This interactive webinar featured presentations by scholars and activists who took part in people power defense of democracy and elections. Speakers included:
- Our host is author and activist Maria J. Stephan
- Philippine professor and activist Joaquin Gonzalez
- Serbian professor and nonviolent organizer Ivan Marovic
- Gambian organizer and activist Muhammed Lamin Saidykhan
- Brazilian organizer and activist Joana Varon
- American professor and author Stephen Zunes
Time Stamps:
Michael Beer - NVI Welcome
Maria J. Stephan - Host - 1:38
Joaquin Gonzalez - 6:20
Ivan Marovic - 15:45
Muhammed Lamin Saidykhan - 23:35
Joana Varon - 33:15
Stephen Zunes - 47:07
Question and Answer / Discussion - 56:00
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Co-sponsored by: Nonviolence International, Beautiful Trouble, BlackOUT Collective, and OR Books
Host and Contributor:
Maria J. Stephan's (USA) career has bridged the academic, policy, and non-profit sectors, with a focus on the role of civil resistance and nonviolent movements in advancing human rights, democratic freedoms, and sustainable peace globally. Stephan is the co-author (with Erica Chenoweth) of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, which was awarded the 2012 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Prize by the American Political Science Association for the best book published in political science, and the 2013 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. She is the co-author of Bolstering Democracy: Lessons Learned and the Path Forward (Atlantic Council, 2018); the co-editor of Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback? (Atlantic Council, 2015); and the editor of Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization and Governance in the Middle East (Palgrave, 2009). Stephan, a native Vermonter, received her PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
PANELISTS:
Joaquin Gonzalez (Philippines/USA) is the Mayor George Christopher Professor of Public Administration at Golden Gate University in California. Prior to immigrating to the United States, Dr. Gonzalez was a street activist in the 1986 People Power Revolution which peacefully removed a long-time Philippine authoritarian ruler. He started out as a volunteer with the non-partisan National Movement for a Free Elections (NAMFREL) tasked to ensure that votes were properly cast and counted.
Ivan Marovic (Serbia) is an organizer, software developer and social innovator from Belgrade, Serbia. He was a student organizer and one of the leaders of Otpor, a resistance movement which played a critical role in the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. After a brief time in politics, it was time to grow up and move to more serious things, so Ivan started developing video games like A Force More Powerful and People Power, and platforms for local organizing like Moba. He successfully stayed out of politics for two decades, the time he spent advising activists and organizers around the world on strategies for citizen self organizing and movement building. Ivan holds a BSC in Process Engineering from Belgrade University and MA in international relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
Muhammed Lamin Saidykhan (Gambia) is an award winning Pan African Advocate of the year 2018 and was named as 100 most influential young people leaders in Africa in 2019. As a human rights activist he organized widespread protests to get long Gambia dictator Yaya Jammeh to step down. Muhammed Lamin the Movement Coordinators of Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity. A Pan African grassroots Movement of the people and organizations working to foster an Africa-wide solidarity and unity of purpose of the Peoples of Africa to build the Future we want – a right to peace, social inclusion and shared prosperity. Muhammed Lamin Saidykhan is a Gambian with a back ground on community organizing, youth and women development, campaigns for social change, policy advocacy, movement building and none violence activism.
Joana Varon (Brazil) Executive Directress and Creative Chaos Catalyst at Coding Rights, a women-run organization working to expose and redress the power imbalances built into technology and its application, particularly those that reinforce gender and North/South inequalities. Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy from Harvard Kennedy School and affiliated to the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Former Mozilla Media Fellow, she is co-creator of several creative projects operating in the interplay between activism, arts and technologies, such as transfeministech.org, chupadados.com, #safersisters, Safer Nudes, protestos.org, Net of Rights and freenetfilm.org.
Stephen Zunes (USA) is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he served as founding director of the program in Middle Eastern Studies. Zunes serves as a senior policy analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies, an associate editor of Peace Review, and a contributing editor of Tikkun.
He is the author of hundreds of articles for scholarly and general readership on Middle Eastern politics, U.S. foreign policy, nonviolent action, and human rights. He is the principal editor of Nonviolent Social Movements (Blackwell Publishers, 1999), the author of the Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press, 2003) and co-author (with Jacob Mundy) of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution (Syracuse University Press, 2010).
Short clips from webinar:
Latest posts
End the Suffering: Global Days of Remembrance and Action
October 6, 7, and 8
#EveryLifeAUniverse
Nonviolence International invites you—communities, congregations, institutions, and individuals throughout the world—to commemorate the one-year mark of October 7th in a way that renews our resolve for justice and peace. Let us remember and honor the sacredness of every life, grief for those lost over decades of violence and oppression, and acknowledge those who are in pain today: those who have lost loved ones, are injured, abducted, displaced, whose homes have been destroyed, and who suffer from hunger and illness.
Through our grief and remembrance, let us renew our commitment to never give up on justice and peace between Palestinians and Israelis
We invite you for three days of remembrance and action by doing the following:
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Wear a black ribbon or armband during these days. We want to see people all around the world, in our cities and towns, workplaces, and educational institutions, wear black ribbons or armbands in order to create the collective consciousness of grief for lives that haven been lost. You are also welcomed to write "Every life, a Universe" on your ribbons or armbands.
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Organizing community vigils, sit-ins, sharing circles, walks, events, fundraisers, days of fasting, and humanitarian efforts for each of the days;
On October 6th, you are invited to remember the decades of the past and decry the mistreatment and suffering of Palestinians caused by Israeli policies of expulsion, imprisonment, apartheid, siege, and occupation.
On October 7th, you are invited to remember and decry the violent attacks by Hamas and others, including the hostage-taking, and the death of over 1,000 Israelis in a single day.
On October 8th, you are invited to remember and decry the launch and continuation of Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, the killing of over 40,000 individuals, the injury of over 80,000, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the abduction of thousands from their homes and families.
Here is the registration link for 3 global online events: REGISTER HERE FOR ALL 3!
Nonviolence International. Oct 6. 9pm. JT
Parents Circle Families Forum/American Friends of Parents Circle Families Forum Oct. 7. 9pm JT.
Combatants for Peace/American Friends
of Combatants for Peace. Oct 8. 9pm JT. - Use the hashtag: #EveryLifeAUniverse on your social media, change your profile picture to the our event's black ribbon attached below , and share your activities on the following Facebook page so others can join you and for all of us to know what you are doing Facebook Event Page.
Join us in your own way to say that violence, whether in defense or for liberation, is not the answer. Only nonviolence, which dismantles systems of oppression and violence and calls for collective justice and equality, will ensure that Israelis and Palestinians can live together in safety, peace, and justice.
Goals:
- To create global momentum that transcends the dichotomy of right versus wrong and unites us in a collective call to end all suffering. Our aim is to move forward toward achieving peace and justice for everyone.
- We seek to establish a unified ritual space where we can come together to acknowledge and process the past. This includes confronting grief, grievances, and the structures and systems of oppression that have perpetuated suffering across decades.
- Our objective is to reframe the Israeli-Palestinian crisis in a way that fosters a shared vision of equality, justice, and reconciliation. By doing so, we hope to encourage and mobilize collective actions to end the suffering.
- We want to remind everyone that we are the change-makers we have been waiting for. If we don't act now, the suffering will continue and intensify.
You can join our facebook event page and add your event there
Explore our Tool Kit on how to participate in the Global Days of Remembrance and Action, filled with actionable steps and resources: Tool Kit
If you would like to cosponsor and have your event promoted through our network, please register using the following link: Google form
We are not alone in our commitment to honoring Every Life, A Universe. Others Every Life A Universe share our vision, working toward the same goal of celebrating human dignity and fostering peace. We encourage you to learn more about their efforts as we continue to grow our collective impact.
As of October 4, 2024, here are the campaign co-sponsors:
- Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
- Prayers for Peace Alliance
- Jefferson County Palestine Solidarity (Washington State)
- Epigenetic Alchemy
- Center for Jewish Nonviolence
- Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom (SOSS)
- Lindsay Stanek
- Combatants for Peace
- Euphrates Institute
- Peace Catalyst International
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." —Rumi
Watch the recording of the Q&A Panel Discussion on
In Conversation: "Humanity in Gaza" Revisited
Recording
Please share this information and flyers with your family, friends, neighbors, and community.
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Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace |
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To create a more nonviolent planet, national leaders at the UN Summit of the Future on Sept 22., adopted a ground-breaking Pact for the Future that also includes a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations (See UN adopts ground-breaking Pact for the Future to transform global governance, UN press release, September 22).
Following an unsuccessful effort by Russia and its allies yesterday morning to render the PACT toothless in national jurisdictions, it was adopted without vote, i.e. by consensus.
This Pact is the culmination of an inclusive, years-long process to adapt international cooperation to the realities of today and the challenges of tomorrow. As the Secretary-General has said, “we cannot create a future fit for our grandchildren with a system built by our grandparents.”
While innovative and ground-breaking, the PACT is not as ambitious as hoped by many like-minded governments and civil society networks who had advanced a range of even stronger proposals for better global governance to ensure peace, environmental protection, human rights, democracy and sustainability for current and future generations. See, for example, the Peoples Pact for the Future.
Join civil society leaders from World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy (WFM) and Mobilizing an Earth Governance Alliance (MEGA) online today for an update on the Summit of the Future, the adoption of the PACT and where-to-from here.
The Flotilla ships currently being prevented from leaving port by the Turkish Port Authorities
on September 12 Freedom Flotilla has announced that the demonstration to release the Flotilla ships currently being prevented from leaving port by the Turkish Port Authorities, continues in Istanbul. and they are calling for help;
We need your help in getting international media to cover this historic protest and help put pressure on the government to release the ships, ensuring we can sail towards Gaza.
HOW TO HELP:
1. Call, email and/or demonstrate at Turkish embassies and consulates and demand that the Freedom Flotilla ships be released and allowed to deliver aid to Gaza immediately.
2. Tag mainstream accounts in this post or when you share our photos to your stories.
3. Message the social media page of the Ministry of Transport and Foreign Affairs @tcdisisleri & @uabakanligi on IG and on X
4. Share our videos using the hashtags #WeWillSail and #LetThemSail tagging @tcdisisleri and @uabakanligi
#WeWillSail #LetThemSail #TheFreedomFlotilla #FFC #Istanbul #Turkiye #Turkey #mavimarmara
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi Killed While Peacefully Protecting Palestinians
Nonviolence International has long supported third-party nonviolent action around the world and in Palestine/Israel through training, research, fiscal sponsorship, and advocacy. NVI strongly encourages well-meaning visitors, delegations, and organized solidarity accompaniment and co-resistance to go to Palestine/Israel. This page highlights some of the many activities by courageous international people and groups in Palestine/Israel who seek to protect civilians and human rights.
On September 3, 2024, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi traveled to the occupied West Bank to join the unarmed civilian protection (UCP) group, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM)/Faz3a. According to her family, she felt a deep responsibility to stand with Palestinian civilians facing ongoing repression and violence, particularly from settlers. On September 6, 2024, while attending a peaceful protest in Beita, Eygi was tragically shot in the head by an Israeli soldier. Source.
A photo of Aysenur Eygi during her graduation.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was born on July 27, 1998, in Turkey and raised in Seattle, Washington. She graduated from Seattle Central College in 2022 with an Associate’s degree in Art and completed her Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of Washington in June 2024. She was actively involved in pro-Palestinian activism and was considering pursuing graduate studies in Near Eastern archaeology.
Nonviolence International, an organization dedicated to promoting nonviolent resistance and human rights, strongly condemns the killing of Eygi. We express deep outrage at the violent suppression of peaceful protests towards both Palestinians and internationals. This tragic incident underscores the dangers faced by activists advocating for basic human and civil rights in the occupied territories. Nonviolence International reaffirms its commitment to supporting peaceful activism and standing in solidarity with those resisting oppression.
Please call on the United Nations, Turkey, and the United States of America to launch independent investigations and to take measures to protect everyone.
To support our partners involved in UCP in Palestine, please visit the following:
https://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/ucpnp_partner
https://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/ffc_freedom_flotilla_coalition
https://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/cjnv_partner