Otpor
Encyclopedia
Nonviolent resistance
Nonviolent resistance is the practice of achieving goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, and other methods, without using violence. It is largely synonymous with civil resistance...
against the regime of Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
as their course of action. In the course of two-year nonviolent struggle against Milosevic, Otpor spread across Serbia and attracted more than 70,000 supporters. They were credited for their role in the successful overthrow of Slobodan Milošević on 5 October 2000.
Otpor had an important “watch dog” role after the October 5th, 2000 revolution. It launched campaigns to hold the new government accountable, pressing for democratic reforms and fighting corruption, as well as the unpopular cooperation with International Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) at the Hague. In 2003, the group transformed into a political party, failed to pass the 5% threshold and win seats in the Serbian National assembly on elections, and soon ceased its activities by merging into the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Serbia)
The Democratic Party is a political party in Serbia. It is described as a social liberal or social democratic party.-Pre-war history:The Democratic Party was established on 16 February 1919 from unification of Sarajevo parties independent radicals, progressives, liberals and the Serbian part of...
(DS).
Initial activity
Otpor! was formed in BelgradeBelgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
on 10 October 1998 in response to repressive university and media laws introduced earlier that year by the Government of Serbia
Government of Serbia
Officially the Government of the Republic of Serbia is the executive branch of government in Serbia.-Current government:The current government was elected on 7 July 2008 by the majority vote in the National Assembly of Serbia and restructured on 14 March 2011...
headed by Milošević loyalist Mirko Marjanović
Mirko Marjanovic
Mirko Marjanović was a former Prime Minister of Serbia and a high-ranking official in Slobodan Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia .-Biography:Marjanović was born into a large working-class family with 7 children...
. The newly formed group mostly consisted of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Serbia)
The Democratic Party is a political party in Serbia. It is described as a social liberal or social democratic party.-Pre-war history:The Democratic Party was established on 16 February 1919 from unification of Sarajevo parties independent radicals, progressives, liberals and the Serbian part of...
(DS) youth wing members, members of various NGOs that operated in Serbia, and university students. Most of them were already veterans of anti-Milošević demonstrations such as the 1996-97 protests and the 9 March 1991 protest
March 9, 1991 protest
March 9, 1991 protest refers to a mass rally on the streets of Belgrade that turned into a riot featuring vicious clashes between the protesters and police. It was organized by Vuk Drašković's Serbian Renewal Movement on March 9, 1991...
. It soon grew from small group to network of young people who knew each other from either earlier student protests, or the Belgrade music scene and shared the same values. With the actual political opposition in Serbia in complete disarray, the group made a firm decision to create a broad political movement rather than traditional NGO or political party. Frustrated with how opposition political leaders often protected their own interests and fought among themselves instead of fighting Milosevic, the group also decided that "it would have no leaders
Leaderless resistance
Leaderless resistance, or phantom cell structure, is a political resistance strategy in which small, independent groups , including individuals , challenge an established adversary such as a government. Leaderless resistance can encompass anything from non-violent disruption and civil disobedience...
." Otpor established its vision of tomorrow in the very beginning under the title "Declaration of the Future of Serbia." The Declaration became Otpor’s strategic document defining the main problems, objectives of the movement and the methods to be used. The Declaration was signed and supported by all the important student organizations in Serbia. Prominent people from various spheres of life gathered around Otpor; an advisory body was set up and its members became the main promoters of the Declaration and Otpor’s main idea.
In the beginning, Otpor's activities were limited to the University of Belgrade
University of Belgrade
The University of Belgrade is the oldest and largest university of Serbia.Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-based departments into a single university...
. In an effort of gathering some new nonpartisan
Nonpartisan
In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....
energy, not to mention making it harder for the regime media to discredit and smear them as just another opposition political group, Otpor! avoided publicizing its ties to the Democratic Party (DS) even though the two organizations held similar political goals and shared many of the same members. Early on they agreed the organization's symbol to be the clenched fist
Raised fist
The raised fist is a symbol of solidarity and support. It is also used as a salute to express unity, strength, defiance, or resistance. The salute dates back to ancient Assyria as a symbol of resistance in the face of violence.-History:Assyrian depictions of the goddess Ishtar show her raising a...
. The actual drawing was reportedly a product of a man in love: young designer Nenad "Duda" Petrović who was asked to create a logo by a girl he was in love with - she reportedly told him that it's for some student organization. The regime's immediate reaction to the appearance of Otpor! was extremely heavy handed even before the movement held any public gatherings. In November 1998, four students Teodora Tabački, Marina Glišić, Dragana Milinković, and Nikola Vasiljević were arrested for stencil spraying
Stencil graffiti
Stencil graffiti makes use of a paper, cardboard, or other media to create an image or text that is easily reproducible. The desired design is cut out of the selected medium and then the image is transferred to a surface through the use of spray paint or roll-on paint.The process of stenciling...
the clenched fist symbol on a building facade. Their sentence was 10 days in prison.
The organization quickly gained prominence as the anti-regime print media outlets (most notably daily tabloid Dnevni telegraf
Dnevni telegraf
Dnevni telegraf was a Serbian daily tabloid newspaper published in Belgrade between 1996 and November 1998, and then also for a short time in Podgorica until March 1999. It was the first privately owned daily in Serbia after more than 50 years of across-the-board public ownership under communism...
) started featuring the clenched fist symbol in open defiance of regime's new information law. Otpor's first significant gathering took place on Saturday, 14 November at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Electrical Engineering
University of Belgrade Faculty of Electrical Engineering
The Faculty of Electrical Engineering is a constituent body of the University of Belgrade. It is the largest electrical engineering and informatics school in Serbia....
- over a thousand students marched across town to the Faculty of Philology
University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology
The Faculty of Philology is one of the constituent schools of the University of Belgrade. The school's purpose is to train and educate its students in the academic study or practice in linguistics and philology.-History:...
where a number of students were under lockdown inside the building as the authorities wanted to prevent them from joining the protest. Otpor! leader Srđa Popović (also a member of the Democratic Party) got arrested that day, roughed up, and then released on intervention from Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
after being detained for 8 hours. By late November, Otpor ideas reached Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
, Serbia's second city, with the first graffiti appearing on buildings in the city.
During the NATO air-strikes against FR Yugoslavia in 1999 regarding the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
, Otpor! ceased its activities. In the aftermath of NATO bombing, the organization began a political campaign aimed directly against the Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
. This resulted in nationwide police repression against Otpor activists, during which nearly 2,000 were arrested, some beaten.
Organization grows into a movement
A non-partisan, but overtly anti-regime organization with a loose and dynamic structure, Otpor managed to bring opposition parties together and mobilize the population of Serbia against Milosevic. Otpor stressed the importance of mobilizing the population to vote, but also promoted “individual resistance” (i.e. nonviolent methods of civic disobedience in order to counterpossible electoral fraud). This strategy was slowly embraced by the opposition parties in the months to come.
The strategy was based on two assumptions:
- That the opposition had to be united around one presidential candidate in order
to get more votes than Milosevic; and
- That Milosevic would never accept defeat in the elections (and he would falsify ballots and even use force to
defend his power).
By fall 1999 and early 2000, the Serbian opposition political parties, most notably the Democratic Party and the Serbian Renewal Movement
Serbian Renewal Movement
The Serbian Renewal Movement is a political party in Serbia.It was founded in 1990.In 1997 a dissident group abandoned the party and formed New Serbia....
(SPO), realized the potency of Otpor's methods and the resonance of its message with the youth. Thus began the battle for control of Otpor! between DS and SPO. Since both parties already had a significant number of their youth wing members within Otpor!, this trend continued on a large scale with both DS and SPO (and other opposition parties as well) instructing their local chapters throughout Serbia to recruit party youth members en masse into Otpor!. As a result, Otpor's membership swelled into tens of thousands.
Otpor's unified message and diverse membership proved much more attractive to young activists than the deeply divided opposition parties of the time. Although they had found common ground in Otpor, the separate opposition parties were still reluctant to cooperate among themselves. Otpor’s major challenge was to bring these divided groups together in preparation for the 2000 election campaign. Instead of using old methods of “bringing everyone to the table and then…trying to come up with a common strategy and goal,” the original core group of Otpor founders had gathered to first find a single goal that everyone could agree upon: removing Milosevic.
Otpor is credited for stripping away the fear, fatalism and passivity that keep a dictator’s subjects under oppression as well as turning passivity into action by making it easy — even cool — to become a revolutionary. The movement branded itself with hip slogans and graphics and rock music. Instead of long speeches, Otpor relied on humor and street theater that mocked the regime.
During the presidential campaign of September 2000, Otpor launched its "Gotov je
Gotov je
Gotov je! was a campaign created by Otpor! , a Serbian based student group formed in 1998, as the key symbol for the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević on October 5, 2000....
" (He's Finished!) and the "Vreme Je!" (It's Time!) campaigns, which would galvanize national discontent with Milošević and eventually result in his defeat. Some students who led Otpor used Serbian translations of Gene Sharp
Gene Sharp
Gene Sharp is Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He is known for his extensive writings on nonviolent struggle, which have influenced numerous anti-government resistance movements around the world.-Biography:Sharp was born in Ohio, the son of an...
's writings on nonviolent action
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...
as a theoretical basis for their campaigns.
Otpor! became one of the defining symbols of the anti-Milošević struggle and his subsequent overthrow. By aiming their activities at the pool of youth abstainers and other disillusioned voters, Otpor contributed to one of the biggest turnouts ever for the September 24, 2000 federal presidential elections with voters turnout of more than 4,77 million or 72% of total electorate.
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 political opponents were traitors working for foreign interests, but in the case of Otpor!, the tactic largely backfired, as the beatings and imprisonments of their members during the summer of 2000 only further cemented the decision to vote against the regime in many voters' minds.
Principles of the movement
Otpor operated on the basis of three principles: unity, planning, and nonviolent discipline.It used the following ten strategies to achieve success:
- Take an offensive approach
- Understanding the concept "power in numbers"
- Developing a superior communication strategy
- Creating the perception of a successful movement
- Investing in the skills and knowledge of activists
- Cultivating external support
- Inducing security force defections
- Resisting oppression
- By means of decentralized leadership, education, using humor to maintain morale, and supporting members who had been arrested
- Using elections to trigger change
- Enabling peaceful transition of power
Protest and persuasion
- Public theater and street acts to mock Milosevic
- Extensive branding by hanging posters and stickers in widely trafficked areas
- Rallies, marches, and demonstration
- Electoral politics - campaigning & coalition-building
- Concerts and cultural celebrations
- Distribution of anti-Milosevic materials
- Strategic use of internet, fax, and email to organize and distribute information and volunteers
- Covert and public communication important community leaders to cultivate allies
- Public statements, press releases, petitions, and speeches
- Distribution of training manuals, frequent workshops for activists
Noncooperation
- Boycotts and strikes by students, artists, actors, and business owners
- General strikes
- Defection of both security forces and members of the media
- Organization that occurred outside the electoral system
- Election monitors and well-organized election results reporting system
Nonviolent Intervention
- Blockades of highways in order to debilitate the economy and show the regime the people's power
- Occupation of key public buildings, occasional nonviolent invasions of said buildings
- Bulldozers moving aside police barricades
Examples of specific campaigns
Humor was the basis of Otpor's anti-regime campaigns; it used irony to provoke the regime and motivate Serbians to join the movement. The following are specific campaigns designed by Otpor in 1998-2000A Dinar for Change: Otpor activists painted Milosevic's face on a barrel and set up in front of the Belgrade National Theater, asking passersby to pay one dinar to hit the portrait. The activists went to the sidelines and watched as the barrel attracted more and more attention. Police eventually arrested the barrel.
Happy Birthday Milosevic: Activists in Nis created this event to "celebrate" Milosevic's party with a cake, a card, gifts, and wishes. More than 2,000 citizens had the opportunity to sign the card, and gifts such as handcuffs, a one-way ticket to the Hague, and a prison uniform were received on his behalf.
The Fist is the Salute: A poster campaign depicting many well-known Serbians raising their fists in opposition to the Milosevic regime. Over 50,000 copies were distributed. The campaign ended on New Year's with a Santa Claus fist poster.
Resistance, Because I Love Serbia: The most widespread poster campaign with a circulation of 150,000.
This is THE Year: 3,000 people gathered in downtown Belgrade for a New Year's party in January 2000. After a night of celebration, Otpor interrupted the jubilation with pictures of the horrors of the past ten years, telling Serbian they had nothing to celebrate. The people were asked to go home peacefully and to think about how they were going to change their situation.
It's spreading: In Spring 2000, Otpor undertook efforts to spread the movement to rural areas and the nonacademic population.
It's time!: A clock showing five minutes to twelve with the slogan "vreme je!" was used to convince all audiences that they must quickly act.
He's finished!: Otpor's most well-known campaign. Close to the elections, volunteers put up over 1,500,000 "He's finished!" (Gotov je!) stickers on existing posters of Milosevic and all over cities.
Stamp it! and Use it!: Campaigns employed by Otpor after the fall of Milosevic. They were to remind Serbians that they must follow through by defeating Milosevic in the December parliamentary elections, as well.
Post-Milošević
In the immediate months following 5th October Overthrow5th October Overthrow
A series of events occurred in 2000 in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, following the presidential elections and culminating in the downfall of Slobodan Milošević's regime on 5 October 2000...
, Otpor! members were suddenly the widely praised heroes throughout FR Yugoslavia as well as in the eyes of Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
governments. The clenched fist logo became the instant seal of approval in Serbia, appearing just about everywhere. From the wide range of local celebrities and public figures seeking positive attention by wearing Otpor! T-shirts, to Partizan
KK Partizan
Košarkaški klub Partizan is a Serbian professional basketball club. It is part of the multi-sports Belgrade-based club Partizan. The club competes in the Serbian League, Adriatic League and the Euroleague....
basketball club painting the Otpor! logo in the center circle for their FIBA Suproleague
Suproleague
FIBA SuproLeague was the FIBA professional club basketball Champions' Cup for the 2000-01 season. Up until that season, there was one cup, the FIBA European Champions' Cup , though in this season of 2000-01, the leading European teams split into two competitions: the FIBA SuproLeague and the ULEB's...
game, the clenched fist was omnipresent. This wide-spread popularity inspired even some individuals tied to the former regime to become involved with the DOS
Democratic Opposition of Serbia
The Democratic Opposition of Serbia was a wide alliance of political parties in Serbia , formed as a coalition against the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia and its leader, Slobodan Milošević in 2000...
authorities by praising Otpor! and its activities.
The pop-culture component of Otpor's activities became especially pronounced in this period. On 16 November, little over a month after the overthrow, Otpor! received the Free Your Mind
Free Your Mind
"Free Your Mind" is the name of a Grammy Award-nominated hit single released by the American all-female R&B group En Vogue. Released on September 24, 1992 "Free Your Mind" is the third single released from En Vogue's critically acclaimed album Funky Divas...
award at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards. Activists Milja Jovanović and Branko Ilić were on hand in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
to accept the award presented to them by French actor Jean Reno
Jean Reno
Jean Reno is a French actor. Working in French, English, Spanish and Italian, he has appeared not only in numerous successful Hollywood productions such as The Pink Panther, Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible, Ronin and Couples Retreat, but also in European productions such as the...
. Back home couple of days later, FR Yugoslavia's foreign minister Goran Svilanović
Goran Svilanovic
Goran Svilanović is a Serbian politician, the Chairman of Working Table I of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe....
held a reception for Otpor's delegation consisting of Milja Jovanović, Ivan Andrić, and Nenad Konstantinović in order to congratulate them on the MTV award. Then, in early December, famous Serbian singer-songwriter Đorđe Balašević held a concert in Belgrade's National Theater
National Theatre in Belgrade
The National Theatre was founded in the latter half of the 19th century. It is located on Republic Square, in Belgrade, Serbia.The National Theatre was declared a Monument of Culture of Great Importance in 1983, and it is protected by the Republic of Serbia....
specifically for and in praise of Otpor! members, which was televised nationally on RTS2. The movement even turned to concert promotion itself, organizing several Laibach
Laibach (band)
Laibach is a Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with industrial, martial, and neo-classical musical styles. Laibach formed June 1, 1980 in Trbovlje, Slovenia . Laibach represents the music wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst art collective, of which it was a founding member in 1984...
gigs in Belgrade.
In the midst of all the praise and adulation, the movement promised to keep on. Otpor! initially attempted to establish itself in the "watch dog" role after the revolution by launching campaigns holding the new government accountable, pressing for democratic reforms, and fighting corruption. It started weeks after the revolution with "Samo vas gledamo" (We're Watching You) campaign, sending the message of accountability to new authorities. In parallel, by November 2000, with the upcoming December 2000 parliamentary elections
Serbian parliamentary election, 2000
The first free democratic parliamentary election after the fall of Slobodan Milošević was held in the Republic of Serbia on 23 December 2000.-Results:...
, launched two campaigns named "Overi" (Verify It) and "Upotrebi ga" (Use It). Though some already questioned the movement's raison d'être
Raison d'être
Raison d'être is a French phrase meaning "reason for existence." It may also refer to:* Raison d'être , a Swedish dark-ambient-industrial-drone music project* Raison D'être , an album by Australian jazz fusion guitarist Frank Gambale...
, the idea behind both was to encourage the electorate to "verify" the October 5th revolution by voting against the parties that were part of the regime - the Socialist Party of Serbia
Socialist Party of Serbia
The Socialist Party of Serbia is officially a democratic socialist political party in Serbia. It is also widely recognized as a de facto Serbian nationalist party, though the party itself does not officially acknowledge this...
(SPS) and the Serbian Radical Party
Serbian Radical Party
The Serbian Radical Party is a far-right Serbian nationalist political party in Serbia, founded in 1991. Currently the second-largest party in the Serbian National Assembly, it has branches in three of the nations that currently border Serbia – all former federal republics of Yugoslavia...
(SRS) - at the upcoming constituent republic-level parliamentary election.
In 2001, the corruption
Corruption
Corruption usually refers to spiritual or moral impurity.Corruption may also refer to:* Corruption , an American crime film* Corruption , a British horror film...
monitoring becoming the new focus with several new anti-corruption campaigns started (Bez anestezije, etc.), but it was clear that Otpor! experienced problems staying relevant on the transformed political scene of Serbia and FR Yugoslavia.
Otpor boasted tremendous leverage in the months following Milosevic's resignation, but failed to focus it into permanent political or social structure in the new transitional and more democratic reality of Serbia. An intensely heterogeneous movement of leftists and conservatives, monarchists and republicans, nationalists and cosmopolitans, after Milosevic's departure, Otpor had lost the most important glue that bound it together. It was unclear whether the movement should continue as a watch-dog political party or just dissolve after its 2000 triumph. When three years later Otpor eventually emerged as a political party, it failed to resonate with voters and received less than 2 percent of the national vote.
Revelation of U.S. involvement
Information started appearing about substantial outside assistance Otpor received leading up to the revolution. Otpor was a recipient of substantial funds from U.S. government-affiliated organizations such as the National Endowment for DemocracyNational Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress...
(NED), International Republican Institute
International Republican Institute
Founded in 1983, the International Republican Institute is an organization, funded by the United States government, that conducts international political programs, sometimes labeled 'democratization programs'....
(IRI), and US Agency for International Development (USAID).
In a November 2000 article from the New York Times Magazine, Times journalist Roger Cohen
Roger Cohen
Roger Cohen is a British-born journalist and author. He is a columnist for The New York Times and International Herald Tribune. He has worked as a foreign correspondent in fifteen different countries.- Biography :...
talked to various officials from US based organizations about the extent of American assistance received by Otpor. Paul B. McCarthy from the Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
-based NED
National Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress...
stated that Otpor received the majority of US$3 million spent by NED in Serbia from September 1998 until October 2000. At the same time, McCarthy himself held a series of meetings with Otpor's leaders in Podgorica
Podgorica
Podgorica , is the capital and largest city of Montenegro.Podgorica's favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement...
, as well as Szeged
Szeged
' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....
and Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
.
Just how much of the US resources appropriated in the year 2000 by USAID, for democracy and governance, which included support to groups that worked to bring an end to the Milošević era through peaceful, democratic means, went to Otpor is not clear. Donald L. Pressley, the assistant administrator at USAID said that several hundred thousand dollars were given to Otpor directly for "demonstration-support material, like T-shirts and stickers".
Daniel Calingaert, an official with IRI
International Republican Institute
Founded in 1983, the International Republican Institute is an organization, funded by the United States government, that conducts international political programs, sometimes labeled 'democratization programs'....
, said Otpor received "some of the US$1.8 million" his institute spent in the country throughout 2000, but didnt specify the concrete figures. He also said he met Otpor leaders "seven to ten times" in Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
(then Yugoslavia), and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, beginning in October 1999.
Transformation into a political party
Though Otpor's transformation into a political party had been a forgone conclusion for a while, the announcement was finally made on 19 November 2003, days after the parliamentary elections had been called for 23 December. Trying to hold onto the credos from their activist days, the party didn't have an official leader. However, behind the scenes things were run by cousins Slobodan Homen and Nenad Konstantinović, both of whom were at Otpor! from day one, but mostly kept in the background. Asked about the new party's finances in November 2003, Konstantinović said it was funded by domestic Serbian companies.Otpor! started its election campaign on Saturday, 29 November 2003 by submitting its 250-person candidate list. Though it didn't have an official leader like most other candidate lists, the first name on it was University of Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences professor and anti-corruption campaigner Čedomir Čupić who described it as a "combination of youth and experience, knowledge and virtue". In addition to former Otpor! activists such as Slobodan Homen, Nenad Konstantinović, Ivan Marović, Predrag Lečić, Stanko Lazendić, and Srđan Milivojević, the candidate list featured established professionals in other arenas such as political analyst Dušan Janjić, psychologist Žarko Trebješanin, lawyer Boža Pelević, and former Serbian Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Serbia
The Supreme Court of Cassation is the court of last resort in the Republic of Serbia. Formerly called the Supreme Court of Serbia, it is the Court of cassation which reviews and possibly overturns previous rulings made by lower courts. It was established in 1846 by a decree of Prince Aleksandar...
vice-president Zoran Ivošević.
The candidate list of "Otpor—Freedom, Solidarity and Justice" led by Čupić did poorly, with only 62,116 votes (1.6% of total vote) in the 2003 Serbian parliamentary election
Serbian parliamentary election, 2003
Parliamentary elections were held in the Republic of Serbia on December 28, 2003. The Republic of Serbia then was one of the two federal units of Serbia and Montenegro, formerly known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....
, which left it out of the parliament (census required a minimum of 5%).
By spring 2004, in the aftermath of the election fiasco, the organization faced more turmoil when Branimir Nikolić, prominent activist from Otpor's Subotica chapter, publicly accused the party central, namely Homen and Konstantinović, of embezzling the foreign funds that were poured into the organization over the years. Soon after, another member of Otpor!, Zoran Matović, joined Nikolić's accusations, claiming that out of the €2.1 million that came into the organization during 2001 and 2002, more than half went missing while adding that Homen and Konstantinović should be asked where that money went. Responding to the accusations in both instances, Homen announced his intention to sue both Nikolić and Matović.
By late April 2004, the issue once again played out in the media when Nikolić repeated his previous statements, accusing Homen and Konstantinović of pocketing the money from foreign donors. This time the accusations resulted in a vicious round of name calling in the press between Nikolić and Homen.
End
In early September 2004, amid internal turmoil, Otpor! merged into the Democratic PartyDemocratic Party (Serbia)
The Democratic Party is a political party in Serbia. It is described as a social liberal or social democratic party.-Pre-war history:The Democratic Party was established on 16 February 1919 from unification of Sarajevo parties independent radicals, progressives, liberals and the Serbian part of...
led by Boris Tadić
Boris Tadic
Boris Tadić is the President of Serbia and leader of the Democratic Party. He was elected to a five-year term on 27 June 2004, and was sworn into office on 11 July. He was re-elected for a de facto second five-year term on 3 February 2008 and was sworn in on 15 February...
.
Although the official Otpor! line was that the organization's motivation for doing so is stopping the continual fragmentation of the Serbian political scene which "leads to voter confusion and enables the strengthening of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS)", the accusations of embezzlement from certain former members persisted.
The observer reaction in Serbia to the dissolution of Otpor! ranged according to political bias. Some talked of Otpor's "ideologically heterogeneous membership that in addition to progressives also contained those well infected with Milošević's war propaganda", seeing the organization's eventual demise in the post-Milošević period as the victory of the latter over the former, while others saw Otpor's failure in the political arena to be be caused by its inability to disassociate itself from foreign aid that continued to pour in even after the revolution, which ultimately tarnished the organization's reputation.
Commemorative reunions and usage of Otpor! symbols
In the years since the organization's end, Otpor's symbols and imagery occasionally reappeared in Serbian political life. Some of the former Otpor! activists also organized a few official commemorative gatherings.In April 2008, during the election campaign ahead of the parliamentary election
Serbian parliamentary election, 2008
A pre-term parliamentary election was held in the Serbia on 11 May 2008, barely a year after the previous parliamentary election. There were 6,749,886 eligible electors who were able to vote in 8,682 voting places, as well as 157 special voting places designed for refugees from...
, the clenched fist was stenciled on several walls in Novi Sad. This led to an announcement of Otpor's reactivation by its former activist Nenad Šeguljev, however nothing ever came of it.
Later that year on 13 November, Serbian president Boris Tadić (now in his second term), held a reception to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Otpor's founding. Former activists Srđa Popović, Slobodan Đinović, Slobodan Homen, Nenad Konstantinović, Dejan Ranđić, Ivan Andrić, Andreja Stamenković, Milja Jovanović, Branko Ilić, Srđan Milivojević, Jovan Ratković
Jovan Ratkovic
Jovan Ratković is an advisor for relations with the European Union and NATO to the President of Serbia, appointed by Boris Tadić. He is a graduate of the University of East Anglia in politics and environmental economics with international relations....
, Predrag Lečić, Vlada Pavlov, Stanko Lazendić, Miloš Gagić, and Siniša Šikman were on hand at the presidential palace at Andrićev Venac
Andricev Venac
Andrićev Venac is a street and the surrounding urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Stari Grad...
, giving Tadic an old Otpor! poster from the year 2000 as a gift. Tadić underscored Otpor's "important role in the democratization of Serbia". The next day, in Stari dvor, the exhibition of Otpor's materials was opened with Belgrade mayor Dragan Đilas saluting the former movement for "the courage shown in the fight for democratic changes and thus enabling others to live in a normal country".
In July 2011, posters with clenched fist and a message "Pruži Otpor svakoj lošoj vlasti" (Resist all bad authorities) appeared all over the city of Bor
Bor, Serbia
Bor is a town and municipality located in eastern Serbia, with one of the largest copper mines in Europe and it has been a mining centre since 1904, when a French company began operations there. It is the administrative center of the Bor District of Serbia...
, protesting the local authorities' decision to build a roundabout.
In October 2011, the Democratic Party (DS) official web site (ds.org.rs) was taken down by unknown hackers who left the Otpor! logo on the site.
Otpor! leaders after Otpor!
Though its members often proudly talked of the movement's "horizontal command hierarchyCommand hierarchy
A command hierarchy is a group of people committed to carrying out orders "from the top", that is, of authority. It is part of a power structure: usually seen as the most vulnerable and also the most powerful part of it.-Sociology:...
" and its lack of established leadership structure, Otpor still exhibited a top-down organizational model with several members from its Belgrade central office clearly asserting themselves as the main decision makers within the movement. For most of them, their involvement in Otpor! served as a career springboard into other arenas, primarily the Serbian political, business, and NGO scenes where they went on to achieve significant success and prominence.
Srđa Popović and Ivan Marović
In terms of media exposure after the fall of Milosevic, Srđa Popović is Otpor's best known member. Before the fall of Milosevic, Popovic kept a low profile. Outgoing, extroverted, and media savvy with decent command of the English language, he features prominently in various Western television news items and documentaries about the movement such as PBSPublic Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
' Bringing Down A Dictator
Bringing Down A Dictator
Bringing Down A Dictator is a 56-minute documentary film by Steve York about the nonviolent defeat of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. It focuses on the contributions of the student-led Otpor movement. The film originally aired on national PBS in March 2002...
as well as numerous international print and Internet media pieces about the direct and indirect influence of former Otpor members on various post-2000 revolutions around the globe.
Shortly after the 5th October 2000 revolution, he left Otpor! to pursue a political career in Serbia, becoming a Democratic Party (DS) MP in the Serbian assembly as well as an environmental adviser to prime minister Zoran Đinđić. In essence, it was 27-year-old Popović's return to the DS since he was active in the party's youth wing since the early 1990s.
During the summer 2003, along with several other DS MPs, Popović was implicated in the so-called "Bodrum affair" - a political scandal that occurred in the Serbian parliament when it was discovered that DS MPs severely violated the parliamentary statute by using a voting card belonging to another DS MP Neda Arnerić
Neda Arneric
Neda Arnerić is a Serbian actress.-Selected filmography:*Shaft in Africa *The Republic of Užice *The Sensual Man *Who's That Singing Over There...
(who was on vacation in Bodrum
Bodrum
Bodrum is a port city in Muğla Province, in the southwestern Aegean Region of Turkey. It is located on the southern coast of Bodrum Peninsula, at a point that checks the entry into the Gulf of Gökova. The site was called Halicarnassus of Caria in ancient times and was famous for housing the...
, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
at the time) to enter a vote on her behalf despite her not being physically present during the vote for the new National Bank of Serbia
National Bank of Serbia
National Bank of Serbia is the central bank of Serbia; its main responsibilities are the protection of price stability and maintenance of financial stability....
governor. The issue has been dismissed and cleared in a court case which dismissed the claims as propaganda. Their author, Ksenija Milivojevic has left the G 17+ party and joined DS serving as and advisor to Serbian deputy prime minister Bozidar Djelic, together with Popovic.
Simultaneous to his political engagement, Popović, together with former colleagues from Otpor! Predrag Lečić and Andreja Stamenković, founded the environmental non-governmental organization named Green Fist. Conceptualized as an "ecological movement", it attempted to transfer some of Otpor's mass appeal into environmental issues by using similar imagery, but soon folded.
In 2003, Popović, with another prominent former Otpor! member Slobodan Đinović, co-founded Centre for Applied Non Violent Actions and Strategies
Centre for Applied Non Violent Actions and Strategies
The Centre for Applied Non Violent Actions and Strategies ' is a non-profit, non-governmental, educational institution focused on the use of nonviolent conflict to promote human rights and democracy...
, (CANVAS), an organization focused on the use of nonviolent conflict to promote human rights and democracy, and eventually quit actively participating in Serbian politics.
In 2006, Popović and two of his former Otpor! colleagues, now CANVAS members - Slobodan Đinović and Andrej Milivojević - authored a book called Nonviolent Struggle: 50 Crucial Points, a how-to guide to nonviolent struggle, which can be can be downloaded for free in six languages from their website. A how-to guide of sorts, the book's publishing was financed with a grant from the United States Institute of Peace
United States Institute of Peace
The United States Institute of Peace was created by Congress as a non-partisan, federal institution that works to prevent or end violent conflict around the world...
(USIP), an organization founded and funded by the U.S. Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
. The book has been downloaded some 20,000 times in the Middle East, mostly by Iranians. Due to their involvement in regime changes all around the globe, CANVAS has been labeled "Academy of Revolution" while Popović and others involved in the organization have been referred to by various media outlets as "professors of revolution", "revolution consultants", "professional revolutionaries", and "revolution exporters".
In 2007 Popović became adviser to Serbian deputy prime minister Božidar Đelić.
Today, in addition to their revolution-consulting and training activities through CANVAS that according to one report take up a third of their year, Popović is active on the speaking engagement circuit throughout various Western countries where they're frequently hired by universities, institutes, and think-tanks to give lectures and hold workshops on strategy and organization of nonviolent struggle. Since 2008. Popović and Đinović have also launched CANVAS-related graduate program in cooperation with University of Belgrade's Faculty of Political Science.
Since October 2011. Popovic holds the status of visiting Scholar at Harriman Institute
Harriman Institute
The Harriman Institute, the first academic center in the United States devoted to the interdisciplinary study of Russia and the Soviet Union, was founded at Columbia University in 1946, with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, as the Russian Institute....
, one of the most prestigious graduate schools of public policy in the world School of International and Public Affairs
School of International and Public Affairs
The School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University is one of the most prestigious graduate schools of public policy in the world. Located on Columbia's Morningside Heights campus in the Borough of Manhattan, in New York City, the School has 15,000 graduates in more than 150...
at Columbia University .
In November 2011, Foreign Policy Magazine listed Srdja Popovic as one of the "Top 100 Global Thinkers" of 2011 for inspiring the Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
protesters directly and indirectly and educating activists about nonviolent social change in the Middle East.
Popović additionally heads the Ecotopia fund, the non-profit organization dealing with the environmental issues, financially backed by various Serbian governmental institutions as well as the private sector. In 2009, the fund organized a wide environmental campaign featuring well-known Serbian actors and media personalities with television spots and newspaper ads. On top of that Popović is a board member of International Communications Partners, a media and PR consulting company.
In addition to Popović, Ivan Marović is another Otpor! activist with significant media presence, both before and after Milošević fell. During the movement's activist days leading up to the overthrow, his appearances in the anti-regime Serbian media were in the capacity of one of the movement's spokespeople.
He stayed at Otpor! even after the transformation into the political party and was its MP candidate at the December 2003 parliamentary election. In the years since the creation of CANVAS he got involved with that organization in some capacity and also became active on the speaking engagement circuit, mostly in the Unites States, where like Popović he gives lectures on his experiences from Otpor! days. Additionally, Marović is one of the designers behind A Force More Powerful
A Force More Powerful
A Force More Powerful is a 1999 feature-length documentary film and a 2000 PBS series written and directed by Steve York about non-violent resistance movements around the world. Executive producers were Dalton Delan and Jack DuVall...
and People Power: The Game of Civil Resistance
People Power: The Game of Civil Resistance
People Power: the Game of Civil Resistance is a single-player turn-based strategy game which allows the player to take on the role of the leader of a nonviolent movement. It is the second video game focused on civil resistance and nonviolent conflict from filmmaker Steve York and the International...
, video games that promote nonviolent struggle as a political tool. During mid 2000s he moved to the United States where in 2007 he got his masters degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University is the oldest school in the United States dedicated solely to graduate studies in international affairs. It is regarded as one of the world's foremost schools of international affairs. Every Fall, the school enrolls approximately 265...
at Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
in Medford, Massachusetts
Medford, Massachusetts
Medford is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States, on the Mystic River, five miles northwest of downtown Boston. In the 2010 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 56,173...
. In the late 2000s he came back to Serbia. Since the mid 2000s, he maintains a blog on B92.net, the website of B92
B92
B92 is a radio and television broadcaster with national coverage headquartered in Belgrade, Serbia. The network's key demographic is chiefly urban and young audience. Its programs, including the news cover topics with fairly liberal political painted attitudes...
, Serbian commercial television network with national coverage.
Slobodan Homen and Nenad Konstantinović
Unlike Popović and Marović, Slobodan Homen mostly kept behind the scenes while at Otpor!. Born to affluent parents - prominent Belgrade lawyers Borivoje Homen and Dušanka Subotić - before becoming one of Otpor's founding members, he was the president of the University of Belgrade's student organization called Student Parliament during his days studying law. Described by sources quoted in the Serbian media as Otpor's "alpha and omega" during the movement's heyday in the spring and summer of 2000, Homen (then widely known within the movement by his nickname Cole), along with his first cousin Nenad Konstantinović (nicknamed Neca), handled everything from money to transportation. Homen was also the main point of contact for the foreign-based organizations that donated significant funds to Otpor!. Even the Otpor's very headquarters, an apartment in Knez Mihailova StreetKnez Mihailova
Knez Mihailova Street or Prince Michael Street is the main pedestrian and shopping zone in Belgrade, and is protected by law as one of the oldest and most valuable landmarks of the city...
above Grčka Kraljica restaurant (where the movement moved in during fall 1999) was owned by Homen's family. Some accused Homen of an obvious conflict of interest in this situation after allegations appeared that his family actually rented out the space to Otpor!, which was paying for it with the money from the incoming donations.
After Milošević's overthrow, Homen and Konstantinović were of the opinion that Otpor! should evolve into a political party, which put them at odds with some of the movement's other activists. The two eventually got their way in 2003, but did poorly at the parliamentary elections later that year. Simultaneously, Homen and his family were involved in various high profile real-estate business ventures in the city of Belgrade, some of which raised controversy.
After Otpor! merged into the Democratic Party, Homen set about building a political career there. In 2008, he became state secretary in the Serbian Ministry of Justice working under cabinet minister Snežana Malović
Snežana Malovic
Snežana Malović is a Serbian politician who is Minister of Justice in the Government of Serbia, and a member of the Democratic Party....
, within the government of prime minister Mirko Cvetković
Mirko Cvetkovic
Mirko Cvetković is a Serbian economist and the Prime Minister of Serbia as well as the Minister of Finance.-Biography:...
. He quickly profiled himself as an energetic and tough-talking government official. Following the 10 October 2010 mass rioting
Belgrade anti-gay riot
The Belgrade anti-gay riot was an incident of violence against LGBT people that occurred on 10 October 2010 during a pride parade, organized to promote LGBT rights in Serbia...
by the right-wing groups in protest of the gay pride parade that was held earlier that day under heavy security in Belgrade, standing in front of the Democratic Party headquarters that were attacked by the rioters, Homen went on state-television airwaves, delivering a threatening message to the "hooligans" as he called them. Speaking to a reporter, Homen said: "I can guarantee you that they'll remember this day because the state's response to this will be chilling". In March 2011, Homen was named the Serbian government's PR coordinator.
Konstantinović, another Otpor! founding member and Homen's close relative also went on to a notable career within the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Serbia)
The Democratic Party is a political party in Serbia. It is described as a social liberal or social democratic party.-Pre-war history:The Democratic Party was established on 16 February 1919 from unification of Sarajevo parties independent radicals, progressives, liberals and the Serbian part of...
(DS). He's the president of the Serbian parliamentary
National Assembly of Serbia
The National Assembly of Serbia is the unicameral parliament of Serbia. It is composed of 250 proportionally elected deputies elected in general elections by secret ballot, on 4 years term. The National Assembly elects the President of the National Assembly who presides over the sessions...
administrative board as well as a high-ranking official of the ruling coalition
For a European Serbia
For a European Serbia – Boris Tadić is an electoral coalition that won the Serbian parliamentary election, 2008, Vojvodina parliamentary election, 2008 and Serbian local elections, 2008...
that's held power in Serbia since 2008.
Slobodan Đinović
During his Otpor! days, Slobodan Đinović, leader of student organization on Belgrade faculty of machine engineering, as well as an activist said to have good contacts with the International Republican Institute (IRI), founded an NGO called the Center for Political Analysis (CPA). The idea behind the venture was to setup an organization that's ready to become an alternative source for disseminating information in case Milošević moves in to shut down all the non-regime media outlets.Soon after Milošević fell, Đinović founded Media Works, the first Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
provider in Serbia. Center for Political Analysis continued for the time being, but eventually folded as Đinović decided to focus more on his budding telecommunications business. In parallel, he was active with CANVAS.
In early 2010, Media Works merged with wired Internet providers Neobee.net (largest Internet provider in the Serbian province of Vojvodina) and SezamPro (ADSL
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...
provider) to form Orion Telekom, telecommunications company of which Đinović is CEO. Utilizing a government-issued licence for providing fixed wireless
Fixed wireless
Fixed wireless is the operation of wireless devices or systems used to connect two fixed locations with a radio or other wireless link, such as laser bridge. Usually, fixed wireless is part of a wireless LAN infrastructure. The purpose of a fixed wireless link is to enable data communications...
services that Media Works won in 2009, Orion began offering fixed telephony services throughout Serbia using the CDMA
Code division multiple access
Code division multiple access is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. It should not be confused with the mobile phone standards called cdmaOne, CDMA2000 and WCDMA , which are often referred to as simply CDMA, and use CDMA as an underlying channel access...
method of access in June 2010.
In the documentary film The Revolution Business made by Journeyman Pictures, Srdja Popović claimed Đinović is the main financial backer behind the non-governmental organization CANVAS. Đinović is also the managing board member of the state-owned Ada Ciganlija company, which manages the public grounds of the eponymous river island
Ada Ciganlija
Ada Ciganlija , colloquially shortened to Ada, is a river island that has artificially been turned into a peninsula, located in the Sava River's course through central Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The name can also refer to the adjoining artificial Sava Lake and its beach...
.
Ivan Andrić and Dejan Ranđić
The creative presence behind many of Otpor's visuals and media campaigns was Ivan Andrić. After the revolution, he left the movement for politics, joining the Civic Alliance of SerbiaCivic Alliance of Serbia
Civic Alliance of Serbia was a social-liberal party in Serbia.Known widely by its three-letter acronym in Serbian, GSS was founded and registered in 1992...
(GSS) and becoming managing board member of the state-owned Belgrade Youth Center
Belgrade Youth Center
Belgrade Youth Center, or Dom omladine Beograda , is a cultural center in Belgrade, dedicated primarily to youth. It organises numerous programs in the area of modern art and culture, as well as educational-debate programs: around 1,000 different programs per year, visited by over 180,000 youth...
. He later joined the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), becoming its MP. Furthermore, in 2002, with close friend from Otpor! days and Youth Center managing board colleague Dejan Ranđić (who would also later go on to become high-ranking LDP official), Andrić founded the marketing agency Gistro Advertising that has in the years since done prominent product launches and ad campaigns for various clients in Serbia such as government ministries, political parties (including the transformed Otpor!), local municipalities, and state-owned enterprises.
Lasting legacy
model for similar youth movements around Eastern Europe. MTV granted Otpor the Free Your Mind
Free Your Mind
"Free Your Mind" is the name of a Grammy Award-nominated hit single released by the American all-female R&B group En Vogue. Released on September 24, 1992 "Free Your Mind" is the third single released from En Vogue's critically acclaimed album Funky Divas...
award in 2000. There were several award-winning documentaries made about the movement, most notably "Making of The Revolution" by Eric Van Den Broek and Katarina Rejger (launched at the Amnesty International Film Festival in 2001) and "Bringing Down A Dictator" by Steve York, which won a Peabody Award in 2002, narrated by Martin Sheen. It has reportedly been seen by over 23 million people around the world.
Otpor members were instrumental in inspiring and providing hands-on training to several other civic youth organizations in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and elsewhere, including Kmara
Kmara
Kmara is a civic resistance movement in the republic of Georgia which undermined the government of Eduard Shevardnadze. After international observers condemned his government's conduct of the November 2003 parliamentary elections, Kmara led the protests which precipitated his downfall in what...
in the Republic of Georgia (itself partly responsible for the downfall
Rose Revolution
The "Revolution of Roses" was a change of power in Georgia in November 2003, which took place after having widespread protests over the disputed parliamentary elections...
of Eduard Shevardnadze
Eduard Shevardnadze
Eduard Shevardnadze is a former Soviet, and later, Georgian statesman from the height to the end of the Cold War. He served as President of Georgia from 1995 to 2003, and as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party , from 1972 to 1985. Shevardnadze was responsible for many top decisions on...
), Pora
Pora
PORA! , meaning IT'S TIME! in Ukrainian, is a civic youth organization and political party in Ukraine espousing nonviolent resistance and advocating increased national democracy...
in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(which was part of the Orange Revolution
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...
), Zubr
Zubr (political organization)
Zubr was a civic youth organization in Belarus backed by the United States and western powers in opposition to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The organization drew inspiration from Otpor student movement which contributed to the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, and from Gene Sharp's...
in Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
(opposing the president Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko has been serving as the President of Belarus since 20 July 1994. Before his career as a politician, Lukashenko worked as director of a state-owned agricultural farm. Under Lukashenko's rule, Belarus has come to be viewed as a state whose conduct is out of line...
), MJAFT!
MJAFT!
MJAFT! is a non governmental organisation in Albania that aims to raise awareness of the many political and social problems facing Albania. MJAFT! grew out of a grassroots effort by students and other volunteers. The organisation is partly funded by the U.S...
in Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, Oborona
Oborona
Oborona is a non-partisan civic youth movement in Russia. Its name means "Defense [from]" in Russian. The movement was established in 2005 and has no leader or centralized structure. Instead, it is based on the network principle and mostly horizontal relations.The movement opposes what they call...
in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
(opposing the president Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
), KelKel
KelKel
KelKel is a youth movement in Kyrgyzstan that gained some prominence during the Tulip Revolution of March 2005 that culminated in the ousting of President Askar Akayev. Translated from the Kyrgyz language, KelKel means "renaissance and shining of the good"....
in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
(active in the revolution that brought down the president Askar Akayev
Askar Akayev
Askar Akayevich Akayev served as the President of Kyrgyzstan from 1990 until his overthrow in the March 2005 Tulip Revolution....
), Bolga in Uzbekistan (opposing Islam Karimov) and Nabad-al-Horriye in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. A similar group of students was present in Venezuela against Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
. In 2008, an April 6 Youth Movement
April 6 Youth Movement
The April 6 Youth Movement is an Egyptian Facebook group started in Spring 2008 to support the workers in El-Mahalla El-Kubra, an industrial town, who were planning to strike on April 6....
was founded Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, the group which has facilitated and joined the 2011 Egyptian protests, and took advice from Otpor in the process.
In 2002, some of former Otpor members, most notably Slobodan Djinovic and Srdja Popović, founded the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS). This NGO disseminated the lessons learned from their successful nonviolent struggle through scores of trainings and workshops for pro-democracy activists and others around the world, including Egypt, Palestine, Western Sahara, West Papua, Eritrea, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Tonga, Burma and Zimbabwe as well as labor, anti-war, and immigration rights activists in the United States.
In their search for lessons learned from other activist movements, the April 6 Youth Movement
April 6 Youth Movement
The April 6 Youth Movement is an Egyptian Facebook group started in Spring 2008 to support the workers in El-Mahalla El-Kubra, an industrial town, who were planning to strike on April 6....
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
consulted with Otpor members and adopted some of their strategies in their rallying for the 2011 Egyptian revolution
2011 Egyptian revolution
The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 and is still continuing as of November 2011. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil...
.
In interviews, the leaders and consultants of Otpor! have described their involvement in the planning, coordination and implementation of the 2011 "Arab spring" revolutions.
External links
- Otpor website
- Canvas, heir of Otpor in Belgrade
- Foreign Policy magazine Story of OTPOR and Arab Spring by Tina Rosenberg, february 16. 2011.
- Reuters Story about OTPOR and CANVAS
- About OTPOR campaigns
- Otpor: the youths who booted Milosevic
- Bringing Down a Dictator; A Force More Powerful: Otpor and other Nonviolent resistance experiences (also on imdb)
- From Dictatorship to Democracy, by Gene Sharp
- Interview with Ivan Marovic Feral TribuneFeral TribuneFeral Tribune was a Croatian political weekly magazine. Based in Split, it first started as a political satire supplement in Nedjeljna Dalmacija before evolving into an independent satirical weekly paper in 1993...
, February 9, 2006 - Michael Barker, Regulating revolutions in Eastern Europe: Polyarchy and the National Endowment for Democracy, 1 November 2006.
- Ponovo aktiviranje "Otpora", policija i privođenje novinara, Deutsche Welle, April 11, 2008
- Deset godina od osnivanja Otpora, Blic, November 11, 2008
- Tadić: „Otpor“ imao važnu ulogu u reformama Srbije, Blic, November 14, 2008