How to Start a Revolution Page #3

That whole event, which it should be remembered,

was not just in Beijing

but reportedly in 350 other cities of China,

similar protests were going on.

But they were not planned.

They were not prepared.

There was no strategic decision.

There was no advanced decision how long you

stay in the square and when you leave.

The students had no plan.

They were improvising all the way through,

and later on we know that many of those

Chinese people who were out on the streets,

in another day, were shot and killed.

The attitude that you simply improvise

and improvisation will bring you

greater success is nonsense.

Exactly the opposite.

That if you dont know what youre doing,

youre likely to get into big trouble.

Serbia, 2000

The government of Slobodan Milosevic, in Serbia,

presided over years of crimes against

humanity and brutal internal repression.

The regime fueled the creation of new democracy

groups in the country fighting, for his removal.

I went to Budapest at the request of the

International Republican Institute,

which was providing support to

the Serbian Opposition Movement,

and one particular part of that

opposition movement was Otpor.

Thats a Serbian word for resistance.

Hes a retired colonel, and he has

this type of military approach,

and the way he speaks is really something that

creates a strange impression

with a bunch of student leaders.

We talked for a while, and I said:

Well, theres something missing here.

We havent talked about whos

leader of this organization.

Who is the leader?

And then one guy said: We dont have a leader.

And I said:
Well, wait a minute guys.

I did not fall off the turnip truck coming over here.

Somebody has to lead an organization that

has mobilized the entire Serbian society.

So we spent probably one hour

fooling him about some stuff,

and the reason for this was that we were not

very comfortable about giving the details

about the organization to the foreigner.

And then they explained to me,

why theres no quote leader.

To keep it away from the government.

The government doesnt know whos in charge.

And I later found out I was talking to the leader,

Srdja Popovic.

Belgrade

Bob began teaching Gene Sharp's lessons

to the new Serbian revolutionaries.

When Bob Helvey gave us the Gene Sharps politics

of nonviolent action, we were quite amazed.

Partly I was ashamed that I didnt

know about such a book before,

even if there was a translation of From

Dictatorship to Democracy in Serbian,

but I had never seen it.

And seeing the knowledge of how power operates,

and pillars of the support operates,

and all this stuff, we needed to learn

the hard way throughout our experience

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