Tim Gee

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

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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[1] 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]}