Webinar “We’ve Been Here: Resistance to Authoritarianism Beyond the West’s Crisis”
The rise of authoritarian tendencies across the global West has turned public attention toward grassroots and civic organizations as wellsprings of resistance. Yet what now registers in the West as an urgent discovery has long been lived knowledge elsewhere.
In Latin America, Central/Northern Asia, and Eastern Europe, mobilizing social resources against repression, and carving out spaces where communities can sustain an “otherwise” carries deep historical roots. In these regions, resisting restrictive regimes has rarely been a matter of choice. Dialogue among them, however, remains scarce, and their parallel histories of struggle are too seldom brought into the same room.
This webinar seeks to open this conversation.
Rather than treating resistance as an export from the West’s present crisis, we begin from the long memory of those who have been practicing it all along. Together, we will trace the commonalities and divergences across these contexts, exchange strategies, and ask what it means to stand in a shared struggle against regimes that grow more restrictive day by day.
Featured Speakers:
Dr. Ignacy Jozwiak – Researcher at the Center for Migration Research, University of Warsaw, active in labour organizing and civil society.
Dr. Assel Tutumlu – Faculty member at Near East University, specializing in Central Asian (particularly Kazakh) resistance and grassroots movements.
Dr. Armando Chaguaceda – Political scientist at Amherst College and Researcher at Government and Political Analysis AC (GAPAC, Mexico), focusing on democratization and authoritarianism.
Moderator:
Dr. Manuel Ferez Gil – Chilean sociologist at Alberto Hurtado University, and one of the conveners of the Latin America – RUTA Regions dialogue series.
This webinar is happening with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation. It’s content is the exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the International Renaissance Foundation.