GM Systems Changers
We are a network of organisations, activists and artists based in Greater Manchester.
linktr.ee/gmsystemschangers
- At our Autumn Members Meeting to continue our discussions on how we make decisions as a network and what we want to do together #GreaterManchester #Network #DecisionMaking #Weaving #SelfOrganising #DeepDemocracy
- Our hearts are with the victims of this morning attack against a synagogue in Manchester, on the most important day of the Jewish calendar. We're sending love and support to their families, and everyone who feels hurt and unsafe right now. We hold one another in grief, and solidarity.
- Our network is shaped by the proposals that members bring forward. If you, as a GM SC member, have an idea you’d like the network to explore, now is the time to share it for the next Members’ Meeting. #GreaterManchester #SystemsChange #NetworkWeaving #CollectiveDecisionMaking
- Hi beautiful people! In this month's newsletter, you'll find: - Invitation to the next Members' Meeting - Template to submit proposals to discuss as a network - Form to register new circles - Decisions tracker - Updates from members and allies mailchi.mp/1d7e53f29b0a... #SystemsChange #Network
- Don't miss our last newsletter! In this month's edition, you will find out more about how we became a member-led network, our history and strategy up until this point, and news from our partners and allies.
- If you haven't received it, you can read it and sign up for the next one here: mailchi.mp/35ba9a761381... #GreaterManchester #SystemsChange #Network #Newsletter
- At GM SC, we center and organise in solidarity with working-class women and young people, predominantly of colour, who are leading movements for justice, care, and liberation. ⤵️
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View full threadWe recognise that these struggles are interconnected, and today, we celebrate those who fight for futures where all women, whether or not they're racialised, disabled, and/or trans, can heal and thrive together.
- We celebrate mutual aid, radical care, collective power, and all the work being done to make another world possible.
- On International Women’s Rights Day, we honour those who have always been at the forefront of struggle, challenging systems that seek to exploit and oppress us, and building alternative to them. #IWD2025
- For us, women’s rights are not just about representation but about dismantling capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy in all the ways they shape our lives.
- At GM SC, we have been trying to build a radical, practical space where the most marginalised are centred and leading. 1/4
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View full threadOur work is rooted in solidarity, collective liberation, and unlearning oppression, creating spaces where we can grow, organise, and build power together.
- These principles guide how we show up, share space, and shape a future beyond capitalism, colonialism, and oppression. Read more about the values that have shaped our work so far, in order to inform where we might be going next. 4/4
- We recognise the cycles of harm that our communities face, and resist, and build alternatives to the charitable industrial complex that pushes us to depoliticise our struggles, accept scarcity as inevitable, and prioritise survival over liberation. 2/4
- Don't miss this month's newsletter! If you haven't received it, you can read it and sign up for the next one here: mailchi.mp/d50182684f96... In it you'll find ⤵️ #GreaterManchester #SystemsChange #Network #Newsletter
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View full thread3) An invitation to the next healing session on Monday 3rd March held by Paul and Shamshad:
- 4) And finally, news from our partners and allies with their new initiatives, their events for #IWD2025, new reports and funding opportunities:
- 1) An invitation to our partners (organisation we've funded over the past 4 years) to join us for the next set of forums to decide the future of our network:
- 2) An invitation to our partners to our next Learning into Liberation on care and how we are with each other:
- GM SC was established in 2021. From the outset, the core team was set up to be temporary, prioritising justice over charity and seeking to shift power and resources towards grassroots communities and movement-building. gmsystemschangers.org.uk
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View full threadFrom March 2025, we will be exploring new forms of governance and sustainability, asking whether we should evolve into a co-operative, a constituted group of change-makers, or another structure that ensures long-term impact.
- This next phase will be rooted in collective dreaming and action, continuing our work of resisting oppression and nurturing alternative futures through creativity, solidarity, and systemic change. If you have received funding from us in the past, join us: gmsystemschangers.org.uk/decision-mak...
- In 2024-25, we transitioned from a grant-making body to a phase of collective sense-making and decision-making about the future of GM SC.
- This phase included financial support to partners, expanding the core team with 18 Temporary Stewards, and investment in life-affirming demonstrators such as food sovereignty networks, community asset transfers, and alternative economic models.
- By 2022, GM SC moved away from traditional systems change approaches, instead, we focused on redistributing funds and resources in solidarity with working-class women and young people, predominantly of colour.
- Through participatory and traditional grant-making, funding was directed towards grassroots collectives, creative practices, and initiatives like Universal Basic Income demonstrators. Many of these organisations, led largely by women and youth of colour, received their first funding through GM SC.
- Opportunity for partners in GM: free places on the ABCs of Community Assets, a workshop and study visit programme that starts in early March. What to expect: www.stirtoaction.com/abcs-workshops Places are limited, so please share with your networks! Sign-up: airtable.com/appS96XFMePt...
- We are stronger together, but what does it really take to build a culture of collectivism? Throughout history & the world, communities have come together to resist oppression, support one another, and create change. What can we learn from them, and how can we apply those lessons to our work today?
- In this session, we’ll explore real examples of collectivism, challenge the forces that push us towards individualism, and imagine how we can build a future rooted in solidarity and shared power. Sign up now, to our monthly learning space, open to all GM SC partners: forms.gle/PwugMFD3f6VR...
- Hi BlueSky! We are a network of organisations, activists and artists based in Greater Manchester in the UK. We organise from a place of solidarity with working-class women and young people (predominantly of colour), towards collective liberation. Let us introduce ourselves ⤵️
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View full threadIn this report, we aimed to outline not just who we are as GM SC but what we aspire to become: a Greater Manchester collective rooted in justice, care, and collective power.
- We envision GM SC as a dynamic space for collaboration and action where all 60 partners (or in smaller groups) can come together, support one another and grow towards a liberated future. The next step is for partners to reflect and decide what comes next. Follow us to follow this journey with us 👀
- In 2023, when Lankelly Chase - our primary funder - shifted its strategy to disentangle from philanthropy (including grant-making), they phased out funding GM SC. We took this as an opportunity to expand our team, bringing on Temporary Stewards to guide GM SC into its next phase.
- To understand what role, if any, partners wanted GM SC to play moving forward, we held a series of conversations (in person and online) in Autumn 2024 - The What Next Forums. From this, we wrote The Seeds of Our Future report, which you can read here: gmsystemschangers.org.uk/seeds-of-our...
- In 2020, Lankelly Chase brought together a small artists, activists and community organisers of people in Greater Manchester to launch and guide Greater Manchester Systems Changers (GM SC).
- Through participatory grant-making (which we called Spaces, in its initial iteration), traditional grant-making, and training programmes, we built a connected network of over 60 partners, each contributing to transformative work across Greater Manchester.
- GM SC was born from the collective wisdom of diverse communities across the region, driven by a shared desire to move beyond charity and towards what truly enables us: justice, liberation, and alternative ways of being.
