How we can win on the big things

(Twitter thread, Oct 15 2022)

How can our movements actually win on the big things?

Learning from each other’s struggles, a 🧵 …

+ a new online course for activists across issues, communities in struggle, countries: (ulexproject.org/mlc_programme/)

#SocialMovements and communities in struggle do incredible things against huge odds every day, around the world.

But the far right is on the march, the planet is heating up and ppl are facing intensified violence, poverty, oppression in so many places

We need to learn to grow deep alliances that mean something – across our different issues and movements, connecting up communities in struggle, working across different countries, places, cultures.

Always a work in progress, but we’re not doing great in many places right now.

“Learning from each other’s struggles” is one way of trying to get past this –

listening to ppl in other communities, other places, other movements and seeing what we can learn from each other.

Thinking how we can win, together: (wagingnonviolence.org/rs/2022/05/mov…) obvs there’s always some of this happening. E.g.

@UlexProject “Ecology of Social Movements” (ulexproject.org/courses_events…)

European Community Organizing Network “Citizen Participation University”

European Alternatives “School of Transnational Activism”

Maynooth MA in activism

But it’s drops in the ocean: smallish numbers, shortish events, reaching across some networks, movements, communities, countries but not others.

We reckoned between us we could do something not just larger & longer but building wider & deeper alliances: (ulexproject.org/courses_events…)

So maybe 60 experienced activists from different movements and communities in struggle, all across Europe…

Taking a year (part-time obvs!) to learn from and with each other, online and w/ some residential…

On a solidarity economy basis (we won’t turn anyone away).

Focussing on learning together how to think and act strategically…

How to see our orgs w/in our movts and our own movt connected to others…

How to work across communities, inequalities, difference…

How to make transnational and translocal alliances…

How to win.

This first year is a pilot – if it works we’re going to scale it up with numbers, different languages, more regional activities.

It’s coming out of lots of conversations, advice, research w/ different movements and activists.

We’ll share all the course materials etc. for free.

anyway, we hope other organisers, activists, popular educators from lots of different ctties in struggle, movts, places will muck in in different ways!

If you’re interested, get in touch (events AT ) and we can shape it together: (ulexproject.org/mlc_programme/)

We can win, sure. Fascism is not inevitable.

But it takes some serious alliances, and that means lots of learning from each other’s struggles and listening to each other across those differences.

What she said:

And … if you think this sounds about right, please don’t just like it but RT it so people in your networks see it!

Thanks.