Lesson 5.2: Care and resistance

1. Care in queer feminist resistance

2. Friendships, solidarity, and safe spaces

Across Europe, friendships and alliances function as the emotional backbone of resistance

In Ireland, activists stressed that friendships formed during the 2015 Marriage Equality and 2018 abortion campaigns continue to sustain feminist and LGBTIQ+ organisations. Solidarity helps counter online harassment, keeps people safe, and prevents anti-trans narratives from gaining traction in key institutions.

In Germany, participants described withdrawing into supportive community ‘bubbles’ after online attacks. In the words of one participant:

The most important thing was the exchange with people who experienced the same things.

Others spoke of solidarity through shared anger and courage. As one participant put it:

I feel solidarity whenever I have the feeling that someone shares the same anger, the same resistance. (Resist Report on Germany, p. 17)

These networks provide affirmation and practical help when hostility intensifies. At the same time, participants noted tensions within movements — generational differences, uneven access to privilege, and disagreements around strategy. These internal dynamics illustrate that solidarity must be continually renewed and inclusive.

In Spain, Greece, Switzerland and other case studies, activists described ‘transfeminist and queer bubbles’ — chosen or necessary daily spaces that offer safety, calm, and joy amid hostility. These spaces not only protect wellbeing but allow political imagination to flourish. One participant from the case-study on Spain-Catalonia and Basque Country explained:

I’m more selective in the spaces I go to. It helps me in my day-to-day to be safer, calmer, and happier (p 12)

Some activists describe these ‘transfeminist bubbles’ as a chosen way of resistance, while others speak of them more as a ‘necessity’ rather than a choice, because ‘anti-gender’ politics pushes these limitations forward. As one activist in the Spanish case-study put it:

It’s not a choice. I need to live in a bubble (Spain Report, p. 12).

Still, these bubbles function as microcosms of resistance – places where rest, mutual recognition, and safety are treated as political priorities.

3. Caring under constraint

Care is shaped by context, resources, and repression

Across contexts, activists emphasised that formal institutions frequently fail them. Migrants, racialised activists, and disabled activists encounter additional barriers, making intersectional forms of care essential.

4. Intersectional care

5. Self-care as collective strategy

Across all RESIST case studies, 

activists stressed that self-care is necessary for collective survival. 

Burnout, trauma, and chronic stress threaten both individuals and movements. Examples include:

• rotating responsibilities

• taking strategic breaks

• setting boundaries

• prioritising paid work or stability

• pausing activism temporarily without guilt

For some activists in exile from Belarus or Turkey, self-care may require retreating from activism altogether in order to regain stability. These acts are strategies for sustainability.