Lessons learned_Reviews_Reflections

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 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.

Women and Leadership in the Environmental Movement (Commons Conversations Podcast)

Listen to an inspiring podcast about women & leadership in the Australian environment movement with Judy Lambert & Victoria McKenzie-McHarg.

How to Mobilise in a Closed Country when you’re Working Remotely

This 350.org presentation shares reflections and lessons learned from organising and mobilising in China remotely from Taiwan.

A wall in Bethlehem, Palestine with a painting of a woman wearing a black head covering. On her shoulder is a butterfly, a red flower and a heart. The text in the right hand corner reads 'A just peace for Palestine, means peace for Israel too.'

3 Key Insights for Building a Powerful and Loving Movement against Oppression in Palestine-Israel

Rae Abileah and Nadine Bloch from Beautiful Trouble shared these key insights during Israel’s bombing of Gaza in October 2023.

Movement Lesson: How Do We Build Movements that Welcome People?

Learn from research and Joe Solomon’s personal experience with his brother’s transformation on how to bring people into your movement.

How to Win by Thinking like Your Opponent: Lessons from 350 Australia’s Campaign Against the Galilee Basin

This story illustrates 350.org Australia’s strategic decision-making process as they took on the largest coal export facility project in the world.

How Healthy Campaigns Respond in the Face of Bad News

Examples – from 350.org and beyond – about ways people handled campaign losses in healthy, soul-giving, and strategic ways.

global support grassroots network GGSN members on a video group call. Their faces are covered with smiley faces and smiley flowers to anonymize them for digital security reasons.

Supporting Grassroots Justice-oriented Activists Around the World: A Year’s Worth of Learnings

Grassroots activism often lacks funding & support but the Global Grassroots Support Network (GGSN) has brought together organizers to tackle common challenges and share resources.

Text over image reads Organising a civil disobedience so that new people want to do it again: Lessons from Ende Gelande. Four people are sitting on the ground in white workers suits.

Organising Civil Disobedience for Newcomers

350.org shares valuable lessons on organizing civil disobedience for newcomers, emphasizing trust-building, narrative development, preparation for repression, affinity groups, and post-action debriefing.

Slide presentation - Title reads How France Fought to Keep it in the Ground. Protestors are holding a large red banner that reads Keep it in the ground.

How France Fought to Keep it in the Ground: Lessons from 350 Campaigns

Rukiya, a 350.org organiser in Kenya, shares stories of how they recruited people for the African DeCOALinise Campaign.

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