Introducing the cooperation sheffield autonomous education project

Revolutionary organisers from the Black Panthers to the Zapatistas have long recognised collective self-education as a vital tool in their struggles for liberation. Without a space for collective learning, we deny ourselves the strengths of each other’s knowledge; without a shared understanding of our oppressive situation, there can be no struggle.

For this reason, we are introducing the Autonomous Education Project, a bi-weekly session aimed at collective learning, mutual upskilling, idea generation, and relationship building for organisers in Sheffield (and anyone else who’s interested!). This is emphatically not another passive reading group which merely appeases our hunger for anti-capitalist camaraderie; here we will actively link self-education with revolutionary struggle.

Each session will be planned and run by a Chair, and structured however they find most helpful or exciting. This could mean a chain reading or presentation followed by a discussion, or it could mean more of a workshop style session. If you’d like to run a session please attend at least one, then fill out this form and we’ll send you a message :)

Each session will also have a designated Archivist who will take notes summarising the session and upload them into the publicly accessible Archives. The aim is to build a radical resource library for attendees to refer back to, or for anyone to use for further self-education, creative projects, or anything else.

We’ll be meeting on the second floor at Union Street co-working space (wheelchair accessible) every second Wednesday from 6-8pm, starting from September 17th. From 6-6:30 will always be reserved for sharing a (vegan & nut free) meal, informal conversation and relationship building. Get in contact about any other dietary requirements by email or on Instagram.

The first session on Wednesday 17th September will be on ‘Seeing Contradictions: Building Shared Language for Struggle’

In this session we’ll introduce two core concepts: struggle and contradictions. These ideas can help us connect lived experience with revolutionary strategy. Together we’ll explore how hidden tensions shape the issues we face, and practice naming contradictions as a way of guiding collective action and change.

See you there!