Social
Justice
Contents
of this Page: -
Global Justice - Rejecting
extreme left and right politics - Justice
for others - Basis of GJM - Effective
control over everyday lives - Poverty
- Negotiated
Land Reform - Taxation
- Women - Social
Divisions - Democracy
- The meaning of Social Justice
Global
Justice
There is a Source of all
creation which has endowed the absolute values
of Truth, Love, Justice and Goodness which represent
the ultimate ends of human actions. Many people
call this Source, God.
All people are raised and live in total interdependence
in a sequence of time and as such are entitled
to:
• have warmth, clean air, clean water, food
and housing
• be respected, equal, free and able to
choose their own destiny
• fulfil their full emotional, intellectual
and spiritual potential
• have implemented the five Justices –
Monetary
Justice, Social
Justice, Economic Justice,
Environmental Justice
and Peace
Justice. |
Social
Justice guides us in the creation of social institutions.
Such institutions, if justly organised, provide what
is good for people, both individually and in their associations
with others. Social Justice is an integral part of Inclusive
Justice under God.
Inclusive
Justice
Rejecting
extreme left-wing and right-wing politics
Inclusive
Justice firstly means a rejection
of extreme left-wing and right-wing (including libertarian)
politics for something which does not exist at
present – a situation in which all individuals
(not just the well-off) are given proper respect and
have a high degree of control over their everyday lives.
This is not a centrist politics that mixes left and
right (as in forms of social democracy). Rather, it
is something completely new and, as yet, not capable
of being understood by those whose mindsets are based
upon outdated paradigms.
Left
and right are ultimately out to dominate, manipulate
and control. Despite their shallow rhetoric and propaganda,
they do not intend to recognise a simple truth –
the major function of democratic government in organized
society is to secure for the people the results the
people want from the management of their public affairs
as far as such results are physically possible and morally
right.
A
particularly nasty mechanism by which left and right
(the right, in particular) control politics and therefore
economics is the corrupt use of money. Corporate donations
in one form or another now control politics. The political
system of the USA has become so completely corrupted
by corporate (and, to some extent, labor union) money
– indeed, most of Washington, D.C. is a system
for high-spending lobbyists – that the United
States should be on its knees begging the rest of the
world for pardon. Unfortunately, it is shameless and
the hypocrisy is beyond belief.
There
is a sliver of hope in that Canadian PM Chrétien
has announced plans to ban corporate and union donations
to political parties although the ban should extend
to large donations from individuals.
Ensuring
Justice for others
Inclusive
Justice secondly means that we consciously and persistently
devote ourselves to ensuring Justice for others. The
highest responsibility of each person is to perfect
the social order by promoting the five Justices in his
or her personal life and all associations with others.
All
Justice begins with the human person (not social institutions
such as the State, the business corporation or the labor
union). Indeed, the individual is the most important
factor in organized society, and as a divinely created
being, with both spiritual and physical potentials and
needs, has certain inalienable rights which must be
respected and preserved. However, the upholding of merely
individual rights (as in libertarianism) often degenerates
into a belief that equates the pursuit of a person’s
individual self-interests with those of society.
In
contrast, Inclusive Justice requires that individual
rights also have responsibilities attached and those
responsibilities go much further than charity. Although
charity is an important palliative for human suffering,
it is usually only that – a palliative –
rather than a push for large-scale structural change.
See Seven
Steps to Justice, Rodney Shakespeare &
Peter Challen, obtainable from Amazon.co.uk
The
Seven Steps form the theoretical
and moral basis of the GJM. The Steps
are:–
•
There must be public acknowledgement that the
present banking is an unjust monopoly that creates
97% of the money supply as interest-bearing
debt.
•
State-issued interest-free loans (plus a small
cost for administration expenses) should be
used for public capital investment thereby halving
the present cost.
•
State-issued interest-free loans (plus a small
cost for administration expenses and a possible
cost for loan insurance) should, on market principles,
be used for private capital investment if such
investment, using the mechanisms of binary economics,
creates ownership stakes and property incomes
for all income groups, including the poor.
•
State-issued interest-free loans (plus a small
cost for administration expenses and a possible
cost for loan insurance) should be used for
loans to start-up and small business.
•
Since the Steps above are counter-inflationary
and ultimately diminish the money supply, debt-free
non-repayable money should be issued for individual
secure incomes to the extent necessary to keep
a stable level of prices.
•
That, in addition to the Steps above, the position,
role and economic position of women in the world
be specifically addressed.
•
That the Steps above be implemented as the only
possible long term solution to get peace in
areas such as the Middle East, Kashmir and Iraq.
|
N.B.
Over time, in the Global Justice economy, interest-free
money will come to replace interest-bearing money and
not be in addition to it. Since it is replacing, it
cannot be inflationary.
Effective
control over everyday lives
Thirdly,
Inclusive Justice has no meaning unless it gives substantial
and effective control over our everyday lives. In practical
terms, that might appear to mean only an independent
and substantial income. Yet it is much, much more than
that. One of the deepest of human psychological, and
certainly of bodily, needs is to be productive
– to physically produce enough for our own reasonable
physical requirements. That means access to,
and effective use of, the means of physical production.
Which
cannot mean access to jobs alone. The present mantra
is always jobs, jobs, jobs and understandably so because,
in practice, jobs are at present the only way by which
most people can earn a living. However, the mantra ignores
the fact that a lot of people (such as carers who work
without pay for long and arduous hours) cannot labour
for money. It ignores the fact that jobs are not always
available. Moreover, even when available, many jobs
do not pay enough for a reasonable standard of living.
Indeed, in many parts of the world, they pay only a
pittance and, everywhere, jobs are insecure. To which
can be added the humiliations and frustrations when
having to obtain welfare benefit from the state
The
way forward, therefore, can only be via the ownership
of productive capital paying out its true, full earnings.
It can here be noticed that in large areas of
the world, millions of people labor ceaselessly every
day and they are, and always will be, in poverty because
they do not own, or do not have effective use of, capital.
Moreover,
it is only with effective material security that all
individuals can be secure in the knowledge that he or
she is worthy, respected, equal and free, and that the
freedom to choose his or her destiny is an inalienable
right.
Poverty
Fourthly,
in the world as a whole, 20% of
the population have only $1 per day per person to pay
for everything; another 20% have only $2 per day, and
a further 15% (making 55% in all) have under $3. As
things are, with the global population expanding by
80 million each year, there could be, in thirty years
time, 5 billion people living on $2 or less per day.
Negotiated
land reform
Fifthly,
in many areas of the world access to land is essential
because land has an importance that it does not always
have in Western societies. For those areas, land is
a unique social good providing people with everything
– a livelihood, food, social status, and security
in times of illness or old age. In other words, it satisfies
both physical and psychological needs. Thus land is
not, and cannot be, viewed as merely another asset subject
to the whims of, and exploitation by, the ‘free
market’. Rather it founds all aspects of life
and, without direct access to it, the lives of millions
of poor farmers and their families are endangered.
Putting
it in a slightly different way, when land, rather than
industry, is the mainstay, or important part, of an
economy, concentrated land ownership prevents most people
from being productive. The land issue is really about
access to productive capital which, in countries like
Brazil means access to land because poor people are
unlikely to be allowed to get anything else. Thus, in
Brazil, a huge country rich in natural resources, about
one fifth of the population go hungry every day. That
fact is connected to another fact – about 50%
of the productive land is held by 1% of the owners.
Thus land is not available for the millions of people
who live on the rubbish dumps and in the squalid favelas
of Brazil’s cities.
Nor
are the narrowly owned lands well managed – too
often, they are left idle, under-utilised or treated
as speculative assets. Rather than being used for food
production, the best lands are used for monoculture
exports.
Land
reform is generally a prerequisite for societies to
shed their feudal characteristics and move to a more
developed mode of production. However, World Bank policies
since 1975 (called “market-assisted” land
reform) have not encouraged giving more people access
to land. Rather those policies are to abolish the communal
tenure systems (by which ordinary people had access
to land) and, instead, put the land into a narrow ownership
committed to cash crop production for the repayment
of national and international debt. The World Bank even
admits that the interests of small farmers are not among
its reasons for reviewing its land ‘reform’
policy. That is an honest but shocking admission. Thus
the net effect of the World Bank program is not the
distribution of land to the landless but the increasing
concentration of land in the hands of the landed elite.
Therefore:
• ordinary people are
being denied productive capacity (and so are pauperised);
• productive capital (in this case, fertile
land) is going into narrow ownership; and
• the iniquities of the international banking
system are being increased. |
In
short, “market-assisted” land reform is
no land reform at all. It is not
aiming at enhancing equitable land distribution, breaking
feudal rule and advancing backward rural economies to
a more developed mode of production. The World Bank's
land reform concept is indeed distributing land -- from
the poor to the rich.
The
GJM demands proper access to land. Among other things,
that will also require access to cheap capital credit,
the teaching of technical skills and a realistic recognition
that some people will cheat the system. Yet, despite
the problems, large-scale negotiated land reform is
something but that can, and must, be done.
Taxing
land
Closely
related to the need for proper access to land is the
public right to a fair share of the “rent”
of land via Land Value Tax (or Site Value Tax) –
see below. “Rent” is here defined widely
to include not only the site value of a piece of land
but also the enormous economic value of government-granted
privileges such as broadcast licenses, utility franchises,
etc.
Owners
of land also benefit unfairly when, as a result of community
activity, their land rises in value e.g. the building
of the London Jubilee underground train line resulted
in a great rise in local land values. Those values,
however, amount to a free gift to the land owners. Instead
they should be appropriately taxed on a rise in value
which is not the result of their efforts.
Land
Value Tax (or Site Value Tax)
A
Land Value Tax is a tax on the value of land as opposed
to a tax on the improvements (such as buildings) on
the land. Such a tax is simple and costs little to administer.
The tax would encourage underdeveloped land to be brought
into use and would in practice tax that land which has
greatly gained in value because, for example, of the
construction of an underground train system. In varying
degrees, Land Value Tax operates, among others, in Jamaica,
Chile, Kenya, Pennsylvania in the United States, some
areas of South Africa, and Tanzania. It should be noted,
however, the interests of Justice are not served if
a Land Value Tax is introduced at too low a rate and
then there is no tax on the buildings.
Healthcare,
education, clean water, sewage and electricity
Sixthly,
control over everyday life is completely meaningless
without access to (and the necessary money for) health
care, education, clean water, sewage and electricity.
It is an astounding reminder of the corruption of the
present world that water is everywhere being privatised
(i.e. being put into the ownership of a narrow, not
locally connected, group of people) with consequent
huge increases in the price of water without anyone
apparently being concerned that local people do not
have the money to pay for the water. It has been estimated
that in the world each day about 25,000 people die as
a result of dirty water.
Social
Justice is outraged.
Women
– and babies
Seventhly,
it is a very strange thing that while half of the adult
human population are women, the world in general really
only understands men’s rights, and men’s
liberties. Indeed, in some way, hard to define but always
there, all the big debates on politics, economics and
the like, never quite seem to touch completely and accurately
on the position of women. When the subject does arise,
it is always as an afterthought. Women are always in
the power of men, sometimes subtly and sometimes not
so subtly. It happens all the time because male-dominated
society always refuses to look at one question –
Why is it that most women in the world are never allowed
a properly secure economic base of their own? And –
dare it be asked? – Why are babies not allowed
a small independent income sufficient for their basic
needs?
Social
Justice vows to ensure that women have an independent
income. In this way, they will have proper control over,
and choice (e.g. as to whether or not to enter the conventional
labor market) in their lives.
It
also vows that babies will have sufficient income to
provide for basic needs.
Caste
and other social divisions
Eighthly,
Social Justice abhors caste and other social divisions.
They are an affront to the modern world. Such divisions
are ultimately the result of the way people do, or do
not, earn their income. Social Justice, therefore, has
an economic basis.
Cancelling
the debt of poor countries
If
the poor of the world are to have lives imbued with
the five Justices, they must be
allowed a fresh start by having existing debt cancelled.
Anything less is a betrayal of hope and decency.
Strengthening
democracy
Lastly,
the eternal rhetoric of unfree
finance capitalism is of “Freedom” and “Democracy.”
It’s all lies, of course. There is only freedom
for the few to own productive capital.
And
as for Democracy, it is but a periodic opportunity to
exercise the very weak power of the individual vote.
All of which explains how the everyday reality of so-called
‘democracies’ is a stitch-up by vested interests
and corporations who bankroll politicians and political
parties in an anti-democratic way for their own advantage.
Yet
there is something that can stand up to the anti-democratic
forces and, in a constructive and potent way, deepen
democracy. It is the widespread
ownership of productive capital (which, incidentally,
is why the forces of left and right ruthlessly oppose
it.) It has been well said that, apart from a concern
for Social, Environmental, Economic and Peace Justice,
the litmus test for joining the GJM is whether a person
favours the present concentrations of economic power
(either in the hands of a plutocratic elite or in the
hands of an over-powerful government) or its structured
diffusion, as with Global Justice.
Under
God
The
GJM accepts that there is a Source of all creation which
has endowed the absolute values of Truth, Love, Justice,
and Goodness which represent the ultimate ends of human
actions. Many people call this Source, God.
There
is a hierarchy of human work: The lowest but most urgent
form of work is for sheer personal survival. The highest
form of work is improving the social order including
relationships with others and doing work the soul must
have.
In
interacting with nature to promote one's own perfection,
every person must respect the rest of creation. Each
human being, a steward of nature, remains responsible
for conserving natural forms of existence, each of which
is interdependent and shares the same divine origin
with humanity.
So
Social Justice demands
1.
Secure incomes for everyone, including babies
The
GJM proposes two secure incomes
for everybody. (see Monetary
Justice and Economic
Justice). That
does not mean, of course, that people cannot get income
from other sources as well, e.g., from the labour market,
or from an existing pension or benefit. Rather, it means
that such income is in addition to the two secure incomes.
Apart
from the amount of money they engender, two
secure incomes have an important feature necessary
in the modern world – should economic circumstances
limit or reduce one of the incomes, the other is still
available.
2.
Proper provision of services
Just
as we need clean air, food and a decent home, so we
need healthcare, education, clean water, sewage and
electricity. Such provision is partly a question of
political will and partly one of the economy being able
to provide the necessary physical means. Such provision
requires an efficiently functioning economy. See Economic
Justice.
3.
Individual capital ownership for everyone
It
is no good just being opposed to the forces of the extreme
left and extreme right. Using the state, the extreme
left has an immensely powerful means of controlling
the lives of all individuals. In a different but no
less effective way, using their ownership of the productive
capital, the extreme right can control society e.g.
as today it controls the media and the banking system.
There’s
an answer, however – individual widespread ownership
of productive capital.
4.
Corporate donations to political parties be banned
Corporate
and union donations and large donations by individuals
to political parties must be banned.
5.
Proper access to land
In many countries,
proper access to land is the only way to give people
a living and dignity. In such circumstances, huge concentrations
of land ownership are an affront.
6.
Cancellation of the debt of poor countries
If the poor
of the world are to have lives imbued with the five
Justices, they must be allowed
a fresh start by having existing debt cancelled. Anything
less is a betrayal of hope and decency.
Remember
– the world has the technology and productive
resources to eliminate misery, poverty and injustice
and save the planet.
Monetary
Justice
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Social
Justice
|
Economic
Justice
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Environmental
Justice
|
Peace
Justice
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Justice with present Capitalism and Socialism!
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Global
Justice – the true, fair, democratic and
efficient solution to poverty. Global Justice
means Inclusive Justice!
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