The Pope, Reform, and Revolution

The Pope, Reform, and Revolution

On September 26, 2015 there was a forum in Worcester regarding reforms of society similar to that spoken about by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. The reforms included Basic Income, Education, and Discrimination Law. There was also a discussion of whether these reforms could be achieved without fundamental changes in the economic and political systems.

Ruth Rodriguez, an Administrator for Opt-Out National, told the audience of about twenty people that the public education systems in the United States has been hijacked by large corporations such as the Bill Gates Foundation and Walmart. These wealthy entities have passed legislation through a lobbying group called ALEC that have harmed the education of children in public schools. She pointed out that the standardized testing industry has not helped children to learn, but has harmed children by creating conditions that cause the children to fail; these conditions being especially harmful to low income children and children of color.  She also said that the money needed for public schools was being drained away by charter schools. “Charter schools did not have a better record of teaching children than public schools”, Ms. Rodriguez asserted. She called for fully funded public schools and an end to the present policy of standardized testing.

Dr. Jason Burke Murphy, a college professor, described the program called “Basic Income”. The concept is every person would receive an amount of money that would be above the poverty level unconditionally. He said this would be an effective way of reducing poverty and actually saving government money. By “unconditional” Dr. Murphy explained that there would be no income qualifications (nor income qualification bureaucracy), no length of time worked qualifications (such as with Social Security) and no income tax qualifications (such with earned income credits).

There was a good back and forth on the proposal of Basic Income. Several people wanted to know where the money would come from. Dr. Murphy explained that the money was not dependent on the profits of corporations as corporations pay little or no taxes. The money would come from the savings in the reduction of bureaucracy and the reduction of redundant military hardware.

Gwen Davis, a member of the Progressive Labor Party which co hosted the forum with the Massachusetts Human Rights Committee, spoke on BlackLives Matter and the need to fight racism and sexism. She stated that modern day racism has its origins in capitalism and there was a need to abolish the profit systems and establish an egalitarian communist world where wage slavery is abolished.  Ms. Davis also talked about fighting racism in Worcester and indicated that the policy of arresting children by the police while at school has been found to be harmful to the children. She asserted that the practice was a part of the racist “school- to- prison- pipeline”. Ms. Davis said she was disappointed that Pope Francis did not address the issue of racism directly.

A member of Massachusetts Human Rights Committee told the audience that it was working to change the policy of the City of Worcester so that no child should be placed in handcuffs or arrested while at school unless there was clear and immediate danger of harm. The school administrators know where each child lives and her parents; if there is a need for intervention by the criminal justice system, the intervention should take place outside of school. The parents and child could then be summoned to court. The Mass. Human Rights Committee asked people to sign the petition to the Worcester City Council and the Worcester School Committee generally disallowing the arrest of children at school.

I am happy Pope Francis is speaking out on many issues, including his criticism of the misery caused by capitalism.  He has certainly upset the right wing in the United States and elsewhere.  Pope Francis has not spoken about the details of how to end the misery of capitalism and other forms of oppression. I hope it is more than just talk-talk.  I suppose we have to depend on Dr. Murphy, Ms. Rodriguez, and Ms. Davis do more than talk for us in Worcester.