Newsmotion photo editor Alan Chin, of Facing Change Documenting America, took this shot at about 2 am, November 15, during the New York City police eviction of the Occupy protesters from Zuccotti Park. In defining Newsmotion's role as a civic media initiative that promotes true democracy and longterm solutions, we are producing stories on themes such as nonviolent resistance. This summer, we sent Belgrade-based photojournalist Matt Lutton to join Newsmotion adviser Todd Gitlin on his visit with Srdja Popovic in Serbia. Scroll over the photos to hear snippets of their discussion.
Popovic is one of the founders and key organizers of the Serbian youth nonviolent resistance group Otpor, which successfully campaigned to unseat Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.
We joined them again last week in New York (scroll over photo to listen to Srdja on lisostratic ostracism, among other things about the role of women in nonviolent resistance movements.)
Does nonviolent resistance stand a chance as a strategy? According to Popovic, it’s more than twice as likely to succeed than violent struggle, which is not only harder to defend politically, but also appeals to far fewer potential participants. Even in Tehran in June 2009, there were more than 17,000 downloads of this free manual, Non Violent Resistance: 50 Crucial Points.
This book, produced by Popovic and the organization he helped found, CANVAS (Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies) is still available, for free.
Newsmotion's full story on this topic--a multimedia series--is one of the rewards to contributors to our Kickstarter campaign.
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