UK and Ireland Regional Office

Founded in 2020, the London office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation was set up to broaden and deepen the foundation’s work in Western Europe and English-speaking countries. Alongside this, and in the context of the UK’s departure from the EU, our team pays particular attention to ensuring that cooperation and exchange between the British Left and its German, European, and global counterparts do not diminish in the post-Brexit era, but rather expand.

A key motivation for establishing the office was our desire to have deeper and closer connections to Ireland, and we are currently establishing a strong programme of work across the island of Ireland with the Irish Left. This work is, of course, only becoming more crucial as the impacts of Brexit on the island of Ireland become clearer and starker.

Activities

The work of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s London Office work centres around three focal points, with a fourth in development:

• Building Economic Democracy in a Post-Industrial Age
  The United Kingdom is perhaps the country in Europe in which the consequences of neoliberalism, deregulation, privatisation and financialization are most profound. With precarious working and living conditions becoming normalized since the abolition of collective agreements and tenant protections, entire regions being left behind as a result of de-industrialization, and record-breaking income disparities emerging amidst the estrangement of metropolis and periphery, the impact of these neoliberalization processes is written across UK society.
  
  Nevertheless, the British Left has confronted these issues in a sustained and committed manner, and in doing so has developed some ground breaking theoretical and practical economic approaches, especially with regard to democratizing the economy and institutions, and not least during the Corbyn years in which a left-wing government was a feasible possibility.
  
  As such, an office in London enables the foundation as a whole to strengthen its work on alternative left-wing economic policies and strategies aimed at economic democracy under the conditions of (post-)industrial societies, which would be an important basis for future left governments.
• Essential Organizing Models for a Brave New World
  It is often said that one of the main weaknesses of the Left is not its lack of excellent ideas, but its inability to organize well enough to build power in many communities, such as in rural areas and working class communities, and to translate these good leftist ideas into politics and power in a way that is meaningful and empowering to normal people and their communities.
  
  The London office has decided to take seriously the need for deep organizing to be central to the work of the Left in the UK. As such, we are involved in supporting a range of organizing efforts - in areas as diverse as labour and trade unions, migrant workers, community organizing, the right to the city and to housing, or sex workers’ rights – with a variety of British and Irish partners.
• The Power of Political Education
  Political education underpins much of the work of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Our partners and comrades in Ireland and the UK have underscored the need for much more systematic and comprehensive political education – in terms of content as well as forums and instruments.
  
  The foundation’s London office has been engaged in supporting a range of political educations measures. These range from organizational internal learning processes through seminars and workshops to media content on various subjects such as feminizing politics, a Global Green New Deal, and the struggles of the LGBT+ movement. The office is exploring, developing, and disseminating political education methods, and enhancing platforms for shared learning and communication between different parts of the Irish and British Left to enhance cooperation in that area.
• From a Colonial Past to an Antiracist Future
  We are also in the process of developing a work stream on the contemporary impact of the UK’s colonial past, and struggles for an antiracist future. Please get in touch with us if you would like to discuss any ideas in this area.

London Regional Office

Director: Johanna Bussemer

Pelican House
144 Cambridge Heath Road
London E1 5QJ

london.office@rosalux.org
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