Organising Against Imperialism at Home - with Bristol Apartheid-Free Zone

In the past two years, across the world we have seen not only a huge outpouring of grief for the genocide in Gaza, but many acts of organised resistance against it. Marches, direct actions, nationwide strikes, and solidarity flotillas have shown that the vast majority of the planet is against genocide and western imperialism. But while heroic and inspiring, these efforts have so far failed to compel our governments to act. In fact, US & Zionist imperialism appears to be more emboldened than ever; after kidnapping the President of Venezuela, and then making claims over Greenland, they now have taken the horrific and devastating step of declaring all out war on Iran.

In this session, we are going to explore the different ways of organising against imperialism, and look at their strengths and weaknesses and examine why and where some have been successful, while others less so. We are going to look at the structures in place that prevent effective organising and talk about the different tactics that have been used over the years to overcome them.

It is becoming more and more clear that appeals to the morality and good will of politicians does not work. Meaningful change can only come from creating mass politics, engaging everyone in the struggle against imperialism and forcing our governments to act.

Join the session and help us organise to do it.

What to expect
A short talk, followed by a discussion with inputs welcome from all attendees.
Most of our events have somewhere between 10-30 attendees.
We aim for every event to be accessible to everyone, regardless of any prior knowledge!

About BAFZ

Join Bristol Apartheid-Free Zone and Bristol Transformed for an education series exploring anti-imperialist practice in the West; in particular, how we can effectively take action for Palestine in Britain today.

Over the last two years, through a community boycott campaign, BAFZ have been organising our city to stand in opposition to the genocide. They’ve done this through grassroots, door-to-door organising; with hundreds of active volunteers and 6000 local supporters, our city is now home to Europe’s largest grassroots boycott campaign.

This series explores some of the theories that underpin BAFZ’s work. We’ll explore the forces that give rise to ‘Israel’s’ apartheid and genocide in order to consider what effective Palestine solidarity work looks like in Western countries like Britain today.

This multi-session series grapples with some of the following questions:
How do theories of capitalism, imperialism and Zionism help us to engage in effective practices of solidarity? Why does organising Palestine solidarity on a class basis matter? How does BAFZ’s doorknocking and community boycott strategy fit with these theories?