Categories: uncategorized
Date: 21 October 2007 09:56:45
Christians are taught that we stand against injustice and the need to help those in poverty or down on their luck. Sometimes this is not a very noticeable action among many churches. After all, Christians are also human and as prone to the laziness and desire not to make a fuss as everyone else. Therefore I was glad to see a news story reporting on Christians standing up to the might of the supermarkets.
It's no surprise that supermarkets get a bad press. They are the very model of capitalistism in its purist form. You see a true capitalist enterprise is concerned with one thing - profit. That is the overriding reason for any companies existence, to make as much money as possible for its shareholders. Things such as the environment and the fair treatment of workers and suppliers are not part of the capitalist model as they get in the way of profit.
Why are supermarkets moving into insurance and banking? Because they are ways of making more profit for the shareholders; not because they know about these things or because they fit in with their original business objectives. Therefore it is in their interests to squeeze suppliers as much as possible, to pay their staff as little as possible and to outsource work to cheap overseas manufacturers.
So what are the churches doing?
Members of 460 non-conformist chapels boycotted supermarkets yesterday. Instead they used small rural shops, post offices and garages. This was to show support for the rural economy which is suffering badly from the actions of the supermarket chains and from EU and UK government policy in the agricultural sector.
People seem to forget sometimes that these practices are as common at home as they are in third world countries. How can it be better to import milk, meat and flowers when we produce them here? Are we really that desperate for Kiwi Fruit, and other fruit and vegetables all year round, that we cannot live without them?
The supermarkets justify their actions by saying that it is what the consumer wants? Yet who are the consumers that demand this? Well I guess that that is us! Do you remember the supermarkets asking you if you wanted Kiwi Fruit 365 days a year (sorry 363 as they do close on Christmas Day and Easter Sunday).