Lessons learned_Reviews_Reflections

A poster with details of an event at which Marisa Holmes spoke in 2024.

Lessons from Occupy Wall Street

Listen to an interview with Marisa Holmes about her experiences of the Occupy Wall Street moment in terms of what worked, and what didn’t, as well as lessons to be drawn for the future.

Movement Learning Catalyst: A Guide to Learning for Systemic Change

Guide for experienced activists and organisers in social movements who are keen to enhance their effectiveness in effecting systemic change.

Planning a Global Week of Action

Lessons learned from the Global Week of Action in 2024 calling on the insurance industry to end their role in driving the climate crisis.

Ingredients for Wins: Lessons from Successful Climate Justice Campaigns in North America

Using case studies and interviews with organizers and land defenders, this article explores factors that contributed to the success of 14 intersectional climate justice campaigns in North America.

Close up of orange dome tent pitched on bricks. There is cardboard sign on the outside of the tent that reads 'Real Global Democracy Now'. There are other tents in the background.

Lessons from the Tents: What Protest Camps Can Teach Our City

Remembering and lessons we can learn from the Occupy London / Occupy LSX 2011 protest camp by the author Anna Feigenbaum.

Organizing Occupy Wall Street: This is Just Practice

Read a reflection and lessons learned from Marisa Holme’s 2023 book, Organizing Occupy Wall Street: This is Just Practice.

Cover of Organising A Remedy for Despair which incldues a photo of casual workers at a protest holding Change The Rules posters

Organising! A Remedy for Despair: How Workers at the University of Melbourne won back $45 million in Stolen Wages

A case study on how casual workers at the University of Melbourne in Australia got organised and won back $45 million in Stolen Wages. Read about the campaign highlights and the lessons learned.

Overcoming Despair and Apathy to Win Democracy

Lessons on movement building from one of the founders of the Serbian student movement that brought down dictator Slobodan Milosevic.

A sign board on a street in Atlanta with people riding past on bicycles. On the board is a black and white photo of a woman called Ella Baker. On the board it reads '"Legendary leader Ella Baker moved to Atlanta in 1957 to help form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Bayard Rastin and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She departed from the organization in 1960 and devoted herself to the student-led organization, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photograph Division, NAACP Papers.)'.

Building Movement Capacity and Structure: Ella Baker and the Civil Rights Movement

Take inspiration from this Civil Rights Movement story about how to build movement capacity and structure. Learn about Ella Baker and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC.

Aerial view of protestors walking down street next to river with a boat. The protestors are holding a long, large Palestinian flag above their heads.

How to Map a Movement

Learn how to map a movement to help understand the landscape, the other players, what’s missing, what’s most needed, and where things like power imbalances and conflicts are causing problems.

Graphic with abstract shapes in squares. Logos for The Commons Social Change Library and Tectonica at the bottom.

Movements, Organising and Transformational Politics in the Digital Age

Explore a collection of resources on movements, organising and transformational politics in the digital age by Tectonica.

A group of diverse people communicating with different coloured and textured speech bubbles. This image is for a webinar titled 'Mediation for Movements: Managing Intra-Movement Conflict'.

Mediation for Movements: Managing Intra-Movement Conflict

Explore how movements can manage internal conflict when it inevitably arises as they seek to build broad-based pro-democracy coalitions of active, passive, and unlikely allies.

A table with four chairs set up for a board meeting. A screen at the front of the room has a photograph of street art reading 'Ceasefire Now'.

Board Members, We Need to Talk About Palestine

Many community organisations are facing criticism over Israel and Palestine. Governance expert Kate Larsen provides guidance.

A protest on the grass. There are blow up Kiwi birds scattered across the lawn and a large banner in the background with text "Kiwi Not Coal, Save Happy Valley, savehappyvalley.org.nz".

What to do when we ‘Lose’

Some important lessons on dealing with loss from a recent generation-defining struggle in New Zealand: the Save Happy Valley Campaign.

You’re not Failing, Social Change can Be Slow

You’re not failing social change can be slow. Here are resources to explore around time, slow change and the concept of failure.

How do we Encourage Activists to Celebrate Wins and come back from Losses?

How do we encourage activists to celebrate wins, and come back from losses using rest and reflection? Insights and learnings from Global Grassroots Support Network GGSN.

a group of protestors being arrested. One of them is holding a sign that says in capital letters 'WE ARE NOT THE CRIMINALS'. The NOT is underlined in red.

Climate Activists in Australia are Learning How to Protect their Protest Rights

Australian climate activists have successfully navigated years of increasing protest criminalization, revealing strategies for all to follow.

Commons Conversations: Insights into Environmental Justice Movements in India with Radhika Jhaveri

A Commons Conversations Podcast featuring an interview with Radhika Jhaveri, an environmental justice activist in India.

Black and white photo of a large group of women suffragists. There is a prominent woman with a hat and a sash sitting in front of a large banner. The banner reads 'National Union And Womens Suffrage Societies. President Mrs Fawcett, Law abiding Suffragist.' Text at the bottom of the photo reads 'Millicent Fawcett, Hyde Park, July 1913.' There are trees in the background.

Essential Elements for Turning a Cause into a Movement: Lessons from the Suffrage Struggle for Today’s Activists

3 essential elements activists today can learn from the women’s suffrage movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Text reads Commons Conversations Podcast: Our conversations explore insights into activism, learning in movements and radical history. There is an icon of a microphone and yellow wavy lines in the top and bottom of the image.

Campaigns to End Logging in Australia (Commons Conversations Podcasts)

Listen to two podcasts from the Commons Conversations about campaigns, coalition building and citizen science to end logging in Australia.

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