News & updates
Welcome to our blog
Find out what we’ve been working on, how you can get involved, and more.
Our pledge to support and champion trans, non-binary and gender nonconforming people
At Opus, we recently joined dozens of organisations across the city by pledging to provide a safe space for trans, non-binary and gender nonconforming people as part of a campaign led by Safe Space Sheffield.
Wellbeing at Opus: building an ecosystem of care in a systems change organisation
Organisations in the business of radical change necessarily come into contact with harmful systems every day – whether that’s neoliberalism, patriarchy, deep-rooted racism, or a combination of all three. Those doing work that intervenes in these areas and seeks to overturn the status quo are therefore particularly susceptible to harm from those very systems. Wellbeing isn’t an optional extra at an organisation like Opus – it’s a core part of the work.
What next for the UBI Lab Network?
As our Basic Income campaign nears its ten-year anniversary, we look at what the future holds for a project turbocharged by the pandemic.
Reflections on the criminal invasion of Venezuela
The United States’ illegal incursion into Venezuela, universally regarded by legal scholars as a crime under international law, is the latest and most full-throated assertion of a return to colonial logics, as the old liberal-democratic order continues its precipitous collapse.
Where should systems change organisations keep their money?
At Opus, we’re in the process of changing where we keep our company savings to better balance ethics, risk and the current financial landscape. Team member Sam Gregory spoke to colleague Bashkim Muca about the thinking behind the switch, and what learning we can offer to other organisations dedicated to social change.
Opus team statement on the ban of Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws
After their protest at RAF Brize Norton, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced plans to designate direct action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. Palestine Action sprayed paint on military jet engines as a protest against the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. This is not terrorism.
Opus team statement on the Supreme Court ruling
Last week, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 now excludes trans women on the basis of ‘biological sex’.
We do not consent to this
This week marks one year since the 7th October massacre and the start of Israel’s brutal and ongoing genocide against the people of Gaza. Both as a worker-owned co-operative and as a group of people, we continue to be appalled and disgusted by these actions supported by our government, in the name of us here in the UK.
Statement on racist and Islamophobic riots in Rotherham and Sheffield
As a worker-owned company and as a group of people, we are appalled by the racist and Islamophobic riots that took place over the weekend including where we live and work in Rotherham and Sheffield. The violence and hate we have seen, particularly against migrants, Muslims and refugees, is heartbreaking, frightening and enraging.
We support the Palestine student encampment at University of Sheffield
As an organisation committed to furthering systemic change, we condemn the University of Sheffield’s calls for the Palestine student encampment housed on the concourse outside the Students’ Union to disband. We call on the university to drop any threats of disciplinary and legal action. We assert our full support for the Sheffield Campus Coalition for Palestine (SCCP).
Photo credit: John Slater