
Sisters Uncut May Day action. Credit: Eilidh Macpherson.
Building movements that are truly liberating takes heart and soul. Recently, from #BlackLivesMatter to the Scottish Independence Campaign, organised movements have challenged power both outside and within us.
We can’t change where we’re from, but we can work towards understanding the privileges that are afforded to us because of who we are and what our background is. Confronting power in a movement means working together to unlearn oppressive behaviours that stem from these privileges.
Being part of a movement forces us to confront ourselves, and how we relate to each other. The emotional journey this confrontation provokes brings us closer to long-lasting social transformation.
But
getting to a point in mainstream activism where issues of power and
privilege are even acknowledged, let alone explored, has taken too
long. It has needed too much effort. In the process, gaining this
recognition has often caused unnecessary hurt.
As three women
activists, we can recall some rare, magical moments where skilled
organisers have channelled emotion and vulnerability through a group
of activists in order to build trust and expose hidden prejudices. We
have explored what oppression means in our lives, and how others can
become true allies. In such spaces, we haven't shied away from the
uncomfortableness of confronting privilege, or the hurt caused by
oppression - but used these realisations as forces for good.
These
moments can only come about through a commitment to learning and
unlearning: a commitment that challenges both ourselves and those
around us. In bringing power and privilege into the centre of
everything that we do, we begin to engage in heart and soul activism.
For many who proudly identify as doing their bit for the
cause; power and privilege has become a tick-box exercise, an acronym
on a page, an item on the agenda. For others where there is a
willingness to learn, there is also a fear of being isolated for
doing something “wrong”. The reality is there is no easy way to
transform the pain of collective oppression into strength, especially
if we only organise in groups of people that look and act like us.
We
take “Training
not Shaming”
as an important mantra in our journey together. We should seek to be
radically open to learning from each other, with the hope that
collaboration and exchange build steps towards collective liberation.
What
does heart and soul activism look like?
Here are a few groups we’re particularly excited about who
have moved beyond looking at power and privilege as an isolated
issue. They have dedicated their daily practice to unlearning
attitudes and behaviours that are exhibited through holding
privilege. They have made liberation their sole purpose, through
their chosen activities and who they have decided to work for. These
groups are explored below as starting point for what we hope to be a
much longer conversation.

Trainees and organisers of the fourth Bootcamp. Credit: Campaign Bootcamp.Campaign BootcampThis three year old organisation has gone from strength to strength. Bootcamp is a renowned training programme that supports some incredible individuals to become great campaigners. They take highly diverse groups through a week long training on campaigning strategy and skills, whilst embedding the values of liberation into their purpose and activity.
Bootcamp are proof that diversity builds strength in groups - and this is key to the journey each campaigner goes on through their week together. Their scholarship system ensures no one is left out of an opportunity to apply, and they rely heavily on the generosity of larger NGOs to subsidise more places - encouraging a behaviour that is often hard to find within the sector. All this is encased in a teaching methodology that truly liberates - working off of the US training gods at Training for Change.
Sisters
Uncut
This
group of self-defining women, and those who experience oppression as
women, take direct action to highlight and fight against
life-threatening cuts to domestic violence services. Since their
inception they have worked hard to ensure that their spaces don’t
replicate wider society’s oppressive structures. In doing so they
are not only strengthening their community but are organising
effectively and mobilising hundreds of people to make noise where it
matters.
Intersectional feminism underpins all that they do – and they work with other groups such as The London Latinxs and Black Dissidents on interconnected struggles. Similarly, these groups are also anti-oppression campaigners taking direct action, with The London Latinxs focusing on highlighting issues faced by the Latin American community in London and around the country, and Black Dissidents building a community of black and brown activists fighting against white supremacy and hetero-normative patriarchy and the consequences of both.
Sisters Uncut have not only been instrumental in raising the danger of cuts to domestic violence services but are there to show solidarity with other causes also fighting violence against women such as the movement trying to shut down Yarl’s Wood detention centre.
Janelle Brown of Sisters Uncut told us: "[We’re] growing week on week, with a diverse collective of women empowering each other to take bolder and bolder action for domestic violence services. There's no doubt we'll be even bigger and stronger than we are now, and we'll continue to grow until the government meet our demands".

Some of the team at Media Diversified. Credit: Wasi Daniju.
Media
Diversified recently celebrated its second birthday. They were
founded with the aim of diversifying the UK’s media, and since have
propelled themselves to the forefront of discussions around this lack
of diversity. They routinely use their various platforms to call out
the media’s pretty overt racism, and also run campaigns around
this, such as #AllWhiteFrontPages, which highlights why the stories
of ethnic minority groups need to be included in coverage.
By
being generous with support and contacts, they offer budding writers
of colour resources that a lot of those that find themselves working
in the media are granted through private schooling and elite
universities. They use their website to promote writers (including
via this
ever-growing experts directory),
and the opinions and facts that mainstream media benefits from
dismissing or completely ignoring. They’re diversifying the UK’s
media and getting more ethnic minority views out there.
Listening and learning from those around us is one of the best ways of challenging power and privilege in our own work and communities. There is a plethora of resources out there - they’re a starting point for us to school ourselves on privilege and start to unlearn the oppressive behaviours and practices we may not even be aware that we are doing.
We’re
always conscious that a lot of people, for varying reasons, may be
not know where to begin this journey, so we worked with others to
pull together this
introduction
-
it’s meant to offer direction to those wishing to strengthen their
own liberation practices.
If we can provide a space to openly
discuss our experiences, reflect on them collectively and apply
learning to our work - we begin to see some great things happen.
Feminist wonder woman bell hooks refers to this specific kind of
conversation as a “dialectical exchange”; a learning that
increases radical openness and a commitment to change.
We
want this to be a starting point – so you can go on to learn and
unlearn about privilege and oppression, have conversations that
matter, build friendships and communities, to come together and do
activism with real heart and soul.
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