6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
7 For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you;
8 Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:
9 Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.
10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.
14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
15 Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
That's very different from saying you shouldn't help people in a famine. Jesus also said, "blessed are the poor" full stop in Matthew. Also the KJV version is a pretty inaccurate translation and I don't know why people quote it in 2025 when there are translations that are both more accurate and more comprehensible.
I think the point is there is a big difference between "He who does not work shall not eat" and "...anyone who was unwilling to work should not eat". Specifically the clause "unwilling to work".
As a socialist principle "who does not work" referred primarily to the bourgeoisie, i.e. who get money from capital gains, rents or inheritance as opposed to labor, although it did also mean that in early stages of socialism the communist principle "from each according to their ability, to each according to their ability" is not feasible.
Nah not really, I grew up in communism/socialism and it was literally forbidden by laws to not have a work, that was ticket straight to jail.
Of course any form of intelligence, university educated or former bourgeoisie suffered way more, got menial or at least underpaid jobs that paid barely for survival.
Both my parents had good university degrees in engineering (back when less than 5% of their peers managed to get to uni, economics and mechanical engineering/welding), and were paid maybe half of what some trench diggers or field workers got and barely scrapped to make ends meet.
Just let the people eat dudes.
Also Russell's party during the famine was the Whigs. O'Toole gets that wrong, referring to them as "The Liberals."
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_who_does_not_work,_neither_...