Feature: The female-led gym building political solidarity through martial arts

Karim Zidan speaks to the founders of Solstar gym about their unique gym, their goals, and their views on political solidarity through martial arts. 

Pymmes Park is a rare oasis in North London. Eco-friendly marshes and wetlands surround a small, serpentine lake that still maintains vestiges of its former beauty. There are tennis and basketball courts, and secure play areas for children. Swans glide across the water, while Canadian geese waddle through the nearby grass — an attractive recluse for those looking to slip off the main road and immerse themselves in nature. On sunny days, it is also a meeting place for the members of Solstar gym to enjoy a warm-up or boxing session.

Operated by Ella Gilbert and Paula Lamont, Solstar gym is a unique women-led sports club built on left-wing antifascist principles. Gilbert and Lamont founded the gym in February 2016 as an answer to the toxic hyper-masculinity and sexism prevalent at most martial arts gyms, focusing instead on building a space where people with similar political beliefs could train in various combat sports.

“We wanted to challenge the macho bullshit culture of traditional martial arts gyms, where if you are not a hetero male you will have to work three times as hard to get given the time of day,” Gilbert told BloodyElbow. “In previous gyms I’ve trained at, some coaches didn’t even acknowledge my presence for 2 years, even if I was fitter, more hardworking, and stronger than all the men training. Boxing changed my life, and all the competitive female boxers I know would say the same – I want to give everyone the change to experience that, regardless of who they are or where they come from.”

Apart from the need to seek out a safe space for women to train without the burdens of misogyny, Solstar was born out of an urge to form a community that brought together London-based activists and migrants from various minority groups to teach them the benefits of martial arts as a tool for empowerment and resistance.

“We wanted to create a space where people who shared similar political ideals could train together in a supportive environment, to build confidence, solidarity and above all, create a community network that could be used for organizing and training,” said Gilbert. “Solstar has evolved as we have developed – we’ve always been women-led, and that’s something we won’t compromise on, but it has gone from being more ad-hoc to something a bit more formalized.”

While Solstar has been operating for a little more than three years, its founders have decades of experience in martial arts and political activism. Lamont came to martial arts in her late twenties and trained for six years in Taekwondo before becoming the first woman in her gym to get a 2nd Dan black belt. She would go on to train in mixed martial arts, muay thai, jiujitsu, and boxing.

Gilbert’s experience in martial arts is mostly limited to “pretty much straight boxing,” which she began shortly after starting university in 2012. By 2013, she had joined her first amateur gym and got a license to box competitively at an amateur level. After moving back to London in 2015, she joined the Islington Boxing Club whereafter she won the prestigious London Development Championship in 2017.

While the Solstar founders have contrasting martial arts backgrounds, their political activism stems from similar roots. Gilbert has been involved in left-wing politics for the past 15 years. She reminisced about being “dragged along to anti-war demonstrations” when she was a child, but it was mostly in the environmental movement that she truly found her “political feet.” A climate scientist by day, Gilbert has always been passionate about the environment, which includes “resisting big fossil fuel development, aviation, corporate sponsorship and extractive industries.” She later got involved in the broader London left-wing scene as part of student movements, far-right resistance, and anti-war demonstrations.

Lamont grew up with a similar interest in environmental activism, which she compounded with animal rights activism. She left home to join the 1990s road protest movement. Following an extended break from activism, Lamont started working with a local group of socialist Kurdish refugees in North London. She is also an active trade unionist and a member of the Labour party. Given Lamont and Gilbert’s politically active backgrounds, it was only a matter of time before they joined forces.

“Ella put a post up on facebook, expressing an intention of starting a left wing boxing project. We had met briefly through a mutual friend and instantly recognized we shared not only a similar political background but also attitude and temperament. It’s made running the project together very easy and straightforward,” said Lamont.

Solstar currently operates out of a North London community centre run by Gik-Der, the Refugee and Workers Cultural Association (RWCA), an organization founded in 1991 “by migrants fleeing political and racial persecution in their home countries of Turkey and Kurdistan.” Their ongoing partnership extends past the martial arts classes hosted in the community centre. The gym also takes part in the Gik-Der Park Festival Against Racism and Fascism, teaching classes and participating in local community events.

This sort of diversity and extensive work with local communities — a “holistic approach” to antifascism, according to Lamont — is how Solstar plans to combat far-right, reactionary, and right wing populist movements growing in the United Kingdom.

“Being part of the diverse working class community in North London and coming together, training together, and having a strong sense of solidarity makes our area resistant to the far right infiltration and organization,” Lamont explained. “I would love to see even more socialist-led cultural projects in our area. The Gik-der community centre where we train also has music lessons, a fantastic theatre group and a monthly community breakfast that brings 80-100 people together. These are all ways of combating fascism and creating unity.”

The Solstar founders also believe that their use of combat sports to build political solidarity amongst like-minded individuals, coupled with their ability to fuse anti-fascist and feminist principles in their gym, is a highly effective form of political resistance. Gilbert explained that “building solidarity and community amongst the left and across cultures is political organizing at its finest. A strong, resilient movement made up of strong, resilient people is the foundation of any successful campaign to resist fascism, capitalism and environmental destruction.”

Solstar runs two sessions a week. Gilbert runs the boxing classes on Tuesdays, while Lamont takes over on Thursdays for kickboxing, MMA, and general self-defence. They also run seminars that incorporate defending individual attacks as well as group attacks. Solstar’s classes boast a diverse selection (between a 50/50 and 40/60 women to men split, according to Lamont) and also includes a significant LGBTQ+ membership, as many find traditional clubs intimidating.

Given the popularity of the classes, they are now looking into developing longer courses for local community groups, union branches, and women’s groups — a process that both Gilbert and Lamont view as essential for women.

Both Gilbert and Lamont lamented the lack of female-led combat sports or political movements, which they blamed primarily on the patriarchy and the misogyny prevalent in social structures across the country and around the world. Women’s amateur boxing was only legalized in the mid-1990s and was not an Olympic sport until 2012. The same applies to politics, which Gilbert called an “old boy’s club.” Lamont agreed with this before adding:

“It’s interesting when working with children that girls and boys under the age of 12, as we do in our children’s sessions, [that] girls rarely consider themselves different physically to boys,” said Lamont. “Something happens to girls after this age, which changes their behaviour and attitudes to physical activity and sport, I suspect in response to societal expectations. We need to look at why and how this occurs more closely. Because of pressures on girls created by overly sexualized female images in the media, ingrained sexist attitudes and a lack of funding and role models, women and girls are still being left behind.

“A great example recently has been the women’s world cup. The positive effect this is already having on girls attitudes to sport is profound, and in order to make a lasting change, women’s sport needs to be properly resourced and protected.”

Solstar was founded prior to Brexit. However, both Lamont and Gilbert view their work at the gym as a form of political resistance against the incoming wave of right-wing populism taking place around them. By providing positive spaces for neglected individuals and underrepresented communities, forging bonds of solidarity, and teaching women confidence and empowerment through combat sports, they are able to fight back while simultaneously building bridges.

“We’re living in a time of divide and rule – the politics of Brexit and the far-right seek to pit us against each other, but we’re building community and solidarity to bring people together and celebrate what they share, rather than what they don’t.”