A Radical Social Work Manifesto in Free Verse

In March of 2022, the Social Welfare Action Alliance (SWAA) held a meeting on Crafting Today’s Radical Social Work Manifesto. Participants were asked to prepare for the meeting by reading Social work and social justice: a manifesto for a new engaged practice from the Social Work Action Network (SWAN) in the UK (and now international) as well as the Dubrovnik Manifesto. SWAN Manifesto Dubrovnik Manifesto We were motivated to do this as conditions in our country continue to deteriorate – the poor get poorer; racism and white supremacy are alive and well; access to affordable and reliable healthcare are not in reach for many; public schools are underfunded; and the list goes on. SWAA wanted to reflect on the current situation as well as what we could and should do given this situation. As one of our SWAA colleagues often says – “We were never meant to help” (Mary Bricker-Jenkins). We have to fight back. We can no longer be content at being the buffer zone between the rich and powerful and the poor and oppressed. We are committed to building new systems that push back against exploitation and oppression of both workers and people they work with. We do not want to reinforce the status quo – we want to transform it. At our event we crowdsourced what it meant to be radical social workers and social welfare workers. This free verse poem is taken from the comments of the people who participated. A longer Manifesto is in the works. Facilitated by Rosemary A Barera, Joanne Hessmiller, and Barbara Kasper. For information contact rosemaryabarbera@gmail.com