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Pope Francis Calls For ‘Legitimate Redistribution’ Of Wealth To The Poor
VATICAN CITY (AP) – On May 9, 2014 Pope Francis called for governments to redistribute wealth to the poor in a new spirit of generosity to help curb the “economy of exclusion” that is taking hold today.
Francis made the appeal during a speech to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of major U.N. agencies who were meeting in Rome that week.
Latin America’s first pope has frequently lashed out at the injustices of capitalism and the global economic system that excludes so much of humanity.
Francis called for the United Nations to promote a “worldwide ethical mobilization” of solidarity with the poor in a new spirit of generosity.
He said a more equal form of economic progress can be had through “the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and civil society.”
Francis had a similar message to the World Economic Forum in January and in his apostolic exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel.” That document, which denounced trickle-down economic theories as unproven and naive, provoked criticism in the U.S. that he was Marxist.
Francis has denied he’s Marxist, and spent years in Argentina battling Marxist excesses of liberation theology. But he has said from the outset that he wants a church that “is poor and for the poor” and ministers to the most marginal of society.
He urged the U.N. to promote development goals that attack the root causes of poverty and hunger, protect the environment and ensure “dignified” labor for all.
“Specifically, this involves challenging all forms of injustices and resisting the economy of exclusion, the throwaway culture and the culture of death which nowadays sadly risk becoming passively accepted,” he said.
The Deep Roots of Skilled Labor Shortages: Anti-Union, Anti-Worker Corporations
May 16, 2014 by Ross Eisenbrey http://www.epi.org
A recent story from NPR’s Andrew Schneider, about a construction boom and skilled labor shortage in Texas, is missing some of the links needed to understand what is happening there and why. The elements are all there: the huge loss of construction jobs following the financial crisis in 2008, the energy boom creating jobs regionally even while construction employment nationally remains about a million and a half jobs lower than its peak, a decline in unauthorized immigration, and contractors grudgingly increasing pay to attract workers.
The two missing links are the role of the construction owner, like Chevron, in crushing the unions that provide skilled journeymen in the construction trades, and a clear discussion of the wage levels needed to attract skilled workers from parts of the country the recovery hasn’t reached. The story says wages are rising in Texas, but from what to what? Are wage levels high enough to persuade a journeyman electrician from Michigan or Los Angeles to relocate to Houston? Or are they unreasonably low, given the scarcity of skilled workers and the years of training required to produce a journeyman? How do union wages compare with non-union wages? The story never says.
Oil giants like Chevron can afford to have their construction contractors pay well for skilled work, but they resist. Organizations they fund, such as the Business Roundtable, have led a decades-long campaign to weaken or destroy the building trades unions that actually train the greatest number of skilled tradesmen. Chevron, Koch Industries, ExxonMobil and many other energy industry corporations fund the American Legislative Exchange Council and its legislative efforts to kill unions and eliminate labor standards. It’s hard to hear Chevron complain about a labor shortage when Chevron and other Fortune 500 companies themselves are a major cause. They don’t merely fight unionization, they also oppose the state and federal prevailing wage laws that protect construction wages from being driven lower and allow union apprenticeship programs to continue providing the best-trained workers.
Schneider is wrong to suggest that community college vocational training programs are the long-term solution to the shortage of skilled labor in Texas. The real solution is to restore the power and reach of the unions, raise wages to attract more workers, and grow the only proven way to develop the necessary skilled labor—apprenticeship programs funded by employers and jointly administered by unions and employers.
Smyth: NDP still vulnerable on economy, a year after election debacle
By Michael Smyth, The Province May 12, 2014
John Horgan, the new leader of B.C.’s NDP, must find a way to assure voters that his party will not damage the economy in its efforts to protect the environment from damage by megaprojects such as the Site C dam.
One year ago today, pundits and pollsters everywhere predicted the imminent demise of Premier Christy Clark and her Liberal government.
One year ago tomorrow, those same political prognosticators sat down to a super-sized meal of humble pie, as Clark pulled off the greatest comeback in B.C. history.
The election of May 14, 2013 — exactly one year ago Wednesday — confounded analysts mesmerized by the 20-point lead in pre-election polls enjoyed by Adrian Dix and the NDP.
How did the NDP blow such an advantage? One year after the shocker, a couple of answers emerge.
For one thing, despite what voters might tell pollsters before an election, most people don’t make up their minds on how to vote until the sustained heat and glare of a campaign.
It’s clear now that most of those voters didn’t think much of Dix once they took a good look at him. One image that sticks in my mind: the way Dix slouched against his lectern during the televised election debate. Not a good look for him.
But perhaps the greatest lesson of last year’s election-night surprise was the proof it provided for an old political axiom: It’s the economy, stupid.
From the beginning of the campaign, Clark hammered home an optimistic message of private-sector investment, thousands of new jobs and unparalleled prosperity for B.C.
Will even a fraction of her grandiose promises — such as a trillion-dollar natural-gas gold rush and enough riches to wipe out the province’s $60-billion debt — come true?
It’s still too early to say, but enough voters dared to believe Clark’s utopian vision to give the Liberals another majority-government mandate.
A year later, it’s easy to see how the Liberals plan a repeat performance in the next election: by painting themselves as the party of prosperity, and the NDP as the party that will say No to jobs and investment.
Clark will continue to promote her liquefied-natural-gas miracle. And now the government appears poised to back another megaproject: the $8-billion Site C dam on the Peace River.
On Monday, new NDP leader John Horgan attacked Site C in the legislature, insisting B.C. doesn’t need the new power it would generate.
While Horgan demands that the project be turned over to the B.C. Utilities Commission for more study, it appears Clark’s Liberals will push ahead with it anyway.
And that’s just the way Clark likes it: The Liberals saying “Yes” and the NDP saying “No” all over again.
Here is Horgan’s new challenge: If he chooses to fight controversial megaprojects such as the Site C dam, the Prosperity mine, and the Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipelines, he must find a way to simultaneously reassure voters that the NDP will not damage the economy.
Horgan must also learn another lesson from Clark’s victory of a year ago: Attack ads work, and the New Democrats can’t go easy on her.
Horgan has vowed to “highlight the shortcomings of the Liberals,” saying the NDP’s failure to do that was a “singular failing” of the 2013 election campaign.
A year later, Horgan has only begun to fight. Clark will be ready for him.
Andrew Phillip Chernoff 