Gerrah Selby
About: Gerrah Selby is a social justice advocate and creative campaigner passionate about helping social movements become more resilient in the face of government repression. As a teenager, Gerrah was part of the international SHAC campaign to close down a notorious animal testing laboratory, Huntingdon Life Sciences. At nineteen years-old, during a violent political crackdown on the anti-vivisection movement, she found herself raided, arrested and subsequently sentenced to four years in prison for her role in the campaign. She is currently a core-participant in the ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI), designated under the miscarriage of justice category.
Presentation — And They Call Us Criminals: A Talk on Love, Liberation and Why Our Tender Hearts are Terrifying
When protesters can be labelled terrorists for seeking to uphold international law and prevent genocide, when climate campaigners are criminalised for defending a liveable future, and when activists are prosecuted as extremists for rescuing animals from violent death, this talk asks: Who are the real criminals? Is it those who break cages, or those who build them? Those who risk everything to save life, or those who profit from its destruction?
Delivered by a former political prisoner, this talk is an urgent reckoning with how our love, care, and solidarity have been outlawed by systems that protect profit and power over justice. It is a reminder that, in a society that rewards numbness, our caring is the most radical and dangerous act of all.
