Wisdom from a Raised-Poor and Working-Class Workshop

The following are some things I learned at the recent Raised-Poor and Working-Class Workshop led by Dan Nickerson1 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia:

• Talent has been described as the relative lack of discouragement.

• RC is a working-class movement for working-class people.

• As to the language we use about who is “in” RC and who “isn’t,” Dan takes the viewpoint that everyone who knows him is in some way “in” RC.

• A session is paying attention to someone in a way that helps that person’s survival.

• We can pledge to be preoccupied with giving the good session rather than having the good session.

• Working-class people are natural leaders because in their lives and work they are in the habit of making things go well.

• Strategic anger can be useful.

• It’s okay to be furious.

• Shitty2 things happen.

• Some questions are yet to be answered.

• It is always good to work early on chronic material.3 We also need to have sessions on what is currently going on4 in our lives. And we should expect to get good attention from the counsellor for the current difficulties.

• A good thing about a working-class workshop is that the people there are less likely to be freaked out5 by the hurtful incidents in our life and are therefore better listeners.

• We make the role of counsellor much more complicated than it really is. It is basically caring about the person and listening with good attention.

• RC in Spanish is co-escucha, which means co-listening.

• RC is about what’s right with you, not what’s wrong with you.

• One’s class background is in no way a limit to the role one can play in the transformation of society.

Deb Icely
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Reprinted from the newsletter of the Melbourne,
Victoria, Australia, RC Community


1 Dan Nickerson is the International Liberation Reference Person for Working-Class People.
2 “Shitty” means bad.
3 “Work early on chronic material” means discharge on the early hurts that led to chronic distress patterns.
4 “Going on” means happening.
5 “Freaked out” means really upset.


Last modified: 2022-12-25 10:17:04+00