- Palestine: Timely new book shares insights from creative activists from both Palestine and Israel on their tactics and social impact.
- Greta: In the week that Greta Thunberg goes on trial at Westminster Crown Court, Making a Movement shares exclusives insights on the evolution of Fridays For Future. Book features interviews and reportage with student strikers who have “graduated” into direct action campaigners also suing the Swedish state.
- Just Stop Oil: Leader reveals how he expects the climate activists will be remembered in years to come, with over 100 slow marchers arrested in the capital last week.
Over 50 disruptors from around the world are interviewed in a “fascinating” new book exploring the impact social movements are making and making the case to defend their tactics as they come increasingly under threat in the UK.
In Making a Movement: The Disruptors Driving Social Change Around The World, International journalist Barney Cullum meets leaders from a range of movements, from Black Lives Matter to Belarus Free Theatre, to discuss the social changes their campaigning and creativity have achieved to date.
Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil founder Roger Hallam describes how “micro-design” of protester recruitment may lead to the groups being remembered as the “precursors to revolutionary activity” within twenty years.
Members of both climate groups, also interviewed in the book, document growing disinvestment in fossil fuels among high street banks, raised public concern in IPSOS Issues Index Polling, and shifting policies among opposition parties as successes scored since the movements began.
Elsewhere in the book, an activist family from Palestine share how a 'Wall Museum' narrating injustices has influenced international visitors to the Occupied Territories and delivered “distraction” and “resilience” amid ongoing suffering.
The evolving tactics harnessed by graduates of the Fridays For Future movement are also explored in fresh reporting from Sweden.
Reflecting on what Cullum describes as the “disruptors' decade”, the book also explores:
- What made Ireland U-turn on abortion?
- How did Taiwan’s students resist when Hong Kong’s could not?
- What persuaded Britain to reform its drug laws?
- How did peace finally break out in Colombia?
Book author Barney Cullum, a journalist who has reported from twenty countries around the world, said: “The right to protest is becoming increasingly politicised in the UK and other countries that have previously championed freedom of expression and active citizenship. This book underlines why sharing, defending and celebrating the lessons and achievements of creative social movements around the world has never been more important.”
Book reviews and interviews with the author are arrangeable upon request.
Gaby Monteiro: gaby@canburypress.com
Marketing And Editorial Executive at Acropolis Publishing
Endorsements of Making A Movement: The Disruptors Driving Social Change Around The World
“Making a Movement is a call to action but also a great insight into some of the leading international campaigns over the last ten years, which gives a sense of hope and aspiration for the next generation of campaigners and activists.”
Patrick Vernon OBE, Windrush Campaigner
“Jam-packed with stories of collective action, Barney Cullum deftly brings to life the lives and passions of people who have been driven to action for a better world. Whatever your perspective on their campaigns, we all have things to learn from their imagination and skill in drawing people together to bring change.”
Abigail Thomas, Hopeful Activists Podcast Host
"Making a Movement delivers a wrecking ball to the unsustainable populism of the right."
Simon Speakman Cordall, Al Jazeera Journalist
"If you read Barney Cullum's book, you will come away with comprehensive knowledge of the severe problems impacting people every day all over the world, but you will also feel utterly inspired to take action yourself. Powerful stories reframe the brave people and organisations who are truly taking risks to bring about positive change, all achieved in an accessible, fascinating way."
Lucy Skoulding, Human Rights Campaigner and Independent Journalist
"Cullum skilfully weaves together and situates social movements, campaigns and their tactics around the world. Interviews with key and ordinary people are interlaced with stories of how he obtained access. Filled with illuminating behind the scenes accounts on current situations, poignant viewpoints include those of pacifist Russians and Belarusians on the war in the Ukraine. Closer to home in the UK, Cullum captures the senselessness of people locked up in psychiatric hospitals for years with no end in sight."
Valerie de Schaller, Amnesty International Grassroots Activist
“Through interviews with activists and campaigners across the global spectrum, these chapters offer a crucial insight into environmental, political and human rights movements. From strike action, to street art, to direct action, this book is an argument for why a whole range of tactics are so critical to achieving real change. A captivating and meaningful read.”
Ella Abraham, Praxis, For Migrants and Refugees Campaigner