“The hands that grow food give life to the nation”

The All India Kisan Struggle Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), representing almost two hundred farmer organisations, organised the Kisan Mukti March to Delhi to highlight the worsening agrarian scenario and the continued neglect of the agricultural sector by the government.

Rhythm of Resistance: When T M Krishna Did Sing

T M Krishna made a public announcement asking for a stage, anywhere in Delhi for him to come and sing and three days after his performance was cancelled, he did perform.
 
Letter Sent to the President of the Sahitya Akademi in Support of Damodar Mauzo

It is with a sense of considerable anxiety and dismay that we who belong to the community of writers, a community which holds fast to democratic and secular values enshrined in our constitution, have noticed recent developments relating to writers. We are specifically pointing to the news that Konkani writer and Sahitya Academy award winner, Prof. Damodar Mauzo has been so badly trolled and threatened that the Goa police on its own decided to provide him and his family police protection. 

All India Women’s Protest Rally

Thousands of women marched towards the Parliament on September 4, chanting slogans and singing songs of resistance. Women from 20 different states participated in the march in New Delhi, protesting against the ever-increasing culture of violence and injustice against women in the country and the insolent silence of the government on this matter.

Writers against Self-censorship

The thugs policing our cultural fraternity have struck again. In response to the violent threats against his family, Malayalam writer S Hareesh has now withdrawn his novel Meesa (Moustache) being serialised by Mathrubhumi, stating that he will publish it when “the climate is congenial”. Writers from across India express their solidarity with S Hareesh.

Artists Respond to the Kisan Long March

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) mobilised over 25,000 farmers across Maharashtra to come together for a march from Nashik to Mumbai, covering a distance of 200 km, by foot. They began the march on 6 March 2018. The Kisan Long March, as it is being called, demanded loan waivers and implementation of the Swaminathan Committee report, according to which farmers should be paid one and a half times the cost of production for what they produce.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum
 

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Gujarat govt cancels permission for Azaadi Kooch, Dalit Freedom March on Una anniversary: Rally from Ahmedabad to Mehsana to continue, warns Jignesh Mevani. Today, July 11 public meeting at Ambedkar Hall in Saraspur, Ahmedabad, on the Una incident anniversary would be held at 12.00 noon, RDAM added, “Kanhiya Kumar would be its star attraction.”

In the third major attempt since June first week to curb the democratic right to protest, the Gujarat government has cancelled permission to well-known Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani’s Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (RDAM) to hold what he called “Azadi Kooch” or Freedom March in North Gujarat. Azaadi Kooch, the Freedom March was to be flagged off on July 12 in North Gujarat’s biggest town, Mehsana, and end further north in Dhanera in Banaskantha district on July 18 with a mass rally, and was planned to coincide with the first anniversary of the gruesome Una incident, in which cow vigilantes flogged four Dalit boys on “suspicion” of cow slaughter.

The Freedom March, Mevani told Sabrangindia, had the support of well-known Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, who was participate in the first day rally in Mehsana. It also had the support of “Patel leaders Varun Patel, Reshma Patel and Muslim leaders of North Gujarat”, he adds.

Mevani & Kanhaiya in 2016 at the Una March

Poster announcing Freedom March following cop permissionAlleging that the decision not to allow the Freedom March to take place was behest of Gujarat’s deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, Mevani says, “This shows the BJP government’s anti-Dalit mindset”, adding, “Finding massive support from Patels and Muslims, Sangh Parivar and BJP were terribly disturbed.”

Interestingly, on June 27, the Gujarat government had allowed the Freedom March to take place on the basis of the application given by Kaushik Parmar of the RDAM on June 1. “However”, contends Mevani, “Finding that this would adversely affect the political fortunes BJP in North Gujarat, the decision to withdrawn.”

Notably, on July 7, the Gujarat government detained senior farmers’ leaders Sagar Rabari of the Khedut Samaj Gujarat and Alpesh Thakor of the OBC Ekta Manch, because they took out their pre-announced 25-km footmarch from Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad, to Gandhinagar, the state capital, for which the police refused permission.

After keeping it pending for several days, the Gujarat police granted permission to hold #NotInMyName protest in Ahmedabad on July 8, but limited the period from 3 to 6 pm in a posh area of the Satellite Road, even as declaring that the protesters would not be allowed to use loudspeaker.

Ahmedabad conference to "continue"
A month ago, on June 7, well-known anti-dam leader Medha Patkar-led Narmada Bachao Andolan rally was stopped as it tried to enter into Gujarat from Madhya Pradesh. Patkar, accompanied by several activists, including Magsaysay Award winning Odisha tribal rights leader Prafulla Samantara, who accompanied her, were detained and sent back to Madhya Pradesh.
Warns Mevani, “Despite refusal of permission, we have decided to go ahead with our Freedom March. Let the Gujarat police do what it wants to. Thousands of people will gather in Mehsana’s Somnath Chowk on July 12 at 10 in the morning.”

Menawhile, criticizing the Gujarat government for cancelling the permission, RDAM in a statement has challenged Nitin Patel, who belong to North Gujarat, “to win the next elections”, adding, “Dalits, Patels, farmers’ organizations, businessmen, all will now work out a strategy to defeat him in the assembly polls scheduled in December.” The statement insisted, “Even today, the Una victims have still not been received justice. Cow vigilantes’ terror continues unabated. Farmers’ debts have not been waived. While Dalits’ and neglected sections are denied permission to hold their protest march, crores are spent on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s roadshows.”

Jignesh Mevani on the Significance of this Year's Azaadi Kooch, Dalit Freedom March

Appeal from Jignesh Mevani, Coordinator, Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch

Friends,
The coming 11th of July (today) would mark the first anniversary of the historic Una struggle. Last year on the 11th of July Vashram Sarvaiya, his brother Ramesh and their cousins Ashok and Bechar were mercilessly lynched in front of the police station by so called “gau-rakshaks” who then even uploaded this barbarity proudly on social media which shook the world.

In this one year, such atrocities on Dalits and instances of violence perpetrated in the name of “gau-raksha” has only multiplied manifold while the perpetrators roam free with impunity. Una, Dadri, Latehar, Alwar, Saharapur, Pratapgarh – are all witness to the trail of blood left by the RSS/BJP’s path towards a Hindu India.

In this context, the manner in which the Dalits of Gujarat brought the Muslims and various progressive/democratic together last year, it has registered itself as a milestone in the history of Dalit resistance in this country. The manner in which the Dalits left the carcasses of dead cattle in front of the DM’s office in Surendranagar district, it created ripples across the country as a symbol of resistance and resilience against saffron terror. And then on 31stJuly in Ahmedabad 20,000 Dalits came together to take an oath in front of Babasaheb Ambedkar that they will no more do the task of skinning dead animals and instead the government should help them break free from such inter-generational caste-determined labour and they should be provided 5 acres of land each. This was followed by the historic Dalit Asmita Yatra from Ahmedabad to Una where thousands participated and exposed the farce of Modi’s slogan of “sabka saath sabka vikas”.

This movement also provided much needed energy and hope to lakhs of youth and progressive forces across the country. Not only did Dalits of several villages give up skinning dead cattle, but also they took possession of 300 acres of land that had been redistributed 26 years back. Today it is this struggle of both dignity and existence that the Rashtiya Dalit Adhikar Manch is taking forward.

We believe that Dalits in their fight for self-respect and existence, should leave their traditional labour and instead focus on land, government jobs and alternative livelihood and should revitalize themselves to march ahead and organize themselves along with the survivors of Dadri, Alwar and Latehar to initiate the second phase of the historic Una March.

With this objective we are calling upon all Dalits, Muslims, Workers and the unemployed youth of this country to join us in a march – Azaadi Koonch – from Mahsana district of North Gujarat to Banaskhada district to fight against not just the casteist forces and the gau rakshaks, but also the institutionalised murder of workers and farmers and the destitution of thousands of unemployed youth.

At this juncture we would also like to remind one and all about the broken promises made by the then Chief Minister Anandiben Patel last year on her visit to Mota Samadhiyala village after the lynching of Dalits. In fact the casteist Gujarat government did not even bother to challenge the interim bail granted to the accused. The drama-king Narendra Modi who also hails from Gujarat on the one hand calls himself an “Ambedkar bhakt” while on the other hand inspires his puppet government in Gujarat to adopt the Nagpur model of granting life imprisonment for cattle slaughter. Is this the lesson that he has chosen to learn from Una, Saharanpur or Rohith Vemula’s murder?

In this country two Dalits are killed every day with them largely being the victims of mob violence too. But the rulers today find it urgent to enact laws for protection of cows and not against lynching of human beings. Hence as part of Azaadi Koonch we would demand an effective law to address mob lynchings like Dadri or Una so as to punish the perpetrators.

This Azadi Koonch in its last phase shall reach Banaskantha and Rapar Tehsil where landless Dalits have received redistributed land, but only on paper, and where their lands are under dominant caste-hold. So the government basically wants to keep the Dalits landless and thereby force them to continue with manual scavenging, sweeping and cleaning. When corporate are given land, the possession is ensured overnight if required by force. But when it comes to the Dalits and the landless, then we see that more than a lakh of hectares of redistributed land still remain on paper since last forty years with no actual possession in the hands of the Dalits. The Azaadi Koonch shall end with taking possession over this land where the tricoulour shall be unfurled. This is what we mean by our real Azaadi.
Since the fight for land is also the fight for self-respect and freedom from economic exploitation, the Azaadi Koonch would reiterate the principles of annihilation of caste and eradication of economic slavery. We will take all of this into account so as to broaden our consciousness and also broaden the very definition of freedom.

We expect all justice-loving democratic citizen shall come forward and join us to make the Azaadi Koonch a success.   
 
Related Articles:

1. Land to the Dalit Tiller, not to Tycoons is our Mission: Jignesh Mevani

2. If the Cow is Your Mother, You Bury Her: Gujarat Dalits Cry Liberation

3. ‘Pratirodh’: Dalits from 10 Gujarat Villages unite to combat Caste Atrocities

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In the Arab world, even the smallest acts of resistance can give a sense of self-worth, encouraging a long-demoralized people to feel that change, after all, is possible.

 
Long before the term was coined, Egyptians had been very proud of their country’s “soft power,” and rightly so. In the Arab world, Egypt is the most populous country and it has the most potent army, a pivotal location and an influential intelligentsia.

If Cairo sneezed, it was commonly said, the whole region would catch a cold. There could be no Arab war against Israel without Egypt, as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said. Indeed, Egypt was the trendsetter of the region, paving the way for war and peace negotiations with Israel in the 1950s and 1970s, respectively.

Furthermore, the manifestations of Egypt’s cultural influence are ubiquitous. Unlike other Arab dialects, colloquial Egyptian is widely understood and quite popular. The presence of Egypt’s arts – music, film, and television series – can be seen in almost every corner of the region.

It is common to hear the songs of the iconic Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum in the streets of Fez, the souqs of Muscat or the nightclubs of Beirut. And for a long time, Egypt was the birthplace of ideas, the source of knowledge, and the propagator of ideologies; “Cairo writes, Beirut publishes, Baghdad reads,” goes the classic adage.

However, unrivaled in the Arab world as it was, Egypt’s soft power – its political preeminence and cultural appeal – has worn thin in the past few decades. Politically, Egypt lost much of its appeal in the late 1970s when it defected from the anti-Israel camp. In tandem, politics in the Arab world shifted from the hotbeds of ‘thawra’ to the bases of ‘tharwa’, from revolution to wealth. In the decades that followed, moreover, Egypt seemed to be less ambitious and more uncertain of itself.

A population boom, shrinking resources and economic mismanagement have led to protracted socioeconomic crises and the proliferation of poverty. Egypt is now too weighed down by its own troubles to be able to radiate significant influence among its neighbors.

The images of Egypt that come to the minds of fellow Arabs today are that of an exploding population hemmed in by scores of constraints; cities that are impoverished and overly crowded; a society that is nearly falling apart from pressing social, economic and religious divisions; and a state of misery that begets sympathy. Furthermore, there’s the grip of an authoritarian regime that has lost touch with the world, and a fatigued economy that is unable to feed the citizens of the country.

The winds of change have simultaneously been blowing in the region as a new order unfolded in the aftermath of the oil boom of the 1970s. The Arabs of the Gulf states, who had traditionally been in Egypt’s shadow, have changed massively. Great windfall gains transformed them from simple Bedouins who lived by tending camels and sheep to entrepreneurs promoting ideas and investors building skyscrapers. The paths these states have taken have elicited admiration and their success stories have stolen the attention from poverty-stricken Egypt.

Dubai has become a trade and entertainment centre and a symbol of modernity to be emulated. Qatar will be the first Arab country to host the football World Cup, scheduled to take place in 2022. Last February, the UAE has appointed its first minister of happiness, a step taken “to create social good and satisfaction.”

In contrast, Egyptians complain more than anything else. The country’s confidence is shaken, its spirits are low, and its pride is wounded. For Egyptians, the notion of happiness is so distant, so unreal. At best, it is a far-fetched dream; at worst, an impossibility. Indeed, in the face of life’s great hardships, most Egyptians only ask for el-satr, protection and sufficiency.  

Nevertheless, a few lights are still glimmering in the darkness of Egypt’s present. To be sure, great nations do not die or fade away overnight. Its pressing problems notwithstanding, Egypt is still a place that is full of life and activity. Its vibrant soul carries a great appeal, and on several recent occasions, Egypt was able to stir the imagination and captivate the hearts of its neighbors.

For instance, Arabs were awed by the thrilling images of the 2011 revolution. Watching peaceful demonstrators bravely defy police forces; pious prayer on the Kasr al-Nil bridge while they were being showered by water cannons; turning Tahrir Square into a hub of revolution and music and satire; and eventually forcing a despot, who ruled for thirty years, to step down (after less than three weeks of protests) was indeed inspiring. The revolution was young and vigorous and promising. It was nothing short of an earthquake that attempted to shatter the old world–old leaders, old institutions and old mentalities.    

Then there is this aura of fascination about Bassem Youssef, the political satirist who rose to prominence after the 2011 revolution. Dubbed as Egypt’s Jon Stewart, Youssef capitalized on his own sense of humor and charisma to mercilessly lampoon figures of authority: the president, politicians, the top brass and religious leaders. At the time of his weekly show (suspended since June 2014), Arabs from the ocean to the gulf were glued to their television sets.

Despite the show’s peculiar Egyptian character, many Arabs felt they could relate to it. After all, their grievances and aspirations are very similar to Egypt’s. Decades earlier, the sharp political verses of the vernacular poet Ahmed Fouad Negm (1929 – 2013) had a similar impact, giving a voice to the voiceless. Negm was rebellious, outspoken, and humorous. His poems on revolution and love are still popular in the Arab world.

Where the sense of defeat is overwhelming, the spirit of resistance is appealing.

What is the common denominator between these examples? In one word: resistance. Where the sense of defeat is overwhelming, the spirit of resistance is appealing. One generation after another, Arab peoples have come to be deeply frustrated by various realities that seem unchangeable: autocrats that preside over republics and monarchies of fear, Israel’s military superiority in the region and its subjugation of Palestinians, the growing scientific and technological gap between the Arab world and the advanced world.

As a result, helplessness has defined the way they view themselves. They continue to be torn between a culture that idolizes manliness and a reality that is soaked in defeat and humiliation. For any action, as the laws of physics explain, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is not the case in social sciences, especially in the Arab world where people descended into an ocean of despair, lamenting the wretched present and a history of missed opportunities.  

In such a milieu, resistance is a psychological remedy, a cathartic experience. Whether seen as a means to an end or an end in itself, resistance makes defeated people feel human and alive and capable. In the Cairo Trilogy, Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz wrote that sexual instincts were implanted in humans by God only to make them feel the joy of resistance.

Indeed, the courage to resist is “the secret of a man,” as Jean-Paul Sartre put it. Another French philosopher, Jacques Derrida, wrote that resistance “is the most beautiful word in the politics and history” of France. The genesis of philosophy can, in fact, be traced to an act of resistance, that of Socrates challenging Athens and its values and ethos.

It is no exaggeration to say that resistance is an integral part of politics, of life itself. Foucault inverted Clausewitz’s famous line that war is the continuation of politics by other means. For Foucault, politics is necessarily a continuous struggle; “power is war, the continuation of war by other means,” he said. So where there is power, there is resistance. Therefore, resistance is a healthy sign of a vibrant society, not a reckless act of rogue minds, as authoritarian regimes want us to believe.   

In the Arab world, even the smallest – and merely symbolic – acts of resistance, like burning an Israeli flag or quipping about an unjust ruler, can give a sense of self-worth. As it is rooted in practice and possesses the initiative, resistance could make the long-demoralized people feel that change is possible, that their defeat is not final, that even their wildest aspirations can one day be met. Resistance can be a garden of hope in the Arab world’s jungle of anguish.

If Egypt – the nation, not the state, regime or government – wants to rise from the ashes of defeat, its best bid would be to raise the flag of resistance, and not any kind of resistance. In order to avoid the setbacks that befell many endeavors in the past, resistance should not be an act in the void—incognizant of its limits, detached from reality, immersed in folly, and destined to fail.

A better, fruitful kind of resistance is the one that seeks to develop people, enable them to be more educated, conscious, and equipped with a sense of direction and a vision for the future. Standing in the middle, between silence and violence, and coupled with persistence and perseverance, this resistance should be committed to both peacefulness and rejection of the present state of affairs.

Above all, Egypt’s weakness lies in its docility and lazy ignorance. Egypt’s ability to rise above its wounds is hinged upon its capacity to shake the dust off its soul. Egypt the volition, the action, the resistance, not the status quo, is the panacea.
 
This article originally appeared on Open Democracy. The link can be found here

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Courtesy: www.indianculturalforum.in

Let me begin by wishing us all a happier New Year than the past year has been.

Last year, we had to watch a series of events that attacked our democratic right of freedom of expression and our culture of secularism. It was a dangerous trend that we could not ignore, and we did not ignore it. Many of us took action against it, and the general public reaction against this trend sounded a note of warning to those who were responsible for it. But the danger is by no means over.

Just the other day I was planning to see the movie Bajirao Mastani in Dehra Dun where I live, but a bunch of people turned up at the cinema and stopped it from being shown. The same thing has happened in Mumbai and I don’t know where else. And it has happened with other movies, books, book launches, music concerts, exhibitions of paintings and so on. A gang turns up, maybe armed with sticks and stones, or black paint, or guns, and forces the closure of whatever they disagree with. It has become so usual, that apart from a small paragraph in the newspapers, nothing happens to the thugs who go on behaving this way.

There have been incidents of violence against free expression before, but they didn’t have the protection of people in power. Now the attack on dissent is both official – to wipe out history and science and replace them with mythology – and unofficial, by thugs, who have gone to the extent of murdering and lynching those who disagree with them. So the question is, Are we going to let other people dictate what we should read, or look at, or listen to?

In the last year and a half, this has become a question we can’t ignore. This is why many writers like me returned our Sahitya Akademi Awards in protest against the murder of three writers – two of them well-known rationalists who had refused to kowtow to superstition. When these assassinations were followed by the brutal lynching of a poor blacksmith, Mohammad Akhlaq, on the excuse that he was a beef eater, the whole country was shocked and revolted. Many scientists, historians, film makers and film stars spoke up against the rising tide of hatred in the country, and the trampling of human rights. The President, and earlier the Vice President, had already spoken out against this ugliness.

It was clear these were not isolated incidents. They are not just part of a fringe mentality that wants to control the way we live and think, and eat and worship. They are part and parcel of the outlook known as Hindutva whose objective is to establish a Hindu rashtra – which will divide Indians into Hindus and Others, treating all others as second-class citizens. So these incidents are an attack on our Indianness, and on the very meaning of India, which chose, at independence, to reject a religious identity, and become a secular democratic republic.

They are part and parcel of the outlook known as Hindutva whose objective is to establish a Hindu rashtra – which will divide Indians into Hindus and Others, treating all others as second-class citizens. So these incidents are an attack on our Indianness, and on the very meaning of India, which chose, at independence, to reject a religious identity, and become a secular democratic republic.

One way of raising our voices against this threat is by holding festivals of literature like this one [in Hyderabad], where writers and readers and critics can get together to discuss and debate, and agree or disagree. This way, we give public notice of the fact that writers will go on writing the stories they want to write, publishers will go on publishing them, readers will read what they wish to read, and that none of us will toe the line of those who want to make rules about how we should think, or live, or worship, and they certainly cannot tell us what we should or should not eat.

Life and literature are not in separate compartments, which is why our fight for the freedom to write has become a much larger one connected with our lives in general. In the past year, we have heard strange announcements that will affect our daily lives unless we vigorously oppose them. We have been hearing that women must be home before dark, that married women must confine themselves to looking after their homes, and not work outside their homes. Apparently their job in life is to stay pregnant, since we are told that a Hindu wife should produce a certain number of children so that the Hindu population increases. We might well ask ourselves, is this for real? But what else can we think, when these fantastic statements come from leading lights of the ruling Hindutva ideology, and no one in authority has contradicted them?

Women are always the worst victims of fundamentalism, so how is such a mindset, if it is allowed to have its way, going to affect the lives of Indian women — barring the wealthy, independent upper crust, and those who are lucky enough to live in a liberal environment? We are already coping with a primitive mindset in parts of our society that forbids menstruating women, or any women, from entering temples; a mindset that aborts female foetuses, that persecutes or kills women for more dowry, that savagely punishes inter-religious or inter-caste marriages, and that calls rape the fault of the way women dress. Crimes against women are commonplace among us. Do we really need a fundamentalist mindset to make such thinking socially acceptable, and respectable? As it is, we are living in a world where the Taliban and ISIS and other fanatics are making life hell-on-earth for those who disagree with them, and reducing women to sub-human status. So we don’t need any home-grown fanatics adding their own brands of madness to the madness that already surrounds us.

Debate and dissent are part of Indian tradition, and they have never been confined to intellectuals. We have heard voices from the ground up, protesting against the Bhopal gas disaster, taking part in the Narmada Bachao Andolan, in the Chipko movement in Uttarakhand to protect the forests from destruction, on nuclear issues, and on many other issues that affect the lives of the aam-admi. And this right to dissent is particularly important today on the national level when we have to decide whether we want to go on building a modern society in the 21^st century, which will remain open to knowledge and reason, or be pushed backwards into unreason, superstition, and ignorance.

Raising our voices against the backward tide has made a difference. I have noticed that Christmas was allowed to be Christmas this year and there was no nonsense about calling it “good governance day”. Gandhi Jayanti, which was reduced to Jhadoo Day last year, has not quite been restored to a day of remembrance of one of the greatest men of all time – but at least ministers wielding jhadoos (brooms) have not filled the TV screens.

In a democracy, public opinion has a huge role to play in reversing an evil tide. And fiction and films influence public opinion, not by making political statements or polemics, but by the stories they tell and the way they tell them. The greatest of these have always involved themselves with the controversies of their times, whether these were political, social or economic. I am reminded of a film classic of the 1940s called The Great Dictator, produced and acted by Charlie Chaplin. At a time when Europe was occupied and terrorised by Hitler, Chaplin made him a ridiculous figure and a laughing stock in a hilarious comedy. We have no shortage of creative genius in our many languages and in our film world. So it is a great time for creative people to go to work – through wit, irony, satire, and sheer comedy – on all that is happening today.

So let me wish us all a year of great writing. And let me end by rejecting Hindutva and wishing us all a New Year of Hindustaniat and insaniyat.

(This the text of the lecture Nayantara Sahgal delivered at the Hyderabad Literary Festival on January 7, 2016.)

Context:
As Guest of Honour at the recent Hyderabad Literary Festival, Nayantara Sahgal made a strong case for continuing resistance to the Hindutvadi goal of a Hindu rashtra. Despite writers, scholars, artists film makers and scientists raising their voices over the last few months, Sahgal said, “The danger is by no means over… our fight for the freedom to write has become a much larger one connected with our lives in general.”

The audience gave Sahgal a standing ovation. The Chief Guest on the occasion, however, Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, a former director of the Intelligence Bureau, skipped his prepared speech for a rant on “subjective dissent”. Claiming that freedom of expression is a universal right but dissent is a subjective matter that depends on “interpretation”, he likened the recent killings and polarisation to “family disputes”. His response to Sahgal’s call for resistance to attacks on Indianness was a familiar line about the greatness of our nation, home to the richest language of all, Sanskrit. Narasimhan also blamed civil society for its “double standards”, asking if civil society is “only for terrorists…” Proof if any were needed that the resistance must continue.

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