Engadine Uniting Church helps the community engage in important topics that affect our daily lives, creating a vibrant conversation and inviting all to take part. On Thursday 16th September we were honoured to host special guest Dr John Falzon, Senior Fellow in Inequality and Social Justice at Per Capita ,and former CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society in Australia, to speak about why we care and what more we can do about inequality today.
John is Senior Fellow, Inequality and Social Justice at Per Capita, and was the National CEO of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society in Australia from 2006 – 2018. Described as a “poet, sociologist, author and theologian”, John is first and foremost a champion of social justice and an advocate for those most marginalised on our society.
John chose as the topic for his talk “Solidarity is the tenderness of the people”, a slogan borrowed from everyday use amongst the poor living during the time of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. He focused on how we, as faith communities and/or activists in civil society, can continue to fight for social justice amid the COVID pandemic while ensuring we look after ourselves and those around us. Solidarity is never achieved by accentuating difference or excluding people, and it is from our shared brokenness that tenderness springs. If we do not feel that sense of being hurt or sore (‘tender’) then we will not have space for feeling that for others.
John spoke with a mixture of passion and humility about the significant challenges that face our society, both nationally and globally, and the importance of local groups in working together to keep pressure on governments to act on climate change, homelessness, refugees, poverty, and other entrenched issues.
The pillars of our society – patriarchy, colonisation, neo-liberal capitalism – degrade and diminish us, systemically desensitising us and destroying our tenderness. However we cannot afford to indulge in the luxury of despair and fall into thinking there is no alternative.
John urged us to be bold and think differently about how our society might be organised, with a focus on the “de-commodification” of the crucial institutions and infrastructure that enable us to be a caring society by putting a value on everyone rather than a price on everything. The pandemic has reminded us that nobody is an island; aside from the natural precariousness of life we experience a manufactured precarity whereby different sections of the population face a different exposure to the risk of injury, violence or death which is a direct result of economic decisions made in a political context.
John saw hope that we could, after we emerge from lockdown, push to overthrow current thinking about the meagre apportioning of resources from “trickle-down” economics, and instead prioritise the value of our health, education and other caring institutions. Shared concern and also shared values and hope across civil society lie at the heart of solidarity, and John emphasised the strength that emanates from diversity and from our treating all individuals and groups with dignity and respect.
As truth-tellers, we can play a part in this by the prophetic denunciation of the ‘bad news’ and a prophetic annunciation of the ‘good news’ – that there is an alternative. What would our world look like if we had a surplus of education, culture, caring and love rather than a deficit? The Beatitudes as preached by Jesus turn things upside down – they herald a revolution in thinking and practice. Once we dream of a new reality, we can set about creating it.
In lieu of a viable recording of the event we offer you with three published articles by John that are relevant to the topics discussed. We trust these will stimulate your thinking, much as we were inspired to think and talk, and act as a result of this event. All articles were written in 2021.
“Homelessness is caused not by poverty but by wealth”, published in Eureka Street. A piece on homelessness and the link between those who struggle to find shelter and the wealth that has been invested into Australia’s property market.
“We’ve got your back: building a framework that protects us from precarity” written very recently by John in his capacity as Senior Fellow at Per Capita. It is about fundamentally rethinking our social security system, and you can read the article here.
“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time: ethical practice and the work of liberation”, an article within the Australian Journal of Community and Disability Practitioners. Access this here, and scroll down to page 21.
For further info email Michael: michael@engadineuniting.church
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