Gathering Resistance: building connections across movements in Edinburgh

Last Saturday, we joined people and organisations from across Edinburgh at Collective Space in Leith for Gathering Resistance, a day of conversation, connection and collective thinking between people working towards positive change across the city.

The gathering brought together people working across a wide range of interconnected areas, including the climate and nature crisis, community resilience, poverty and inequality, peace and conflict, human rights, transport, education and social justice.

It was a valuable opportunity to step outside our usual areas of work and spend time understanding what others are doing, where our challenges overlap and what we might be able to learn from one another.

The day was thoughtfully facilitated through a series of small-group conversations, with participants taking turns to facilitate, take notes and help keep discussions on track.

We started by getting to know the different groups and areas of work represented in the room. Each person was invited in turn to talk about an organisation or movement they were involved with, the issues it was responding to, the changes it hoped to achieve in the short and long term, and a particularly interesting question: what would the world look like if this work was no longer needed?

From there, conversations began to explore the bigger picture. Despite the breadth of work represented in the room, there was plenty of common ground: stronger and more resilient communities, greater equality, action on the climate and nature crisis, human rights, accessible and sustainable places, and people having a greater say in the decisions that affect them.

What makes us stronger?

Later conversations turned towards how groups working across different issues could become more connected, more unified and stronger together, while still recognising the different approaches, skills and experiences each brings.

People explored what strength can look like across a network: finding common ground, creating spaces to encounter one another, sharing knowledge and skills, building networks of care and making it easier for different groups to support and learn from one another.

There was also discussion about visibility. How can we better communicate the scale and breadth of work already happening across Edinburgh? How can groups support and amplify one another? And how can sharing successes, including the small ones, help build confidence and demonstrate what collective action can achieve?

By the final session, these conversations were beginning to turn into practical ideas. Suggestions included mapping organisations and allies across Edinburgh, skill-sharing, shared communications, collaborative events and activities, accessible spaces to meet, and creating better ways for people to find out what others are working on and where they can get involved.

For us at ECCAN, much of this resonated with the network-building we already do across Edinburgh, while offering plenty to learn from people working in other areas. It was a reminder that, while our day-to-day work might look very different, many of the challenges we are responding to are connected, and there is real value in creating opportunities to work across those boundaries.

The day didn’t end with a finished plan, but with ideas, new connections and an appetite to keep building on them.

There are plans for another Gathering Resistance in the future, and we’ll share more about opportunities to get involved as they develop.