In this discussion, we will explore lessons learned from Spade’s experience in social movement organising over the past two decades in the USA, and how they can be useful to worker organising here in Berlin. Drawing on his insights from movements that aim to fight back against cops, immigration enforcement, welfare authorities, landlords, budget cuts, polluters, the defense industry, prison profiteers, and right-wing groups, we explore how to mobilise large masses of people needed to tackle the underlying causes of these crises, in the labour movement and beyond.
Dean Spade is an organiser, writer and teacher. He has written three books: “Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law” (2015), “Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the next)” (2020), and “Love in a Fucked Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell, Together” (2025), which is also now a podcast. Spade is a professor at the Seattle University School of Law.
What: Discussion with Dean Spade – Lessons from social movement-building in the USA, for grassroots labour organising
When: 25.07.25, 19:00
Where: FAU-Lokal, Grüntaler Str. 24
Language: English