It is not often that a critique of capitalism actually hits on a point I agree with. Still less often is an occasion when a critique of capitalism based on social justice or catholic virtue rings true for me.
But recently Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga from Honduras launched a broadside against global capitalism saying,
“a savage capitalism is returning, which history has already judged harshly in view of the conditions to which it subjected the proletariat in the 18th and 19th centuries.”
You will find the full text here.
But within a well argued and reasoned piece which offers an excellent view of discussion from a social justice perspective is this intriguing paragraph:
“It is a world in which there is a desire to open up all frontiers to goods, while a host of obstacles hinder the free movement of persons from the countries of the south towards those of the north, as we unfortunately see in the border shields imposed by rich countries.”
How strange to hear one of the clearest arguments for opening up immigration controls and for the liberalising of the market for labour from the left of the spectrum. So often leftwing politics and economic theory fears open labour markets and sees only threats to establish trade union bases. You only have to look to Europe’s closed attitude to workers from new accession sates to see this in action.
But more on Europe’s problems and closed borders soon. For now I would like to echo Cardinal Maradiaga and suggest that while we would both have different reasons for opening labour markets its nice that we can agree it would be a good thing.
