The Power of Nonviolent Action in Guatemala and Beyond

Estefanía Campos  | 06 de octubre de 2017  | Vistas: 123

Jamila Raqib, executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution shared in the College Freedom Forum 2017 the details about her work against corruption in Romania through nonviolent action and the positive results it has had so far.

She describes the current situation of Romania, where society reached a breaking point when the government approved a decree that would decriminalize certain corruption offenses. This was seen by people as an action that showed the wider system of corruption in their country and thought they were to protect certain corrupt government officials. A very large protest grew the next days in which people pressured the government to withdraw the decree, which they achieved a few weeks later.  

Corrupt and oppressive governments rely on the ignorance and weakness of the people, in order to carry out these abuses”.

Later Jamila describes the work and books of  Jean Sharp, founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, on nonviolent resistance which contribute to the understanding of nonviolent resistance, how it works and how it can be used to advance the issues that people cares about.

Raqib emphasizes the importance of nonviolence action tools and methods to fight injustices. According to her, people in the United States are starting to organize and creating networks of people who meet periodically to talk about the issues they care about.

Nonviolent action relies on people and institutions that can ensure that leaders serve the interest of the people that elected them. The power of nonviolent action comes from building the strength and capacity of people so people can fight for the society they want.”

She concludes by sharing an anecdote on how the 2015’s anti corruption movement in Guatemala inspired South Korea to take action against their own government. They actually studied what happened in the guatemalan case so they could strategically replicate it. Jamila shows in a very inspiring lecture how committing to a cause as a society can make significant  changes in Guatemala and beyond.