[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are this has aroused your interest. This Reader is about the steps needed to channel the frustrations among HR fighters as a historical imperative when facing so many (not unsurmountable) obstacles. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text]. Traducir/traduire los/les Readers; usar/utiliser deepl.com
—You cannot confront an emergency with talk and homeopathy. (Hugh Montgomery)
–There are moments when an idea stops being an idea. It becomes a responsibility. (Anh Hao Bui)
1. Today, what matters is the ability to be outraged; people who remain indifferent are no longer a useful social force. Let people be outraged, but let them participate, feel like they are part of society, and trust that they can contribute, in their own small way, to making the world a better place.* (Roberto Savio)
*: What so many fail to understand is that freedom is not the ability to do what we like, but the obligation to do what we ought to. (Pope John Paul II) Easier said than done… In 1935, Upton Sinclair (American author, journalist and political activist, 1878-1968) pointed out: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it”.
Domination works by damaging the human capacity for action, i.e., the capacity of channeling anger (Hannah Arendt (German-American historian and philosopher, 1906-1975 in her book The Origins of Totalitarianism).
—Repression weakens claim holders’ expectations, because it affects them negatively. (People participate more when they believe their actions can indeed influence outcomes).
2. Authoritarian, repressive systems do more than punish dissent.** Over time, they erode expectations about what action can achieve. But human rights (HR) activists organize people, not because they believe they will prevail, but because they believe that participation matters. Over time, isolated episodes of teaching people a broader lesson do accumulate. That progressive effort does eventually alter outcomes. Yes, people may withdraw, because they no longer expect their actions to achieve outcomes, or simply to avoid risk. Sadly, once members of a society broadly share this expectation of weakened prospects, this can easily become self-reinforcing; non-participation starts to feel normal.
**: Note: Repression does not always produce passivity. In some contexts, repression can provoke people to resist (look at Iran), to seek new solidarities and alternative forms of mobilization. Prolonged repression though constrains action and narrows what people imagine to be possible.
3. Human rights defenders do work through repeated setbacks, wins with limited visibility and also chronic uncertainty. When sustained efforts appear disconnected from impact, exhaustion is at once physical, emotional, and political. The risk is, not only fewer actions today, but also a weakened belief in action tomorrow. Activists and claim holders have to avoid becoming dependent on backstabbing authorities. Authoritarianism does, not simply constrain civic life, it reshapes how people understand power and their relationship to it. Reopening civic space is not enough if citizens no longer believe themselves to be effective political actors. What must be rebuilt is self-confidence, even under authoritarian regimes. (Esset Samatova)
4. In channeling outrage towards HR violations, the most important work of HR activists is not necessarily seen, but it must be felt by claim holders. (Zapatista Movement) And yes, the two most powerful warriors are patience and time! (Leo Tolstoy)
Human rights activists have always persevered in the face of adversity
—Resilience is already alive in the hope, courage and adaptability of those who are, more and more showing up.
5. The current crises are unprecedented on many levels. They are global, striking at the heart of what we believe-in and fight-for. And the governments in the drivers’ seat of the interrelated crises unbelievably enjoy public support, even as leaders misuse that support to serve their own ends.
6. The far right is weaponizing nationalism and fear, is dismantling protections and is criminalizing dissent. Civic space is shrinking dramatically as we witness a perfect storm of repression.
7. NGOs and activists are urged to ‘stay strong’ while the very foundations of their survival erode. We cannot forget that resilience is political and shaped by power relations. But, in recent years, resilience has become a buzzword in civil society and funding circles. A faddish misuse of the term often fails to confront the root causes of oppression, or worse, shifts responsibility back onto already-exhausted HR defenders.
8. Resilience then encourages complacency, resignation and the preservation of the very status–quo that created the need for resilience in the first place.
9. What defenders are calling for is, not less pressure, but rather more honesty about what resilience really means, and calling out who is accountable for it. Power dynamics, cultural histories, and political risks all shape how defenders respond and recover. As one activist noted, “There is more to resilience than organizational strengthening. It is about the conditions that allow us to keep fighting and healing together.”
10. The role of funders, in this context, ought not to prescribe what resilience should look like, but to listen, support, and create space for it to grow since resilience already exists, but it needs support.
Bottom line
11. What is happening now is not just another difficult year or two. It is a global inflection point for the HR movement. Authoritarian leaders are testing the limits of impunity. Donors are recalibrating their priorities. The frontline is becoming lonelier. (Lucia Nader, Ashley Thomas et al)
12. Our activists have all shared their exhaustion, their helplessness, their feeling of being ‘too few’ in the face of such a powerful system. They are not alone in this. That exhaustion is not weakness; it is proof that they are in the fight. It is this ‘Dignified Rage’ that makes them feel the weight of the struggle, but that prevents them from giving up. Because fatigue is not discouragement. It is the cost of staying the course, of caring, and of resisting. (And you, fellow activists, are you resisting?).
13. We are left, then, with a set of questions, that are, in turn, actually a program for our struggle: a) What can we do ‘on a large scale’? b) How can we dismantle the markets that make us sick? c) How can we confront the predatory pharmaceutical and food companies? And d) How can we talk about peace in the midst of war?
14. We do not have definitive answers, but we do have the certainty that these questions, posed as a community of claim holders, are already the beginning of the answers. Yes, the challenges are many, but they all boil down to one: keeping alive the coherence between what we say and what we do. If we speak of ‘Digna Rabia’, we must offer channels for that rage to transform into action. (Gabriel Garcia, PHM Mesoamerica)
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com
#HumanRightsReaders #HumanRights #ClaudioSchuftan
Postscript/Marginalia
—Signing declarations and petitions is the way that we try to be nice to our strategic enemies or to behave in a good, polite way. But our signing just gets us the respectability of middle-class liberals who have never had to fight for justice and survival. (Anthea Lawson)