[Campaignforrealdemocracy] [politicsandspiritnetwork] +Rowan: The Archbishop of Canterbury Endorses Tax on Bankers

[Mark Barrett]

What is movement's position on Rowan Williams statement/Robin Hood:
the idea of an international taxation regime to help tackle global
poverty while interesting has not been discussed or endorsed by the
General Assemblies and therefore cannot be said to be a demand of the
global movement. While many activists from the movement argue for it,
others point out - aside from the practical difficulty of its
enforcement and the linked question of tax havens - that the idea
raises profound political questions about sovereignty and
representation at the global level. To bring in a global tax you would
presumably need a global state, which is anathema to many in the
global movement. We are still to develop a position on the British
state and its relationship to the cause of real Democracy and assembly
sovereignty, let alone a European or global one!


On 02/11/2011, j <sitavana at googlemail.com> wrote:
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> November 2, 2011
> Archbishop of Canterbury Endorses Tax on Bankers
> By RAVI SOMAIYA and ALAN COWELL
> LONDON — A day after St. Paul’s Cathedral suspended legal action to evict
> hundreds of anti-capitalist protesters camped outside its doors, the Most
> Rev. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and the spiritual leader
> of the world’s Anglicans, was quoted on Wednesday as expressing sympathy for
> their cause.
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> “There is still a powerful sense around — fair or not — of a whole society
> paying for the errors and irresponsibility of bankers; of messages not
> getting through; of impatience with a return to ‘business as usual’ —
> represented by still soaring bonuses and little visible change in banking
> practices,” he said in an article published in The Financial Times.
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> With the Church of England’s leadership in a crisis over its handling of the
> protesters, the archbishop’s remarks seemed to offer a belated attempt to
> lay out an agenda.
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> Dr. Williams supported a Vatican statement last week endorsing the idea of a
> “Robin Hood” tax on financial transaction and for a separation of the retail
> and investment operations banks that have relied on bailouts from public
> funds.
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> “These ideas — ideas that have been advanced from other quarters, religious
> and secular, in recent years — do not amount to a simplistic call for the
> end of capitalism, but they are far more than a general expression of
> discontent,” he said.
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> “If we want to take seriously the moral agenda of the protesters at St
> Paul’s, these are some of the ways in which we should be taking it forward,”
> the article said, but it urged the protesters to be “a bit more specific,”
> arguing the three proposals made by the Vatican should become a springboard
> for debate.
>
> “If religious leaders and commentators in the U.K. and elsewhere could agree
> on these three proposals, not as a fixed agenda but as a common ground on
> which to start serious discussion, the struggles and questionings alike of
> protesters and clergy at St Paul’s will not have been wasted.”
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> The article appeared hours after the authorities at St. Paul’s Cathedral
> said they “unanimously agreed” to abandon plans to forcibly evict the
> protesters after the intervention of Richard Chartres, bishop of London, the
> most senior Anglican figure in the city.
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> The decision followed days of turmoil within the church over the camp — a
> mass of hundreds of tents that is part of the Occupy protest movement. Two
> of the leaders at the historic church, Canon Giles Fraser and the dean,
> Graeme Knowles, resigned in recent days.
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> The City of London Corporation, a civic body that oversees the financial
> district, meanwhile, said it had “paused” legal action to remove the
> protesters while officials meet for more talks, The Associated Press
> reported.
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> Ravi Somaiya reported from London and Alan Cowell from Paris.
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-- 
Apathy is Dead !
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