In 1968, in Czechoslovakia, behind the Iron Curtain, the Prague Spring was crushed by the Soviet Army after reforms and loosening of government control had, in the view of Moscow, gone too far.#
Activism quietly regrouped over time, adapted, meditated on options. A new generation reached adulthood and seized their moment, found a way to open a protest movement in 1989. #
There was a beautiful episode then, in what soon came to be called the Velvet Revolution, when the protests by young people had escalated to the point that the regime was greatly threatened and seemed likely to take steps to crush this new movement. #
Someone figured out a slogan, which went roughly this way, "We the people of '89 need you the people of '68 to join us."#
People who had hoped for reform in 1968 remembered what hope felt like. They remembered what being crushed felt like. And they knew what it would feel like to see it happen again before their eyes, to happen to their own adult children and the adult children of their friends and neighbors. So the elders, the people of '89, found their courage once again, and joined back in. The protests in Prague continued to grow. Within days, the media found its courage to report accurately and the government resigned.#
The movement called the Velvet Revolution took less than a month, in one sense, though the skill-building and other groundwork took decades.#
The story of reaching out to the people of '89 contains an essential truth of activism. People have to affiliate, have to know how to affiliate, have to seek partnerships, have to understand the power of their potential bonds and their shared humanity. #
People have to know how to affiliate or there is no hope for activism. At all.#
In 1968, in Czechoslovakia, behind the Iron Curtain, the Prague Spring was crushed by the Soviet Army after reforms and loosening of government control had, in the view of Moscow, gone too far.#
Activism quietly regrouped over time, adapted, meditated on options. A new generation reached adulthood and seized their moment, found a way to open a protest movement in 1989. #
There was a beautiful episode then, in what soon came to be called the Velvet Revolution, when the protests by young people had escalated to the point that the regime was greatly threatened and seemed likely to take steps to crush this new movement. #
Someone figured out a slogan, which went roughly this way, "We the people of '89 need you the people of '68 to join us."#
People who had hoped for reform in 1968 remembered what hope felt like. They remembered what being crushed felt like. And they knew what it would feel like to see it happen again before their eyes, to happen to their own adult children and the adult children of their friends and neighbors. So the elders, the people of '89, found their courage once again, and joined back in. The protests in Prague continued to grow. Within days, the media found its courage to report accurately and the government resigned.#
The movement called the Velvet Revolution took less than a month, in one sense, though the skill-building and other groundwork took decades.#
The story of reaching out to the people of '89 contains an essential truth of activism. People have to affiliate, have to know how to affiliate, have to seek partnerships, have to understand the power of their potential bonds and their shared humanity. #
People have to know how to affiliate or there is no hope for activism. At all.#