Through the PRALER process as an action-learning journey, we have been exploring how we organise locally rooted internationalist solidarity, or in other words; Glocally connected communities which are decolonising education and learning how to help the new world which is emerging from the Majority World to come about.

We are organising a People-to-People Internationalist Diplomacy process to take this process into its next phase, and in this post we are offering our perspective on the relevance of this initiative at this point in time, and the historical precedents we are drawing from.

1.What it is

People-to-people diplomacy is a concept that encompasses a broad range of grassroots approaches to building relationships across borders that can either complement or defy the diplomacy of state institutions. 

There is a need for People-to-Peoples Internationalist Diplomacy as a method that prompts real, direct conversation. It does not allow us to gloss over the differences in our communities, but asks that we confront the issues in the way of our collaboration head on. Through People-to-Peoples Internationalist Diplomacy, we can share lessons and our histories of resistance and resilience. We can simultaneously expose the propaganda that keeps us apart and map and narrate the historic and current solutions that come from grassroots communities. 

Our longer term vision is to build on the best examples of the progressive movements in the UK that took a stand against the colonialism of the political establishment, and through grassroots exchanges with anti-colonial movements around the world also developed their own visions for change. We believe that the coming number of years are likely to see an increase in government repression and that the looming threat of an increase in influence of the far right will prove challenging for progressive movements in this country, and we believe that it’s absolutely vital that we develop our capacities for effective People-to-People Internationalist Diplomacy to confront these challenges.

Why does it matter now?

The worsening crises of the economy and cost of living are fundamentally structural. They are felt all over the world, but a sharpening of conditions in the Global North is leading to a key opportunity to pull those peoples into solidarity and alignment with the rest of the world. 

The financial prosperity of the North is based on the exploitation and theft of resources, people, labour and wealth from the South, and we cannot understand the crises faced in the North without this context.

As the UK economy has been increasingly privatised, and industries defunded, practical support for productive and generative communities is much needed to support communities. Instead we have seen funding and local welfare initiatives removed. Global South communities are being increasingly scapegoated by political forces in order to obscure the underlying structural economic crisis of the country. Therefore xenophobia and racism is used to increase attacks on working classes who are deliberately encouraged to see migrants and Global South communities as enemies. This assists the systemic issue of structural oppression to continue.

For example, the recently announced UK Critical Minerals Strategy (2025) makes it clear that the UK is lacking the minerals required for an energy transition and must aim to diversify its supply chain. At the same time we know from research that as much as 30% of global critical minerals come from the continent of Africa, with estimates suggesting at least 20% more coming from South America. UK tax-payer money is being invested into this continuing extractive economy while local economies, including opportunities for young people and learning outcomes, continue to fall. These possible causes for displacement and migration therefore are being positioned as solutions to the current cost-of-living and economic crisis. Combined with the continued underfunding of local communities, and an education system that does not support practical local development in the UK, the system creates the conditions for division pitting displaced communities against each other, rather than supporting collaboration that addresses the core issues. 

To get to the fundamental root cause of this issue, our call for People-to-Peoples Internationalist Diplomacy aims to expose the narrative of deliberate division by sharing practical solutions from Global Majority communities from across the world that can help communities build sustainable local livelihoods, that cannot be co-opted by rising racist, xenophobic, classism. 

We believe, as Amilcar Cabral, the freedomfighter from Guina-Bissau, said; that if we agree that there exists a common interest between the colonised peoples of the world and the working classes of Europe, then our main task is simply to fight for this common interest. 

Some of the most commonly repeated talking points by opponents to Reparatory Justice is that Afrikan peoples were not the only ones to be harmed through processes of enslavement, colonialism and neo-colonialism, or that poor people from other backgrounds will always be opposed to righting the wrongs committed against Afrikan or Afrikan Heritage people. Between us we have plenty of direct experience of the struggles involved to protect, maintain or open up community spaces, and of supporting individuals to engage with the legacies of inherited wealth, and we have seen how patterns often emerge that give rise to a competition for the same resources.

Our networks have long argued the standpoint that all communities have Reparatory Justice processes to undertake in order to repair Humanity and Mother Earth, and we want to explore how we can turn some of our practical experiences of local redistribution into tools for global People-to-Peoples Internationalist Diplomacy.

The historical precedence for People-to-Peoples Internationalist diplomacy.

The Cuban revolution and the ‘Casa De las americas’

After the blockade was imposed on Cuba following the revolution, the cultural worker and revolutionary leader Haydee Santamaria saw the potential for the new cultural institution that she had been appointed to direct could play an important role in preventing the country’s isolation.

Instead of trying to make links with other cultural institutions run by states, which were likely to simply follow the anti-cuban policies of their respective governments, the Casa de Las Americas set out to build bridges with the grassroots cultural movement across the continent of Abya Yala, and to become an institution that was both Cuban and continental in character. Using the tools of culture to fight the isolation of Cuba, the Casa de las Americas published books and a literary journal, awarded literary prizes and carried out research, collected artworks from the peoples of the continent, and gave protection to artists in exiles from their oppressive governments.

The institution and its visionary director came to embody “a world, an attitude, a sensibility, and also a revolution” which brought the whole continent to Cuba and served to broaden the perspectives of and strengthen the revolution’s commitment to internationalism.

In ‘Exporting Revolution: Cuba’s Global Solidarity’, Margaret Randall writes about how the Cuban internationalist programs are unique among the efforts of states because of the quality of service provided by professionals volunteering their skills and the lack of corruption that often accompanies aid programs of other government, and by not providing it as an excuse to intervene in the internal political affairs of other countries. She also describes the impact of the people-to-people dimension of this work shows up in how the significant portion of Cuban society who have served as internationalist volunteers across the world has also contributed to challenging harmful aspects of nationalism in Cuba, and brought with them back home a profound sense of interconnectedness and service to humanity. 

The anti-apartheid movement

The international movement against Apartheid in South Africa is as old as the White Supremacy regime itself, but as internal resistance increased by the 1970’s and 1980’s, the international movement also gained in importance. For the embattled left in the UK living under Thatcher’s implementation of neoliberalism, anti-apartheid organising became not only a method of contributing to the freedom of South Africa, but also a means to resist the right-wing policies of the British government by turning their relationship with the apartheid regime into a liability and undermining their legitimacy across the world.

In ‘International Brigade Against Apartheid: Secrets Of The Peoples War The Liberated South Africa’, Ronnie Kasrils has edited a collection of personal testimonies of people from across the world who either travelled to the frontline struggle against the apartheid regime in the different states in Southern Africa, or organised in solidarity in their home countries. The People-to-People Internationalist Diplomacy that the South African resistance carried out, developing not only relationships with sympathetic governments in the Global South and left-leaning governments in the Global North and the communist bloc, but also with grassroots movements and civil society organisations, led to not only significant solidarity campaigns but also prepared the way for life-long relationships between communities following the fall of the apartheid regime.

Examples include:

• the International Defence and Aid Fund which raised funds everywhere from grassroots church congregations to sympathetic governments with the aim to support fair trials for members of the South African movement, and transferring it to a significant extent through People-to-Peoples relationships cemented through often many years of correspondence.
• the consumer boycotts and apartheid-free zones established in communities such as that of St Pauls in Bristol, already engaged in the struggle against systemic racism in the UK, bringing the global anti-apartheid movement into the daily life of a community.
• the young people from the progressive movements in the Global North who, because of their citizenships and positionality in the system of White Supremacy, could travel or move to South Africa or other neighbouring states undercover and operate safe houses or transfer equipment on behalf of the resistance, and who often developed life long ties with Southern Afrika as a result.

Sylvia Pankhurst and the ‘New Times and Ethiopia News’

When fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, Sylvia Pankhurst, who at that point was a veteran campaigner from decades of struggle for women’s right to vote, against the militarism of the first world war and the workers struggles galvanised by the russian revolution, launched a newspaper as a platform to campaign in solidarity with the Ethiopian people.

She could see that the appeasement of the fascists by the british and other european governments would lead to a devastating war, and that upholding Ethiopia’s right to sovereignty was a crucial aspect of the international anti-fascist movement, alongside the mobilisation of solidarity with the struggle of the spanish republicans from 1936 onwards.

The newspaper ‘New Times and Ethiopia News’ became the most significant media platform to report directly from sources on the ground in the Ethiopian resistance against occupation, and it also provided a platform for the growing Pan-Afrikan movement which became galvanised as a result of the resistance, leading to Sylvia working with closely with the Pan-Afrikanists who later organised the 5th Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945. Following the independence of Ethiopia she dedicated the remaining years of her life to the rebuilding of the country, and helped host Ethiopian students in the UK.

4. Invitation to participate

The first half of 2026 has shown that the crumbling US-led unipolar world order is becoming increasingly and openly aggressive in an attempt to preserve its power and privileges, and that all of us in our communities need to take seriously the building of the People-to-Peoples Internationalist Diplomacy efforts capable of sustaining the creation of something new.

We are welcoming everyone who wants to learn from these historical examples together with us to sign up to stay in touch through the form below. We will get in touch if and when there are opportunities to collaborate, or to share relevant updates on resources produced or opportunities to exchange learning.

If you want to get involved straight away then we we also welcome everyone to sign up for the PRALER Fund Campaign, which is one of the key building blocks of this project. Sign up through the form below and someone from the team will reach out to you as soon as possible to schedule in a call

On the PRALER Fund page you can read examples of action-learning that has been organised by people in their communities to raise funds and campaign for the Just Restitution of resources, and access educational resources.

Forwards ever!