Power to the People

Use your voice, change the world

By: Danny Sriskandarajah

Narrated by: Danny Sriskandarajah

Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Danny Sriskandarajah learned the value of citizenship at a young age as the child of Tamil migrants who moved from Sri Lanka to Australia. Arriving in the UK as the first Rhodes scholar from an Asian immigrant background, he has gone on to run a series of civil society organisations, and has become a leading voice in the third sector.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE is his radical manifesto for change designed to inspire citizen action around the world. The book presents a blueprint for how we, as individuals, can make a difference through greater community engagement, and how we can deliver a society that works for the many and not the few. He speaks to voter apathy and a growing sense that elections no longer matter, with politicians and institutions too focused on short-term issues to grapple with complex global problems such as climate change, rising inequality, and digital disruption. Yet the book is also filled with inspiring real-life examples of citizen power in action, ranging from a volunteer-run repair café in Danny's local suburb to Avaaz's successful campaigns to tackle endemic corruption in Brazil.

From public ownership of social media spaces to democratising share ownership, and from re-energising co-operatives to creating a people's chamber at the United Nations, this campaigning book has a clear mission to make us reclaim our power as citizens of the world.

©2024 Danny Sriskandarajah (P)2024 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

Critic reviews

Danny connects his personal story with society's collective story of who we are and who we can be. He provides a beacon that lights up our confidence that we can shift power to the people and helps guide us on our way (Winnie Byanyima, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations)

After a lifetime of campaigning Danny has written a passionate, wise, inspiring and - hurray! - very entertaining book about how individuals really do have the power to change the world for the better (Richard Curtis, co-founder of Comic Relief)

Urgent and essential, at the heart of Power to the People lies a simple but profound truth: that people acting together can change the world (Caroline Lucas, former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales)

Danny Sriskandarajah has written a book that is positive, instructive, probing, inspiring and hopeful. His own life story shows the power of people, and his message that we the people must take back control of the future could not be more timely (David Miliband, former UK Foreign Secretary)

This wise, warm and worldly book calls on us to reimagine our democracies and democratize our economies. It's time - so dive in! (Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics)

Powerful (Yanis Varoufakis, economist and politician)

In present times, our disillusionment with leaders and institutions is - fortunately - matched by our urgency to act, to reform and to collaborate for good. To unlock change we must find better ways to connect hard-won lessons from the past with our vivid imagination of the future. In this book, Danny provides inspiration, analysis and examples from his own experience on how this is possible. (Lysa John, Secretary General, CIVICUS)

Danny's call to protect civic freedoms, renew democracy and deliver the Sustainable Development Goals is much needed at such a difficult time. (Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders)