Navigating topics related to anti-oppression in our groups is not easy, often brings up trauma responses, tensions, and conflicts and leads to the erosion of trust. To move away from reproducing harmful oppression patterns, we need to learn to build cultures of care, and move away from shame and blame towards a culture of reciprocity, accountability and collective transformation.
Through this kind of work, we can become increasingly skilled in transforming harmful tensions and conflict into enriching growth opportunities, and through better working with diversity, we can include a wider range of perspectives, experiences, and histories, for more adaptable, resilient, and powerful movements that exemplify values we strive for.
Systems of oppression often sustain themselves when we are unable to acknowledge and work well with the power dynamics, social privilege and mechanisms of discrimination that exist in our groups, communities and societies. In active solidarity and empowerment training, we carefully unravel those structures, gradually building a safe ground that can support us to explore these challenging themes step by step. Although the training content and process will address a wide range of discrimination and oppression structures, the main emphasis will be on how we can work with the dynamics that exist in groups and organisations.
The course content is not aimed at giving ready-made solutions but rather opening space for exploration, mutual learning and setting intentions for a long learning journey. Methods used during the course will invite participants to engage with emotional literacy work, embracing conditioned reactions to transform collective organising patterns.
The course focuses on individual and group level interventions, acknowledging the systemic nature of disempowerment and exclusion mechanisms.
This course is aimed at those with no or minimal knowledge on the topic of solidarity and empowerment.
The learning process will be held by facilitators using exercises and activities supporting self-reflection and self-evaluation around the following topics:
- Stereotypes and prejudices we carry
- Development of skillsets needed in different social positionalities (when targeted and/or granted agency under the constructed systems of oppression)
- Exclusion mechanisms reproduced in organising
- Identifying deeper underlying, socially constructed patterns and mental models behind individual approaches and behaviours and those of groups
- Emotional literacy and regulation skills
- Moving beyond polarisation, shame and blame mechanisms towards solidarity and co-dependence
Participants will be invited to challenge their views and perspectives, be open to vulnerability, share from a place of personal experience and dive into explorations of the complexity of our identities, and how power and privilege play into these dynamics.
Like all the other Ulex courses, this one will be held in the rural setting of the pre-Pyrenean mountains, enabling us to integrate some nature connection and awareness practices, working with body and mind. Those practices will help us to be more present in our training experience as well as provide the inspiration to look at our activism in a more holistic way.
The three facilitators will bring different approaches to anti-oppression work, coming from diverse cultural, activist and organisational backgrounds. Read more about them below.
The course will be delivered in accessible, international English.
Who is it aimed at?
Anyone with experience in socially engaged action addressing ecological, political and social justice issues. We embrace a broad definition of activism, including: Resistance – action preventing further damage to ecosystems and social justice; Renewal – action focused on developing and creating alternatives for healthier societies and communities; and Building Resilience – action supporting increased resilience in communities to weather the uncertain times ahead.
This course is a basic entry level course. It might not be suitable for you if you are looking for advanced practices and/or are not in a place to sit with challenging conversations about the basic anti-oppression tools and approaches.