On 31st May we hosted our Radical Sharing Forum in London.

This was the first in-person edition of the event since before the Covid19 pandemics, which made it all the more special and relevant as it gave us the opportunity to make closer connections with the aim of building a network of radical organisations fighting for systemic change.

In fact, the RSF stated taking shape a few months back as Edge invited their members (past grantees) to join a Working Group to design the day according to their interests and needs. We were thrilled having 12 radical organisers representing 5 in our working group:Somos Semillas (We are Seeds), No2Hassockfield, Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, World Stages Now and Dares Collective.

From March to April the Working Group had 6 preparation meetings to design the day and the workshops that attendees would be able to join. Discussions included the political topics we all wanted to address (as well as logistics and catering!) with the group finally choosing to focus on strategies to combat the far-right while also developing ways to look after each other as organisers in order to build up networks of support among campaings.

The day was attended by representatives of more than 20 organisations and gave everyone the opportunity to debate strategies to confront the increasing presence of the far-right in our communities, how to improve community-led strategies that tackle racism, Islamophobia, Afriphobia and multiple instances of colonial violence. We also had a space to talk about nurturing our networks as organisers, and a session to share skills that gave us the opportunity to learn from each other on strategies to better handle resolution of conflicts, internal and external communications and outreaching beyond our circles of organisers.  

We are committed to host more in-person and online discussions, and hope that those who were unable to join us this time can participate and contribute to coming events. 

We want to thank the MSN fund, whose grant allowed us to organise this event!