Funding round 13: May -June 2022
In this round, members decided it would be best to spread £40k to 40 groups in equal grants: £1k each. These are some of the 40 grassroots groups who were funded:
Abolition x Health, South East and North West of England
We are a majority Black and people of colour collective who are working towards abolition principles in public health practice. We came together through a set of connections between organisers from Race & Health, Medact, People’s Health Movement, Cradle Community and others. Our early efforts were focused on supporting and mobilising the health community during the #KillTheBill campaign, and has continued through the ongoing dominance of policing and securitisation of minoritised communities. We are an intersectional group that acknowledge the health impacts of multiple forms of discrimination such as transphobia, classism, ableism, and sexuality.
What we want to do:
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Hold space for health justice and abolition organisers to build relationships and alignment
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Identify ways to develop the relevant organising and communications infrastructure that supports and resources future solidarity actions
- Influence the public health community addressing policing and securitisation through abolitionist principles through actions and media work.
Acid Joy Collective, UK-wide
The Acid Joy Collective produces the #ACFM podcast hosted on Novara Media. Edge Fund cash will allow us to develop our consciousness raising workshops - started in 2017 - which we will offer groups around the UK in 2023. The aim of the workshops is to discover what desires and dreams people have for a post-capitalist future. One of the key "affects" or feelings or sensations our workshops produce, is a sense of joy and connection between participants. The workshops help people feel less atomised and alone, and build a vision for how their worlds can be beyond the anxiety ridden era we are living through today.
a:dress , Kent
is a campaign using textile art, poetry, film and conversations to raise awareness about fast fashion’s devastating contribution to climate crisis. The focus is on women and girls as we are disproportionately impacted by climate crisis globally and the main target, and makers, of fast fashion. A:dress is a collaboration between local textile artists, poets, climate activists, women’s activists, fashion designers, and women and girls who love to upcycle clothes. We embroider, burn, paint and print messages about women, fast fashion and climate crisis onto charity-sourced clothes, which we display through ‘Subversive Catwalks’, shop windows and film. a:dress also offers demonstrations of repair and upcycling skills. If there is space here is a link to our award-winning short film https://youtu.be/rHwtAJplV4M
EnT (ese ne Tekyerema) Foundation, Halifax
EnT a Black led organisation using diverse forms of creativity to promote social cohesion. By using our lived and living experiences,we are able to illuminate our realities to challenge perceptions. Today, we continue to tell our stories and use it as a tool for social change and social justice.
Freedom Arts, Nottingham
Just Education Matters, UK Wide
We support parents to support their children by providing training, advice, advocacy and support using a proactive approach to improve the educational outcomes for children.
Resources: http://www.justeducationmatters.org/resources.
Mxogyny, Glasgow and London
Mxogyny is a community-led online and print publication imagining new creative spaces for poets, writers, artists and everything in between.
Mxogyny was born in 2018 in response to a group of university students expressing the need for a platform that champions creatives who identify as marginalised. It began as a small, feminist blog that covered news topics and published works from poets, creative writers, artists and photographers in search of a space to present their work. Four years on, our website mxogyny.com has published 265 creative and discussion pieces, and we have produced two annual print editions from scratch, selling 216 copies, showcasing the original work of 36 artists and working with sustainable publishers and local, independent bookshops.
Mxogyny wants to be the go-to platform for inclusive and accessible opportunities in the arts. We aspire to remove barriers and open doors to creative careers by providing a creative platform and upskilling opportunities for anyone with an interest in the sector.
We are always open to pitches for our website and zine, and anyone interested in getting involved can email us at [email protected]. You can also support our mission by signing up to our Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/mxogyny ) or buying one of our print editionsor merch from our website'
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Re-peat, Ireland
Re-peat is a youth led collective co-creating a new peatland paradigm : one in which peatlands everywhere are protected repaired and appreciated, We work through collaboration, education, and a process of re-imagining. We believe that for this peatland paradigm shift to occur we must deal with the interlinked root causes of their degradation and unappreciation. This is why we continually connect our peatland work to broader topics such as land and economic justice, regenerative cultures and farming and the decolonisation of human and non-human nature.
Read our zine: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/77d0d9212e.html#page/2
Red Fightback, UK-Wide
Red Fightback is a revolutionary, anti-imperialist, abolitionist, communist organisation fighting for revolutionary change in Britain. Through organising and educating ourselves and our communities, we concretely oppose racial capitalism, imperialism and all forms of oppression. RFB organises in communities, both by building programmes to help each other survive as well as campaigns that take the fight to capital.
Red Flare, UK-Wide
Red Flare (RF) is an independent group of anti-fascist investigators using cutting-edge techniques to document, expose and oppose the far right in Britain. RF have been investigating the fascist party Patriotic Alternative (PA), an attempt to unite British fascists in a ‘new BNP’. RF have exposed the true identities of their regional organisers, the locations of secret conferences and have been gathering intelligence on their activities and members, which will be essential to anti-fascists for years to come
Twitter: @redflareinfo
Residents Research, London
We began researching info about one housing association but gradually expanded to cover all tenures of all landlords. We think that the more informed you are, the better you can organise any group or campaign. Knowledge of what your opponents are up to is a crucial weapon in any battle. By our email briefings we inform MPs/councillors/housing activist groups/residents/journos/media so they are better able to further social housing causes.
At the moment we are email briefing only and do not have a web or social media presence.
Get in touch if you want to receive briefings: [email protected]
The Resistance Project / Resistance Exhibition, UK Wide
is a collective dedicated to preserving, collating and distributing radical protest and campaign materials.We are creating a public DIY archive of UK movements for social change, telling the stories of vibrant activist culture from the last few decades.
The Resistance Exhibition showcases photographs, videos, flyers, posters, newsletters, artwork and disobedient objects from a wide range of grassroots movements. It is mobile and available for hire at large range of venues. Visitors are encouraged to scan and upload exhibits in the gallery, record their stories as podcasts, and learn how to archive resources to make them available to all.
Say No to Consett Incinerator, Consett
‘Say No to Consett Incinerator’ is a collective of local residents who are continuing to work together, on behalf of the local community, to do everything we can to STOP the plans to build an incinerator, at the heart of Consett, from going ahead.
In November 2020, during national lockdown, Project Genesis Ltd submitted an application to build an incinerator 300 metres from the nearest housing. These facilities are often greenwashed, claiming to generate power and heat to local housing but in reality these benefits are almost never realised but the emissions from these plants can have life-long detrimental impacts on health. Fortunately, our local community came together and worked tirelessly to raise awareness and generate objections.
Stop Designer Babies, UK-Wide
Stop Designer Babies is a network of concerned citizens and activists seeking to prevent the legalisation and normalisation of designer babies, created following the news of the birth of the first GM babies in China. We are a pro-choice organisation, and we seek an international ban on human germline genetic engineering and cloning. Members of the network are both new and veteran activists on this issue. We are scientists, feminists, anti-racists, environmentalists, disability rights activists and others who want to stop a new consumer eugenics.
We are campaigning against plans to legalise human genetic engineering in the UK in next year or two.
https://www.facebook.com/Stopdesignerbabies
Unis Resist Border Controls, UK Wide
Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC) is a migrant-led national campaign of migrant university workers and students seeking to end the hostile environment policy and border controls within UK higher education. Established in March 2016, URBC members engage in educational outreach and research on the hostile environment policy in UK higher education, casework support for migrant students and university workers impacted because of draconian border controls, and direct action and campaign to stop the detention and deportation of migrant staff and students. Learn more about our three campaigns:
#NoSanctuaryAtSOAS, #GlobalExploiters, and #LetRihamStay: https://linktr.ee/urbc/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnisResist.BorderControls/
Twitter: @UnisNotBorders
Unity Sisters, Glasgow
Unity Sisters is a self-organised support group for asylum-seeking women, refugees and their children. We are a group of women who have all experienced the process of going through the immigration system, and our main focus is to support women who’ve shared those same experiences. We are a non-hierarchical collective guided by its member’s views and have been meeting since 2014.
We currently support over 55 women and 155 children, and we meet in Langside Parish Church every fortnight to share information, skills and experiences.
This is our e- Educational resource on the Human Rights of Asylum Seekers and Refugees.
