This event will be taking place on January 19 at the Malcolm X Centre in Bristol. Interested groups can sign up via Eventbrite.

This meeting called by Extinction Rebellion (XR) Bristol is part of a strategy to broaden their reach in light of criticisms that have been made of XR in the past. It’s an interesting development in that it admits to past mistakes and is an honest attempt to redress them. It certainly makes a refreshing change from groups not even acknowledging their mistakes, let alone learning from them, and instead just doubling down. Whether or not we can make it in to Bristol for this evening meeting is a moot question – shite public transport and all that. However, we will be keeping a keen eye on this one…

Climate and social justice groups to gather at “Stronger as One” meeting

An event this month aims to unite over 200 of Bristol’s climate and social justice campaign groups to work together to solve common problems.

Stronger as One has been organised by Extinction Rebellion (XR) Bristol, although a spokesperson for the group, Nigel Shipley, stressed that this is not an XR event.

‘We happen to be inviting people,’ said Nigel, but, ‘we don’t want to be the ones who lead it at all.’

XR Bristol have hired an independent facilitator, Manu Maunganidze, to lead the event which is intended to start a conversation between our city’s climate and social justice groups exploring common ground, shared values and ways of uniting against the most pressing issues of the moment.

The economic crisis is happening alongside social crises like the collapse of the NHS, and alongside the climate and ecological crisis, said Nigel.

‘But the solutions are often very much the same,’ he added, and many campaign groups are ‘looking at the same picture perhaps from different angles.’

XR Bristol have identified 210 different groups in the city campaigning on issues of climate and social justice. Invitations to the meeting have been sent out to each of the groups.

You can read the rest of this post on The Bristol Activist.