Toppling A Dictator with Srdja Popovic
December 10,
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Episode Description
Srdja breaks down the elements of what makes a successful movement of resistance and what that looks like in practice.
Srdja Popovic is the Founder and Executive director of the Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS), a non-profit organization based in Belgrade, Serbia that aims to teach the use of nonviolence to make a change.
He was born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia (then part of Yugoslavia), in Popovic played the guitar in a rock band and graduated from the Faculty of Biology in Belgrade, holding a Master’s degree (MA) in animal ecology. Since his early 20ies, he has focused on activism, democracy and human rights , Popovic founded the student movement “Otpor!” (“Resistance!”) which played a crucial role in ousting president Slobodan Milosevic, former Serbian dictator accused of war crimes. After Milosevic was defeated in , Popovic was elected to the Serbian Parliament where he served from until Following his career in the Serbian Parliament, Popovic went on to found CANVAS, acting as its executive director ever since.
CANVAS
From CANVAS' headquarters in Belgrade, Serbia, we operate a network of international trainers and consultants with expertise in building and running successful non-violent movements.
We work to build more just, democratic, and responsible society. CANVAS’ offices in Washington DC, Kuala Lumpur, Male, Tbilisi, Johannesburg and Belgrade aim to provide maximum support to the activists on the ground, and they serve as a hub for local and regional initiatives that rely on principals of nonviolent struggle and creative activism.
Our organization disseminates knowledge through a variety of media, including workshops, books, videos, and specialized courses. CANVAS has produced several publications on nonviolent resistance over the years, based on intensive research and our members’ decades of experience in the field.
These revolutionary “know-hows” are available for free download on this website. Additionally, our trainers regularly teach courses on nonviolent strategy at a variety of educational institutions worldwide.
Srdja Popovic and CANVAS have won several awards, including the Paul Lauritzen Award for Human Rights (November ), the Jean Mayer Prize by Tufts Univ
Sroja Popovic was one of the leading lights of the student movement that brought down the Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević. He subsequently set up the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS). They train people in the non-violent techniques they used in Serbia, and have supported revolutionaries around the world.
Blueprint for Revolution is a guide to what works, drawn from Popovic&#;s first hand experience in peaceful revolution, and from working with movers and shakers every day. As the subtitle shows, it&#;s no dry work of theory &#; &#;How to use rice pudding, lego men, and other non-violent techniques to galvanise communities, overthrow dictators, or simply change the world.&#;
Just because it&#;s having fun doesn&#;t mean it isn&#;t serious, and that&#;s actually one of the main lessons. Revolutions should be joyful, attractive, or at least not boring. The book is stuffed with examples of creative protests and dilemma situations for authorities. The Lego men in the title were used in Russia in response to a clamp-down on protests, forcing the authorities into the ridiculous follow-up of having to outlaw toys from protesting. (Greenpeace borrow
Bringing down Serbia&#;s dictator, 10 years later: A conversation with Srdja Popovic
Ten years ago, on October 5, , hundreds of thousands of Serbian protesters descended on the streets of Belgrade and pushed past the indifferent security forces to seize control of the Parliament building, effectively ending the dictatorship of Slobodan Milosovic. It was the final act of a two-year nonviolent struggle led by the youth movement known as Otpor, or “Resistance,” whose iconic clenched-fist led the way toward free elections and newfound democracy.
One of the leaders of this movement was year-old Srdja Popovic, who after Milosevic’s overthrow was elected to the Serbian Parliament. In , Popovic left politics to found the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) in Belgrade, an organization that has trained activists in dozens of countries around the world – from those involved in the successful pro-democracy movements in Ukraine and the Maldives to the ongoing struggles in Burma and Iran.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Popovic and ask him about the role that humor played in the struggle against Milosevic, how they were able to win over his feared
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