The Falzon

Tired of weasel words and new public management, I have been doing a little research on the need to for the organisation I work for to maintain fee exempt course as part of their social responsibility. It brought me back to John Falzon. His passionate eloquently written prose inspires reflection and critical thought that is foreign to the management drivel I read and am exposed to way too much of. Like my friend Leigh, this is a man who is not motivated by hatred and will not let hatred get in the way of promoting social justice and the common good. In his article Social Crisis Social change he speaks out against paternalism and its punitive drivers:

The alternative to the “instrumental” approach is the movement for liberation. All progressive social changes have been won through the hard work of those who believed that another kind of society is possible. This approach can be neither paternalistic nor coercive. It is best summed up in the powerful words of Lilla Watson and the group of Aboriginal activists she was part of in Brisbane in the 1970s: “If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”