Making Movements: Voices from a World of Change

From climate breakdown to fascism to runaway capitalism – what would it actually take to tackle our world’s roaring avalanche of challenges? Paul, a veteran of social movements through his work in facilitation, process and conflict mediation, stepped back and asked himself this question back in 2018. He realised that the problems are so vast and self-exacerbating that they require social change on...

What and who is this podcast for? Why are social movements the best way to change the world? What kinds of hideous baggage and assumptions is host Douglas bringing to this work? What's with the upload schedule? Is it ok to think about things from London? (short answer: no!) Can a podcast be more than a podcast? Some of these questions will be answered in what is essentially a retroactive laun...

One of my favourite interviews!  I sit down with Adam Greenfield, activist and author of the book Lifehouse , for a deep discussion of his work, its underpinnings and its implications. His book explores anarchist success stories for inspiration in the face of a ‘Long Emergency’ of climate and political instability, featuring classic case-studies like the Black Panthers, Occupy and Rojava among oth...

The water is coming. By 2050 8 million homes in England will be at risk of flooding - that’s *one in four*! But for hundreds of UK communities this existential threat has already arrived. Flooded People UK is an innovative organising project which aims to recast the people in flood-hit places from passive victims into active citizens with expertise, collective interdependence, and policy demands....

Kollapscamp may well turn out to be a significant moment in movement history, with the climate scene evolving into new forms to meet the new realities of ‘long emergency’. At the same time – and very much relatedly – the camp was a physical and social space with real people bringing varied and sometimes rivalrous motivations, identities and needs. As the camp packed up, I caught up with Scully to...

Collapse – what’s the pitch?! Kollapscamp was a summer gathering of 900 people in Brandenburg, Germany. It has clear roots in the climate movement, but represents a very novel tendency within – or break from – that movement. The key shift being an assessment that some level of societal upheaval is now unavoidable (thanks in part to world leaders’ failure to limit carbon emissions), and that this h...

Benjamin and Sanna spent three years cycling around the world to spread the word about the Western Sahara: the world’s largest remaining colony, the last such project in Africa, and a weirdly (but not accidentally) under-covered topic. Tune in and cover it with us!   We also cover: Benjamin’s year-long walk from Sweden to Palestine The strange lack of social movements in Sweden A burgeoning ‘activ...

You might be as surprised as me to learn the anti-nuclear fight is one of the biggest social movement scenes in France. I sat down with Pauline Boyer to learn about France’s current nuclear crossroads and its peculiar economic, cultural and geopolitical dimensions. We also consider nuclear as an ideology and Type of Guy, and discuss Pauline’s journey into activism through Alternatiba, a 2010s move...

Les Résistantes was a beacon of joyful social movement ambition. Something like 10,000 people came together representing struggles from across not only France but Europe and beyond. An activist event of this scale and substance must be seen to be believed.* Where on earth did it come from? I caught up with Joël, one of the festival’s core organisers. He explains how Résistantes is really just a by...

Soulèvements could lay a claim to be the hottest eco-action group not just in France but all of Europe. Their approach of bundling local environmental struggles into bigger efforts has paid off in several actions with numbers in the tens of thousands, and pointed a way out of the climate movement's traditional confinement in the urban middle classes. Their sense of buzz and energy is such tha...

In an age of sinister international connivance, have you ever wondered where *our* shadowy networks are? Wonder no longer! Ok not really, but the Movement Hub is a rare and brilliant case of social movement internationalism: alongside much-needed information-collation, the Hub’s runaway translation initiative has become the basis for an international convergence rarely seen in Europe since the COP...

For our first entry at Les Résistantes I talk to Mikhail about his activist career, which begins with the onset of far-right violence in early-2000s Slovakia, runs though the world of football ultras, and ultimately brings him to the climate movement, cultures of care, and France’s liveliest activist festival. *Editor’s note: this episode is harder to keep up with than most! We cover a lot of grou...

Coming from a teepee in a mysterious village at the heart of Green Gathering, Paul Mather tells us the story behind this congregation of yurts and ideas: a combination of climate collapse and countercultural experimentation. But the ‘Transformative Adaptation Space’ is only one part of Paul’s story – he’s also part of the Hospicing Modernity UK Collective (and is also a school teacher!). Inspired...

Clifford offers an awe-inspiring tour through four decades of change-making. Starting in Greenham Common in 1981 and running through the Miners’ Strike, the anti-roads movement, Earth First, to Extinction Rebellion and beyond. This wide sweep and experience then provides us with fresh perspectives on Green Gathering, the enigmatic Trad Village at its core, and the latest wave of interest building...

Robin Wells, director of Fossil Free London, joins me to reflect on Green Gathering and the movement evolutions on view there: namely the increasing relevance of fascism to the climate movement, and broader frame/vibe-shift towards a *collapse* framing. We then follow Robin’s personal journey into activism via the student fees movement to her present role with Fossil Free London. From this vantage...

Climate Camp Scotland is one of many kindred efforts. Douglas sits down with organisers Emma and Eimear to learn that Climate Camp Ireland is very similar in some respects (organising culture, general strategy) and very different in others (political context, movement infrastructure - *alcohol*!) Together we consider what might lie behind these differences and how they add up into very different o...

Movements bring people together, and some people bring movements together. Lynne Jamieson is a Professor of Sociology of Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh, and president of the British Sociological Association. She’s also a veteran of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). She’s also a trustee and organiser with a community garden. In this latest sit-down on the haybal...

In which I reflect on Henna-Elise’s workshop: The Body as Ally: Building Collective Power and Resilience in Climate Justice Work. I try to cast a bit more light on what somatic practices can look like, why they work, and how this success is reaching beyond the traditional 'hippy' constituency.   If you're interested in learning more about somatic practice try: An online workshop on...

What happens when you ask people to embody climate change? Can embodiment practices help us prevent burnout and channel our values? What do these practices look like in practice? And why does the world seem to resist us maintaining them? Henna-Elise Ventovirta is political scientist, interdisciplinary dance-artist and trainer from the Finnish Lapland. She researches corporeal resistance in the int...

What is Climate Camp Scotland actually like? What’s the strategic thinking behind the whole camping thing? How is the European climate movement doing generally? Is climate still a relevant framing in the context of a polycrisis and a genocide? What does the growth of the far-right mean for social movement efforts? Quan Nguyen, an organiser behind Climate Camp Scotland, joins us on a hay bale to ha...