Facing Repression: Building Movement Resilience

The first gathering in Regenerative Activism, 2021: an annual conference of dialogues and workshops exploring radical transformation organised by Ulex Project, Gita Parihar and Advaya C.I.C.

This session is: Facing Repression: Building Movement Resilience. It is hosted by G from Ulex Project with Ilaj, Glacier Kwong and Laurence Cox.

Find out more: www.regenerativeactivism.com

Session Description:

As our movements grow and as the faltering neoliberal order tries to salvage its interests through new alignments with the far right and other authoritarian tendencies, activists and our organisations face new threats and forms of attack. We need to better understand the mechanisms of suppression and repression and ways to combat the damage they cause our movements.

In this session we draw on the experience of diverse contemporary movements, as well as looking at some of the lessons we can learn from history. We hear about the challenges faced by pro-democracy organisers in Hong Kong over recent years, as they’ve faced the manoeuvring of the state against them and tried to adapt or respond. We explore the experience of LGBTQI+ movements across Central and Eastern Europe facing harsh repression and the new forms of organising they have developed. And we hear how different systems construct consent for repressive violence or find ways to conceal movement suppression within the mechanisms of social reproduction and what this means for our organising.

We ask:

How can we strengthen our ability to respond to threats against our movements?

What can we learn about the variety of methods that state and non-state actors use to close down the spaces we work and organise in?

What does resilience look like in the face of repressive attacks?