Power, Love and Justice A presentation by Heather Simmons Living in the West 2010

When people with disabilities protest their lives, particularly with ‘aggressive behaviour’, the professional response is to put them on behaviour programmes. It rarely occurs to those of us who do (or have done) this that we are, in fact, working in a larger social pattern of keeping dissident voices silent, of keeping the powerless powerless. Herb Lovett – Learning to Listen

POWER - where it comes from… Physical strength Control of resources – money, facilities, organisations Who you know Legal authority invested in them by the state Particular skills Force of their personality

3 Bands of Power 90% 1% 9%

‘Power is the ability not to have to learn anything’ Karl Deutsch

Let’s not forget about POWER… Power Over?

Or sharing power with…

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. Martin Luther King Jnr