Confronting Injustice and Oppression

"How can injustice and oppression be overcome and prevented, regardless of who the victims are? What are the meanings, sources and dynamics of these dehumanizing conditions?". David Gil uses his experience in social action and in social work practice and education to provide answers to these questions. Writing for human services professionals, students and activists, he sounds the call to embrace the core values of radical social work: equality, liberty, co-operation and affirmation of community in pursuit of individual and social development. Gil presents perspectives and strategies to transform oppressive institutions into alternatives conducive to human development, empowerment and liberation. Such transformations would begin with policies involving guarantees for full employment and adequate rather than minimum income; child care as a shared responsibility for parents and society; allowances for children, students, unemployed and retired workers and people with disabilities; publicly maintained health services; and progressive taxation. Only permanent social change through education and activism, Gil argues, can eradicate violence, unemployment, racism and poverty.
Central to this book is a consistent focus on the implications for social work practice and education. Gil describes support-and-study groups for social-change-oriented social workers and outlines how these networks could facilitate empowerment through collective study in non-hierarchical, non-competitive contexts. In Gil's view radical social workers must be overtly political; advocate human rights; facilitate critical consciousness through dialogue; and build social movements through activism.