Spotlight - 01.2020

SOCIETY 1/2020 Spotlight 17

Fotos: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images; Reclaim the City

more power,” Stears says. Here are three

examples of global communities finding

their power.

Energy: “Voices for Power”,

Sydney

Nguyen leads the “Voices for Power” cam-

paign that brings together seven different

community groups in western Sydney

and is focused on the issue of access to

affordable, sustainable power. Working

with the various communities in the con-

text of each group’s language and culture,

this alliance then brings together leaders

who set agendas for lobbying for things

like higher energy-efficiency standards in

rented flats and houses, and helping these

often disempowered communities to un-

derstand and deal with the energy market.

“Every time we meet a political leader,

we show up in power... That’s 14, up to

20, community leaders meeting the pol-

itician in a room,” Nguyen says. “They’re

diverse. They’re well organized. They’ve

got an agenda they’ve agreed on. Politi-

cians are not used to meeting these con-

stituents.”

Housing: “Reclaim the City”,

Cape Town

In Cape Town, a physical segregation

of white and black citizens continues,

with black South Africans living in

underserviced and distant townships,

says Nkosikhona Swartbooi of Ndifuna

Ukwazi, which supports the campaign

“Reclaim the City”. Concerned about the

possible sale of public land in the centre

of the city to private developers, this or-

ganization uses legal work and direct-

action occupation of public buildings to

demand social housing in central Cape

Town that would allow black people to

live in the city where they work. “Re-

claim the City” has so far managed to get

11 such locations in Cape Town freed for

public housing.

“The principle is ‘public land for public

good’,” Swartbooi says. “You must realize

land for its social value, as opposed to

commodifying land and housing, thereby

perpetuating the spatial inequality that

you see in Cape Town.”

Wages: “Living Wage”,

London

Since the beginning of the “Living Wage”

campaign in 2001, more than £1 billion

(€1.17 billion) in the form of extra wages

has been secured for low-paid workers.

Starting in London with a coalition of

unions, faith groups and educational in-

stitutions, Stefan Baskerville, now of the

UK’s New Economics Foundation, says

the success of the campaign was due to

a broadly based coalition, a willingness

commodify [kE(mQdIfaI]

, kommerzialisieren,

kommodifizieren

constituent

[kEn(stItjuEnt]

, Wähler(in) eines

bestimmten Wahlkreises

disempowered

[)dIsIm(paUEd]

, entmachtet

inequality [)Ini(kwQlEti]

, Ungleichheit

issue [(ISu:]

, Thema, Problem, Frage

perpetuate [pE(petjueIt]

, aufrechterhalten

secure [sI(kjUE]

, sichern

segregation

[)segrI(geIS&n]

, Trennung

spatial [(speIS&l]

, räumlich

sustainable

[sE(steInEb&l]

, nachhaltig

underserviced

[)VndE(s§:vIst]

, unterversorgt

wage [weIdZ]

, Lohn

Action groups

focus on local

issues