Listen up - Letters - Letter to the Editor

New Internationalist, Nov, 2003

Reinventing power may rate as one of the most inspiring NI issues produced so far. The real struggles of the 21st century are being (and will be) fought at a grassroots level. They do not exist because politically minded people came together and decided that 'anti-capitalism', 'anti-globalization' or 'anti-neoliberalism' was the way forward. The poor have been abandoned by the global capitalist system but also, for many years, they've even been excluded from the proposed political solutions. They've found out the hard way that the only way they'll get help is if they help themselves.

The hierarchical power structure used to maintain the neoliberal economic system can be described in terms of inclusion and exclusion, a carrot of inclusion (be it wealth, status or power) is used jointly with a stick of exclusion. The Included are not necessarily 'evil' or 'uncaring': they are simply blind. I am an able-bodied white man. As such I should endeavour to accept that each pigeonhole, being 'male', being 'able-bodied' and being 'Caucasian', will give me extra privilege. To act ethically I must be open to the experiences of women, the disabled and ethnic minorities and be aware that the only way by which I can really help is by changing myself. It is not enough for me simply to highlight the opinions of the Excluded (ie claim to be a feminist or anti-racist); solidarity is commendable but in itself changes nothing. Being an able-bodied white male I must be responsible for a position of authority I neither approve of nor asked for.

At the same time I am poor and uneducated with little prospect of escaping a rundown council estate in one of the deprived areas of the country. So there are also some middle-class people who might like to understand their complicity in my suffering. 'People power' involves taking responsibility for your own actions. Only by being open to the Excluded can we let the grassroots message travel upward to those who exclude us.

Warren Draper Doncaster, England

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