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Tens of thousands of people, government protesters and supporters alike, demonstrated Saturday in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua."The only way for the government to change, as it has been shown in all these years, is for the people to go to the streets," said Dora Maria Tellez, who was a main figure in President Daniel Ortega's government during the 1980s but who now leads an opposition party."There is no other way," she said at the protests, which appeared to be peaceful. It was not immediately clear how many of the masses were demonstrating against the government and how many had gathered to support it.

OCOTAL, July 25 (AP): Ousted President Manuel Zelaya stood on the edge of his country and called on his fellow Hondurans to resist the coup-installed government. Then he quickly retreated back to Nicaraguan territory, saying he wanted to avoid bloodshed and give negotiations another try. His foray Friday brought the Honduran political crisis no closer to a resolution - and irritated some foreign leaders who are trying to help Zelaya reclaim his post.Still, his brief but dramatic excursion a few feet into his homeland kept up the pressure on the interim government and the international community, highlighting the threat of unrest if the two sides cannot resolve the crisis through negotiations.

Two months to the day after President Manuel Zelaya was ousted from power by the Honduran military and shipped off to Costa Rica in his pyjamas, the resilience and vitality of popular opposition to the coup is making history in this Central American society of economic extremes. Since June 28th when Hondurans were denied the opportunity to participate in a mere opinion poll that had nothing to do with extending Zelaya's term, thousands have been arbitrarily detained, dozens beaten and at least ten people killed by repressive state forces while press freedoms continue to be seriously curtailed.

Like something out of an old world spy novel, a popular politician is poisoned in an attempt to ruin his chance at victory and install a ruthless opponent. Welcome to the ORANGE REVOLUTION.Steve York's riveting documentary chronicles what led to the Orange Revolution in Ukraine surrounding the 2004 election between Viktor Yushchenko, the people's choice, and Viktor Yanukovych, the government crony. With Yushchenko's mysterious near-fatal poisoning and a fishy assassination attempt on Yanukovych, the people cry foul and take to the streets when Yanukovych is proclaimed the winner of the election. At demonstrations in Kiev, the crowd quickly swells to many thousands as musicians and a disfigured struggling Yuschenko take the stage to protest corruption and fraud.With insightful political interviews and a sweeping lens capturing the power of thousands demanding change, York's ORANGE REVOLUTION will make you believe in the power of the collective voice and our ability to make a difference.

In October 2008, the Maldives held its first multi-party elections, toppling 30-year incumbent Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and replacing him with Mohamed Nasheed, a former political prisoner and according to Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) opposition members, rabble-rouser extraordinaire. Indeed, this is how members of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and others connected to the party were and still are viewed: as a mob of uneducated activists who took to the streets in undignified protest. But what few people know is that behind the clamour of MDP as well as those who joined their fight was a well-designed plan. And behind the plan, there was Canvas – an organisation of trainers and consultants that travel the globe to transfer their skills, knowledge and principles of non-violent struggle. The ideas exported by Canvas were born out of Otpor, a youth movement in Serbia, which has been credited with the bloodless revolution that brought down Slobodan Milosovic. “Maldives was fourth in line of our successes,” says Srdja Popovic, the executive director of Canvas. “Others include the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the Rose Revolution in Georgia.” In the latter, students offered soldiers roses when the army was deployed by Eduard Shevardnadze, who had ruled Georgia for more than 30 years.Learning the basicsIn 2006, Canvas travelled to the subcontinent to hold three training sessions on non-violent resistance: one in Male’, one in Addu and one in Colombo. The aim was to arm MDP activists as well as members of civil society with a set of tools that could be used to overthrow government using non-violent methods. Around 20 people attended each of these sessions, some of whom, says Popovic, are now in government. The three main principles espoused by the theory of non-violent struggle are unity, planning and discipline. “What we normally do in our workshops,” says Popovic, “is to equip people to help them achieve their vision of tomorrow.” But, he is quick to add that this vision is “home-grown” and not exported.At the heart of Canvas’ schooling is the dissection of power and obedience. Power structures must be weakened and obedience converted into disobedience. The theory of non-violent struggle, says Popovic, “is that no ruler can do without the consent of the people and if people don’t obey, then the ruler can’t rule.”PillarsImran Zahir, an MDP activist who was jailed seven times under the former president’s regime, said that before receiving Canvas training, activists were just “doing this and that...but we didn’t know what to do.”One of the training exercises involved the identification of the pillars which support a regime. Generally, these include police and military, bureaucracy, the education system, organised religion, media and business institutions. The goal of non-violent struggle is to extract as many of the pillars from the regime by eroding their loyalty or by persuading them to deny their skills, knowledge, materials or resources to those in power. “If you undermine these pillars,” says Popovic, “the building will collapse.”The key to destabilising these pillars, adds Imran, is to “pull” rather than “push” people. Although it may seem self-evident, pushing consolidates a person’s allegiance to a regime. This, he says, is one of the main lessons activists learnt. Further, once the power structures within the Maldives had been analysed, "it took weeks" to bring the system down.PlanningCrafting a strategic plan is another key element of non-violent struggle. According to Shahinda Ismail from NGO Maldivian Detainee Network, “the importance of planning” was a central part of the instruction. “Until we participated in these trainings,” she says, “we didn’t know how important planning was...To the point of having back-up plans. Before, most of what we did was quite ad hoc.”Unity, the second mainstay of non-violent struggle, was, says Shahinda, “the whole success” and formed the basis of the United For Change campaign. Following the first round of the presidential elections, when no single candidate obtained more than 50 per cent of the vote, those opposed to Gayoom saw uniting behind Nasheed as their only hope of change.When Shahinda was asked to join the campaign, her first course of action, she says, was to consult the Canvas manual, Non-violent struggle: 50 crucial points. “Everything I did for the group, I got from the book.” During this time, Canvas held Skype workshops with opposition party members as they tried to mobilise the masses for a rally to display a united front for change.MobilisationDrumming up support is another fundamental component of non-violent struggle, which “relies heavily on numbers,” says Popovic. The strategy is to draw people to the movement with incentives personal to them. A movement’s “vision of tomorrow” must involve listening to all groups as “people are the stakeholders of change”. Activists must listen to all members of society in order to ascertain where public dissatisfaction lies. “When developing a vision of tomorrow,” says Popovic, “you need to realise that people will take risks for what is personally most important to them. Only when individuals see how the struggle will benefit them, will they join, he adds. “If you leave people out, you leave voters out.” Before being schooled in the principles of non-violent struggle, Imran concedes, the movement had one sole aim: to depose Gayoom. “We didn’t know we had to get the votes. But then we realised that even if we did bring Gayoom down, it would be very hard to find legitimacy. We realised we needed to see beyond that.” Dilemma ActionsA dilemma action is a situation in which any response from the opponent will result in a negative outcome. Nonviolent strategists think of how to create a “lose-lose” framework for the opponent and “win-win” framework for the movement. Over the last few years, this was put into practice on several occasions. In October 2008, protesters displayed a leaflet-filled coffin as a symbol of custodial deaths. This, says, Popovic, is a perfect example of a dilemma action. If police try to stop people from taking leaflets, they will appear as the aggressors but by failing to take action, the protesters’ message is allowed to reach the public.In another instance, shortly after Canvas arrived in the Maldives for the first time, a non-violent democracy group, Gaumataka, marked the death of Evan Naseem, who died at the hands of prison guards, by delivering flowers to police and government officials. At the time, the group said the flowers were “a symbol to urge the police to stop all brutality and to join hands with people to bring about a just and democratic Maldives.” Although it is unclear to what extent the principles of non-violent struggle have assisted members of the MDP and civil society to create a just and democratic Maldives, “If we contributed anything to your victory, then I am very proud,” says Popovic. http://www.minivannews.com/news_detail.php?id=6149

Lhasa (AsiaNews) – A group of Buddhist monks blocked a tour of 26 foreign journalists in Lhasa, led by the Chinese government, crying out that there is no freedom in Tibet and that the Dalai Lama is not responsible for the recent violence there.  Some of them after having cried “Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free!”, broke down in tears.The surprise encounter occurred this morning while the group of journalists visited the Jokhang Temple. The monks interrupted the temples’ chief administrators address.  Government representatives tried to drag the journalists away.  Some of them however, succeeded in exchanging a few words with the demonstrators.The visit by the group of 26 was organised by the government in their efforts to show that order has returned to Lhasa, in the aftermath of violence which erupted on March 14th, when monks and Tibetans clashed with police and the Chinese army.The tour of the foreign press is the first since the revolt, organised and orchestrated to reinforce the official line on the clashes: that the Dalai Lama is responsible for the unrest that the victims were only Chinese, and that China is working to develop the region.This morning the group of journalists – who were “advised” not to move about alone for security reasons – visited a clinic which was attacked during the violence as well as a burned shop, where 5 Chinese girls lost their lives.  In precedence the journalists were permitted to watch film footage of the violence attributed to the protesters (see. photo).Beijing maintains that 22 people died in the clashes.  The Tibetan government in exile affirms that at least 140 people were killed.The monks succeeded in speaking to journalists using the mandarin language.  Some of them said that they wanted to run the risk of the serious consequences of their actions, for love of truth.  “Do not believe them – a monk told a journalist from Usa Today – they are deceiving you, they are telling you lies!”. http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=11862

LAHORE: About 1,500 lawyers, civil society activists and political workers took to The Mall to rally for the reinstatement of the sacked judges on Thursday.The National Coordination Council gave the protest call. Followed by the general house meetings, the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) and Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) took out their rallies from Aiwan-e-Adl and the Lahore High Court respectively. The two rallies joined at GPO Chowk and marched towards the Punjab Assembly Hall. Solidarity: Workers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Tehreek-e-Khaksar (TK), the Labour Party Pakistan, the Tehreek-e-Insaf (TI), the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) also took to The Mall to show solidarity with the protesting lawyers. They joined the rally at GPO Chowk holding flags in support of their party leaders.On their way to Charing Cross the protesters shouted slogans against the government and the chief justice of Pakistan for “using illegal means to get his daughter more numbers in FSc”. Lawyers who were contesting upcoming elections of the LHCBA and LBA were showing more aggression against the government apparently to win over other lawyers. Pledge: The protesters demanded that the government reinstate the sacked judges as soon as possible. At the Chairing Cross, senior lawyers spoke to the protesters and pledged to continue their movement until the reinstatement of sacked chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other sacked judges. Advocate Hamid Khan said that lawyers, civil society and political parties were united on the reinstatement of the sacked judges. He said allegations against Justice Dogar had put a new spirit in the lawyers’ movement. He said they wanted Justice Dogar to be tried. He said appointing a chief justice as an acting governor was in violation of the Supreme Court’s judgement.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C12%5C19%5Cstory_19-12-2008_pg7_46

Czech: sametová revoluce, Slovak: nežná revolúcia) (November 16 – December 29, 1989) refers to a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government.[1] It is seen as one of the most important of the Revolutions of 1989.On November 17, 1989 (Friday), riot police suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in Prague. That event sparked a series of popular demonstrations from November 19 to late December. By November 20 the number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague had swelled from 200,000 the previous day to an estimated half-million. A two-hour general strike, involving all citizens of Czechoslovakia, was held on November 27.With the collapse of other Communist governments, and increasing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announced on November 28 that it would relinquish power and dismantle the single-party state. Barbed wire and other obstructions were removed from the border with West Germany and Austria in early December. On December 10, President Gustáv Husák appointed the first largely non-Communist government in Czechoslovakia since 1948, and resigned. Alexander Dubček was elected speaker of the federal parliament on December 28 and Václav Havel the President of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989.In June 1990 Czechoslovakia held its first democratic elections since 1946.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution

 

Otpor was formed on October 10, 1998 in response to repressive university and media laws introduced earlier that year. In the beginning, Otpor's activities were limited to University of Belgrade.In the aftermath of the NATO airstrikes against FR Yugoslavia in 1999 regarding the Kosovo War, Otpor began a political campaign against the Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević. This resulted in nationwide police repression against Otpor activists, during which nearly 2000 were arrested, some beaten. During the presidential campaign of September 2000, Otpor launched its "Gotov je" (He's finished) campaign which would galvanize national discontent with Milošević and eventually result in his defeat. Some students who led Otpor used Serbian translations of Gene Sharp's writings on nonviolent action as a theoretical basis for their campaign.Otpor became one of the defining symbols of anti-Milošević struggle and his subsequent overthrow. By aiming their activities at the pool of youth abstinents and other disillusioned voters, Otpor contributed to one of the biggest turnouts ever for the September 24, 2000 federal presidential elections.Having succeeded in persuading a large number of the traditional electorate to abandon Milošević was another one of the areas where the smear-proof Otpor played a key role. Milošević had in the past succeeded in persuading the public that his opponents were spies and traitors, but on this occasion, it backfired, as the beatings and imprisonments during the summer of 2000 further cemented the decision to vote against the regime in many voters' minds.In the immediate months following 5th October Overthrow, Otpor members were suddenly the widely praised heroes throughout FR Yugoslavia as well as in the eyes of western governments. The clenched fist logo became the instant seal of approval, appearing everywhere. From the wide range of local celebrities and public figures seeking positive attention by wearing Otpor T-shirts, to Partizan basketball club painting an Otpor logo in the center circle for their FIBA Suproleague game, the clenched fist was omnipresent. This wide spread popularity inspired some truly bizarre episodes of opportunism as a variety of individuals tied to the former regime sought to now ingratiate themselves with new DOS authorities by praising Otpor and its activities.MTV also took notice, presenting Otpor with the Free Your Mind award at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards in Stockholm.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otpor

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Beograd - The political situation in Serbia has not changed much yet. There has been passed a special law in the Serbian parliament about accepting the results of election - which was the main cause for beginning the protests. Now the opposition and the people are waiting to see if the law will be promptly implemented, in the meantime :

Huge crowds are on the streets of Belgrade, celebrating what appears to be the overthrow of President Milosevic after a day of mass protests.The new political situation appeared to be confirmed shortly before midnight local time (2200 GMT) when Vojislav Kostunica appeared on state television described as the new president.

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