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The NGO-ization of politics threatens to turn resistance into a well-mannered, reasonable 9-5 Job

category international | public consultation / irish social forum | other press author Saturday September 04, 2004 19:56author by *

Arundhati Roy critiques the role of NGO's. She contextualises her discussion of NGOs by discussing what she sees as the dangers of the progressive NGOisation of the World Social Forum Movement.

EXCERPT: "Eventually--on a smaller scale but more insidiously--the capital available to NGOs plays the same role in alternative politics as the speculative capital that flows in and out of the economies of poor countries. It begins to dictate the agenda. It turns confrontation into negotiation. It depoliticizes resistance. It interferes with local peoples' movements that have traditionally been self-reliant. NGOs have funds that can employ local people who might otherwise be activists in resistance movements, but now can feel they are doing some immediate, creative good (and earning a living while they're at it). Real political resistance offers no such short cuts.

"The NGO-ization of politics threatens to turn resistance into a well-mannered, reasonable, salaried, 9-to-5 job. With a few perks thrown in. Real resistance has real consequences. And no salary."

Related Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08282004.html

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/66455

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