Urgent Letter on Global Poverty

This Friday, the finance ministers from the world's eight richest countries will meet to plan the G8 summit. That morning, we will send them an urgent letter on global poverty, signed by key global figures: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson--and, we hope, you.

Our message: keep your promise to provide 0.7% of national income in effective aid to relieve extreme poverty. Millions of lives are at stake. The more people sign the letter, the more powerful our demand becomes.

Click here to sign: http://www.avaaz.org/en/g8_poverty_letter

The statistics of global poverty are shocking. Each day, 20,000 children die preventable deaths in poor countries. That's why the broken promises of rich countries are so infuriating. The world's rich countries have pledged 0.7% of their national income to development aid. But these promises have not been kept. In fact, outrageously, the G8 countries gave less in 2006 than in 2005. At the same time, the last few years have seen an unprecedented groundswell against global poverty--which has led to new promises and, in some countries, real change. These fights can be won. That's why we are working with our friends at the Global Call to Action Against Poverty to assemble citizens and celebrities behind a single call--for world leaders to keep their word on global poverty. Here's an excerpt from the letter: Together you represent the world's economic powerhouses.

We write to ask that you also strive to represent the millions of people whose lives are blighted by extreme poverty. Aid is not a panacea. But Marshall Plan aid from the US kick-started the rebuilding of a Europe shattered by war and delivered real benefits to the US in terms of new markets for its goods. Aid to East Asia helped catalyse the economic miracles that have lifted millions of people out of poverty.

Today many African governments are using aid to underwrite growth and provide essential schools, health services and water supplies for their people. The poorest countries in the world need you to honour these aid pledges if they are to meet the Millennium Development Goals and end poverty. Please seize that chance today.

The letter will be delivered Friday with big ads in the Financial Times and German press, just in time for the G8 finance ministers' meeting.

Click here to join Desmond Tutu by signing on: http://www.avaaz.org/en/g8_poverty_letter With hope, Ben, Ricken, Galit, Iain, Graziela, Paul, and the Avaaz team PS Once you've signed, please pass this email along to ten friends.

It's hard to think of anything more urgently important--and, at the same time, so achievable, than the fight against global poverty. Let's show these finance ministers how much we value human life.

Close the Gap Campaign

Dear friends,
The Treasurer has distributed our $236 billion and the budget headlines are brimming with praise and prosperity.

But hidden among the welcome news remains an untold budget scandal - an Aboriginal child born today is statistically likely to be outlived by a newborn in rural Bangladesh. And what was allocated on Tuesday night to address this baffling inequality? Just $30 million in additional annual health funding, or an extra ten bucks for every Indigenous Australian on top of last year's budget increase.We've stood together to right this kind of wrong before.

In '67, Australians united to pass an historic referendum, affirming the basic rights of Indigenous Australians. But as long as diseases like leprosy, TB and blinding trachoma still afflict our people, that fight isn't over. As we draw towards the 40-year anniversary of the '67 referendum on May 27 we want to give politicians an unflinching new mandate, backed by tens of thousands.

Don't delay - sign the petition for Indigenous health equality now.

With an actionable health plan led by the Australian Medical Association and ample resources at our disposal, we can't afford to waste any more time. Both the ALP and the Coalition must rise above election squabbling to close the gap. We're presenting them this bipartisan petition on May 27 to mark the anniversary. Add your name if you haven't already and share this campaign with friends.

Together we'll stand shoulder-to-shoulder to rise to the challenge of our generation.

www.getup.org.au/campaign/CloseTheGapThanks for taking action,The GetUp teamP.S. GetUp is looking to open offices in Adelaide and Canberra, for which we need both office space and staff. Please reply to this email if you have office space to donate to us -- or, if you're interested in joining our team, view the positions available here.

Expression of Concern - Sri Lanka General Secretary World Council of Churches

20 April 2007

The ethnic conflicts and violence, which have been raging in Sri Lanka, have become a matter of serious concern again in recent weeks. Reports from Sri Lanka continue to reflect the alarming deterioration of the situation in the country. The intensification of killing and violence has turned more and more areas of the country into a battlefield. The escalation of fighting causes the deaths of innocent civilians, military personnel and rebel cadres daily, while the number of abductions, conscription of children, and displacement of people is on the increase. Civilians are caught up in fighting between the Government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE). Aerial bombing, mortar shelling and the use of claymore mines have added to the plight of the already suffering people. The northern and eastern parts of the country remain isolated with access in certain areas severely restricted. More than 200,000 civilians have been displaced in recent weeks.

The Cease Fire Agreement, signed between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE on 2 February 2002, was considered promising in the efforts towards ending the ethnic conflict. The international community had extended support to the initiative hoping that it would result in both parties refraining from activities that would undermine the good intentions behind the agreement or impede confidence building measure. However, both the Government and the LTTE violated the Cease Fire Agreement despite the warnings and rulings against them by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission set up to monitor the ceasefire's implementation. The escalation of violence since the end of 2005 has pushed this Norwegian-backed peace process onto the back burner despite earlier appeals from the international community. Now, despite the ensuing humanitarian crisis in the northern and eastern parts of the country, Sri Lanka appears to have been forgotten by the international community.

Over the years, the World Council of Churches has monitored the situation in Sri Lanka and called for negotiations between the parties whenever and wherever possible. We are deeply distressed by the current intensification of fighting which affects the lives of thousands of innocent people in the country. Taking into account the protracted fighting in Sri Lanka we in the WCC are convinced that the pursuit of a final military solution is an exercise in futility; the parties to the conflict need to commit themselves to a political solution as the only viable and noble alternative.

We, therefore, appeal to the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to return to the obligations of the Cease Fire Agreement and to therein seek durable solutions to end the fighting that is affecting the lives of so many people. As WCC we strongly appeal to the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to reach a settlement of the ethnic conflicts and put an end to the violence through dialogue and negotiations.

In addition, we urge all parties responsible for the conflict to respect the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacements and International Humanitarian Law, making every effort to ensure the security, human rights and dignity of each individual in Sri Lanka.

On behalf of the World Council of Churches I call upon Christians and churches around the world to be constant in prayer for all the people of Sri Lanka who have been undergoing such a traumatising ordeal.

We pray for God’s grace and guidance for the efforts of all those who are engaged in their efforts for peace in the country, especially the churches in Sri Lanka working towards peace, reconciliation and reconstruction.

May the grace of God inspire and guide the people of Sri Lanka in their longing for peace with justice, reconciliation and communal harmony in their country.

Rev. Dr Samuel KobiaGeneral Secretary

Is there a Catholic position on industrial relations? Address by Bishop Kevin Manning.

Is there a Catholic position on industrial relations?
An address by Bishop Kevin Manning
on Monday 16 April 2007 to
Bursars of Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes (NSW) at the Good Samaritan Congregational Centre, Glebe.

Part one:
Populorum Progressio
I begin by drawing on one of the Encyclicals of Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, a truly radical document: radical when it was first published in 1967, and radical now, forty years later.
I use radical in its true sense of going back to the roots rather than in adopting a position on a political scale of right to left. Populorum Progressio did indeed call us to examine the world from our Christian roots.

The Scriptures call us to focus on our life together, as did the first Christian communities which shared their resources and looked after the needy. The first organizational activity in the Early Church was for the provision of widows who were missing out in the distribution from the common purse.

And you who are keepers of the purse have to be careful! How would you like to be called murderers of the poor? That's what the Bishops of early medieval France called those who took for their own use goods or money destined for the support of the poor.

In view of the Christian Church's long tradition of concern for those who are less well off as well as for the common good, it was nothing short of amazing to read the Prime Minister's remark in the House of Representatives in August 2006, and I quote him: "I think it very important to make the obvious statement that there is no such thing as a Catholic position on industrial relations".1

Of course there is a Catholic position on industrial relations! That some Catholics may not know it, or do not agree with it, cannot obliterate the fact that we have a position clearly enunciated since Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum.

In Populorum Progressio, we find elements of that position unequivocally stated and surgically applied.

Teaching of Pope Paul VI
What did Paul VI say which was so radical? The two hinges of Populorum Progressio are that: firstly, the interest of the economy is subordinate to the interests of the human community, and secondly, the right of all to share in the resources of the earth, to glean what they need for an existence appropriate to their human condition.

I leave it to you to judge that contrast between that position and Mr Howard's statement at the Premiers' Conference in April 2007 that "jobs and economic prosperity is (sic) more important than ideology and emissions targets"2. I suggest that you attend to the number of times the vocabulary of economic prosperity is used by the supporters of WorkChoices without reference to the human dimension of economic growth.

Authentic human development can never be equated with economic growth alone When the economy takes precedence over the authentic development of the human community certain concepts gain an unwarranted pre-eminence. Pope Paul VI named them clearly:
"these concepts present profit as the chief spur to economic progress, free competition as the guiding norm of economics, and private ownership of the means of production as an absolute right, having no limits nor concomitant social obligations" (PP, 26).

We have all read of companies being permitted by their industry regulators to increase prices even though record profits are being announced, and that at the same time as accessibility of services is being reduced! Paul VI calls the operation of these concepts the product of "unbridled liberalism" (26) and unequivocally states the principle that economics is at the service of humanity (27).

Yes, the Church teaches there is a right to the ownership of private property but that right is not absolute and unconditional, as St Ambrose said: "the earth belongs to everyone, not to the rich" (PP, 22). Pope Paul VI goes on to condemn the practice whereby an individual gains substantial income from the resources of his own country and proceeds to invest that income in a foreign country for his own good, taking no account of his country's interest (PP 25).

Hopelessness
Paul VI wrote: "Today, in many lands, countless men and women are starving.
Countless children suffer from malnutrition * whole regions are condemned to hopelessness". He could be writing the headlines for tomorrow's paper!

This hopelessness is all the more harrowing when we know that, in large part, it is not due to the natural incapacity of the land to produce food, nor, in large measure is this hopelessness a result of climate change. No, sadly, it is the result of the desire for power and greed of some human beings You can think of examples.

There was Idi Amin, president of a country, Uganda, which was so fertile it could have fed half of Africa; there is Mugabe reducing the population to poverty as well as flouting every democratic principle, and North Korea unable to feed its people but intent on being a nuclear power.
And then there are the huge contradictions when nations generously give aid to poor countries stricken by natural disaster, but then are party to trade policies which make it impossible for these countries to compete on an equal footing in the markets of the world.

Paul VI commented that the people of these poor countries "will have no grounds for hope or trust if they fear that what is being given them with one hand is being taken away with the other (PP 56).

Sadly, there is another kind of trade: the trade of human beings as sex workers - frequently innocent young women and men who respond to the human yearning for a better life in the West and find themselves caught up in a web of debt bondage from which it is difficult to escape; all the while the abolition of slavery is being commemorated!

But let us not stray too far from home here! We are all complicit in creating, or, at least, in allowing to be created, a society and a climate which makes the economy the barometer of human fulfillment, and the goal above all other goals which is to sought by politicians and others. Why is it that we not only tolerate, but continue to reward, those who drive the economy at the expense of authentic human development?

Part two: Catholic Social Justive Teaching
In this part I will talk about some principles of Catholic Social Justice teaching which have particular application to work and then speak about principles to guide Catholic Church employers.
I can probably assume that in an audience such as this, you are familiar with the basics of Catholic Social Justice teaching so I will confine myself to two very important principles enunciated by Pope Paul VI in Populorum Progressio. Both principles originated from earlier popes but it is a measure of the pivotal position of these principles in Catholic teaching that Paul VI repeats them.
Principle one
The first concerns the human context of work and Paul VI wrote:
"Our predecessor Blessed John XXIII stressed the urgent need of restoring dignity to the worker and making him a real partner in the common task, ' every effort must be made to ensure that the enterprise is indeed a true human community, concerned about the needs, the activities and the standing of each of its members'." (PP 28)

Does this strike you like a workplace operating under WorkChoices legislation? Let us unpack the principle a little.
The most technical understanding of employment is that it is an exchange; an exchange of labour for remuneration, including pay and conditions. But the context in which this exchange occurs is a human context, and that places the exchange in the field of relationships.
The rights which flow from the principle of the dignity of the human person require that there is fairness in the relationship brought about by the exchange of labour for remuneration and conditions of work: that there is a reasonable and fair balance between the rights of employers and the rights of employees.

The point which emerges here is the crucial point of balance which requires that the rights of employers are respected as well as the rights of employees. But the arrangements set up under WorkChoices ensure that there is an imbalance in very many cases.
Principle two
This imbalance arises particularly in the matter of the AWA's. The position is plainly put in Populorum Progressio:
"when two parties are in very unequal positions, their mutual consent alone does not guarantee a fair contract: the rule of free consent remains subservient to the demands of the natural law".
In other words, just because something is agreed does not guarantee that it is fair! Pope Paul VI was applying the principle, derived from Leo XIII, in the context of agreements between nations, but the principle applies equally well in the context of AWAs.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with an AWA provided that the worker is highly skilled and has a sophisticated capacity for negotiation. In the workplace, some, but by no means all, workers will have skills of sufficient marketability, and the capacity to negotiate an AWA which suits them, but the fact remains that the majority will not. As an instrument of work relations, the AWA does not guarantee balance or fairness

Strangulation of Union Activity
Another imbalance in the structure of workplace arrangements is the restriction on the right of free association brought about by limiting by legislation, the activities of Unions on worksites. Remember that unions are 'a mouthpiece of the struggle for social justice" (Laborem Exercens, 20).
Although not instigated by the Government of the day, the appearance of guard dogs in an Australian workplace is forever etched on my memory, and is an image which lurks behind the over-regulation and strangulation of workers' rights to free organisation imposed by WorkChoices.

The lack of congruence between restriction on Union activity and "a true human community, concerned about the needs, the activities and the standing of each of its members" is blinding!
Church as Employer
The Church is a major employer and must practice what she preaches and recently the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations has adopted Four Principles for Catholic Church Employers. These are 'hot off the press' so you may have only recently received them, or indeed not yet received them.
The Principles themselves are not new. They are straight from Catholic Social Teaching and are:
The Right to a Just Wage
The Right to Fair and Reasonable Working Conditions

The right to Security of Employment

The right to join a union and strike as a last resort.

There are a number of points to each of these heading but I will mention one or two which illustrate the principle well.

Right to a Just Wage
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2434)h, in determining fair pay, both the needs and contributions of each person must be taken into account. Wages should continue to compensate people for work during unsocial times, weekends, public holiday and late nights.

The Right to Fair and Reasonable Working Conditions Employers should provide working conditions which are fair and reasonable and which allow employees to have a proper work/life balance, for example, employees should not be encouraged to cash out leave entitlement but to take the leave that is due to them.

The right to Security of Employment
It is a traditional teaching of the Catholic Church that workers have rights which are superior to the rights of capital among which is the right to security of employment. Workplace agreement should be supported by policies which enable employees to seek remedy if they are unfairly or unlawfully dismissed and casual employees employed on a regular and systematic basis should be offered permanent employment.

The right to join a union and strike as a last resort Agreements should be supported by policies which encourage union involvement in the workplace at the employees' request. Specifically, employers in Catholic organisations will not refuse to enter into collective agreements when this is the desire of the majority of employees in the workplace.

Conclusion
The world has come a long way since the discourse of the inevitable class conflict between capital and labour prevailed. We have moved towards a better balance of the rights of employers and employees, and that balance is what Catholic social teaching seeks to articulate.
Yes, there is a Catholic position on industrial relations, and it is nothing less that the preservation of the balance between the rights of employers and employees. When this balance is tilted one way, and the disadvantaged are denied redress, the Church must speak.

Pentecost Forum 2007 27 May 2007 12.30pm

VOICES OF HOPE!

New Pentecost Forum 2007

Pentecost Sunday, 27 May, 12.30-6.30pm

Australian Catholic University,

North Sydney (40 Edward St)

Guests: Rev Dr Jojo Fung, Sr Susan Connelly, Mr Tony Kevin and Mr Graeme Mundine Hear Rev Dr Jojo Fung, a Malaysian Jesuit priest who ministers to Malaysia's Orang Asli indigenous people. His perspective will have particular relevance as we celebrate the anniversaries of the 1967 referendum and the ground-breaking 1987 "Bringing Them Home" report which recognised Indigenous Australian human rights. Dr Fung will be joined by Sr Susan Connelly, a Josephite Sister and well-known advocate for East Timor, Mr Tony Kevin, a distinguished former Australian ambassador to Poland and Cambodia and 2003 "International Whistleblower of the Year", and respected Indigenous Christian leader Mr Graeme Mundine. These speakers will offer fresh perspectives on how people of faith can help build a just and compassionate society and world. The Forum will include opportunities for dialogue and self-initiatives in the spirit of our unique "free space" method of grassroots networking and organising which allows people to be heard and individuals or groups to act. For example, peace activist and former Iraq human shield Ms Donna Mulhearn will present a workspace on Christian non-violence.

Program12.00-1.00 -- Registration and cuppa (bring a sandwich and chat with friends)

1.00-2.30 -- Lecture 1 - Mr Graeme Mundine, Rev Dr Jojo Fung and Mr Tony Kevin

2.30-4pm -- Workspace

4-4.30pm -- Networking/refreshment break

4.30-6.30pm -- Public Lecture - Rev Dr Jojo Fung and Sr Susan ConnellyCost: $20/$40 (or whatever you can afford).

Public lecture: entry by donation.

More information or for expression of interest on hosting a workspace, call 0403 181 586 or visit http://www.newpentecost.com/.

No Hope in Guantanamo

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/petitions2.asp

Amnesty International Petition to Close Guantanamo

Joshua Colangelo-Bryan
The Miami Herald April 5, 2007

On Monday, I was at Guantánamo Bay to meet with Jumah Al Dossari, one of the detainees my firm represents. As always, I spent the first few hours of our meeting trying to convince Jumah to fight the desperation and hopelessness that threaten what little spirit he has left.

Jumah has been at Guantánamo for more than five years. The government has never charged him with a crime and does not accuse him of taking any action against the United States. For several years, Jumah has been held alone in solid-wall cells from which he cannot see other detainees or communicate except by yelling. He has spent 22 to 24 hours a day by himself in these cells. He has been short shackled, threatened with death and, once, severely beaten. Interrogators have told him that he will be at Guantánamo for the next 50 years and that there is no law at Guantánamo.

Sometimes the idea of spending the rest of his life locked up thousands of miles from his family is too much for Jumah. On Oct. 15, 2005, I walked into an interview room to visit him. There was blood on the floor. I looked up and saw Jumah hanging by his neck from the other side of a metal mesh wall that divided his cell from our meeting area. He was bleeding from a gash in his arm.

I couldn’t reach Jumah because the door to the cell was locked. I yelled for guards who came, unlocked the door and cut the noose from Jumah’s neck. I was ordered out of the room but later learned that Jumah had survived. Since that day, Jumah has tried to kill himself three times. Last spring he slashed his throat with a razor, spraying blood on the ceiling of his cell.

During our meeting on Monday, we talked about Jumah’s court case, a bleak — and therefore dangerous — subject. I explained again that the Bush administration insists it may detain anyone it designates an ”enemy combatant” forever without a trial. I explained how Congress blessed that notion in last year’s Military Commissions Act, which bars foreign ”enemy combatants” from going to court to challenge that designation. I explained that lawyers for the detainees had challenged the act as unconstitutional, but that in February a federal appeals had ruled against us on the grounds that people like Jumah have no rights.

Desperately wanting to boost his spirits, I also told Jumah that there was reason to be optimistic. We had asked the Supreme Court to review the appeals court decision and we felt pretty sure that our request would be granted. Were that to happen, Jumah might be a step closer to a court hearing.

At noon, I went to the galley — as the cafeteria at Guantánamo is called — to get lunch for Jumah and myself. While waiting for a burger, I glanced up at a television tuned to CNN. Text ran across the bottom of the screen: “Supreme Court refuses to hear Guantánamo detainee appeals until alternative procedures are exhausted.”

Our request — the one reason I had given Jumah to be optimistic — had been denied. The Supreme Court was saying it might consider the detainees’ cases, but not until the detainees subjected themselves to proceedings created by the Military Commissions Act.

It is a disturbing ruling because the government says the purpose of these proceedings is not to determine if a detainee is actually an ”enemy combatant” but rather to determine if the military followed its own rules in applying the ”enemy combatant” label. For that reason, detainees will have no chance to produce evidence of their innocence that the military didn’t consider or to challenge the use of evidence obtained through torture. Worse yet, these procedures will be held before the same appeals court that recently found the detainees have no rights at all.

I walked slowly back to the room where Jumah sat shackled. I wondered if there was a good way to tell a suicidal man that all three branches of our government appear content to let him rot at Guantánamo. Nothing came to mind.

Maybe I shouldn’t have worried. Jumah’s reaction to bad legal news has become as muted as his emotions generally. He long ago stopped believing that a court will ever hear his case and thinks I’m naive for hoping otherwise. Instead, Jumah believes that he has been condemned to live forever on an island where there is no law. He may well be right.

Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, an attorney, represents several Guantánamo detainees.

July 9 - 13 Christian Ecological Perspective in Changing World

Tabgha Centre for Ecology and Spirituality is offering a one week
course from July 9 - 13th, 2007.

The content of the course will explore a Christian Ecological
perspective in a changing world.

For more information please contact

Veronica Littleton OSU or Kay McGrath RGS
Tabgha Centre, 52 Montrose Rd, Cabarlah, Qld. 4352

Telephone 0746969700

Email: tabgha@bigpond.com