Community Organisers in Conversation

Love against the state part 2: Community and fascism

This 2-part conversation focuses on love as a political force, with Balraj and Nuradin from Kids of Colour, an anti-racist youth organisation in Greater Manchester.
In this episode we talk more about the role of art and culture, the crisis of growing fascism, and the importance of spaces for conversation, care and grief. We reflect on the years of work that has built community relationships against state violence in Manchester, and how this commitment to love can inform struggles for all our liberation.

Love against the state part 1: Young people

This 2-part conversation focuses on love as a political force, with Balraj and Nuradin from Kids of Colour, an anti-racist youth organisation in Greater Manchester.
In this episode they introduce the Boys and Love project, where they run sessions with boys of colour exploring themes of love, solidarity, masculinity, feminism and community. We talk about the oppressive environment of schools and the policing of racialised young people, and how to disturb those hierarchies and build solidarity. We discuss how dialogue sustains and transforms our communities, and think about love as a humanising force against state violence and punishment.

Political education part 2: The first bullet

This 2-part conversation brings together two organisers in Brighton to discuss political education: Jo Taylor from the Solidarity Economy Association and Amy McGourty, a trade unionist and Irish language organiser.
In this episode, we discuss the Kurdish context, including the huge role of political education in the trajectory of the Rojava revolution. We think about the idea of collective self-knowing, and how this differs from the individual identity we are taught to hold. We discuss the rise of far right ideology, and the ways political education can help us understand together the histories we have been cut from. We talk about commitment, comrades, and the need to take time to develop an analysis together, from which we can act.

Political education part 1: Who are we actually?

In this 2-part conversation we meet two organisers in Brighton to discuss political education: Jo Taylor from the Solidarity Economy Association and Amy McGourty, a trade unionist and Irish language organiser.
In this episode we talk about what we mean by political education, the forms it can take, and the role it has played in movements around the world. We discuss the relationship of language to collective self-being, and the idea that by developing political consciousness we become ‘more fully human’.
We discuss examples and challenges of political education in Britain: why it seems hard to prioritise in our movements, the need to bring theory and practice together, and what we can learn from anti-colonial struggles about our own place in the world system.

Staying alive: Self-organising for survival

How does a community organise itself to survive in the face of state violence and neglect? In this episode we discuss how asylum seekers and refugees are directly creating the things they need to survive.
We talk about how mutual aid builds political power, the significance of self-organisation, and how those most affected by oppression come to lead their own struggles. We discuss the role of art and culture in survival and resistance, the tension between reform and abolition, and what it means to fight through everyday survival for a world without borders.
With Loraine Mponela from Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group, Mariam Yusuf from Women Asylum Seekers Together, and Olivia Namutebi from Women for Refugee Women.

102: Abolish the organiser!

In the 2nd episode of this 2-part conversation, we talk more about the political questions involved in community organising, from sharing power to dealing with conflict and harm. We discuss the role of the organiser, the new wave of British abolitionism, and what it means to have an abolitionist approach.
With Amardeep Dhillon from We Keep Us Safe Lewisham and Lesbians & Support the Migrants; Shiri Shalmy from Cooperation Town; and Mea Aitken from Kids of Colour and the No Police in Schools campaign.

101: Where are the factory gates?

In episode 1 of this 2-part conversation, we discuss what community organising is, and the argument for it as a political approach. We talk about the growing forms of community organising happening in Britain, how people are attempting to politicise everyday life, and the infrastructure we need for a community to exist.
With Amardeep Dhillon from We Keep Us Safe Lewisham and Lesbians & Support the Migrants; Shiri Shalmy from Cooperation Town; and Mea Aitken from Kids of Colour and No Police in Schools.