People are in denial about what racism is, which means it’s hard to spot and even harder to deal with.
Racism permeates most things in our society, from the books we are taught from, to AI soap dispensers not being coded to recognise dark skin.
Because racists are also experts in deniability, we are not having the difficult conversations we should have.
In this session, we’ll talk about racism, anti-racist strategies and have some difficult conversations ourselves.
In the UK in 2026, trans people are in peril.
The role a minority of feminists have played in this state of affairs, by representing trans rights and existence as a threat to women and children, is by now well-known. Often less well understood, however, is the role played by the international Christian (far) right.
In this session we’ll discuss these twin histories of organised transphobia – Christian Right and ‘TERF’ – and how they have come to overlap in UK politics today. Following this, we’ll explore practical ways we can organise to stem the anti-trans tide.
Wednesday 29th April, 7pm in the backroom of The Bell
The rise and mainstreaming of far-right politics is predominantly a top-down process, bolstering a racist agenda and diverting our attention away from structural crises (cost of living, climate change, institutional racism and other forms of oppression or the crumbling of our public service).
The media plays a crucial role in constructing far-right politics as both an alternative and a threat.
Without falling for simplistic narratives, this session will encourage us to think about how our life is mediated, if the media is necessary and how the media we currently have is not only unable to counter the far right, but fuels it.
The last part of the session will then cover what we can do about it – discussing how we, as antifascists, can use the media to our advantage.
Antifascist movements definitionally exist in response to fascist and far right threats. When these threats arise, it has historically been decentralised, informal and horizontally organised groups that form the spearhead of the antifascist movement.
With each new iteration of the far right, the antifascist movement in the UK often struggles to ensure the continuity of knowledge and experience from one generation of activists to the next.
The beginning of this year saw the demise of Bristol Patriots after a year of far right demonstration, counter protests, and police violence.
We invite you to meet 2 antifascist activists from Bristol – one with 20 years experience and one more recently involved – to discuss their personal experiences of opposing far-right street movements.
We’ll look at how a network of local activists, mainstream unions and protest groups, independent researchers, and local journalists worked together to dismantle Bristol Patriots. Finally, we’ll ask what lessons can be learned from Bristol in the ongoing national response to the rise of both fascist street movements and far-right political parties.
Mainstream politics tries to distance itself from the far right. But the far-right and mainstream politicians often share more than either would like to admit.
In the UK and beyond, centre-right and centre-left governments are becoming more and more authoritarian, cracking down on protest, marginalising racialised communities, and militarising borders.
This session explores what the far right looks like today, and how far-right ideas have become commonplace in the mainstream.
