Tim Gee

Tim Gee is the general secretary of Friends World Committee for Consultation, the international organisation of Quakers worldwide. He is also a writer and faith-based activist in the United Kingdom, who popularised the concept of counterpower, and has written about pacifism and the Occupy movement.

Tim Gee
Born
Stockport, United Kingdom
EducationUniversity of Edinburgh

Personal life

Early life

Gee was born in Stockport, United Kingdom in the mid-1980s.[1]

Education

Gee attended Aquinas College, Stockport,[2] a Roman Catholic sixth form college in Stockport, United Kingdom. During this time he was actively involved in the campaign against the Iraq War.[3]

He went on to study politics at the University of Edinburgh where he graduated with an MA degree in 2009[4][5] While at the university he was a part of its People and Planet group, promoting Fairtrade,[6] and was elected the Vice President (Services) of the Edinburgh University Students Association. In 2005 he was elected to the Board of Directors of NUS Services Ltd.[5]

Writing career

Gee's first book, Counterpower: Making Change Happen was published in 2011,[7] in which he puts forward a theory of how governments and elite groups exercise power, and argues that others can use counterpower to counter this.[8] He puts forward a model in which this counterpower is splits into three categories: idea counterpower, economic counterpower, and physical counterpower. Counterpower was shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Award in 2012.[9]

His second book, You Can't Evict an Idea: What Can We Learn From Occupy? was published in 2013[10] as an e-book and in physical form.[11]

His third book is Why I am a Pacifist, published by the Christian Alternative imprint from John Hunt publishers.[12]

Gee has also published in the New Internationalist,[4] Scottish Left Review[13] and writes a blog for The Guardian[14]

Gee was amongst a group of prominent authors and writers who campaigned against a ban on sending books to prisoners in the United Kingdom[15]

Gee documented the buildup to the eviction of the Calais Jungle refugee camp in 2016 for The Tablet, as the Writer in Residence at the Maria Skobtsova Catholic Worker House.[16]

Political experience

Student politics

Gee was the Vice President Services (VPS) of Edinburgh University Students Association. He sat on the board of the National Union of Students' commercial arm, NUSSL.[17] He seconded a motion for the University of Edinburgh to revoke the honorary degree it had bestowed on Robert Mugabe,[17] and was involved in the campaign for the University to become a Fairtrade University.[18]

Superglue Three

In 2010, Gee was part of a group, dubbed The Superglue Three,[19] accused of committing a breach of the peace at a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh by gluing themselves to each other and the entrance door of the premises.[20][21] Gee was admonished of a breach of the peace, with no financial penalty[19]

In a statement originally published in The Scotsman, Gee linked his action with the Royal Bank of Scotland's financing of tar sands extraction in Alberta, Canada, and stated that as 84% of the Royal Bank of Scotland was at that time publicly owned, UK tax payers should have a say in what projects are funded.[22] Responding to this, Andrew Cave, Head of Group Sustainability at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said that he and Gee agreed on a number of points, including that the Royal Bank of Scotland needs to be more accountable and that society should transition to a low-carbon economy: however he said they disagreed on how this should happen.[23]

Bond (British Overseas NGOs for Development)

Gee worked for Bond (for international development) as Campaigns Communications Officer, co-ordinating the 2009 Put People First campaign and 2008 Stand Up and Take Action against Poverty and Inequality campaign.[24]

Faith-based campaigning on climate action

In 2015, moving from political campaigning to faith-based activism, Gee was the Campaign Strategy Lead at the UK Christian development organisation, Christian Aid,[25] where he was part of the faith-based organising team working together with Muslims and Jews for action on climate change.[26]

In 2016, Gee led the Big Church Switch, encouraging British churches to switch to a renewable energy provider.[27][28][29]

Religious views

Gee is a Quaker, and in 2011 appeared on a poster advertising the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain.[30] Gee delivered prepared ministry on the subject of "movement building" to Britain Yearly Meeting, the national annual meeting of Quakers in Britain, in 2016.[31] Gee built on this further when he was invited by the George Gorman Memorial Fund to deliver the George Gorman Lecture at Britain Yearly Meeting in 2017, exploring themes of power, diversity, and the spiritual root of political action within the Religious Society of Friends.[32][33][34][35] He has been involved in promoting Britain Yearly Meeting's Sanctuary Everywhere programme in response to forced migration.[36][37][38][39][40]

Bibliography

Books

Gee, T (2011) Counterpower: making change happen New Internationalist Publishing: Oxford, UK

Gee, T (2013) You can't evict an idea: What can we learn from Occupy? Housmans: London, UK

Gee, T (2019) Why I am a Pacifist: A call for a more nonviolent world. John Hunt: London, UK[12]

Gee, T (2022) "Open for Liberation - an activist reads the bible"

Chapters

Gee, T (2012) The children of the children of the revolution. In: Coatman, C. & Shrubsole, G. [Ed] Regeneration Lawrence & Wisehart: London, UK 109-116

Articles

Gee, T (2008) Is Poverty History Yet? Scottish Left Review (47) 20-21

Gee, T (2008) Will Red and Green Ever be Seen? Scottish Left Review (46) 18-19

Gee, T (2013) You cannot be free if you are poor Peace News (2562)

Gee, T (2013) The battle for Mandela's legacy is only beginning The Independent 3 July 2013

Gee, T (2014) Yasuni: a cautionary tale New Internationalist (471) 38-40

Film

Tim produced the film "Marikana's Precious Metal", a 2018 film marking the sixth anniversary of the South African Marikana massacre, when striking mine workers were fired on by security forces. Seventeen workers died.

References
  1. Williams, Andrew (28 November 2011). "Social change sometimes happens in unpredictable ways". The Mancunion.
  2. Justice and Peace Commissions of the dioceses of Shrewsbury and Liverpool. Thompson, Marian (ed.). "Counterpower - Making Change Happen" (PDF). Mouth and Peace. Manchester (76): 12.
  3. Sinclair, Ian. "The march that shook Blair: 10 years on". ZCommunications. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  4. "Tim Gee". New Internationalist.
  5. McCracken, Edd (2014). "Forging the Fairtrade way". Edit: The Alumni Magazine of the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh (Summer 2014): 8–11.
  6. "Edinburgh Uni P&P have marked Fairtrade Fortnight by launching a You Tube video to inspire more Fairtrade universities". People and Planet. 27 February 2007. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  7. Gee, Tim (2011). Counter power : making change happen. Oxford: World Changing. ISBN 978-1780260327.
  8. Newton, Mark (17 November 2011). "Counterpower: Making Change Happen (book review)". The Ecologist.
  9. Flood, Alison (6 March 2012). "New prize for radical writing announces shortlist". The Guardian.
  10. Gee, Tim (2013). You can't evict an idea: What can we learn from Occupy?. London: Housmans Books. ISBN 9780852832745.
  11. ""You can't evict an idea" by Tim Gee". Housman's Books.
  12. GEE, TIM. (2019). WHY I AM A PACIFIST a call for a more nonviolent world. [S.l.]: CHRISTIAN ALTERNATIVE. ISBN 9781789040173. OCLC 1113411120.
  13. Gee, Tim (2008). "Is Poverty History Yet?". Scottish Left Review. 47: 20–21.
  14. "Tim Gee | the Guardian". The Guardian.
  15. "Prominent British writers campaign against ban on books for prisoners". 26 March 2014.
  16. Gee, Tim (21 October 2016). "A walk through the Calais Jungle - how humanity is surviving against the odds". The Tablet.
  17. Gee, Tim. "Tim Gee for VPS".
  18. "University gets top marks to retain Fairtrade status". The Scotsman. 4 August 2006.
  19. "'Superglue 3' admonished for RBS demo". The Scotsman. 17 February 2011.
  20. "Climate change protesters appear in Edinburgh court". BBC News. 24 August 2010.
  21. "Court told of RBS glue protest". The Scotsman. 28 January 2011.
  22. Gee, Tim. "Why I superglued myself to the Royal Bank of Scotland". Bright Green Scotland.
  23. Cave, Andrew (1 September 2010). "RBS has much in common with protesters". The Scotsman.
  24. "Sheila McKechnie Foundation: Judges - Global Action". Archived from the original on 19 December 2010.
  25. "Faith in Politics Programme" (PDF). Christian Aid. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  26. "Jews, Muslims and Christians stand shoulder to shoulder in call for climate action - Christian Aid". www.christianaid.org.uk. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  27. Harvey, Chelsea (10 February 2016). "What these Christians are giving up for Lent: Fossil fuels". Washington Post.
  28. Gee, Tim (19 April 2016). "Protecting God's Creation: churches commit to the green energy transition". The Ecologist.
  29. Clark, Pilita (1 September 2016). "Churches put their faith in green energy". Financial Times.
  30. Gee, Tim (5 October 2012). "Making peace a way of life". New Internationalist.
  31. Gee, Tim. "Movement Building". Britain Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
  32. Smallman, Elinor (10 August 2017). "The George Gorman Lecture: Movement building from stillness". The Friend.
  33. Quakers in Britain (2 August 2017). "Gorman Lecture given by Tim Gee at Yearly Meeting Gathering 2017". Vimeo.
  34. Hall, Laurence (October 2017). "Movement Building from Stillness" (PDF). The Young Quaker. No. 16. p. 10.
  35. "Memorial Lecture". The George Gorman Memorial Fund.
  36. Gee, Tim. "Why it is time to build a culture of sanctuary". Quakers. Britain Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
  37. Gee, Tim. "Why rejecting a person seeking sanctuary is a rejection of Christian values". Quakers.
  38. "Should Bath Quakers become a Sanctuary Meeting?". Bath Quaker Meeting. 23 August 2017.
  39. "Being a sanctuary meeting East Cheshire Quakers". eastcheshirequakers.org.uk.
  40. "Quaker Week meeting: Creating Sanctuary" (PDF). Stratford-upon-Avon Quakers Newsletter. August 2017. pp. 1–2.
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