The Fall of the Berlin Wall was a monumental moment in history, signifying liberation for East Germans and the reunification of Germany. Now taught as the symbolic end of the Cold War, the collapse of this physical representation of the Iron Curtain abolished the oppressive Soviet regime over East Germany, the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Europe
“We Want Albania to Be Like the Rest of Europe”
“We want Albania to be like the rest of Europe” exclaimed Albanian university students whilst discussing their frustration in the governments’ treatment of education as Albania is already experiencing persistent poverty that is exacerbated by a corrupt government.
Toppling the Walls of Patriarchy and Militarism: The Women of Greenham Common
A fundamental tenet of civil disobedience, which entails deliberately violating the law as a means of exposing injustice, is encapsulated by the following phrase: “If you always do as you’re told, then you don’t ever change anything.” Roughly 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall—a physical representation of the regime that fell along with it—these words found their way into a documentary about a peace camp that played a critical role in ending the Cold War.
The Mersey Harm Reduction Model
The Mersey Harm Reduction Model, with its joint services and community collaboration, is a great example of nonviolence in action. Outreach workers actively fought to keep drug-users out of restrictive and violent situations like the carceral system through seeking deals with police and bringing services to where they were most needed
Recent Protests in France and Why They Are so Effective
Recently, French citizens have used nonviolent protests as a way to show the President and his administration their frustration with current social issues or policies. These protests have forced President Macron to change his policies, showing the power that protests can have.
Seven Days that Ended the Prague Spring
“Prague Spring” was a liberalization attempt led by Alexander Dubček, the newly elected first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, to reform socialism in Czechoslovakia and create a more humane version of communism in April 1968. The program included economic and political reforms, the latter specifically focusing on the freedom of speech and press.
Hands Across the Baltics: The Story of the Baltic Way
In 1986, between 5 and 6.5 million Americans held hands for 15 minutes in an attempt to create a human chain across the United States. The event was known as “Hands Across America” and aimed to raise money for poverty and hunger. Three years later, two million Latvian, Estonian, and Lithuanian citizens joined hands, not to raise money, but to protest the illegal occupation of their countries by the Soviet Union.
Serbia in the 1990s: An Introduction to [Nonviolent] Protest in Eastern Europe
There is a prevailing idea that social beliefs are determined by political boundaries. In the US, pundits often talk about the difference between red states and blue states and an increasingly divided and polarized America. It promotes a level of antagonism between traditionally liberal and conservative states, yet every state is made up of a wide array of people with beliefs from every point on the political spectrum.