Pwnc Llosg - Radical Justice with Nani Jansen Reventlow and Dan Mapatac. Blog by Cadi Thomas

It is easy to feel like the biggest decisions about our lives are made somewhere else without us, leaving us navigating a relentless landscape of systemic injustice, inequality, and institutional overreach. But a recent reading room hosted by Pwnc Llosg, offered a vital space to challenge that lack of power.

Gathering with international human rights lawyer Nani Jansen Reventlow to discuss her book, Radical Justice: Building the World We Need, the conversation flowed around the exact questions testing our local communities: Who has power? Who doesn't? Why do some injustices feel so difficult to change? And, What does it take to build something better?

So how do you keep the big dream alive when constantly firefighting the immediate day-to-day? While imagining a better future, she emphasised that we still have to “survive in the meantime," making current systems work for us as much as possible. 

However, situations are rarely black and white, and within these "grey margins" we find our leverage. Instead of looking to big institutions to fix things, we can focus on our unique spheres of influence at work and at home. Borrowing from Angela Davis, Nani reminded us that radical simply means grasping things at the root.

We can carve out a local leeway to create alternative ways of ‘doing things right’ within our own reach. To combat self-doubt when utilising this leverage, Nani shared a practical baseline: ask yourself if a mediocre white dude would do it. If the answer is yes, just do it. Holding ourselves to this opens up space to ask what we would do if we knew we wouldn't be penalised for our decision-making. The real challenge is experimenting with showing up just with the knowledge already in our possession, slowly increasing the comfort of being ourselves in the moment and leaning into scary things.

Historically, we have always nominated these "pale, male, stale professors" because that has always worked, making systems hesitant to take a chance on a different type of person. But structural change cannot be left to traditional gatekeepers. Beyond the big structures, institutions, and endless organising, there is also just YOU, and the power you hold to choose what matters right where you stand.