Co-founder of the Movement for a New Society - which for nearly 20 years pioneered forms of consensus decision-making, direct action and communal living that are now central to today’s activist groups - George Lakey has led over 1500 workshops on five continents, training coal miners, homeless people, prisoners, Burmese guerillas, steel workers and others.
This Summer, George is touring the UK on a rare visit organised by Peace News.
Events are free and open to all unless indicated otherwise.
Confirmed dates so far include:
London, 16 July: "After the Arab Spring: Making Nonviolent Revolution". 7pm, Friends House, Euston Rd (Peace News and Turning the Tide event)
Brighton, 17 July: "Pacifism as Pathology? A Response to Ward Churchill". 7pm, Cowley Club, London Road. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS MEETING WILL BE STARTING AT 7PM NOT 7.30PM AS PREVIOUSLY ADVERTISED.
Edinburgh, 18 July: "After the Arab Spring: Making Nonviolent Revolution". 3-5pm, Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre, Princes Street, EH2 4BJ. Contact 0131 229 0993.
Edinburgh, 18 July: "Toward a Living Revolution" & "Facilitating Group Learning". 6.30pm, Word Power bookshop, 43-45 W Nicholson St. 0131 662 9112.
Lanarkshire, 19 July: Coal Action Scotland community meeting – www.takebacktheland.org.uk
Glasgow, 19 July: "The Arab Spring, Europe and Occupy – how can we make nonviolent revolution here?". 7.30pm, Friends Meeting House, 38 Elmbank Crescent G2 4PS (PN & Glasgow Quakers)
Liverpool, 20 July: "Toward a Living Revolution" & "Facilitating Group Learning". 1pm, News from Nowhere bookshop, 96 Bold Street. 0151 708 7270.
Manchester, 20 - 22 July: "Dealing with Power" (advanced training for trainers). Application necessary. Deadline 30 April 2012. See here for more info and application form.
Huddersfield, 25 July: "Nonviolent Revolution in Yorkshire". 12.30pm [Please note change in time for this event!]. Huddersfield Methodist Mission. Info: 07792 309897 www.huddersfieldquakers.org.uk
Leeds, 25 July: 6.30pm. Leeds Met University, Room 546, Rosebowl. Info: 07703 120806 rachel@peacehouse.org.uk
Near Shrewsbury, 26 - 30 July: Peace News Summer Camp. George will be attending the whole of PN Summer Camp, and co-leading a day-long whole-camp session "Making Nonviolent Revolution" on Sat 28 July.
To be kept informed about the George Lakey tour, please email admin@peacenews.info
More about George Lakey
George Lakey was first arrested for a civil rights sit-in in the 1960s; he was most recently arrested on a climate change action in 2010. Over the last 50 years, he has worked with trade unions and poor people’s groups as well as peace activists and environmentalists. A gay, working-class white North American, George has led 1,500 social change workshops on five continents. He was an unarmed bodyguard for human rights activists threatened with assassination in Sri Lanka, and was smuggled across the border to work with pro-democracy insurgents in the Burmese jungle. In 1971, George was a co-founder of the US ‘Movement for a New Society’, which over 18 years, developed many of the facilitation and consensus decision-making tools that have become standard in Western activist circles.
George has written seven books, which have been translated into at least six languages. Among other works, he co-authored A Manual for Direct Action, which was widely used in the South in the 1960s. Most recently, George wrote Facilitating Group Learning: Strategies for Success with Diverse Adult Learners (Wiley, 2010). Peace News, the organisers of the training weekend, are this year re-publishing (with a new foreword) a 1987 book: Toward a Living Revolution.
Leading US activist and trainer Starhawk says of Facilitating Group Learning: ‘I’ve been working with forms of direct education for many decades, and I found new ideas and inspirations in every chapter. For anyone involved in teaching, training, sharing skills, or leading groups, this book is an invaluable resource!’
Denis Lemelin, national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers: ‘George Lakey has inspired our union to engage in education in a way that challenges us to redefine social justice and equality in new and exciting ways. This book [Facilitating Group Learning] helps us to continue our journey to touch the souls of union members.’
Biography: http://www.trainingforchange.org/george_lakey
Peace News interviews with George Lakey, 2012:
Part 1: George Lakey: nonviolent warrior
Part 2: Building Revolutionary Bases
Part 3: Activism and the limits of consensus
Recent blogging: http://wagingnonviolence.org/author/georgelakey/
On training in Cambodia in the 1990s: