This 2-part conversation brings together two organisers in Brighton to discuss political education: Jo Taylor from the Solidarity Economy Association and Amy McGourty, a trade unionist and Irish language organiser.

In this episode, we discuss the Kurdish context, including the huge role of political education in the trajectory of the Rojava revolution. We think about the idea of collective self-knowing, and how this differs from the individual identity we are taught to hold. We discuss the rise of far right ideology, and the ways political education can help us understand together the histories we have been cut from. We talk about commitment, comrades, and the need to take time to develop an analysis together, from which we can act.

In this 2-part conversation we meet two organisers in Brighton to discuss political education: Jo Taylor from the Solidarity Economy Association and Amy McGourty, a trade unionist and Irish language organiser.

In this episode we talk about what we mean by political education, the forms it can take, and the role it has played in movements around the world. We discuss the relationship of language to collective self-being, and the idea that by developing political consciousness we become ‘more fully human’.

We discuss examples and challenges of political education in Britain: why it seems hard to prioritise in our movements, the need to bring theory and practice together, and what we can learn from anti-colonial struggles about our own place in the world system.

How does a community organise itself to survive in the face of state violence and neglect? In this episode we discuss how asylum seekers and refugees are directly creating the things they need to survive.

We talk about how mutual aid builds political power, the significance of self-organisation, and how those most affected by oppression come to lead their own struggles. We discuss the role of art and culture in survival and resistance, the tension between reform and abolition, and what it means to fight through everyday survival for a world without borders.

With Loraine Mponela from Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group, Mariam Yusuf from Women Asylum Seekers Together, and Olivia Namutebi from Women for Refugee Women.