Who are we?

The Peoples Want is a network comprised of collectives, organisations, places and individuals from across the world working together to build an internationalist practice suited to our times. We share a committment to internationalism from below, based on mutual aid and the sharing of experiences, analyses and resources between the emerging popular powers born of the wave of revolutionary uprisings that began in 2011.

Our story

Our story began in 2019 in the wake of a decade of uprisings around the world. The Syrian Canteen - a collective based in the Paris suburbs comprised of exiled Syrian revolutionaries and friends from multiple countries - issued an invitation for an international gathering. The aim of this meeting was to bring together revolutionaries from across the world to share their struggles and their experiences, in order to strengthen our collective capacity for analysis and practical mutual aid.

In the years that followed, revolutionaries from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas joined the meetings, fueling the desire to extend our connections and work together. In 2023 the network became autonomous from the Syrian Canteen and developed its own forms and objectives.

Our vision

We want to build a consistent internationalism from below, focusing on people and movements rather than states. An internationalism that promotes solidarity and mutual aid between those in struggle, at times of crisis or uprising.

Our mission

Building a transnational liaison space

We work to build bridges between revolutionaries of different ideological persuasions, and between the different types of popular power emerging from the margins around the world, as well as with communities in exile and the diasporas. Through creating spaces for physical and virtual encounters, we aim to share our experiences and learning, and collectively develop strategic analyses to relaunch a genuine revolutionary internationalism.

Building a mutual aid network

We seek to promote and encourage practical solidarity (political, material, financial) and foster a culture of mutual aid among network members and beyond. Pooling our resources and coordinating our efforts helps to strengthen both our ability to act in times of crisis and reinforces our struggles over the long term. This includes setting up a network of self-organised meeting places (called Mujawara) so that we can meet and organise together across borders.

Spreading an internationalist revolutionary culture

We aim to foster a revolutionary internationalist culture. This cultural offensive could take various forms, such as meetings, festivals, tours, itinerant training centres and multilingual media. Using every possible channel to counter the offensive of reactionary networks and the mass media's monopoly on information, by giving voice to those who are fighting on the ground. Our aim is to give substance to the revolutionary experience of recent years and to revive an internationalist revolutionary perspective for the years ahead.