Minds of the Movement

An ICNC blog on the people and power of civil resistance

Interviews & People

Articles

La Francophonie: Broadening Horizons with an International, Interdisciplinary Working Group

The working group of the Institute for Peace (IPP), “Civil resistance, nonviolence and the culture of peace”, focuses on three concepts or approaches that intersect both in their theoretical dimensions and in their practical expressions. The aim of the group is to develop its research axes and to pursue targeted activities for the academic, activist, media, associative and political communities, with an emphasis on educational materials. We aspire to bring together diverse Francophone communities of thought and practice, to broaden the horizons of a still very young field of study, and to promote the work that has been produced on our subjects in French over the past several decades. […]

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Interviews & People

One Foot In and One Foot Out: Interview with a Tibetan MP in Exile

Tibetans, like other liberation struggles with a diaspora component, have one foot in and one foot out. Some movement actors—the diaspora and the government-in-exile—can exert pressure on the occupier from the outside. “That’s our domain, so there is pressure coming from all sides. We [MPs] are all united that we should find ways to restore freedom”, Jigdal explains to my students. On the other hand, the occupied population can exercise pressure on the occupier from the inside—if empowered to do so. […]

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Ideas & Trends

Lifting the Language Curtain and Affirming Georgia’s Nonviolent History

Earlier this year, in a meeting with students and colleagues here in Tbilisi, Georgia, we came to a consensus that many important civil resistance stories related to decision-making, specific tactics and defining strategy are frequently lost here. We—activists engaged in movements for democracy, environmental justice, good governance and more—are not writing or documenting enough to create transferable knowledge, so future generations will not know about our country’s civil resistance stories. But with no local resources available to support such “knowledge management” actions, how can we affirm our nonviolent history in the interest of advancing our struggles? […]

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Interviews & People

Mohsen Sazegara: Portrait of a Social Media Influencer of Nonviolent Revolution

Mohsen Sazegara has been a social media influencer since before it became a thing. Having started his YouTube channel in June 2009 to share knowledge and resources on nonviolent action in Farsi, he pre-dates nearly every pioneer of the influencer phenomenon. But Mohsen’s influence has nothing to do with the fashion or fitness industries. The only “brand” he represents is nonviolent revolution for rights, freedom and democracy. […]

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Interviews & People

“Cette guerre est une guerre des cultures” : Le monde de l’art, un leader de la lutte non-violente contre l’occupation en Ukraine

J’ai rencontré Olga Sagaidak en mai dernier au Centre culturel ukrainien de Paris, en France. Dans le grand salon où j’ai mené notre entretien, les murs étaient tapissés du sol au plafond de photographies stupéfiantes de destructions de guerre et d’œuvres d’art de rue protestant contre l’invasion de l’Ukraine par Poutine. Mon estomac s’est noué lorsque, me penchant vers l’avant pour voir de plus près un dessin anti-guerre, j’ai réalisé qu’il avait en fait été dessiné par la main d’un enfant ukrainien. […]

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Interviews & People

“Our Journey, Our Truth, Our Challenges”: African Feminism and Defying Dictatorship in Uganda

It’s a story of fearless resistance to dictatorship. It’s a decolonized story—one told about Ugandans, by Ugandans, not by a former colonial power. The story aspires to give back the power to Africans, and to African women and queers, in particular. It’s the story of Stella Nyanzi, a Ugandan queer woman of numerous facets, but most of all, of power through provocation. Stella, currently in her late forties, is a poetess, academic, African feminist, LGBTQIA+ activist, opposition politician, and fierce challenger of the Museveni regime. She was imprisoned in April 2017 for several weeks for posting on Facebook a poem boldly criticizing the First Lady and President Yoweri Museveni. […]

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Interviews & People

Встановлення істини: культурний документальний спротив війні путіна

У моїй першій публікації я поділилась надихаючими розповідями про немілітарний цивільний захист музеїв в охопленій війною Україні. Я також аналізувала міжнародний заклик українських митців бойкотувати російські об’єкти культури та наближених до Путіна митців. У цьому дописі я детально розповім про те, що в інших публікаціях називала «документальним спротивом», спираючись на нещодавнє інтерв’ю з українською культурною діячкою Ольгою Сагайдак. […]

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Interviews & People

«Ця війна –війна культур»: як світ мистецтва виступає лідером ненасильницької боротьби проти окупації в Україні

Я познайомилась з Ольгою Сагайдак в травні поточного року в Українському культурному центрі в Парижі. У великій вітальні, де я проводила наше інтерв’ю, стіни від підлоги до стелі були вкриті приголомшливими фотографіями воєнних руйнувань та вуличним мистецтвом на знак протесту проти вторгнення путіна в Україну 2022 року. У мене всередині защемило, коли, нахилившись, щоб ближче розглянути один антивоєнний малюнок, я зрозуміла, що його намалювала рука української дитини. […]

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Interviews & People

Setting the Record Straight: Cultural Documentary Resistance against Putin’s War

Facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles, I find it truly courageous that the Ukrainian art world is taking bold actions to preserve their country’s immense cultural heritage, both in-country and from afar. After all, as Olga aptly puts it, “This war is a war of cultures”. Putin’s only language is violence; Ukrainians have been fluent in the language of nonviolent resistance for decades. By putting culture in a key position of the anti-occupation struggle, Ukrainians can and are nudging the conflict to where they can have a battlefield advantage.. […]

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Interviews & People

“This War is a War of Cultures”: The Art World, A Leader in Ukraine’s Nonviolent Anti-Occupation Struggle

I met Olga Sagaidak last May at the Ukrainian Cultural Center here in Paris, France. In the large drawing room where I conducted our interview, the walls were lined floor-to-ceiling with jaw-dropping photography of war destruction and street art protesting Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. My stomach knotted when, leaning forward for a closer glimpse of one anti-war drawing, I realized it had in fact been sketched by the hand of a Ukrainian child. […]

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