[LINK] "The Exporters of Revolution"

[rfmcdonald]

Facebook's Douglas linked to Tomas Sacher’s Transitions Online article describing how Serbia’s Otpor! movement, founded to oppose the Milosevic regime at the end of the last century, ended up becoming the seedbed of a think tank for revolutionaries around the world. I’d read about the group in passing, but never knew that it had acquired such worldwide influence.

Among the shops at an inconspicuous building in the Serbian capital's Gandijeva housing development is an unmarked door with the word "CANVAS" on the buzzer. On a recent afternoon, CANVAS Executive Director Srdja Popovic greeted a visitor with a warm smile. The office has a few desks, a computer, and a conference table. It gives little impression of CANVAS' work. But then Popovic is rarely there. He had just returned from several weeks abroad and planned to fly out again in two days.

“South Sudan and Burma are my next destinations,” Popovic said.

Since 2003, the Center for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies, or CANVAS, has offered a unique product in countries like Burma: a guide to overthrowing authoritarian regimes through peaceful resistance. The nonprofit taps Popovic's experience leading the student movement that toppled Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic over a decade ago to train would-be revolutionaries to identify and attack the Achilles heel of autocrats. As Popovic likes to say, revolution is first and foremost a “carefully organized and planned action.”

Srdja Popovic helped start the movement that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic by setting a turkey loose on the streets of Belgrade. Now he travels the world helping other activists.

Anyone can hire CANVAS. They need only convince Popovic their fight is just and pay the travel expenses of his small team of "lecturers.'" Ukraine's Orange Revolution, the Arab Spring, the recent political opening in Burma – CANVAS has had a hand in all. It represents the worst fears of autocrats from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

[. . .]

CANVAS has organized hundreds of workshops in more than 50 countries. It has 10 permanent lecturers, mostly Serbs, but also Ukrainians, Filipinos, and South Africans. Tens of thousands of people have downloaded "Nonviolent Struggle," translated into several languages including Arabic and Persian.

[. . .]

CANVAS does not actively pursue clients. But anyone can try to hire them, not only "revolutionaries." This includes LGBT and women's rights groups or even election monitors.

"If we see the goal as interesting, we are glad to help,” the lecturer explained.

CANVAS only asks for plane tickets and accommodation for the lecturers, premises for the workshop, and a symbolic fee that often varies “from case to case. There are many applicants. The lecturer travels abroad around once a month. And she and her colleagues often stay in touch with clients, some of whom have become lecturers themselves.