Blog

31/03/2017

Fairtrade Fortnight 2017

DON'T feed exploitation - Choose Fairtrade

In our latest blog, Justice and Peace Commissioner, Margaret McGowan looks back at Fairtrade Fortnight 2017, telling her story on becoming a fairtrader and challenging us all to question what we buy.

Fairtrade Fortnight has ended. Where I live, I had to search to find recognition of it in my local stores and supermarkets - a bit different from 2011 when Scotland had Fairtrade Nation status.

I became involved with Fairtrade many years ago. I was a member of a parish “Third World Group” who raised tens of thousands of pounds for SCIAF but nothing seemed to change. There were still famines, people were dying and people were being exploited. A few of us decided to form a Justice and Peace Group and through that I became involved in Fairtrade and many other campaigns.

We started with a monthly coffee morning with a Fairtrade stall. Initially we got our goods on a sale or return basis from another fairtrader, and eventually we took the decision to go it alone.

It was not an easy path. First we had to get our parish priest to support us. He claimed he did not like Fairtrade coffee. This was probably due to the taste of the original Campaign Coffee. His housekeeper bought Fairtrade coffee from us and put it into his well known brand jar. He never noticed the difference and after a few months she revealed what she had done.

We also had to raise funds to ensure we had enough in our account to pay the monthly bills for goods. We got great support from our parish community and we have never looked back. Our fears about not being able to pay the bills were unjustified and we eventually became a Fairtrade Church.

We also became members of the Hamilton Fairtrade Town Group that worked toward Hamilton getting Fairtrade status in 2005. Through this involvement, we met producers during Fairtrade Fortnight. Banana producers from the Windward Islands visited Hamilton in 2006. They visited various schools including my own school. One pupil asked how they spent their Fairtrade premium in their community and was surprised by the answer. They said it was used to erect a fence round their school. There was no fence and often younger pupils wandered away during break time, risking danger. Sadly this plantation was destroyed during a hurricane the next year but the Fairtrade Foundation helped them to get it re established.

“Every perspective on economic life that is human, moral, and Christian must be shaped by three questions: What does the economy do for people? What does it do to people? And how do people participate in it?” Economic Justice for All.

As Catholics, we are called to ask these three questions about all of our economic activities. Fairtrade offers us the opportunity to answer them in ways that reflect core principles of Catholic Social Teaching on economic justice. If we purchase of Fair Trade items we:
• Exalt the HUMAN DIGNITY of small-scale producers overseas
• Exercise a preferential OPTION FOR THE POOR
• Act in SOLIDARITY with our brothers and sisters in need
• Ensure that farmers and artisans earn a JUST WAGE
• Contribute to a more just DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
• Apply the principle of SUBSIDIARITY
• Practice responsible STEWARDSHIP of our natural resources

All of these are pillars of Catholic Social Teaching.

This year’s Fairtrade Fortnight was themed around fighting the exploitation of small-scale farmers but these farmers and other larger producers also employ other workers and the rights of these “wage workers “often go unnoticed.

In Fairtrade certification the rights of these workers should be taken into account but the reality is it is difficult to police and in one survey it was found that Fairtrade did not have a either a positive or negative effect, so there is still a lot of work to be done on the Fairtrade front.

Perhaps this Lent instead of giving up chocolate, coffee or wine we should all buy Fairtrade - and then do the same all year round.

24/03/2017

Nuclear Ban Treaty 27th-31st March 2017

Throughout March we have been highlighting the Nuclear Ban Treaty talks which begin next Monday, 27th March in New York. Now you can read our latest blog by Janet Fenton, Vice Chair of Scottish CND who will be attending these historic talks.

In a 2016 presentation to the UN Working group that explored the processes for eliminating and prohibiting nuclear weapons, the Vatican made it clear that peace cannot be achieved through a balance of power between enemies, but requires a profound respect for strengthening mutual trust amongst all nations. Pope Paul VI said that “Development is the new name for peace.”

The Vatican was in line with the overwhelming majority of UN member states, and supported them when they voted for the most significant resolution for nuclear disarmament in decades.

The vote at the UN for a Conference to devise a Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty was achieved despite the efforts of nuclear-armed states like the UK and the US.

The negotiating conference will be held at the United Nations in New York on 27-31 March 2017 and 14 June-7 July 2017. All governments, international organisations and civil society are invited to participate in these historic negotiations.

Any detonation of a nuclear weapon would cause catastrophic humanitarian harm. The blast, the firestorm, the immediate fallout and the long-term impact of radiation would cause unspeakable suffering for civilians. Nuclear weapons are the only weapons of mass destruction that are not banned per se, and now things can be put right, by banning them specifically, and for good.

By speaking about the humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons and by including the perspective of states which do not have nuclear weapons, the ban treaty will address the shortcomings of previous treaties.

While the UK Government and the nuclear armed states oppose the treaty, Scotland is left in democratic deficit again. Our elected representatives will not be able to represent Scotland's view, despite the UK siting its nuclear weapons in this country.

It is imperative that civil society attends the negotiations, to support the states that want to ensure the ban goes ahead, and to hold the powerful minority of the nuclear weapons states to account. India, China and Pakistan abstained from the vote, showing a willingness to participate in discussions. With each achievement, the movement for elimination and prohibition grows, and with it the courage of governments who can make the change happen.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN) has been the leading civil society coalition advocating for a treaty to prohibit this inhumane and unacceptable weapon of mass destruction.

The UK Government takes the position that it supports multilateral disarmament through the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The NPT does prohibit nations from acquiring nuclear weapons if they did not already have them at the time that the NPT was negotiated, (1968) and it also requires all of its parties to pursue negotiations in good faith for nuclear disarmament. New legal instruments to advance the objective of nuclear disarmament are specifically required by the treaty. The nuclear weapon ban treaty will fulfil that requirement, and complement and reinforce the NPT. It will neither replace nor undermine it, and the NPT will remain in force after the ban treaty has been concluded.

A statement submitted to the 2016 UN General Assembly First Committee by Faith Communities Concerned about the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons on October 12, 2016, New York urged “… all governments to support the resolution mandating a conference in 2017 to negotiate a new legally binding treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons and leading to their elimination. Civil society organisations, including faith-based organisations, have a vital role to play in such negotiations, and we call for their full inclusion in the conference and negotiation process.”

17/03/2017

Flame 2017

In this week’s blog Social Justice Co-ordinator Danny Sweeney reflects on travelling with the URSpace group to Flame 2017, the largest gathering of young Catholics in England and Wales.

Flame? The event is, of course, inspired by St. Paul’s writing to “let our faith fan into a flame”, and the message of St. Catherine of Sienna to “be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire”, and on March 11 the Salesians of Don Bosco took a group of 560 people from their schools, parishes, and youth centres, including 30 students from schools across central Scotland connected with URSpace; the retreat community run by the Salesian Sisters from their base in Glasgow.

My connection with URSpace goes back to Sr Gill – who I first met at a Salesian retreat centre 10 years ago, and it was Sr Gill and Sr Bernie who gave me a place to stay for my first two weeks north of the border working with Justice and Peace Scotland. So of course, I was going to join students from St Maurice’s (Cumbernauld), St Ninian’s (Eastwood), John Paul Academy (Glasgow), St Andrews and St. Bride’s (East Kilbride), and Cardinal Newman (Bellshill) travelling down to London on the Friday.

For some of the Scottish young people it was their first time in London, and after navigating the Underground we made camp at The Bosco Centre, a vocational college in Bermondsey, before setting out to see the Thames at night, walking down to Tower Bridge.

The following morning we were up early and on the tube to Wembley. Being the only Scottish group attending we broke out the face-paint, and arrived well decorated in both Saltires and the Salesian family logo. The event started with Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster reading a message from Pope Francis. Music-led by worship leader Matt Redman (back after appearing at Flame 2 in 2015) helped to focus on the theme. His song “10,000 reasons”, reflecting the 10,000 of us gathered there, all of us a blessing to the church, each other, and, in the words of Don Bosco, “loved, and lovable” to God.

Cardinal Charles Bo of Burma addressed us, speaking about the church in his country under persecution for so many years, now finding its place in an emerging democracy, and leaving us with the message that all of us “are made for greater things. Let hope put fire into your hearts and make you a great human being”.
The lunchtime activities were the original reason for my attendance, and along with colleagues from Bosco Volunteer Action, the Columbans, and Assumptionist volunteers we delivered “Imagine” – challenging young people, their leaders, and a few bishops to imagine they were threatened, and having to flee to safety, what would they pack, how would they feel, and how do they imagine they would be received in a strange country? This led into the afternoon, where an unapologetic focus was placed on refugees and asylum seekers. Present in the arena was T06411, a boat that had crossed from Libya to Lampedusa. Volunteers from CAFOD spoke about their experiences of visiting partner organisations in Lebanon, and staff from Jesuit Refugee Service shared the experience of their work here in the UK.

The afternoon ended in prayer, with the whole of Wembley arena silent in Adoration, before singing and dancing our way out of the arena. A late night trip to Piccadilly Circus, and an early start for Mass at Westminster Cathedral left all of us tired, as we sat, slept, or (in my case) wrote this blog, on the train back to Glasgow.

The speakers, videos, and drama at Flame are a real inspiration. But even more powerful was to travel with our young people visiting London, and taking part in Flame for the first time. While walking on the Friday, several were speaking to me about how they lived their faith in little acts of service; volunteering in soup kitchens, and as peer mentors in their schools. I have never accepted the despairing remarks that “young people don’t get involved in the church”, and the stories they shared were always described as “it’s just something I know I should do” – no fanfare, no praise sought - makes me feel as sure of our young people, as standing amongst 10,000 in worship on the Saturday did. I know that I would have been at Flame this year either way – but the experience is multiplied thousands of times by sharing the journey with such amazing young people.

Danny Sweeney is Justice and Peace Scotland’s Social Justice Co-ordinator, a Salesian lay-volunteer, and (at the time of writing) hasn’t slept in 2 days!
For more information about the work of URSpace in schools across Scotland, see their Facebook page (search for URSpace).

For photos and videos from Flame see our Twitter feed (@JandPScot), and also Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for @FlameCongress, and #Flame2017.

Page 80 of 89

First Previous 75 76 77 78 79 [80] 81 82 83 84 Next Last