Festival of the Oppressed Programme 2026
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Full info and tickets here.
SATURDAY
10:00 – 11:15
| Session | Speakers | Room & Format |
| What would it actually take? Revolutionary Strategy for Our Times Opening Plenary | Barnaby Raine – historian and activist Lily S – rs21 Gargi Bhattacharya – author and teacher Harry Holmes – rs21 and Prometheus | Amílcar Cabral Theatre Panel discussion |
11:30 – 13:00
| Session | Speakers | Room & Format |
| Imperialism and its breakdown: Building an anti-imperialist movement that means it | Kimia Talebi – Energy Embargo for Palestine Marral Shamshiri – rs21 and author of She Who Struggles Mau Baiocco – writer and activist rs21 Leeds Chair: Hamza Rehman – rs21 | Amílcar Cabral Theatre Panel & collective discussion |
| ‘Not Enough People Are Talking About…’ Can the Left Win the Attention war? Online platforms controlled by capitalists have still allowed the creation of genuinely popular left-wing subcultures that blend into offline life, shaping how we talk and relate as comrades. What are the potentials of digital media for the left? | Adam C. Jones – philosopher and activist, Acid Horizon and rs21 Clara Hill – comms worker and rs21 Anindya Bhattacharyya – Blogger @Bat020, rs21 | Maha Abu Khalil Hall Panel & collective discussion |
| Our Bodies are worth more than our pay packets How does capitalism structure and define experiences of health, illness and disability? This session will look at how the right politicises health, possibilities for ‘health communism’, and experiences of care and the benefits system in Britain today. | Robert Chapman – author of Empire of Normality Eve H – rs21 DK Renton – author of The New Authoritarians Chair: Hazel Croft – rs21 | Neil Davidson Theatre Panel & collective discussion |
| From Troublemaking to Rebellion: How to speak about politics at work Many of us feel we can’t speak about politics at work without risking our jobs or sanity. This workshop from Troublemakers At Work will equip you with the confidence to break the silence and turn workplace chat into collective action. | Workshop with Troublemakers At Work | Colin Barker Room Interactive workshop |
14:00 – 15:30
| Session | Speakers | Room |
| When Workers Stop the World: The General Strike past & present From the 1926 British general strike to recent mass strike action in Italy and Minneapolis, this panel explores the explosive power and strategic lessons of the general strike past and present. | Callum Cant – Notes from Below Beatrice Adler-Bolton – writer and Death Panel podcast host Chair: Sam Kelly – rs21 and Red Medicine | Amílcar Cabral Theatre Roundtable & collective discussion |
| Against the University What is the the relationship between militarisation and universities? This session will radically re-imagine the role of universities and work towards solidarities between staff and students. | Led by rs21 student and higher education fractions | Maha Abu Khalil hall Panel & collective discussion |
| Eco-Socialism Against Fossil Empire: a new stage of climate struggle? How do we build long term power while addressing short term crisis in Britain and internationally? Explore how climate transition/breakdown is impacting the cost of living crisis, how imperialism is playing a central role in reproducing fossil capital, and the necessity of a politics aimed at destroying the US empire and fossil capital. | Chris Saltmarsh – researcher and author of Burnt: Fighting for Climate Justice Georgia M – Energy Embargo for Palestine and rs21 Gareth Fearn – Ecosocialist Horizon | Colin Barker Room Interactive Workshop |
| Noise Uprising: The Role of Music in Revolutionary Politics Neoliberalism has transformed social life, pushing us towards individualist modes of relating to each other, commercialising our social spaces and eroding creativity. What role can music play in undoing this? | Sam O – rs21 Malcolm James – Post-colonial academic and author Maxine – Critical Youth Soundsystem Millie K – rs21 | Neil Davidson Theatre Panel & collective discussion |
16:00 – 17:00
| Session | Speakers | Room |
| The Cost of War – Presenting the Socialist Alternative Our Saturday closing session will discuss how we reignite popular power, align our movements, and imagine an alternative, collective future for socialism. | Paul Murphy – People Before Profit TD Tomi A – rs21 Ira Hybris – Anticapitalistas militant Jonny Jones – rs21 | Amílcar Cabral Theatre Panel discussion |
17:30
| TAKE TO THE STREETS – A RADICAL LONDON WALK London streets are full of life and history. We will discover good quality housing that was built to replace slums, wander through back streets that were once centres of industrial production and finish by the river where new luxury developments of glass and steel dominate both the skyline and social life. In the process we will move through the history of the London working class to confront the alien power of capital. Along the way we’ll discover some personal histories of Percy Shelley and Mary Godwin, the house where Mary Wollstonecraft wrote ‘The Vindication of the Rights of Women’, histories of anti-war protests with connections to Rosa Luxemburg and how the General Strike played out in south London. The walk will be around 60 minutes and fully accessible. It will end near Blackfriars where there is a direct tube line to Whitechapel 5 minutes from the FOTO social at Pelican House. The Walk will be led by Danny Bee who regularly leads radical walks. |
18:30 – 00:00
| AFTERPARTY Good food / Dancing / Live performance -> DJs Pelican House E1 5QJ Free for festival ticket holders! £5 entry on the door for everyone else. More info here. |
SUNDAY
11:00 – 12:15
| Session | Speakers | Room |
| Is it Fascism Yet? This discussion will address questions regarding the global far-right, developments in state repression, and how these inform organising under the threat of a Reform-led government. | Richard Seymour – author of Disaster Nationalism Adam Elliott Cooper – author of Black Resistance to British Policing Rachel Eborall – rs21 Timor Landherr – researcher and organiser rs21 Abeera Khan – writer and researcher | Amílcar Cabral Theatre Panel discussion |
12:30 – 14:00
| Session | Speakers | Room |
| Race and class – overcoming their contradictions in Britain This discussion will unpack the specific dynamics of racialisation today, explore how developments in global imperialism and the state inform dynamics of race and racism in Britain and internationally; and what our obstacles are to building an antiracist mass movement. | Abena B – rs21 Sara Bafo – organiser and community educator Hamza Rehman – rs21 Chair: Shirley M – rs21 | Amílcar Cabral Theatre Panel & collective discussion |
| Ballot Box or Barricade? This panel will discuss the role of electoral work in revolutionary strategy. It will focus on experiences and lessons drawn from international and domestic contexts. | Shanice McBean – author of Abolition Revolution and Life of the Party podcast Taisie Tsikas – rs21 and Haringey Socialist Alliance Gwen Jones – rs21 and Hackney Votes Palestine | Maha Abu Khalil hall Interactive workshop |
| Anti-self-help line Being on the left is hard. That’s why we need spaces where we can reflect, vent, and talk without surrendering to anti-political individualism or useless self-help speak. Come and talk through the emotional dimensions of political struggle. More info here! | Led by Red Medicine and Prometheus | Colin Barker Room Collective discussion |
15:00 – 16:30
| Session | Speakers | Room |
| Private property, public patriarchy: Socialist Feminism Against the Right This panel will explore the terrain of struggles that relate to sexuality and gender. It will build on earlier discussions about fascism and offer a counter-politics of feminist solidarity and explore questions relating to misogyny and transphobia. | Joy James – philosopher and author of New Bones Abolition Ira Hybris – transfeminist thinker and militant Sarah Lamble – co-founder of the Bent Bars Project and queer theorist Lola Olufemi – writer and researcher Sylvia – rs21 | Amílcar Cabral Theatre Panel & collective discussion |
| Live Art: Poetry/Drama/Performance A session that will bring together performance/live artists who engage actively with political and social movements, presenting their work with a discussion about how art and revolutionary politics find common ground today. | Nathaniel McBride -documentary drama writer, ‘Block The Block’ The Fair Organ Simran Singh – spoken word | Maha Abu Khalil hall Live performance |
| Fighting Back and Winning: Antifascism That Works | Workshop led by rs21 Greater Manchester branch | Colin Barker Room Interactive workshop |
17:00 – 18:00
| Session | Speakers | Room |
| Revolutionary Visions of a Life Worth Living To close the weekend, this panel will explore what visions of liberation and a ‘good life’ the left can offer today. | Jonas Marvin – Life of the Party podcast and author of The Breaking of the English Working Class Jaice Titus – researcher and activist Josh Virasami – anti-racist organiser and author of How to Change It Alex Stoffel – Editor at Historical Materialism and author of Eros and Empire | Amílcar Cabral Theatre Panel discussion |
EXHIBITION
| Excerpts from ‘The Queer Bloc’ This display contains work from an earlier exhibition, which showcased the documentation and design of the queer solidarity movement with the liberation of Palestine, and broader queer movements. Photographer Tarunisms and artist A Healthy Level of Dissent met while organising together within the queer solidarity movement. Artistically, they have been working together to understand the role of the artist and propagandist as foundational to the structures of liberation movements, and how optics and visuals are a powerful tool for collective resilience and mass movement building. |
PLACES TO EAT NEARBY
- Art cafe London
Cafe (paninis burgers pasta quiche etc) - Black Cowboy Coffee
Breakfasts, bagels, soup etc
The castle fish bar and grill
Fish and chips, kebab - Lebanese Grill
lebanese, kebab - South Bank university cafe
Cafe in university - Mercato Metropolitano
Food market with stalls, loads of diff cuisines, more expensive - The Nest London
Cafe with simple food - T&N Coffee
Foodtruck, philippino food, chicken adobo burgers etc, very reasonably priced - Shaheen Tandoori restaurant
Pakistani food - Fusion grill Waterloo
Kebab