For Raised-Poor People, Writing to Present Time Is a Powerful Act
I have only ever sent one article to be published in RC literature, and that was many years ago when Diane Shisk (the Alternate International Reference Person for the RC Communities) asked Area Reference Persons for articles about teaching. I only did it because I would go to the ends of the earth for Diane. This time I wanted to write for myself, because it would be a liberation thing for me.
I struggle because as a raised-poor person who did not get any school education and who still struggles massively with anything to do with [related to] learning, I feel that I have nothing really to say. Also I don’t want to just say the things I think people want to hear. I want to write about what I think is important, the things that are important to me.
Xabi Odriozola asked us in a recent Present Time to think about what we are writing and why we are writing it. Well, I’m writing because I’m so scared to write, to even sit down and press the keys on this keyboard. I have had to face huge amounts of terror, and my back is right now in a lot of pain because I’m going against the terror. That is why I’m writing to Present Time, and now I have to think about what I should write.
I want to lead raised-poor people in the RC Community, and I need to face the things I’m scared of if I want them to do the same. I want to see more stories, thinking, and work of my people in the Present Time journal. We raised-poor people, unlike other liberation groups, have not yet got a journal of our own to read, and I think this is related to our difficulties in writing, and knowing what to say when we do write.
I want you to know that my people are some of the smartest people on this planet. We are so generous with the little we have, and we know about things that make the world go around in a very human way. Building a relationship with us will change your life. It will give you access to your most chronic distress and open up your world. We are people who have learnt to survive with nothing, and we will give you half of nothing. We’ve never really been asked for our thinking, so we’re not so caught up in [preoccupied with] wanting to win arguments. We are very good at just hanging out [spending relaxed, unstructured time] with each other. We know more about being our whole selves, because no one was that invested in training us to be anything different—we were a “lost cause,” mostly in the education system.
In short, what I’m saying is that raised-poor people are worth your time and effort. If you don’t have any raised-poor people in your life, go out and get some. If you do have raised-poor people in your life, invest time and resource in them. We use a little resource to go a long way.
Lack of confidence is our biggest challenge, but if you commit to building a relationship with us, you will contradict that, especially if you let us lead you. We need your help with our confidence; you need our help to be more connected to real people with the best ideas and the greatest thinking. If it wasn’t for my relationship with the middle-class woman who taught me RC, and her sustained efforts in the face of being battered by me (that’s how hard it is to be close to each other across the lines), I wouldn’t be where I am. Building a relationship with us will not be easy, but it will change your life and change the world.
I am a powerful and well-respected leader in the wider world and within my own community. I have gained respect and a reputation amongst all oppressed groups. I am speaking nationally on issues of class and unity, and I am taking poor people with me. I have made a significant contribution to the environmental movement, and we are teaching one of its key leaders RC. We are building a movement of poor people in our community, and although they will only take one minute each to talk, it’s a start. We are using the tools of RC to build unity in our city. Next week I will speak at a women’s march about unity in our city, and then we will offer workshops for people wanting to learn more.
I am thinking big now and am scared and discouraged all the time. The truth is, though, that without the commitment of my middle-class ally, Sarah Dawson, who has stuck in with me for twenty-five years, I would not be able to be the big, powerful woman I am today. Her distress is different from mine, and because of that we don’t get tangled up in the same spots. She also has the skills that I don’t have—of thinking strategically and being organised and understanding the system. Together we are a force to be reckoned with, a real threat to the oppressive society, and a model for what unity could look like and achieve.
Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
(Present Time 192, July 2018)