Occupy Pakistan This Week: Trained by the Best Just Last Week

Occupy Pakistan broke out Wed. Oct. 27th, just days after the International Youth Conference & Festival (IYCF) took place in Islamabad. The timing being what it was, it appears that Pakistani youth received the very best training just in time for the big event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=488KFipD1bA

The 2nd annual IYCF, which wrapped up less than a week ago in Islamabad, Pakistan, is co-sponsored by both AYM (movements.org) and our very own State Dept. Although the State Dept. logo is no longer evident on the movements.org site, it is clear from this event that they are still working on the same projects. Google and YouTube, movements.org sponsors, are also sponsors of this event.

One of the organizers of the event is Maajid Nawaz, who spent several years inside an extremist group. He worked with movements.org in the Egyptian “youth” revolution as discussed here.

According to their program, it looks like our dedicated Arab Spring training team wants to be sure these kids are well trained in all aspects of resistance. A few of the sessions include:

Workshops:

Digital Activism 101 – Citizen Journalism – Twitter Power – Building a Movement

“Resistance Through Cultural Expression” Workshops:

Street Art – Music – Filmography – Political Theatre

One of the attendees highlights some of the event opportunities like this on his Twitter feed:

@ SaadGH: 12 workshops from how to use street art for resistance, to how to manage a movement (from people who have done it) is the crux.

# IYCF2011 Film Screening- “A Force More Powerful” and Q & A with Ivan Marovic (International Centre for Non-Violent Conflict) theme 05

The film screening referred to is the revolutionary training game, “A Force More Powerful,” produced for the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict founded by Dr. Peter Ackerman.

Dr. Ackerman was the Executive Producer of the PBS-TV documentary, “Bringing Down a Dictator”, on the fall of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic.

In this brief overview, it should be clear that those looking for the same brand of “change” in Pakistan as our occupiers here have certainly been well prepared. If there is any doubt, consider this tweet from S. Rudak, one of the event’s speakers (also a co-founder of AYM movements.org):