The Practical Activist: How to build coalitions with people you hate.

Presented at Still Hacking Anyway (SHA2017), Aug. 5, 2017, 7:25 p.m. (120 minutes)

Not for the faint of heart! This workshop is training to work with very difficult people, especially those that hold extremely different political views than you. The Practical Activist is focused towards the pragmatic work of building coalitions with unlikely allies- for the purpose of larger goals and eventually possible outreach and recruitment. This workshop is focused towards some of the most difficult activism there is and is not for everyone. This is for Activists and Change Makers who are willing to go into the Lions’ den and then have tea with them. Through discussion, activities, and break-out groups, we will learn to recognize behavior patterns and alternative options of actions. Training will involve 1) Learning non-reactivity. 2) Reworking barriers to shift to connection. 3) Untriggering and engaging others. 4) Prioritizing issues with non-allies. 5) Gauging a)coalition possibilities, b) boundaries, and c)when to walk away. Success is more effective activism without burnout.

Presenters:

  • Nuala Gray
    Nuala is an Economist and Entrepreneur focusing on practical activism. Her background is in tech, activism (disability, feminism, GLBT, environment), and behavioral economics. She divides her time between her two countries of the United States and Ireland. Nuala Gray is an original Hacker and tech Nerd, who is now an Economist, Entrepreneur and as always, a not-so-secret Activist. She has worked as a consultant for many years in tech, economics, and activism. Nuala’s background in tech, business, economics, and behavioral science allows her to merge these fields for efficient and practical workshops. This past year Nuala has given workshops at Civic Hall (NYC), Platform Cooperativism (NYC), and Aspiration Dev Summit(Oakland). She did speaker consulting at Enspiral Open Society Open Source (Wellington, NZ) and DES2016(Madrid, Spain) as well as prepared study materials for MIT classes. She is a member of Ctrl-H (Portland, Oregon USA) and the Business Liaison for three Portland associations. She is the owner of sustainable green building business, Portland Oasis Currently (due to a changing political climate) she is sending out lots of live feeds of weekly protests, writing a book on Activist Burnout, and prepping for her next Behavioral Economics Study For fun, she likes to travel with her daughter, dance for the Revolution, and learn from others.

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