Confession of a Catholic Socialist

For a while it looked as though we might leave it to those nice benevolent market forces, and in particular the then soaring price of oil, to push us all into doing what needs to be done to avert the likely scenario of catastrophic global warming. It turns out not to be so. It never was a likely story, for capitalists require us to consume ever more of their products. How can the Gordian knot that ties capitalism with environmental disaster be untied?

Certainly not by some international version of state control; its record is even worse than that of liberal democracies. I have generally lived by the assumption that the best we can do is to hope and work for a spiritual transformation of the world, but I have also been mindful of Marx’s gybe about ‘the opium of the people’. Certainly, there are very many worse drugs than religion about, but it does seem fair comment that an elitist withdrawal into ‘a state of enlightenment’ is a danger for the spiritually minded, though there have been plenty followers of Jesus who have not shied away from his example of bloodied engagement with political reality. As a matter of fact, political power, with no sound spiritual  basis nor robust framework to counter-balance it, has to be one of the most dangerous drugs of all.

A warning sign is when sloganeering and party politics take the place of any real dialogue, so it is encouraging when, on the contrary, a political leader really does seem to focus primarily on issues of justice and truth. The British Labour Party seems to have come up with such a leader, while taking the unusual step of getting in touch with its founding principles. Having spent the last few weeks in England, I profess to be impressed. Here are a few issues on which I agree with him:

• Trident. Obviously the use of nuclear weapons is incompatible with the principles of a ‘just war’, and the argument that they can act as a deterrent while never having to be used seems even less convincing than ever these days . The money could be spent to improve security more effectively in other ways. The example of giving them up would help to strengthen international efforts to rid the world of that particular menace, with a policy of zero tolerance for their deployment.

• Trade unionism. Aside from the fact that if a man cannot withdraw his labour then he is a slave, strong unions are essential for putting manners on the Plutocracy. A degree of public ownership of industry and essential services, though not necessarily by the State, also helps to do so, as do efforts to foster worker participation in the management and ownership of their companies. There is a need to foster the idea of work as both a form of self-expression and of service to others rather than a matter of merely making money, whether for the capitalists or for oneself.

• Austerity. Any organism, from a fish to a nation, does in the long run have to balance its budget: its intakes with its expenditures; but this is no reason to run a country like a grocery shop. In fact the present situation of so much hardship and dependence on credit, contrasted with monstrous amounts of cash slopping around with the plutocrats, points up very serious imbalances. If the policy of austerity ever had any validity, it won’t stand up any more. Let’s just say that if there is belt-tightening to be done, it is no use confining it to the weaker members of society, even if only because at least they spend it rather than gamble with it in casino-style stock markets!
• Europe. Whole-hearted participation in the European project is the only way to achieve any real political traction with regard to issues like climate-change, security, tax evasion and generally holding international capital to account.

I might add that when the plutocrats’ newspapers are so intent on rubbishing Mr Corbyn, I for one am inclined to be interested in him. One does have to recognise that he certainly faces an uphill battle to get elected, but let’s hope that the great British electorate might finally get around to seeing that we all need a change of tack. It is sad to see the widespread political unease wasted on nationalism and the likes of UKIP and  in France the National Front, but things seem more positive to me in Spain and Portugal, for all the untidiness there.

I’m back in Ireland now, where the Labour Party are a crowd of bourgeois socialists obsessed with their Liberal Agenda, as if abortion and euthanasia and the rest of it ever did any good for struggling humanity! Hopefully they’ll get a right kicking in the upcoming election, for getting into bed with Fine Gael, the nearest thing in Ireland to the Tory Party. I note that poor people are not inclined to support that Liberal Agenda, especially when they are not demoralised and understand how it subverts their struggle. I count it just within the realms of possibility that Fianna Fail will eventually rediscover its principles!

The sorry old antagonism of Catholicism and Socialism, in the tradition of the French Revolution and the Spanish Civil War, is really an historical accident whose time has passed. Actually if anyone cares to study Catholic social teaching, which has been steadily developing since Rerum Novarum in 1891, with Sustainability now added to make three Ss with Solidarity and Subsidiarity, I think they will find about the best formulation of a sound socialism that there is; I hope it represents a way of responding to the world whose time has come.

Meanwhile, it will soon be time for me to be thinking of seafaring again! I’m currently cowering from the wind and rain back in Sherkin, but thinking of a spin eastwards as far as Crete in May and June, so let me know in good time if you are interested in participating….