Bristol is a city full of energy and vibrant alternative initiatives, but they don’t always connect well together. The idea of a ‘movement of movements’ suggests that organizing might to scale out and scale up if it is to be able to address the polycrisis that faces us, but for many organizers it is scale that is the problem. Ideas such as prefiguration, horizontalism, localism and so on tend to focus on the small and specific and to be suspicious of political parties, the state and established institutions.

In this event we want to think about longer term strategic aims and wider social transformation. Is it possible to think about the Bristol city region ecosystem in ways that are more strategic and systemic? Can we co-ordinate our activities so that the many local and particular forms of activism can become a rising tide of change which is impossible to ignore?

Join us for an evening of discussion with academics, activists and local groups.

Timings:

5 :30 pm Hot vegan food for voluntary donation. An early start for those who want to come, eat and meet like-minded others.

6:30 pm Panel Discussion

7.30 pm Audience discussion with members from local groups.

Guest Panel Speakers:

Rodrigo Nunes, University of Essex

A senior lecturer in political theory and organisaton at the University of Essex and the author of Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal: A Theory of Political Organisation (Verso, 2021) and The View from Brazil: Neoliberalism, the Far Right and the Grammar of Disintegration (Verso, forthcoming).

Makeda Bernard-Quashie, Afrikan ConneXions Consortium

Brings a breadth of knowledge and experience to a diverse range of Black civic society and economic activities. She is committed to developing the mutual sector and is currently co-ordinating the development of Zenzele Village – an intergenerational cooperative land and legacy initiative for Afrikan community self-repair.

Stephen Hilton, Slowmentum

Slowmentum is a consultancy working for an inclusive regenerative economy. It operates in the nexus between local authorities, and local communities, with a commitment to sustainable cities and community activism. Before founding Slowmentum, Stephen was Director of the Bristol Futures Department at Bristol City Council.

Friends from AngryWorkers/ Vital Signs Magazine

The AngryWorkers are a political collective who organise as workers in industries. In 2020 they published Class Power on Zero Hours, about their experiences in warehouses and food factories in West London. Vital Signs Magazine is an AngryWorkers magazine by a small group of workers across the two main hospitals in Bristol.

Facilitated by Claudia Firth and Martin Parker from the University of Bristol Business School.

Claudia is a researcher working on the Fair Creative Economies project. She is interested in questions of organising, alternative economies and strategy and coordination. She has written about the contribution economy, mutual aid, and prefigurative politics and has worked closely with community activist groups including being involved in the Bristol Commons. Martin is Professor of Organization Studies and author of (among other things) Shut Down the Business School (Pluto 2018).

Members from other Bristol based groups will also join us including Acorn, Bristol Apartheid Free Zone, Bristol Transformed, and the Bristol Commons. This event is financially supported by the University of Bristol Business School.

Entry requirements: no age restrictions