The newsletter of the

Christian Socialist Movement

Summer 2013

Inside This Issue:

The Ballot ResultCSM Director Andy Flannagan writes about

the CSM name change ballot

HousingRev Dr Kirsty Thorpe writes a theological

reflection on Isiah 65 and housing

The Bedroom TaxRob Carr on the devastation to community

being caused by the bedroom tax

Our Conference PlansSee full details of CSMs’ fringe programme

for Labour’s Annual Conference 2013

- The Director’s Notes

- A Theological Reflection On Housing

More on housing: Members’ contact details

- Arbitrary, Spiteful & Deeply Cynical: The Bedroom Tax

CSM’s Gala Fundraising Dinner

- Details of CSM’s Conference Fringe Events

to so many of you over the course of this

process. I have been hearing the stories of how

our members are engaged in many different

ways from the Shetlands to Cornwall! We are

running foodbanks. We are campaigning

against unjust cuts. We are drafting academic

reports on inequality. We are bringing hope to

council estates. We are praying for politicians

and politics. We are serving as school governors.

We are running social enterprises. We are

standing as council and parliamentary

candidates. I hope you are encouraged,

because I certainly am. If we haven’t been in

touch with you by phone, it won’t be for want of

trying. Please do let us know your up-to-date

phone number and e-mail address.

Now that we know the result we are planning a

launch for the new name in the Autumn. Watch

this space. If anyone would like to help in any

way with that process, then please do get in

touch with us. We especially need people with

design skills. This is an exciting time of great

opportunity for us, and we will all need to be

involved, not just a few. Who could you recruit to

“Christians on the Left”?

I was standing outside the Royal Exchange in

London last week, and right at the top of the

building are carved the words, “The earth is the

Lord’s and the fullness thereof”. Remembering

those words to be true has never been more

important. A society falls apart when we forget

that. The systems of Jubilee and Sabbath were

based on the fact that we are only tenants, not

land-owners. Hence the Israelites were only

returning something that was never

permanently theirs in the first place. It was God’s.

How we long, pray and work for that loosening

of the grip to permeate 21st century society and

economics. How we need to steward rather

than exploit this earth’s resources. Jubilee brings

a stinging critique to so many aspects of

modern-day capitalism and we will be

exploring this more in the coming months. May

you be blessed in your efforts to live and

campaign on the truth that “the earth is the

Lord’s.”

Bless you all,

Andy

Christians On The Left - The ChristianSocialist Movement

Do you agree that the name of CSM should be

changed to ‘Christians on the Left’?

‘Yes’ 67.3%

‘No’ 32.7%

Majority 34.6%

The returning officer’s full report is on the CSM

website.

As you can see from the results above, a large

majority of members have decided that

“Christians on the Left” is the name that we

should move forward with. This has been an

extensive and healthy process of consultation

both on paper and in person. Through it we

have been able to reconnect with many

members, finding out how their skills and

passions can be utilised, linking them to other

members with similar passions, and connecting

people up locally. It has been incredibly

encouraging to have these conversations. Within

our membership, there is faith, intelligence, vision

and passion to see politics and our nation

transformed. With regard to the name, in

keeping with our democratic socialist values, the

wishes of the large majority will now be carried

out.

As any of you that have been involved in

naming anything will know, to get even a few

people to agree on something as subjective as

a name is incredibly difficult. That is why we have

been hugely encouraged by the large majority

for “Christians on the Left” both at the AGM (77

votes to 6) and in the postal ballot, believing it is

quite a remarkable endorsement. It underlines

the appeal of the name and its ability to make

us more inclusive, understood and able to

mobilise a generation of justice-seekers. This vote

confirms our research that ‘Christians on the Left’

will be a clear and energetic name which will

draw more people to us.

Moreover, through the vote, commitment to

Christian Socialism is now part of our constitution

–

Christians on the Left is a Socialist Society

affiliated to the Labour Party. It is the continuation

of the Christian Socialist Movement formed in

1960, and is the natural home of Christian

Socialism, and the inheritor of the Christian

Socialist tradition in the United Kingdom.

However we are of course aware that a number

of our members did not vote for the new name

for various thoughtful and legitimate reasons.

Many of you who voted “No” assured us by

phone, email and letter of your continued

support nonetheless. You mentioned that though

you would prefer us to stay as CSM, or take

another name, that our aims, impact and unity

as a movement were more important than a

name. Our key Christian Socialist values which

we affirmed a few years ago are not changing,

and working for unity, peace and reconciliation

are prime amongst them. This is a time when we

must practise those values that we preach, and

work together. We believe that future

generations will thank us for the sacrifice (for

some of us painful) that we have made to make

sure that our values have the best chance of

being spoken for and lived out in the public

square. The prize of seeing our nation

transformed for justice surely eclipses our

individual passions.

In no way are we leaving our Christian Socialism

behind. For example this autumn we are rolling

out the Christian Socialism Basics Course all

across the country. We are encouraging all

members to invite friends and fellow church

members to do this excellent five-week course

which covers the theological and political

fundamentals of Christian Socialism. If you need

the materials posted to you, or help to get a

course going, then please call us at the office. As

many copies of the course as you need can be

downloaded from

http://www.thecsm.org.uk/Groups/153476/Christia

n_Socialist_Movement/Get_Involved/CSM_Basics

_Course/CSM_Basics_Course.aspx

The bottom line with the name change is that as

members we may notice little difference, though

we may meet some new members who think

the same way we do but were previously

reluctant to join! The regular newsletters will

come, the e-mails will still come. The local groups

will still meet and in fact there will be no

immediate requirement for branches to change

their name if they would prefer not to. The work

amongst our MPs and peers will continue. We

are continuing our campaigns on credit unions,

the bedroom tax, the financial transaction tax,

and banking separation. Nothing changes on

those fronts. We are not diluting our message.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support. It

really is vital. I have been so inspired in speaking

A theologicalreflection onhousingBY REV. DR KIRSTY THORPE

What have words of Isaiah 65: 17-22, written in

the Middle East some 2700 years or so ago, got

to say to us about issues of housing in our day

and culture? Has the writer, who is addressing the

returned exiles from Babylon about the problems

of rebuilding the broken down capital of the

Israelites in Jerusalem, a way of making sense to

us now? I think the remarkable thing is how

contemporary and attractive this manifesto

sounds - an early version of the Millennium

development goals. The prophet's vision is of a

better life for everyone. Isaiah dreams of God's

new world where no more children will die in

infancy, people will live to 100 and just be

youngsters, nobody will work for a builder and

yet not be able to afford their own house,

nobody will work on the land but see their family

going hungry. It's going to be a world where

everyone lives to see the next generations grow

up to be thriving and happy, a world where

even animals will live in harmony together.

Our visions are pretty similar, even now, and

affordable housing is one key element of the

picture. But the trouble is our world is a very

different to that which the writer of the last

chapters of the book of Isaiah was addressing.

Building enough houses for the returning exiles of

Jerusalem was one thing, though we don't know

what the population of the city was at the time,

but building affordable housing for people today

is quite another. The big trend of our world is

urbanisation, and it's happening as fast as when

Manchester became the first industrialised city in

the world - 'Cottonopolis' - in the 19th century. The

world's biggest city now is probably Tokyo, with

28 million inhabitants. Next in size are probably

Mexico City and Mumbai with 18 million, and

then Sao Paulo with 17 million people. London is

more of a Championship than a Premier League

capital city, in terms of population, though it's

diversity in terms of the number of different

races who live there is probably second to

none. By now it's pretty certain that more than

half the world's population live in cities and

towns, and the overall figure could be up to

60% by 2030 - at which point it will be around

80% in this country, where the trend towards

living in towns began so much sooner.

And these people all need somewhere to live.

In China, the population analysts predict that by

2030 there will be 350 million more people

living in towns and cities than do so now, giving

an urban total of 880 million. Housing these

people will mean needing to build almost 50

cities the size of greater London. Nobody wants

to build cities in deserts or on mountain sides, so

it doesn't take much imagination to see how

much agricultural land could be swallowed up

by this urban drift. Shades of Joni Mitchell's

1970s song 'Big Yellow taxi' - 'they paved

paradise - put up a parking lot' - or in this case,

they put up a new city.

So what do we do about this challenge? Can

we risk giving everyone renewed hope of

being able to live in their own home when the

overall demand is so vast? Should we

encourage home ownership at all when the

Often when people move house, change phone number or just get a new email address,

CSM is low down the list of people to inform. During the recent member consultation and

ballot process we found a number of people whose contact details had changed. It’s hugely

helpful to us to get up-to-date information for us to ensure you, the members, are kept

abreast of all that we are doing.

If you receive this newsletter in the post, then you can even help CSM save money by

making sure that , if you have an email address, you share it with us. We promise not fill your

inbox up wastefully!

Are your contact details up to date?

recent economic recession began as a result of

unrestricted mortgage lending based on poorly

secured loans in the US housing market? The

answer, in Isaiah's terms, must surely be that

people of faith need an approach to housing

that's just and sustainable. Our TV programmes

focus on rich individuals buying dream homes

from their substantial budgets - half a million

pounds to do a barn conversion. 'Escape to the

Country', 'Location, Location, Location', and

'Grand Designs' - they're all selling us the vision

of an ideal place for us and ours and never

mind what happens to you and yours. It's a

million miles away from Isaiah's vision. How

about a series on regenerating a council estate

or creating a new community of rented homes

instead? I believe if we don't start to set some

national standards of housing equity and

affordability for all soon, we'll be storing up

tension and division in society for the future, as

the gap grows between the haves and the

have nots. With our cities and towns filling up

fast this need for fairness gets even more

important. The alternative could be shanty

towns appearing around British cities as

happens so often now in South America, Asia

and Africa. Is that what we want - a return for

some to the living conditions of the back to

back houses which Marx and Engels saw in

Manchester 170 years ago when they began

researching poverty here in Manchester? Surely

Isaiah's vision is far more attractive and

sustainable. I'd prefer to live in a world where

people build houses and live in them.

July saw CSM hold our first fundraising dinner in many years and we’re delighted to report

that it was a great success. The dinner was held at a Turkish restaurant at the back of County

Hall just over the bridge from Parliament. Douglas Alexander, Labour’s shadow Foreign

Secretary, came and gave a great speech on the values of CSM and the important role of

Christians in the Labour Movement.

Wayne David MP hosted an auction where Andy sold a concert and Rob sold a pen-and-ink

drawing as well as lots of other great lots.

At the end of the evening there was a raffle which raised the last few pounds of our total of

almost two thousand! Everyone tells us they had a great evening, made lots of new friends

and raised important funds for CSM. Needless to say, we will be doing it again next year so

pencil the second of June 2014 in your diaries now...

CSM’s inaugural fundraising dinner

BY ROB CARR

There's a slow, seeping, realisation in the UK

media that a disaster of epic proportions is

heading for the British people. The tectonic

speed of this realisation frustrates me

immensely, because I've been shouting about

it for over a year now.

You see this time last year, I was working in the

House of Lords doing research on the Welfare

Reform Bill for a Labour Peer. I sat through the

team meetings as Labour tried to halt the bill or

at least make amendments that would limit it's

damage. I met with concerned NGOs, sat

through the committee stages and was

saddened to see it eventually pass through to

become the Welfare Reform Act 2012.

During all those discussions, we could see the

damage the legislation would do and have

been talking and worrying about it ever since.

The press, however, aren't interested in

something that's not going to happen for 12

months. They need human stories and angles.

They like it to be current. Right now, not six

months from now. After all, today's news is

tomorrow's fish and chip wrapping and all that.

But now the media can see the headlines

around the Bedroom Tax.

That's because in April, the Welfare Benefit Act

brought in an under-occupation penalty on

people who claim housing benefit. This is

essentially a tax on those who rent homes in

the social housing sector.

We're not talking about a few hundred people

here either. Around 660,000 will be hit by this

tax. That's 20% of social housing tenants. Having

just one spare bedroom will mean a cut of 14%

in your benefit. Two or more spare bedrooms

will see a 25% cut.

Arbitrary, spiteful and deeply cynical -the bedroom tax

So Jean* who lives in a council house in

Basildon and has a room for her daughter who

serves in the Army overseas, will lose money

and maybe her family home. Her daughter

won't have a room to come home to. Or Tom

and Kirsty*, a married couple in Bermondsey,

who have separate rooms because of Kirsty's

debilitating illness. Tom is her carer as well as

her husband. They will be penalised for that. Or

Claire* in Bishop Auckland. She lives on

Employment Support Allowance in an

unemployment black spot. Her £66 a week rent

is paid by Housing Benefit. From April, her

benefit will go up to £71.70. Out of that, she pays

£10 a week for electricity and £6 a week for

water rates. Like lots of people in Bishop

Auckland, she still uses coal for heating and 3

bags will cost her £19.50 a week. Her bus fare is

£4 a week and her bedroom tax will be £9.24 a

week. This leaves her with £22.96 per week.

Claire then shops at the cheapest shops in her

area and buys washing powder for £1,

toothpaste for 15p, a toothbrush for 10p,

sanitary products for 40p, washing up liquid for

5p, bin bags at 10p, bleach at 40p, cleaning

products at 50p, deodorant for 25p, shampoo

for 40p, foil/cling film for 10p, and saving for

shoes, clothing and household items of £2.

That leaves her £17.71 for food. That's £2.53 a

day. Unless you're in similar circumstances to

Claire, I doubt you've ever tried to live on £2.53

per day. I'm certain the Prime Minister or Iain

Duncan Smith have never lived on £2.53 a day!

Because of a national shortage of smaller

housing stock, tenants unable to afford to

continue to rent their current properties in

Basildon, Bermondsey and Bishop Auckland

and elsewhere could wait up to 8 years to be

re-housed.

That's 8 years of uncertainty, worry, and stress. 8

years of hunger, poverty and sleepless nights.

And not only that, but people face having to

move whenever their family circumstances

change! Family and community are the

elements that the government has missed in all

this. Forgetting community and concentrating

on commodity is a recipe for disaster. It's

Goldman Sachs does social housing.

Louise Baldock, a councillor in Liverpool, said

"Families are not rigid and inflexible, many

things happen which alter the ebb and flow of

accommodation, simple rules are not

appropriate. Family members move in, move

out and move on, and sometimes, very sadly

they die..... Strong communities are built where

people know their neighbours and look out for

them and wehere people have pride in their

streeet and their property. They establish roots,

engage in the local Tenants and Residents

Association or neighbourhood watch and

generally enjoy living where they do"

What will happen when communities are torn

apart? What will a local society look like with

residents removed, hearts ripped out? The

government have gone from preaching the Big

Society to destroying local community. Andy

Flannagan has already lost a key family from

his council estate because of this tax. They are

now stuck some distance away from their

friends and their support.

I think this bedroom tax may be the most

despicable thing the government has ever

done and I hope more can be done before it's

too late.

* All the names used in case studies are

fictional. The problems are not.

Once again, CSM is planning an exciting and busy set of fringe events at the Labour Party’s

Annual Conference. As you can see below, this year we’re back in Brighton and will be

kicking Conference off with our annual church service at One Church Brighton on

Gloucester Place. The service starts at 10:30am where Pete Greig will be our main speaker.

We’ll also hear from both International Justice Mission UK and the Medaille Trust on the

vital work they’re doing in and around the trafficking of people. You can see more of what

IJM UK do on the left of the page.

We also have fringe events on domestic violence, the financial transaction tax,

‘responsible’ capitalism and how to keep money local. We’re delighted with our line-up

and are looking forward to working with our partner organisations Tearfund, CAFOD, EDV,

and the Robin Hood Tax Campaign as well as other friends and colleagues. We’d love to

see you there, so if you can make it to any of our events, do come and join in the

conversations , debates and prayers. If you want any further information on the events, or

posters to display in your churches, then get in touch with us at the office on 0207 783 1590.

CSM at Labour Party Conference

An epidemic is raging against the poor in

the developing world. But a basic, effective

vaccine exists – a vaccine that protects us in

our own communities every day.

Without the basic protection that law

enforcement provides, children and families

will continue to suffer as common,

everyday violence runs unchecked in their

communities.

JM’S UNIQUE SOLUTION

Since 1997, IJM and IJM-trained partners

have relieved more than 16,000 children,

women and men from oppression in the

developing world. IJM staff in the field –

95% of whom are serving in their own

countries – collaborate with local police and

government officials to rescue, restore and

defend victims of some of the very worst

human rights abuses: sex trafficking, slavery,

child sexual assault, and violent land theft

from widows and orphans.

These abuses are against the law in the

countries where IJM works; the laws are simply

not enforced. IJM front-line staff come

alongside local authorities to push cases of

abuse through the local justice system and

see exactly where the systems are failing to

protect the poor.

As they restore individual lives, IJM learns

exactly where the local system is broken. This

knowledge enables us to identify solutions that

actually fix the problems and prevent these

crimes from happening in the first place.

Through this casework approach, IJM is seeing

real change occurring around the world.

Gradually, IJM is seeing it proven that justice for

the poor is possible.

IJM proves justice forthe poor is possible