Transnational Networks of ‘ Self-Representation’: An Alternative Form of Struggle for Global Justice

Abstract

‘Have-nots’, ‘Voiceless’: this is how a set of self-help groups, grassroots organisations and social movements of marginalised people chose to define their identity.² Far from under-evaluating their capacities, these ‘negative’ terms constitute the first step in their attempts to directly represent the victims of particular forms of injustice and are the basis for their cohesion and legitimacy. Unlike NGOs, their members are directly affected or concerned by the issues they address. They usually organise themselves around peer-based solidarity and exchange, at a very local scale, in order to face the most daily and concrete challenges (access to services, medication, sanitation, community development, and so on). Often serving as ‘support groups’, their members provide help to each other, blurring the traditional distinction between ‘beneficiaries’ and (service) ‘providers’. But the choice for peer-based organisations goes beyond the need to provide appropriate and efficient local support. Promoting self-representation is a way for individuals suffering from exclusion or oppression to break with fatalism, shame and stigmatisation.