Monday, August 23, 2010

Living Wage A Just Wage









An interesting debate is going on at Alwyn Ap Huw famous blog Miserable old Fart concerning Plaid Cymru's policy of a "living wage". This of course is a concept that is not rooted in Socialist doctrine. The Catholic Church has the "Just Wage" as part of its social theology. It first made an appearance in Pope Leo XIII "Rerum Novarum" which says quite clearly.

  • "If a worker receives a wage sufficiently large to enable him to provide comfortably for himself, his wife and his children, he will, if prudent, gladly strive to practice thrift; and the result will be, as nature itself seems to counsel, that after expenditures are deducted there will remain something over and above through which he can come into the possession of a little wealth. We have seen, in fact, that the whole question under consideration cannot be settled effectually unless it is assumed and established as a principle, that the right of private property must be regarded as sacred. Wherefore, the law ought to favor this right and, so far as it can, see that the largest possible number among the masses of the population prefer to own property." (#65)
  • "Wealthy owners of the means of production and employers must never forget that both divine and human law forbid them to squeeze the poor and wretched for the sake of gain or to profit from the helplessness of others." (#17)
  • "As regards protection of this world’s good, the first task is to save the wretched workers from the brutality of those who make use of human beings as mere instruments for the unrestrained acquisition of wealth." (#43)
  • "Care must be taken, therefore, not to lengthen the working day beyond a man’s capacity. How much time there must be for rest depends upon the type of work, the circumstances of time and place and, particularly, the health of the workers." (#43)


This quite clearly indicates that businesses have a divine duty to pay their workers a wage that is just and adequate.

This is expanded by Pope Pius XI encyclical Quadragesimo Anno (1931) which defends the right of private property, however it must be used for the common good.

""...(T)he wealthy class violates (the common good) no less, when, as if free from care on account of its wealth, it thinks it the right order of things for it to get everything and the worker nothing, than does the...working class when, angered deeply at outraged justice and too ready to assert wrongly the one right it is conscious of, it demands for itself everything as if produced by its own hands, and attacks and seeks to abolish, therefore, all property and returns or incomes, of whatever kind they are or whatever the function they perform in human society, that have not been obtained by labor, and for no other reason save that they are of such a nature." (#57)

In the debate on MOF the issue of Tesco's low pay comes up.

I started to work for them in 2002, and I remmeber quite clearly  the section manager telling me how much better Tesco paid compared to ASDA (4.85 an hour then).  This spiel must have been part of his 2 day management training. when I told him that I made 15 Bucks an hour working at a "Unionised" Safeway store in the States he asked me how much that was in Pounds I told him then it was about 9 quid an hour. His jaw dropped. this was because of the union (UFCW)  who negotiated with the grocery stores. Also it is worth noticing when Tesco opened their stores on the West Coast they excluded this union, I wonder why?

Its unfortunate that USDAW is such a weak union that is unable to represent its membership.

Living Wage A Just Wage









An interesting debate is going on at Alwyn Ap Huw famous blog Miserable old Fart concerning Plaid Cymru's policy of a "living wage". This of course is a concept that is not rooted in Socialist doctrine. The Catholic Church has the "Just Wage" as part of its social theology. It first made an appearance in Pope Leo XIII "Rerum Novarum" which says quite clearly.

  • "If a worker receives a wage sufficiently large to enable him to provide comfortably for himself, his wife and his children, he will, if prudent, gladly strive to practice thrift; and the result will be, as nature itself seems to counsel, that after expenditures are deducted there will remain something over and above through which he can come into the possession of a little wealth. We have seen, in fact, that the whole question under consideration cannot be settled effectually unless it is assumed and established as a principle, that the right of private property must be regarded as sacred. Wherefore, the law ought to favor this right and, so far as it can, see that the largest possible number among the masses of the population prefer to own property." (#65)
  • "Wealthy owners of the means of production and employers must never forget that both divine and human law forbid them to squeeze the poor and wretched for the sake of gain or to profit from the helplessness of others." (#17)
  • "As regards protection of this world’s good, the first task is to save the wretched workers from the brutality of those who make use of human beings as mere instruments for the unrestrained acquisition of wealth." (#43)
  • "Care must be taken, therefore, not to lengthen the working day beyond a man’s capacity. How much time there must be for rest depends upon the type of work, the circumstances of time and place and, particularly, the health of the workers." (#43)


This quite clearly indicates that businesses have a divine duty to pay their workers a wage that is just and adequate.

This is expanded by Pope Pius XI encyclical Quadragesimo Anno (1931) which defends the right of private property, however it must be used for the common good.

""...(T)he wealthy class violates (the common good) no less, when, as if free from care on account of its wealth, it thinks it the right order of things for it to get everything and the worker nothing, than does the...working class when, angered deeply at outraged justice and too ready to assert wrongly the one right it is conscious of, it demands for itself everything as if produced by its own hands, and attacks and seeks to abolish, therefore, all property and returns or incomes, of whatever kind they are or whatever the function they perform in human society, that have not been obtained by labor, and for no other reason save that they are of such a nature." (#57)

In the debate on MOF the issue of Tesco's low pay comes up.

I started to work for them in 2002, and I remmeber quite clearly  the section manager telling me how much better Tesco paid compared to ASDA (4.85 an hour then).  This spiel must have been part of his 2 day management training. when I told him that I made 15 Bucks an hour working at a "Unionised" Safeway store in the States he asked me how much that was in Pounds I told him then it was about 9 quid an hour. His jaw dropped. this was because of the union (UFCW)  who negotiated with the grocery stores. Also it is worth noticing when Tesco opened their stores on the West Coast they excluded this union, I wonder why?

Its unfortunate that USDAW is such a weak union that is unable to represent its membership.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

America's Shame: The Sand Creek Massacre

Last weekend we decided to take a family trip (trying to escape Kansas triple digit weather) to Colorado. The wife being interested in Western history had wanted to visit the site of the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado. This infamous act of barbarism was committed towards the end of the American Civil War (November 9th 1864), and ignited a war amongst the Plain's Indians that culminated in the battle of the Little Big Horn, where Col. George C Custer and elements of the 7th Calvary were wiped out. It began when Colorado's hard line territorial governor, John Evans (of Welsh descent) ordered Col John Chivington to deal with the Cheyenne and Arapaho who had been stealing cattle. He commanded 800 troops (Calvary and artillery)



John Chivington

Meanwhile a group of Cheyenne Indians led by Black Kettle and White Antelope where camped near the Sand Creek with 70 lodges and about 800 men, women and children. They were told to camp there by the authorities, and were to be regarded as "friendly Indians". That did not stop vegetate Indian hater and Methodist preacher, Chivington from killing them, in fact he said.

Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians! ... I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians.


Genocide was in his mind, and he and his soldiers attacked. Only 2 officiars refused to (Captain Soule and Lt Cramer).

This was from a testmony by John Smith

I saw the bodies of those lying there cut all to pieces, worse mutilated than any I ever saw before; the women cut all to pieces ... With knives; scalped; their brains knocked out; children two or three months old; all ages lying there, from sucking infants up to warriors ... By whom were they mutilated? By the United States troops ...

—- John S. Smith, Congressional Testimony of Mr. John S. Smith, 1865[17]

Fingers and ears were cut off the bodies for the jewelry they carried. The body of White Antelope, lying solitarily in the creek bed, was a prime target. Besides scalping him the soldiers cut off his nose, ears, and testicles-the last for a tobacco pouch ...



Chief Black Kettle


Another eyewitness reported.

"Jis to think of that dog Chivington and his dirty hounds, up thar at Sand Creek. His men shot down squaws, and blew the brains out of little innocent children. You call sich soldiers Christians, do ye? And Indians savages? What der yer 'spose our Heavenly Father, who made both them and us, thinks of these things? I tell you what, I don't like a hostile red skin any more than you do. And when they are hostile, I've fought 'em, hard as any man. But I never yet drew a bead on a squaw or papoose, and I despise the man who would."

The famous scout and pathfinder, Kit Carson.

Unfortunately Carson's enlightened attitude was rare and the old saying "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" was commonly held by those who even abhorred Slavery. The native American was either to be absorbed and become white (which was Thomas Jefferson's view) or be wiped out. It was estimated that 133 men women and children were killed.

Chivington was condemned by a court of enquiry, but disgraced with nothing but the memory on his self righteous and sociopathic mind.

It took us about 3 hours of driving through dusty western towns, named for such enlightened folk as Horace Greeley and his anti slavery newspaper “Tribune”. After driving for 30 minutes along a dusty county road, we arrived at the site of America’s shame on open plain, where there is one marker.

We stood by the site in silence with nothing by the wind blowing and moaning. It was like the cry of a baby. Just like the ghost of those innocents who were butchered there.

Also those who believe in “American Exceptionalism” and a “City built on a hill” should come here and ask, what is “exceptionable” about this. We are as guilty now as we were then.

And with the Immigration law in Arizona which encourages racial profiling, we are a long way from fulfilling the American dream. They should come here and ask why?