in Germany and delivers only a couple of hundred jobs to  graduates. The bureaucracy soaks up the wealth of Germany.

In Sweden the unemployed single mothers are reduced to dire poverty by the

non-existent social state which is so widely praised in Britain, Ireland and the United States, an illusion shared by many Marxists.

In Germany Unemployment Benefit is set at the rate of a half of net wages for the duration of six months to one year. Their system is communal and there is no guarantee of Social Assistance in small towns because the Germans are a parochial people..The only positive aspect which is not shared by any other country other than Russia is the ten thousand Euro state gift for the birth of a child. The collapse of the German family and The Contraceptive Mentality required urgent action by the Christian Democrats after the 2007 General Election.

The employer- trade union conferences award unemployment pay in Denmark and Norway. In 2003 Denmark an unemployed worker is paid 80% of their previous wage according to sectoral wage agreements administered by the Lohnorganisationen.

Clearly the payment is for a limited period since we learn that there is compulsory referral for retraining by state welfare authorities. No social payments are made if retraining is refused.

The wealthy Germans?  The socially responsible Swedes? The generous Danes?

Teutonic mists and myths!  

Chartism and its legacy (4/12/12)

Chartism was the first democratic movement of modern times. Its aim was essentially to bring about universal suffrage. In their social teaching Harney, O’Brien and Jones agitated for a return to the land of the industrial working classes and built model villages. Their agitation ended in 1848 when they marched on London. They ran out of steam thereafter and Marx latched onto the dogends which were left as usual, holding the large Irish element in contempt. Marx corresponded with Harney who showed little or no interest in having anything to do with Marx.

The Chartists’ ideals of a return to the land, housing estates and countryside communes were given new life in the period from 1900 to 1937 with housing estates in London and the development of new towns.

The vitality of the Chartists lives on. In 1918 universal suffrage was granted in Britain.