Tag Archives: otpor

6th International Vietnamese Youth Conference (DaiHoi6)

From August 4th – 7th I attended the 6th International Vietnamese Youth Conference (DaiHoi6) organized by the Len Duong International Vietnamese Youth Network. The conference was held in the Philippines and brought together approximately 100 Vietnamese youth from around the world (Australia, United States, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Belgium, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Norway). The theme of this year’s conference was, “Access Now! Digital Activism for Social Change” (download full program).

While there, I also facilitated two workshops both focused on nonviolent struggle. The first was titled, “Why Nonviolent Struggle?” and it explored the strategic elements of nonviolent action that movements have used throughout history. The second was called “Case Studies from the Arab Spring,” and looked at nonviolent struggle within the context of the recent uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Other workshops offered at the conference focused on topics such as internet circumvention, leadership skills, digital activism inside Vietnam, and social media for social change. Continue reading to learn more about the workshops I facilitated and some of my take-aways from the workshops I attended.

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How to Ignite, or Quash, a Revolution in 140 Characters or Less

On July 13th, I attended an event at the New America Foundation: How to Ignite, or Quash, a Revolution in 140 Characters or Less, which looked at the promise and limitations of technology in spreading democracy. July 13th also happened to be my birthday, and one of the most special messages I received that day came in the form of a tweet from Ghada Shahbender (@ghadasha), an Egyptian human rights activist and one of this year’s winners of the James Lawson Award.

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School of Authentic Journalism

From May 11-21 I was one of 79 journalists, organizers, and educators who gathered in the State of Morelos in Mexico to attend the 2011 School of Authentic Journalism.  The school takes a unique approach – both with content and structure – in exploring the field of journalism, particularly in its role covering social movements across the globe.  The school was founded and is organized by Al Giordano, the editor of Narco News and a man who started organizing at a young age as part of the anti-nuclear power movement in the United States.  Check out this interview I conducted with him in 2009.  The school consisted of a mixture of plenary sessions where we got to hear seasoned journalists from a variety of mediums (video, photo, and print), contemporary organizers and veterans from nonviolent movements, and scholars of civil resistance.  Below I outline an extensive overview, going through each day, of what I experienced at the school along with links to others’ reflections and articles about the participants and the school.

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Capital Area Association for Peace Studies (CAAPS) Keynote Address



This weekend I had the privilege of giving the keynote address at the 24th annual Capital Area Association for Peace Studies student conference.  It was such a pleasure speaking with all the students and then attending several of their project and paper presentations.  I also enjoyed putting together my remarks because it gave me an opportunity to (1) explain how the work of peace scholars is transforming the world and why that is important and (2) how my work in the field of nonviolent conflict and civil resistance in increasingly influencing the interest in peace studies.  Click above to listen or click read more below to read my remarks.

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Workshop on Citizen Journalism and Civil Resistance

For the last six days I was in Madrid, Spain to help facilitate a workshop that married the two fields of citizen journalism and civil resistance.  The goal of the workshop was to prepare journalists, bloggers, and communicators from around the world to better understand the strategic dynamics of nonviolent social movements so they can more effectively report on these struggles in ways that will help them to succeed.  26 citizen journalists participated in the workshop coming from the following countries: Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, UK, Phillipines, Mexico, Spain, Israel/Palestine, Brazil, Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt, Macedonia, Ukraine, India, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Serbia, France, and Finland.

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