ABOUT

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The Anti-Oppression Freeschool is a six month community education workshop series hosted by Food Not Bombs, in partnership with Aging Activisms and the Peterborough Independent Podcasters. Alongside these workshops, there will also be a Freeschool podcast series. Read more below, from the Freeschool organizers: 

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an·ti

/ˈan(t)ē,ˈanˌtī/

preposition: anti 

opposed to; against.��

 

op·pres·sion

/əˈpreSHən/

noun: oppression; plural noun: oppressions 

a pervasive system of supremacy and discrimination that perpetuates itself through differential treatment, ideological domination, and institutional control. Oppression depends on a socially constructed binary of a dominant group (though not necessarily more populous) as being normal, natural, superior, and required over the “other”. This binary benefits said group, who historically have greater access to power and the ability to influence the process of planetary change and evolution.

 

freeschool

/frē//sko͞ol/

noun: freeskool 

community-driven, nonhierarchical learning space open to everyone- free of any charge-intended for educational exchange, skill sharing, knowledge sharing, capacity building, strategizing, storytelling, collective unlearning of harmful ideologies and perspectives and collaborative exploration and study of intersectional, anti-oppressive, decolonizing and liberatory approaches and practices.

 

Once a month, beginning in November, we will gather and spend Friday nights together taking ‘anti-oppression’ workshops/playshops/healing experiences/ art projects as a large group and will gather again on Saturdays for a variety of ‘classes’ that explore specific manifestations of oppression, modalities of unlearning and undoing and strategies for building intersectional solidarity. The idea is to dedicate ourselves to the long term project of re-educating ourselves as individuals and as a community so that we have the knowledge and skill- as well as the relationships necessary to empower the dismantling of oppressive forces in all of their manifestations. What could happen if we humbled ourselves together to the understanding that we have a lot to learn. 

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What is the Anti-Oppression Freeschool?

The idea is to build movements that collaborates towards widespread grassrooteducation and capacity building. We want to draw out and bring to the table all of the teachers and teachings and skills that exist in Peterborough/Nogojiwanong and invite all community members to think about what they could offer as teachings. We want to inventory the resources, knowledge and skill that exist here and also asses and determine what skill sets, knowledge sets and resources we need that we might need to invite others from outside of our community in to share with us.

The hope is that over the next months, we can come together regularly to build strong and true relationships and commitments that are deeply rooted in anti-colonial, intersectional and anti-oppressive understandings and approaches. The dream is to bring together social, economic, environmental and cultural movements, to train and learn together, to identify the ways in which forms of oppression intersect and embolden each other, to solidify commitments of solidarity and to work collectively towards understanding and uprooting the interconnected ideologies and barriers that inhibit justice, equity, equality and dignity.

We want work together and get the skills and knowledge that we need to have- as individuals, families, workplaces, community organizations and society as a whole to acknowledge, understand, re-evaluate, unlearn, disrupt and transform cycles of oppression while developing meaningful strategies for engaging in recognition, reconciliation, reparation, restitution, relational repair and restoration of dignity, freedom and justice for all.

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SAVE THE DATES

November 8/9: Anti Oppression, Community building and Taking Collective Responsibility

December 6/7: Anti-Classism/Anti-Poor Bashing/Anti-Economic Violence

January 10/11: Anti-Colonialism/Anti white supremacism/Anti-Racism

February 7/8: Anti-Albeism/ Anti-Mental Health Stigmatization (Addiction/ Trauma)

March 13/14: Anti-gender based violence/ Anti- Sexism/ Anti-Cis-Hetero sexism/Transphobia 

April 10/11: Anti-Queerphobia/ Anti-Homophobia/ Anti-Transphobia