Facing Repression: Building Movement Resilience. Regenerative Activism 2021.

In this session we’ll draw on the experience of diverse contemporary movements, as well as looking at some of the lessons we can learn from history. We’ll hear about the challenges faced by pro-democracy organisers in Hong Kong over recent years, as they’ve faced the maneuvering of the state against them and tried to adapt or respond. We’ll explore the experience of LGBTQI+ movements across Central and Eastern Europe facing harsh repression and the new forms of organising they have developed. And we’ll hear how different systems construct consent for repressive violence or find ways to conceal movement suppression within the mechanisms of social reproduction and what this means for our organising.

We will ask:

• How can we strengthen our ability to respond to threats against our movements?

• What can we learn about the variety of methods that state and non-state actors use to close down the spaces we work and organise in?

• What does resilience look like in the face of repressive attacks?