Introduction

From the Introduction to Transforming Power...

"I believe we are in a time that is of equal historic significance to the Industrial Revolution, the period that produced many of the ideas of the society in which we now live. The combination of the environmental crisis, globalization, and new technologies is producing profound new ideas about social and political change. And in response, more and more people working for progressive social change understand that the crisis is too great for differences of ego or ideology to divide us from others who share the goals of social justice, equality, and environmental sustainability.

In looking at many of the new efforts at progressive social change, particularly in Latin America, North America, and Europe, I have found that what has emerged for me is a new understanding of power. The Left has always seen power as residing in the state and in the corporations. Seizing state power or winning it in an election is the first step to transforming society. The women’s movement posited a different approach, saying that power also resides in our relationships to one another. Men have power over women, and to change society we need to transform those relationships of power in the here and now as well as working to change the laws and structures of society. Anti-racist activists and theorists make a similar point about white supremacy and racial discrimination. In both cases, the change involves not only changing societal structures and oppressive relationships but also changing ourselves. Most members of a group that has faced marginalization and discrimination internalize feelings of inferiority, and members of the dominant group internalize a sense of entitlement. Consciousness-raising groups in the early days of the women’s movement, the black power movement during the civil rights movement, and the queer pride movement and identity politics during the rise of anti-racist politics were all designed to transform oppression into pride and dignity.

What emerges from the new political directions around the world is that transforming power at every level is what is common and central to progressive social change in the twenty-first century."

Related Links:

Alternatives (NGO)
http://www.alternatives.ca/rubrique25.html?lang=en

Beaudet, Pierre
http://www.rabble.ca/taxonomy/term/290

Black Power Movement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Power

Fierce Light (film)
http://www.fiercelight.org/

Hollyhock Centre
http://www.hollyhock.ca/

Jones, Van
www.vanjones.net

Labour Party (Britain)
http://www.labour.org.uk/home

Media That Matters
http://www.mediathatmatters.org/

New Democratic Party (Federal)
http://www.ndp.ca/

New Democratic Party (Ontario)
http://ontariondp.com/

Obama, Barack
www.barackobama.com

Rabble
www.rabble.ca

Ripper, Velcrow
http://fiercelove.wordpress.com/

Seattle Anti-Globalization Protest
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2007206186362541122

Toronto Social Forum
http://www.ryerson.ca/tsf/

Washington Consensus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Consensus

World Social Forum (WSF)
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/,
http://www.fsm2009amazonia.org.br/?set_language=en