1 draft chapter for Global Social Work Education: Crossing borders and blurring boundaries: IASSW, (2013) Editors: Carolyn Noble, Helle Strauss and Brian Littlechild Towards an Issue-based Politics in Social Work Education Mel Gray and Stephen A. Webb 1 Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, UK Undoubtedly, one of the great virtues of social work is that it continues to think politically in these unpropitious times. Its foundational values of equality and justice have always been compounded with freedom as core political ideals and ‘right principles’. The search for structures that might realise these moral standards has been a consistent feature of social work and taking a political stance in defence of these standards. However, the complete absence of a political manifesto in the tripartite Global Agenda issued by the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) that explicitly names the problem of capitalism indicates that social work is in need of a renewed progressive Left political agenda. It is also in need of and a more vocal articulation of its role in combatting the exploitative capitalist, neoliberal economic order. Current social research on public mobilisation, political protest and controversy strongly suggests that people get organised around an issue or an object of contestation (Marres, 2005; 2007; 2012). In other words, political action requires more than adherence to principles and values, instead it needs a materiality or object of participation to effectively mobilise. We need to identify clear cases of the displacement of politics from sites of local, regional, and national politics to a global forum. Issues call publics into being. 1 Stephen Webb is recently appointed to the new Chair of Social Work at Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, email Stephen.Webb@gcal.ac.uk while Mel Gray is at University of Newcastle.