Watching political events in the United States and the Donald Trump’s inauguration as the US’ 47th president, brought despair and forced me to dig deep for hope and consolation. One of the matters that I will never forget is the last military dictatorship (1976-83) of Rafael Videla in Argentina.
His stranglehold over the country was near-complete. But then the years revealed his weakness: the first indication of his decline and loss of power when he believed he was invincible.
You don’t need an army are weapons of mass destruction to defeat your foe. There are many, many example below of people that ignited a spike at the right place and right time to begin a social movement. Trump, therefore, looks like a president in decline.
The list below is not complete of some who challenged a system and won with their bravery and suffering.
On the first of December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give her seat on a bus to a white passenger. That moment of defiance was one of the sparks of the Civil Rights Movement.
Dedication and a love for freedom turned Harriet Tubman into ray of hope for many black slaves.
The Cuban Revolution is one of the best examples of being at the right place at the right time. It proved that you don’t need an army to defeat a large organized and corrupt army.
Even if Sacco and Vanzetti were falsely executed by the electric chair in 1927, they are still fondly rememberd. Their only crime was that they were anarchists. Their death led to protests around the world.
The October 17, 1945 demonstration, which freed Juan Domingo Perón from detention, showed a remarkable event where his charistmatic wife, Evita Perón, rallied the masses and changed history.
The White Rose movement did not end with the death the death of Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst on the 22 February 1943, shortly after Hitler’s 6th Army had suffered a decisive defeat in Stalingrad. These brave activists dared to challenge the power of an autocratic regime by distributing anti-Nazi messages.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was one of the most important historic events in the last century. What would the world be if Bolsheviks would have not succeeded? What would the world be like without Karl Marx?
“El derecho de vivir en paz,” the right to live in peace, is one of folk singer’s Victor Jara’s most famous songs. He was brutally murdered by the military dictatorship and his songs censored. After the uprising against the Chilean government in 2019 when they raised the price of subway tickets, people started to sing Jara’s songs as a rallying cry for freedom and democracy.