Panels and political education

Why Climate Justice = Migrant Justice

As climate breakdown forces more and more people to flee their homes, states are erecting borders and creating ever more hostile environments for migrants. Meanwhile, private companies profit from the destruction of our planet and cruelty inflicted on migrants. This panel will explore why migrant and climate justice issues are intrinsically linked, how we can build movements for change, and what role the student movement can play in them.

With:

• Tyrone Scott (War on Want)

• Josie Mizen (People & Planet)

• Michelle Cadiz (International League of Peoples’ Struggles)

• Christine Bramwell (No Borders in Climate Justice)

• Yazan Miri (Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants)

• Rianke Gill (No Debt for Climate)

Beyond Extractivism: Building a Just Transition

The fight for climate justice goes far beyond our university campuses. Through global systems of injustice universities, states and fossil fuel companies prop up a system of exploitative and unsustainable resource extraction. In this session we will take a look at what extractivism means on a global scale and how this is interconnected with wider systems of oppression. We will then use this knowledge to map where our universities sit within this system and discuss how we can challenge extractivist logic in our own campaigning.

Understanding the Neoliberal University

Universities have undergone significant changes over the past decades, as neoliberalism has become more entrenched. In this panel, we'll be looking at the following questions: What is neoliberalism, and how can we see its effects in the management, governance, structure and culture of universities? Where does the university sit in relation to the state and to capital, and how do we see that reflected in everyday university experiences? As students today carry on struggles to push universities to divest from and cut ties with destructive industries (such as fossil fuel, arms and border industries), how must we understand these campaigns as part of a fight for a different university?

With:

• Simon Gill, University of Manchester UCU

• Tomi Amole, People & Planet

• Carmen Wilson, Demilitarise Education

Students for people and planet: Learning from the past and building for the future

In this session, we will be discussing the history of student movements in Britain, demonstrating how the current student movement sits within a long tradition of struggle and solidarity. What examples of student mobilisations from the past can we learn from? What are the success stories that should inspire us? What has the role of the student movement been in pushing forward internationalist struggles and how have students historically seen their role in relation to broader movements? How can students today harness the spirit of collective resistance in a different university landscape?

Palestine, migrant and climate justice

Over the past year, we have seen how Palestine has galvanised people from all corners of society - and especially the student movement. How is the struggle for a liberated Palestine the same struggle for climate justice and migrant justice? How do systems of ecological destruction and border violence express themselves in the settler colonial occupation of Palestine? What are some concrete targets that illustrate the interconnections between these oppressive systems?

With:

• Joseph, Energy Embargo for Palestine

• Youth Front for Palestine

• Yara Derbas, Palestinian Youth Movement

How do we resist state repression?

With student activists facing increased repression from both their universities and the state, what can we learn from groups and organisers who have built systems and strategies for resisting the state? From community self defense, to anti-raids and abolitionist struggles, our communities have always resisted state repression as a means of survival and caring for each other. This session will include a panel discussion on resistance to state repression from a range of community groups and organisers. We will discuss past and current means of resisting the state and how this can be built into our own organising contexts.

With:

• John Pegram, Bristol CopWatch

• Mea Aitken, Kids of Colour

• Anna Olst, European Legal Support Center

Radical futures: What is the world we want to build and how do we get there?

Can you imagine a world without borders? without police? without extraction? What would it look like? What would it feel and taste and smell like? To be able to sustain our struggles, we have to have a vision of what we're fighting for. Radical imagination isn't something we have - it is a verb that we practice together. In this session, we will collectively draw out features of the just world we are creating and identify some of the actions we can be taking in the now too bring about the future we need!

Skills Workshops

Non-violent Direct Action Training

Curious about direct action? Wondering if its for you or not? Come along to be inspired and find out about all the different roles and tasks needed to make it accessible, effective and fun. The session will be participatory / interactive in its nature and have plenty of opportunities for questions.

With: Seeds for Change

Building a Sustainable Group

Groups are central to our organising experiences. Whether you’re looking to build one from scratch, or want to reflect on how your current one is working, or not - this is for you! You’ll have the opportunity to connect with your prior group organising experiences and explore what was a win and what belongs in the bin! You’ll leave with a plan to support the group cultures you’re a part of to be sustainable, radical and structured with collective care at their heart.

Know Your Rights

Over the past year, student-led protests have sparked important conversations around the right to protest at university, and the clampdown on freedom of expression and student activism. Liberty are delivering a know your rights workshop to empower students about their legal rights to protest at university, including through encampments and occupations, to help students feel comfortable and safe enough to advocate for change through protest.

With: Liberty

Digital Organising

Want to learn how to use social media and other digital tools to take your campaigns to the next level? Join this skills workshop on the art of digital organising! In this session we'll be covering: Why digital organising is important, what makes great social media content, tips and tricks to build your audience and supporter base, how to build effective online petitions and other tools to put pressure on your targets, and more!

How to do investigative research

This workshop aims to energise, mobilise and support student and staff campaigns to end and replace university partnerships with arms companies. The session will focus on developing effective campaign strategies using investigative and policy reform tactics. We will examine the links between university policy, funding and partnerships, and the wider movement for ethical change in higher education. Through this workshop, you will gain tools, resources, and actionable steps to start or strengthen demilitarisation campaigns on your campus. By the end, you should walk away with enhanced knowledge about university links to arms companies, strategic insight about past initiatives and the confidence to campaign, and tangible ways to support the integration of dED Treaty framework at your university.

How to run creative actions

Creative actions are an exciting way to draw attention to your demands and get your voice heard. Yet it takes meticulous planning and some creative thinking for them to be successful. In this workshop we'll be looking at examples of creative direct actions, what creative action means and how you can plan your own imaginative and eye-catching actions on campus.

Art for Campaigns

Whether you've got an upcoming protest to make placards for, or want to use art to show those pesky fossil fuel recruiters what you *really* think of them, join our art for campaigns session to get creative, unwind after a long day of sessions, and draw, paint and collage our way towards system change!

Collective Care, Walk and Talk

Join us for some chill walking, talking and tea supping vibes. This decompression session will be shaped by those who join us, but likely conversation topics will include how we care for the collective, how we sustain ourselves as organisers for the long term and the radical, liberated futures we are organising towards.