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Power over the people….

Power with the people….

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Global Citizenship

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• Aim of todays session:– To explore the way that power can be used for good and bad purposes; how

power and resources are unequally distributed, and how this inequality impacts on individuals, community and society.

• Objectives:1. Know what is meant by the terms Global Community and (Active) Global Citizenship.

2. Know how power can have both negative and positive impacts on individuals, communities and society.

3. Know about unequal power relationships, and how these can lead to exploitation.

4. Know that power can be both good and bad, depending on how it is used.

5. Understand who the main groups of people who interact with the food system are, the amount of power they have, and whether it is in their interests to make the food system fairer.

6. Know examples of actions that different groups (such as governments, businesses, other people) can take to make the food system fairer.

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What is Power?

• Power can be negative:– E.g. Somebody having power over somebody else:

• This is an unequal power relationship

• It can lead to one person exploiting or bullying the other

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What is Power? Is it bad?

• “Power is the ability to achieve a purpose. Whether or not it is good or bad depends upon the purpose” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

• Power can be positive:

• “power to” – individual ability to act, linked to the idea of capability

• “power with” – collective action, the ability to act together• Video: Egypt Uprising (1.5mins)

• “power within” – individual or collective self-worth and dignity

Source: VeneKlasen and Miller (2002)

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Who holds Power?• Governments and their leaders hold power over their nation’s

people

• Corporations and lobby groups hold power to influence the decisions and policies of governments

• The Media hold power to influence the public’s views and decisions

• Seed companies sometimes hold power over poor farmers because the farmers feel pressure to buy the company’s one-crop hybrid seed varieties rather than using traditional seed varieties

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Who is Powerless?• Perhaps nobody is completely powerless. Power is everywhere – we all have

at least some power;

• However, many people have little power to change their lives for the better;

• People in power often say that anybody can become successful and empowered if they are hardworking and try hard enough…….

• But the truth is, some people do not have the opportunities to become empowered

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How are people affected by unequal power relationships?

• Unequal trade relationships between high income and low income countries can have a severe impact on people.

• People in low income countries might get lower prices for the goods they sell.

• Unequal power and unequal resources can keep people in a situation of poverty. The governments of low income countries have less power than richer governments to help their own people.

• People who are in poverty have less power to change global issues that affect them.

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Power used for good purposes

• Governments and corporations might use their power to achieve things that are good for society:– i.e. Governments might create new laws; use taxes

to provide free healthcare and schools; or subsidise new industries to make them more sustainable

– or large corporations might use their power to promote sustainable development; to lobby governments to build better infrastructure; or to give money to charities

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Legitimate and Illegitimate Power

Legitimate Illegitimate

A president or prime minister, who has been elected democratically and uses her power to represent her people’s interests.

A leader of a country, who has rigged the election to get in as president or prime minister, or perhaps has even had people killed who do not agree with his policies.

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Descending power

Monsanto

Mozambique’s government

Buyers of farmers’ produce

Farmer

Farmer’s wife and children

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Case Study: Monsanto

• Video: Monanto's side of the story (3mins)

• Video: The Whole Truth About Monsanto? (7 mins)• According to this video, Monsanto has far too much power, and through

controlling seed Monsanto is actually controlling life and death for many.• Many GM (genetically modified) cotton farmers in India have committed

suicide. • Many experts have argued that they have become too indebted through

GM cotton needing more pesticides, more water and new seeds every year.

• Many have committed suicide by actually drinking the very pesticides that are causing the damage to their lives!

• Video: Farmer Suicides and Monsanto (5 mins)• These farmers feel powerless. The only power they have is the power to

commit suicide.

• But there is always hope……..

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Movements campaigning for social change: La Via Campesina

• Video: La Via Campesina (7.5 mins)– La Via Campesina (translated as “The Peasants’ Way”) is an

international movement that brings together millions of small and medium-scale farmers, landless people, women farmers, migrants, indigenous people, agricultural workers and peasants from around the globe http://www.viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=27&Itemid=44

– The movement “defends small-scale sustainable agriculture as a way to promote social justice and dignity. It strongly opposes corporate driven agriculture and transnational companies that are destroying people and nature” http://www.viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=27&Itemid=44

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Movements campaigning for social change: Navdanya

• Vandana Shiva – founder of the Navdanya Movement: – Video: Seeding Deep Democracy - Vandana Shiva (6 mins)

• Navdanya (meaning either “nine Seeds” or “new gift”) is a network of seed keepers and organic producers spread across 16 states in India.

• Navdanya has helped set up 65 community seed banks across the country, trained over 5,00,000 farmers in sustainable agriculture over the past two decades.

• The movement has also helped setup the largest direct marketing, fair trade organic network in the country.

Source: http://www.navdanya.org/

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Power with 200 million people

• La Via Campesina is a good example of creating power with. The more people are with you, then the more power you have to change things. This could also be called solidarity power, as citizens in La Via Campesina are in solidarity with each other across the globe.

• “La Via Campesina comprises about 150 local and national organizations in 70 countries from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Altogether, it represents about 200 million farmers. It is an autonomous, pluralist and multicultural movement, independent from any political, economic or other type of affiliation”. http://www.viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=27&Itemid=44

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Network Power

• You can instantly connect with thousands of other young people through a global network of media.

• “Social media, like Facebook and Twitter, has given young people the potential to be global journalists, film-makers and campaigners” (UNEP and UNESCO 2011).

• Many organizations are using the power of social networks to mobilize young people around the world for common causes (UNEP and UNESCO 2011).

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Network Power

• “The Denmark-based ido30 campaign for washing clothes at a lower temperature used social media to influence people with more than 12,495 fans on Facebook in 25 countries, and a popular feed on Twitter” (UNEP and UNESCO 2011).

• When people connect through networks, they can build the power with each other to collectively act, and create change.

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Empowerment• Knowledge is Power:– Education and literacy can empower people to

know their rights and make better decisions about their future.

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References• (UNESCO and UNEP 2011) Youth Xchange: Climate change and lifestyles

guidebook. United Nations.

• VeneKlasen, L. and Miller, V. (2002) A new weave of power, people and politics: the action guide for advocacy and citizen participation. On-line at: http://www.justassociates.org/ActionGuide.htm, date accessed: 17/4/2011.

• Photos:– http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/exhibits/protests/strike.html– http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/the-price-of-power-paying-

homage-to-the-brother-leader-1780905.html