The LSX protest, now into its fourth week, has
transitioned full circle from bearing the sympathy of the Church to splitting
the hierarchy of St Paul’s, culminating in two resignations and palpable
tension in the Church of England itself and for City workers of all stripes. The
ResPublica team has highlighted a few of what we believe to be the most
interesting responses to the LSX protest so far.
The Cathedral’s connected Institute has now of course
published its long-awaited report. Entitled
Value and Values: Perceptions of Ethics
in the City Today, the outgoing Canon Giles Fraser calls ‘abstract’
and value-bereft markets to account:
“The
old City may have been an exclusive and inward looking club -- but the benefit
of clubs is that members often have a better developed sense of values and are
able to hold each other to account for failing to live up to the club's
standards. As Albert Schweitzer put it: "Ethics is a state of solidarity
with other human beings."
Whilst its research
reveals the expected, with the exception a few particularly interesting
insights, it is the connection between morality and ‘the City’ that has
recently received most comment.
Most notably, Ken
Costa, former chairman of Lazard International, has expressed the need for the
City to reconnect with ethics:
"I have been in the City since before the Big Bang
whose 25th anniversary came this week. I have been through several recessions
but I cannot recall the underlying sustained anger across all social levels –
from dinner parties to demonstrations – aimed at bankers and the market economy
as a whole…When such a wide range of people are singing a tune perhaps
discordant to a City worker's ears but seemingly in tune with the global view
that the market economy has failed to deliver growth, jobs and hope, we need to
listen. The cure is not more legislation, or increased regulation. It is the
pressing need to reconnect the financial with the ethical."
Dr. Adrian Pabst, writing
for ABC Religion and Ethics, has highlighted similar concerns:
"Global finance has become disconnected from
ethical or social goals, while governments of both the Left and Right have
either replaced mutualist arrangements among works with centralised,
bureaucratic welfare, or outsourced the delivery of public goods to the private
service providers – or, indeed both.”
…And pinpoints the
twin principles of subsidiarity and solidarity that characterise Catholic
Social Teaching as a way in which we must proceed.
General Lord Dannatt
has also made reference to a “loss of moral compass,” not just within the armed forces or FS sector, but
across society as a whole. At a lecture hosted by Theos, he commented:
"In past generations,
certainly in this country, it was often assumed that young men and women coming
into the Armed Forces would have absorbed an understanding of the core values
and standards of behaviour required by the military from their family or from
within their wider community… Indeed, such standards would have typified our
society more generally. I would suggest such a presumption cannot be made
today."
In the Telegraph, Mary Riddell issued a call for action to our Government
and Opposition leaders, asserting the protesters were ‘symbolic of public
yearning’:
“Justice is not the exclusive province of
the squeezed middle, any more than it is the birthright of the top 1 per cent.
The cry for fairness emanating from St Paul’s, whether voiced by urban mystics
or posh protesters in North Face jackets, has been issued on behalf of the
teenager with no hope of work, the isolated pensioner left without social care
and the reject left to rot in jail.
Reluctance to address the plight of less
voter-friendly outsiders is proof that the road to civic virtue is strewn not with
roses but with grenades. Yet politicians will never be trusted again unless
they face down the forces of repression and privilege and walk this dangerous
path. Both leaders have promised a better society. Britain’s future hangs on
the honouring of that pledge.”
Whilst the Independent picked up on Cameron’s hesitant backing of the
Archbishop of Canterbury’s “call for greater
responsibility by high earners in the City, while playing down the idea of a
"Robin Hood tax" on the banks, Ed
Miliband broke his silence on the Occupy protest.
Writing in the Observer, the leader of the Labour Party backed the philosophy of the protesters,
asserting that they were representative of a much broader movement:
“…the problem is a system of
irresponsible, predatory capitalism based on the short term, rather than
productive, responsible behaviour which benefits business and most people in
the long term… You do not have to be in a tent to feel angry. People feel let
down by aspects of business, finance and politics which seem in touch with the
richest 1% – but badly out of touch with the reality facing the other 99%. They
wonder if things can be different — and whether politics can make a difference.”
St. Paul’s Cathedral
and the Church has itself attracted much commentary over the past couple of
weeks – from its dealings with the protesters to its proper role in society.
Many have offered a
rather critical view of the Church’s influence and response, but like the
comments of Suzanne Moore in the Guardian,
have also signalled toward a great opportunity:
"Indeed 200 or so people in tents appear
to have created an organisation that can act more effectively than the Church
of England. Though this was never meant to be a clash with the church, it seems
entirely suitable. When politics fails – and it has with the banks – we end up
talking about morality. The church has now finally decided that some of the
most extreme practices of neo-liberalism – the selling on of bundles of
risk by rich people paid for with the homes and jobs of poor people – is not
morally healthy. Who knew?”
And indeed, elsewhere,
a number of commentators have been calling for action from the Church to
utilise this protest as a way into the debate. ResPublica Trustee, Professor John Milbank stressed the opportunity available to be seized:
A view echoed in a Guardian editorial piece, which called directly on the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Shortly afterward did we hear of the Church’s U-turn against legal action by Bishop Chartres, and read the Archbishop’s words in the Financial Times.
Both voices chimed with that of the protesters, in calling for a “connection between finance and ethics and
human flourishing” (Bishop Chartes).
The vital role of, and perhaps need for, the Church with regards to
such issues was also amongst the comments made by the Archbishop:
“The Church of England and the Church
Universal have a proper interest in the ethics of the financial world and in
the question of whether our financial practices serve those who need to be
served – or simply become idols that themselves demand uncritical service.”
Indeed, and finally, Canon
Dr Angus Ritchie has alluded to the evident yearning
by the protesters and others for the Church’s input to such concerns:
“St Paul’s Cathedral and the protestors are learning
that they have a surprising amount in common…. The last fortnight reveals
how much an allegedly secular society still looks to its Church for meaning and
for value…”