As part of the Climate Arts Week, Climate Action Leeds will be hosting our Arts and Climate Assembly on 31st Oct 12 -4 pm.

Details are as follows: 

•  It will be a day of workshops and family-friendly activities based around various areas of climate, nature and social justice.
• All workshops are free to attend.
• Get your free tickets here
• Our space is children and young people friendly.
• Refreshments provided all throughout the afternoon, which includes a light lunch! – so why not bring a friend or two along!

The exciting programme for the day includes:

• Banner painting (12pm onwards)
• Eco glitter stencils (12-1pm)
• Transport and poetry (12-1pm)
• Community composting (12-1pm)
• Nature workshop (1:30-2:30pm)
• Christmas craftivism (1:30-2:30pm)
• Climate justice (1:30-2:30pm)
• Education workshop (3-4pm)
• Doughnut economics (3-4pm)
• Imagining a new economy (3-4pm)

We look forward to welcoming you on the day!

We are also inviting you to this exciting exhibition in partnership with Yorkshire Life Aquatic  – Friday 27th Oct to Friday 3rd Nov.  Come and explore the ‘Human Aquarium’ exhibition that is taking over Imagine Leeds for the week.  Most notably, We think you might want to come to the launch event for the exhibition  Thursday 26th, 5-8pm. It will be an opportunity to get a first look and network.

On the 9th of March at Notre Dame College in Leeds, we held a community festival of resistance that brought together 350 people & change-makers from around Leeds & Yorkshire.

Some of the highlights included:
* Closing plenary with Guardian journalist Maya Goodfellow, and LGBTQI+ rights campaigner Nim Ralph, Black Lives Matter activist Josh Virasami & anti-poverty campaigner Julie Longden.

* Thought-provoking panel discussions on Leeds Radical History, Decolonize Now, Creative Resistance, and International Women’s Day.

* 21 creative & hands-on workshops

* Over 30 stalls in the Leeds for Change Marketplace

* Three Acres & a Cow – International Womens Day Special: a sing-along musical history of land rights and protest

* Footprint Workers Co-op Zine Fair

* Art exhibition of dissident local artists

* Wonderdome Kids Creche (age +4) run by Playful Leeds

* Evening Bistro with performances hosted by The Sunday Practice, 3 course meal cooked by Rainbow Junk-tion Community Cafe.

The event was supported by our generous funders Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Trust, The Lipman-Miliband Trust, The Economic Justice Project, Leeds Social and Environmental Justice Action Network (SEnJA Net), Cornerstone Housing Co-operative, and Gifting Leeds.

Although our lives and struggles are different for each of us when we work together we can build strength and solidarity! Divisions have emerged, and have been exploited over the last few years: between generations, “strivers” and “skivers”, those were born in the UK against those who have migrated here for many reasons, and those who voted Leave or Remain.

Years of austerity have meant more people competing for resources, while the government and media continue to find ways to blame marginalised people for problems in our society. As these divisions grow and become cemented we are less likely to work together, even though we have ‘more in common’ than many of us think. This division will make it harder to defend what’s left.

This gathering called on people in the city to re-connect and build a collective response to the injustices around us. Through a day of free workshops, conversations and connecting with others we came together and built a better understanding of key issues of 2017 including : the impact of cuts and austerity, racism in Leeds, rubbish jobs, the gig economy, and refugee rights.

In light of profound political change and uncertainty, and a sudden call for a General Election, Leeds Beckett Students’ Union in partnership with Leeds Tidal, Leeds for Change, Summat, and War on Want organised a big gathering for people to explore ideas, politics, and action for a progressive, sustainable, social future.

Our opening panel of activists from across the UK to discuss the big strategies we need to shift popular opinion towards progressive alternatives and away from ‘Trumpism’, hate and fear. Our exciting guest speakers were Ed Lewis (Global Justice Now, National Organiser), Nadia Idle (War on Want, Activism and Outreach Officer), Tatiana Garavito (Hope Not Hate, National Organiser for Communities of Colour).

Check out the event programme here.

In April we held a Summat gathering, partnered with War on Want and the Economic Justice Project. Loads of energy went into organising 25 fantastic workshops, creative sessions, singing, kids space and volunteers at this inspiring gathering.

Following the gathering were two workshops on creative activism, called Beautiful Trouble.

‘Benefit scroungers’. ‘Environmental extremists’. ‘Migration crisis’. There is a story being told that the people are to blame for austerity, climate change and economic crisis.

We know another story. We know a story where the rich and powerful stole from the poor. Where the people that caused the collapse of the banks are the ones profiting from austerity.

But we can build a different story.

We are building a story of sharing economies, pay-as-you-feel cafes, cooperatives, solidarity and resistance. Stories where migrants are welcomed with open arms and deportations are fought tooth and nail.

This gathering we came together to build a story with social justice at its heart, to shake up the stories were told and build new ones for a more just and sustainable world.

In 2014 we hosted Summat New, another Summat gathering where we launched the Leeds for Change website. Over 300 people came through the doors, for 26 workshops, a marketplace, performances and our exciting panels of guest speakers.

Speakers included: Paul Mason – Channel 4 Economics Editor, prolific author and digital media guru; Pragna Patel – Founder of Southall Black Sisters, activist and listed in the Guardian’s 100 Top Women; Clara Osagiede – RMT representative, powerful living wage campaigner for London Underground cleaners; Eleanor Lisney – Sisters of Frida, a Disabled Women’s Cooperative, Tina Louise Rothery – community activist on extreme energy and Representatives from Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty – campaign group fighting austerity measures.

Check out the event programme here.

The day brought together activists in Leeds to examine two questions:

1. How can we thrive in a time of crisis?
2. Where are the opportunities for resistance?

The plenary set the scene for the day exploring how the crisis has happened, how this is affecting us in Leeds and around the world and how we can turn it into an opportunity for global justice. To round of the plenary, we heard from Lucy Garbett about how Palestine is forming resistance in a time of crisis.

We then had a fun packed day with loads of workshops, scarf making and seed sowing. The day catalysed lots of other projects from an action at the G8 summat, to more conversations about thinking and feeling race.

What is a Summat? Politicians are always heading off to summits about important issues. The creation of the Leeds Summat in 2009 gave normal people the chance to discuss these issues too, but in a much more fun, more Yorkshire way! It’s neither a conference, nor a festival, nor a meeting. It’s a Summat!

The Leeds Summat Gathering was held on Saturday 26th November 2011 from 9am to 9pm. An amazing 1,300 people attended. The Summat was hosted by a partnership of local organisations, including Tidal. Tidal ran an all day activity – ‘Mappiness: the online playpen for Leeds global activism mapping’.