The author of this volume, Ravi Kanbur, was involved in an extensive process of consultation on poverty reduction strategies, which reached out to some of the most interested constituencies in the academic, policy making and advocacy communities. This paper presents an analysis of the broad themes of disagreement in these consultations and, more generally, among those concerned with poverty reduction. There are deep divisions on economic policy, distribution and poverty. These divisions spilt out in the consultations, mostly politely, but sometimes in vehement discourse, written and oral, harbingers of the street battles to come. The objective of this paper therefore, is to provide an account of some of the underlying reasons for deep disagreements on economic policy, distribution and poverty, and to couch these in an analytical rather than a rhetorical frame.