Reclaiming power with women's self-defence in Belarus and Poland

It’s been a year of uprisings. Some of the boldest have been the women-led social movements in Eastern Europe. Tens of thousands rallied against abortion laws in Poland, while in Belarus women led the way to challenge the falsified presidential election. Ahead of Ulex’s first Self-Defence, Empowerment and Anti-Discrimination Training for women and trans activists, […]

Resilience as Resistance: LGBTQI+ Movement Building in the Balkans

With a ‘stunning democratic breakdown’ occurring across much of the Balkans, LGBTQI+ people are living within an increasingly overt hostile environment. We interviewed 5 activists from across the region to learn first-hand how resilience and resistance are being woven together within queer organizing circles. By Lindsay Alderton Nine years ago, when Eweryst Zaremba, a young […]

Tools & Practices for Navigating Uncertainty : 2020 Regenerative Activism Series

When navigating through stress and uncertainty what are some of the ways we might develop resilience and collective care in a time of Deep Change? By Lindsay Alderton Seven months into 2020 and the principle of uncertainty is increasingly becoming the new normal amidst multiple colliding crises across ecological, socio-political and spiritual spheres.  The arrival of […]

Somatic Spaces for Healing Activist Trauma

An interview with Ulex trainer Lou Hemmerman about the importance of trauma-informed sustainable activism and how body-based practices can support healing at both an individual and movement level.  “Somatics is a freedom-inducing framework. The central idea is that the natural living body–with its sensations, memories and emotions, triggers and pleasures–is a complex system that carries our whole lives, […]

The Landworkers Alliance - Building resilience into our organisational structures.

In November 2019, the Ulex Project worked with the Landworkers Alliance to design a bespoke training in ‘Facilitation, sustainable organising and movement building’ to support their staff to better build skills and strategies for organising effective projects and campaigns. Roz Corbett, who participated in the training, shares a little of her experience. I’ve been a […]

Regenerative Activism online series May 2020

For the third year running the Ulex Project is collaborating with Advaya to offer the Regenerative Activism series, this time in the online space. The times are calling for renewed energy and adaptive capacities. To meet this crisis, we need strategies for deep change on multiple levels. To answer this call we’re inviting you to be a […]

Ulex Team Update: we're growing!

Since we launched in 2016 the Ulex coordination team has grown, with the original crew of Gee, Ella, Lindsay and Carol joined by five new members – Eweryst, Lou, Neus, Kat and Sheila. Our logistics and hosting team have also grown with Sana now joined by Sergi and Frida. As people from a diverse range […]

8 Resilience Trainers offer their 2 top tips

In these increasingly challenging and uncertain times, the need to build resilience into our organising structures becomes ever more essential. But what are some of the ways we might develop resilience, both within ourselves and our movements?   By Lindsay Alderton  In the recently published ‘Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges’ the authors, […]

Active Allyship: Turning privilege into change

For some in social justice circles ‘ally’ has become a somewhat loaded term, with many arguing that the word has lost its power to build trust or meaningful solidarity. We spoke with trans activist and anti-oppression facilitator Kyle Sawyer about call-out culture, ways of turning privilege into change, and what it means to live a life of possibility. […]

The Commons Library : New chapters for social change

We spoke with activist educator Holly Hammond about the newly launched Commons Social Change Library, an online repository of freely available social movement stories, strategies and tools. Coming from a family of librarians,  with grandparents who emigrated from the UK to set up the first Western Australian State Library system, Holly Hammond’s love of books runs […]