Effective activism today

What does activism look like when it does what activism is supposed to do - create tangible change?

Even the word ‘activism’ at times loses its meaning, diluted among social media profiles, even co-opted by commercial interests. Yet it has never been more vital, and it’s never been more important to make the work we do count.

Anthea Lawson, long-time activist and author of How Not To Save The World, and Nani Jansen Reventlow, human-rights lawyer and author of Radical Justice, sit down for a conversation advocate and campaigner Mustafa Ahmed and researcher Annie Gottfried Cohen with Sam Gonçalves about the very cogs and wheels of change-making - from talking to others one on one, to the megaphones, big campaigns and platforms.

Our speakers:

Annie (Annabel) Gottfried Cohen is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh researching the Communist International and the International Brigades. She is also a Yiddish teacher at the Workers Circle and the Paris Yiddish Center, and has a second research project looking at professional Jewish "cemetery women" whose job was to talk to the dead, which she writes about on her website www.pullingatthreads.com. She is an active member of the Green Party of England and Wales, the IWW, Jewish Anti-Zionist Action, the International Jewish Labour Bund and Jewdas.

Anthea Lawson (she/her) is an author and campaigner. Her books How Not To Save The World and The Entangled Activist help people who want to change the world think about the psychological, spiritual and philosophical foundations of what they’re doing, what’s getting in the way, and how they can be more effective. After training as a journalist at The Times, she worked for campaign groups including Global Witness and Amnesty International. She has fought for many issues over three decades including controls on the arms trade and an end to the financial secrecy offered by tax havens.

Mustafa Ahmed graduated as an agricultural engineer from Sudan University of Science and Technology. He worked in agriculture for seven years before shifting to education as a study advisor. Mustafa was an active member of Sudan's Resistance Committees within the 2018 December Revolution, and he was appointed as their spokesperson in 2021. Now based in Athens, Greece, he founded Mataris – Sudan Solidarity Committee, which promotes awareness of the Sudanese revolution, and is a co-founder of 50 Out Of Many, to support refugees imprisoned on smuggling charges. Mustafa advocates for migrant rights and consistently highlights the lasting impacts of (neo)colonialism.

Nani Jansen Reventlow is an international human rights lawyer. She is the founder of Systemic Justice, which advocates for marginalised communities through strategic litigation. Politico named her one of society’s great visionary tech leaders for her work on digital human rights. She has also been honoured with awards from Harvard, Oxford and Columbia Universities.

Our chair:

Sam Gonçalves is a Brazilian writer based in Glasgow. He is the author of 'How Does Change Happen?' a book profiling the work of activists and organisers.

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