This month, more than 40 prominent democracy activists from around the world met at UVA under the banner of the “People Power Academy,” the brainchild of the University’s Democratic Futures Project, led by English professor Steve Parks, in partnership with the Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS) under the leadership of famed Serbian democracy activist Srdja Popovic. Over the course of three days, the activists shared riveting stories of political persecution and imprisonment, popular triumph over autocrats, and innovative strategies and tactics for promoting nonviolent change.
Participants in the Academy came from a diverse array of political traditions and backgrounds. There was Leopoldo López, a former Caracas mayor who spent nearly seven years in prison for his efforts to demand democratic reform in Venezuela. Sudanese leader Rania Aziz peacefully mobilized women to demand a voice in Sudan’s transformation and civil service reform. Zimbabwean pastor Evan Mawarire survived multiple imprisonments and torture for leading a social media protest movement against the oppressive regime of Robert Mugabe. Polish youth activist Dominika Lasota galvanized an unprecedented youth and women’s turnout in Poland’s October 2023 parliamentary elections. Felix Maradiaga, who escaped political imprisonment in Nicaragua as a former Presidential candidate, came to the conference to launch a worldwide political movement against arbitrary detention. And Russia’s Evgenia Chirikova has been a brave and often lone voice in speaking up against Putin’s war against Ukraine and the political corruption that is degrading Russia’s environment.
