camp2023-57099-eng-Bid3_and_CounterMilitarisim_Mapping_opus.srt

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 [MUSIC]

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 [MUSIC]

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 I'm really happy to announce Ahmed.

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 Ahmed is an artist and activist from Sudan.

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 And he's going to present us two great projects from Sudan

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 that support decentralized grassroots movements there.

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 And so please give a big round of applause to Ahmed.

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 >> [APPLAUSE]

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 >> All right, yeah, I'm gonna start.

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 So first of all, this is not a really technical presentation.

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 So if anything that technically came in your mind,

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 if you ask me questions later, I will not able to answer, but

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 you can explain it to me and help me on it.

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 So yeah, I'm an activist and artist from Sudan,

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 helping a grassroots movement.

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 So I'm gonna start my presentation with saying that

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 over the course of enormous years, countless communities across the globe

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 have dedicated themselves dismantling the unjust system and

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 striving to contrast more equitable worlds.

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 Although the strategies employed have been diverse,

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 a common threat has been a reliance on physical presence on public spaces.

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 In Sudan, we also embrace the moment to voice our longing for equality,

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 our opposition to capitalism, and

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 our dedication to establishing a last democratic foundation.

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 As a result of this motives and various others, a successful revolution

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 culminated in overthrow over 30 years dictatorship.

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 The poor model that the Sudanese community had to contend with

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 expeditory prominent characteristic.

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 Militarism, the concentration of power within single community in a specific

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 city, and the systematic extractions and

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 exploitation of the rest of the country, especially the rural area.

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 While the uprising in 2018, 2019 succeeded in toppling the regime figurehead,

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 the structural integrity of the regime,

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 plus stood by the security and military apparatus,

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 proved resilient, allowing for subsequent resurgence.

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 Basically the military hang on and put the fight.

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 But during that fight, in the forefront of this revolutionary movement,

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 the stand the neighborhood resisting committees, also referred to as

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 the resisting committees, a decentralized grass root organization that assume

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 the burden of revolutionary leadership when a coalition of reformist political

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 parties failed to achieve the demand of the revolution.

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 Following a successful sit in in front of the military headquarter,

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 the resisting committees efficiently organize themselves within the neighborhood.

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 Representing a new form of a collective action arose from a deep understanding of

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 Sudan historical problems, particularly the issues of militarized,

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 decent, and centralized power.

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 The resistant committee have opened the door for

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 a broader political participation,

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 spreading geographically to more areas in Sudan,

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 facilitating increased involvement of civilian.

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 Could you imagine that a militarized country and those guys just open up for

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 more civilian to participate in the political power.

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 So to effectively support the resisting committee in their challenging mission,

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 a range of grassroots institutions have been established.

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 While NGOs have traditionally played the role in

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 plastering democratic movement, adapting to novel obstacles,

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 necessitate a structural transformation.

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 This institution needed to be constructed from ground up.

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 So in order to support those resisting committee,

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 you need to change the way that we are thinking.

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 Decentralized movement or decentralized organization that should come on.

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 So from ground up, spanning multiple geographical location and

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 adopting decentralized approach to better address the new challenges to hand.

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 Among these entities is the Civic Lab.

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 It stands out as a notable example because it's created by the member of

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 resisting committees themselves and it has become an integral part of

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 the movement across various territories.

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 Toward the conclusion of 2022,

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 at the battle against militarism persisted.

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 We recognized the imperative of incorporating fresh tools into our campaign.

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 Our intention was twofold, to fortify the movement capabilities and

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 to explore an innovative mode of expressions.

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 Central to our deliberation was the concept of technological autonomy and

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 the principles of open source.

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 This line of thinking led us to envision a multidisciplinary endeavor

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 situated in the niches at art, science and technology.

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 To bring this vision to fruition, I joined forces with the Civic Lab to conceive Bida.

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 The term Bida, it means literally heresy.

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 Convey the essence of innovation, drawing it as a terminology from the word Ibda'a,

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 which signifies creativity.

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 This is an Arabic word, Bida'a and Ibda'a, so you know that.

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 The act of engendering something new from pre-existing element and

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 this concept resonated with us as a parallel to the notion of hacking.

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 Encapsulating our aspiration to craft novel solutions.

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 So,

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 rather than merely conceptualizing ideas over casual beer and

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 table in Berlin or Paris or anywhere, like diaspora communities.

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 They look at revolution of their homeland and

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 they decide to sit, drink beer and tell the people what to do.

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 We opted for a more engaging approach by initiating conversations with people and

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 community keen to join our cause.

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 We distributed the questionnaire among those interested in collaborating with us.

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 And the insight gleaned from this survey was valuable.

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 If you see here, maybe some stuff in Arabic, but I can read.

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 We were fortunate to attract participants from a diverse cities.

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 Including some where access to electricity is limited to as few as 12

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 hours per day, even less.

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 The majority of individual expressed a keen interest in crafting artistic

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 projects utilized novel tools.

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 A portion of these individuals were seeking further information before fully

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 committed, they're skeptical about our work, they need to know,

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 which is actually a good thing.

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 Yet they were enthusiast,

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 it suppressed their willingness to participate in our initial meetings and

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 workshop.

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 Here exists kind of relatively small cohort who have experience with

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 electronic and circuitry.

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 But yeah, and also coding.

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 But also the intriguing revelation is that the majority of

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 the participants have a prior experience with Linux.

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 Which is something that make us excited about working and

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 running this work, that's mean there's some kind of community that we could work with.

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 So we had also a lot of kind of random response that people saw how much they

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 excited and how they imagined the work collectively.

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 Our idea initially from this project was starting step by step,

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 building just a basic knowledge of open source and then integrating,

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 injecting that in a decentralized movement in order to build this kind of

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 knowledge from bottom up as the existing committee.

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 We got inspired by the existing committees and their work.

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 So yeah, we shipped a lot of raspberry pies,

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 Arduino and every kit that we found on the internet.

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 We put it on the plane, we send it to Sudan, we made our poster,

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 we're very happy and then.

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 We planned our physical meeting on the first of May 2023.

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 We created this module, little bit of smaller stuff.

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 And then, but unfortunately in the morning of April 2023,

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 a resounding gunshot of an unknown origin tore through the air,

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 piercing the flesh of a furious soldier.

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 It's son does a coup evaporated, serving as an unmistakable signal for

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 the insurgent of the troops of the counter revolution to descend upon the cities of Sudan.

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 Two warlords of two army fractions,

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 igniting the flames of this brutal conflict had long harbored animosity

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 toward the December revolution, which has triumphantly ousted their predecessor in 2019.

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 Actually, this is an introduction for an article if you want to know about the war.

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 I wrote it, so it's actually, I just made it here dramatically like that,

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 because I'm not talking about the war at all.

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 But as a friend of mine from Syria told me before, and

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 she's a fellow activist, we need to follow her work, her name is Ofa Mustafa.

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 She's doing activism for the imprisoned people in the Assad regime.

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 She said before, we are in a brutal battle of narrative, a brutal war.

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 Strangely enough, I found myself witnessing the swift transformation,

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 how the narrative around our cause changed overnight.

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 What was once a movement establishing a civilian and

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 democratic alternative had suddenly shifted into a narrative of war.

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 While it is understandable that news outlets and

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 mainstream media might adopt this framing,

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 it is disheartening to see activists and open source investigator.

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 Reinforcing this kind of framework by creating this particular maps.

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 All of the maps, you find it from open source, every open source investigator

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 in Sudan, you're right Sudan, they all draw just a war in Sudan, war mapper.

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 We map Sudan as a war zone.

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 The fractions of the RSF, the fraction of the army is taking places.

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 It was quite disheartening for us because a movement that was there for

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 revolution, for a democratic movement representing millions of people.

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 And now all of Sudan narrative is around 200,000 soldiers fighting around cities

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 of Khartoum and all of what's happening from international activists,

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 especially open source investigator is just mapping the army fractions without

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 the other movement.

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 I'm sorry.

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 All right, okay.

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 So, on the other hand,

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 again the resistance committee stand for

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 the challenge to address the trauma of the war and safeguard the revolution.

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 They have actively pursued two primary objectives.

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 Firstly, they have dedicated effort to build an anti-war coalition and

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 clarifying the narrative surrounding the conflict.

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 Their emphasis lies on highlighting the war primarily stems from the power struggle

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 between the generals and does not serve interest of democratic foundation.

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 This approach aims to counter any misconception

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 that would undermine the revolution goals at first.

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 Secondly, the resistant committee have taken a revolutionary approach by

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 establishing emergency response rooms.

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 This room serve as a vital support system to help individual observe the trauma

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 caused by the war and elevate the hardship faced by civilians.

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 The emergency room post a digital infrastructure through which they

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 convey their missions and gather community donation.

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 They are strategically positioned across various regions and

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 intentionally decentralized,

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 mirroring the organization's approach of the resisting committee themselves.

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 Additionally, they convey a document together.

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 This document effort by uploading a lot of data of their work.

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 The practice not only aids is assessing the situation,

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 they're assessing the issue but also facilitate the monitoring of

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 operational infrastructure.

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 They collected the data includes geo locations of their operations,

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 community kitchens, hospitals and other related projects.

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 So by converting this data to JSON format,

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 it can be utilized as a database even as a mapping resource.

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 And that is what actually we did.

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 Creating a visualization of their work on a map and

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 carry a powerful political statement shedding a light on the lives,

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 the struggle and the stories of civilians led movement in this and

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 their central role in the struggle.

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 It served as a counter action against militarizations of consciousness and

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 narrative and the main purpose was that but other purpose served as well later.

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 What we still need because as you see we just use simple solutions,

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 collaborative solidarity.

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 We need you to support this movement by endorsing its objective.

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 Also, as you see, we use Google Sheet and we use all of those commercial platforms.

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 We need open source accessibility, collective learning experience and

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 a revolutionary paradigm, which is mean it is not a war,

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 there is a civilian movement, a community that is struggling to strive for

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 a better life using all of what you actually produce as a community.

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 And they are part of you and extensions of you as a community and

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 you are extension from them that the people who are struggle for

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 democratic foundations and just world.

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 So by helping them and endorse their work by providing them with

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 the ever accessible technologies that you created in this community,

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 beautiful community here with your own political endorsement for

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 better world than just world.

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 Thank you.

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 >> [APPLAUSE]

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 >> Thank you so much,

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 Ahmed, for your input and

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 giving us an insight into this important struggle and important projects.

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 Are there any questions?

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 It's not that easy to go between the rows, so

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 I think it would be easiest if people want to ask questions if they just come here.

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 And then I can give them the microphone.

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 But if you still need some time to think of a question, maybe I have one.

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 So do you already have some examples of solidarity

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 towards the project in Sudan that would be examples of what we can do?

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 Or would you say it's like really no one,

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 like there is really not a lot yet going on.

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 >> Actually the war started just three months ago, four months ago.

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 All of those projects are very recent.

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 There is a support from a lot of NGOs, international organizations.

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 I came with this project here because they seek unique solidarity, different one.

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 So the one that based on funding, technologies, commercial that working

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 around is not really providing a lot of solutions for us and it's not really fast.

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 And in the same time, it's oriented with certain kind of political agenda

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 that is not necessarily the political agenda of the grassroots movement.

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 And because of that, I was thinking to communicate this project with a community

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 that are active as a community, not as organization NGOs.

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 So there is a lot of people who offer support by, for example, say, hey,

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 this project we're gonna provide you.

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 But also we didn't want to just give the data to everybody.

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 So we actually used a very simple solutions by going in the commentations,

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 checking all of those like open source libraries of JavaScript to just create this work.

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 But in the same time, we think what I saw here, for example,

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 I think that people are capable to create more better project.

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 But just a community base, but this kind of, yeah,

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 maybe people also have a political agenda and I would appreciate this particular agenda

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 because it's the same political agenda of the decentralized

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 grassroots movement there of the just world.

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 Yeah.

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 >> Thank you.

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00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:46,360
 I see a little bit of applause.

249
00:17:46,360 --> 00:17:48,560
 So if you want to join in, you can.

250
00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:51,680
 [APPLAUSE]

251
00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:55,200
 Okay, I see that there is an angel with a microphone.

252
00:17:55,200 --> 00:18:02,920
 So he could also come to you and you don't have to stand up if you don't.

253
00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:04,520
 Is that a question?

254
00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:06,440
 Yeah, can you please?

255
00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:08,840
 Because then the internet can also hear you.

256
00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:18,840
 [BLANK_AUDIO]

257
00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:21,280
 >> Hello, okay.

258
00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:26,880
 So you mentioned accessibility to open source, I think tools and solutions.

259
00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:30,720
 What's the biggest challenge when it comes to that at the moment for

260
00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:32,600
 you and the community?

261
00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:36,000
 >> Yeah, so yeah, the biggest challenge for us,

262
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:39,240
 like if you see that I talk about bid'a, the first project,

263
00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:44,160
 although that is not realized, because we thought we were working on something

264
00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:49,080
 about building a knowledge about around open source and in general,

265
00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:53,240
 technologies are accessible for the years before the war started.

266
00:18:53,240 --> 00:18:57,080
 And the time when the war started, we couldn't realize that project.

267
00:18:57,080 --> 00:19:02,720
 What happened is we needed to use basically very, like we need to use it,

268
00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:08,560
 for example, this Google Sheet where 90 people have access to it

269
00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:10,960
 to provide information in different geographies.

270
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:12,880
 So we didn't actually have an open source tool.

271
00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:16,160
 And if you have an open source tools, we need the time to teach people to work on

272
00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:16,960
 them.

273
00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:23,360
 So one of the things that we are thinking about it is how we could create

274
00:19:23,360 --> 00:19:30,200
 type of technology that accessible not just by working on it,

275
00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:34,040
 but also by learning it very fast, because they can work very

276
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:36,040
 good in the moment of emergency.

277
00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:40,480
 And it's also they are trusted and reliant, and we could also talk to the provider

278
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,120
 of that technology to help us with the maintenance.

279
00:19:43,120 --> 00:19:44,480
 That's what I'm thinking about.

280
00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:47,720
 In Sudan, we have a really problem because as a country,

281
00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:49,960
 we lived in the sanctions since 1995.

282
00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:51,760
 We didn't have access to a lot of technology.

283
00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:55,680
 We had a problem basically with technology and accessibility technologies.

284
00:19:55,680 --> 00:20:02,400
 And we are trying and this grassroots movement, if they get that tools,

285
00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:05,680
 they could utilize for this movement now.

286
00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:08,920
 And I think particularly in the response room and also in general in the

287
00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:11,600
 revolutionary movement for this decentralized.

288
00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:17,840
 We like autonomy over their data, over information, over software they are using,

289
00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:21,480
 also creating because they are as a communities are in different places.

290
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,680
 If they integrated some really good technology in their work,

291
00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:28,760
 they could create some model that we could actually could provide them with help,

292
00:20:28,760 --> 00:20:33,320
 but also could be a good example for us feedback here who are working on

293
00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:35,320
 developing different kind of solutions.

294
00:20:35,320 --> 00:20:43,080
 So any more questions?

295
00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:46,920
 Yes, great.

296
00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:53,920
 Hi, so you basically portrayed this idea of decentralizing all around the world,

297
00:20:53,920 --> 00:21:01,840
 all different initiatives and therefore creating something that goes between and

298
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:10,400
 among grassroots movements, but also in developing countries or countries at risk,

299
00:21:10,400 --> 00:21:16,200
 such as Sudan with war and political instability.

300
00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:22,920
 There is a very strong presence of international organizations.

301
00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:32,240
 And most than often they are on the ground, talking with communities and people.

302
00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:40,160
 That is generally the traditional way in which those countries have link with

303
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,040
 the global setting in which they are.

304
00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:50,680
 So how do you exactly take that into consideration when it comes with something

305
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:59,600
 that may have political differences and is much more decentralized and much more

306
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:08,280
 sparse and scattered all around the world in contrast to those big international organizations?

307
00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:13,600
 Thank you for the question first of all.

308
00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:18,400
 I think that actually all of this what I am doing here is about that.

309
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:23,920
 I have been working with the resistance committees and the Civic Lab for a while.

310
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:31,280
 And the Civic Lab is built so the revolution in Sudan is based on three topics,

311
00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:36,400
 decentralization of power, demilitarizations and what do you call it?

312
00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:40,760
 Like yeah, we call it like power, if you translate power from ground up,

313
00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:45,760
 which is the movement in Sudan is decentralized movement is created among neighborhood geographies.

314
00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:51,240
 And this movement when the war started, they knew that NGO's are going to jump in.

315
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:55,040
 The model that you are just talking about it, which is a model that we think it's a part of more

316
00:22:55,040 --> 00:23:01,080
 oppressive model itself is not just they came those NGO's as we call them the cowboys.

317
00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:04,200
 Those like cowboys they came to in the conflict zone.

318
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:10,840
 Yeah, you know, they came to support the people in the war that they actually very trained NGO's worker.

319
00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:13,320
 And then we have also this is a sad new thing.

320
00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:18,760
 This is what this is the awesome people that open source investigation in sort of supporting a movement.

321
00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:23,800
 They are dividing country as an army fractions, the territories of the RSF, the territories of the army.

322
00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:29,360
 So it's a whole model of narrative that created is actually defied by the people working in the ground.

323
00:23:29,360 --> 00:23:34,400
 So they created the emergency response room and they started to assume state responsibility in the time of

324
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:41,200
 vacuum and also doing work more than this NGO's forcing those NGO's to legitimize them.

325
00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:48,480
 So the United Nations Unit arms in Sudan, special mission for integration basically was ignoring all of

326
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:52,960
 those resisting committees just to use they don't have a political agency, they don't have representation.

327
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:58,000
 And when the crisis started, those guys because they started to do this humanitarian work,

328
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:03,080
 the UN started to negotiate with them in order to provide support to the community.

329
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:07,760
 And they forced their narrative, decolonizing of mutual aid, sorry, mutual aid,

330
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:11,720
 decolonization of humanitarians and economic solidarity economy.

331
00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:17,360
 And because of that, what I'm coming here to do is to provide those narrative and those political movement

332
00:24:17,360 --> 00:24:23,880
 with a community that able to support them without those particular agenda that you just described,

333
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:27,000
 which is me and you are critical toward it somehow.

334
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,960
 If I assume that right.

335
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:38,880
 [Applause]

336
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:40,320
 Thank you for your question.

337
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:44,360
 Is there are there any more questions?

338
00:24:44,360 --> 00:24:48,080
 You have a question. Cool.

339
00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:50,360
 Thanks a lot for this talk.

340
00:24:50,360 --> 00:24:56,200
 What impresses me every time when I'm looking at the Sudanese civil societies,

341
00:24:56,200 --> 00:25:00,840
 how well organized it is and how big the civil movement is.

342
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:03,880
 Could you tell us a bit more? You already went a bit into that.

343
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:11,480
 How this civil movement is organized about maybe also the direct democratic elements in it

344
00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:17,640
 and about the driving forces that have been doing that since many years?

345
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:23,400
 Yeah, it is it is somehow just it wasn't.

346
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:24,360
 Yeah, you're right.

347
00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:31,480
 It is a movement that developed a long, long time, but also a movement that is not an isolated movement.

348
00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:32,920
 It's learned from its neighbor.

349
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:39,600
 It's learned from the Egyptian movement, from Burkina Faso movement in 2015, Egyptian 2011, Tunisia movement.

350
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:45,080
 It's like those eager young people around and also not the only young people, active people.

351
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:47,320
 I meant young people is a real wrong word.

352
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:49,240
 I mean, there's not age on this.

353
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:52,960
 Yeah. And they started to observe around them what's happened wrong, you know,

354
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:56,240
 how how we got defeated like Abdul Fattah says, you know,

355
00:25:56,240 --> 00:26:01,120
 and coming and how we how we cannot be defeated.

356
00:26:01,120 --> 00:26:06,320
 And and those movement learning from their history and surrounding geographies.

357
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:11,360
 So they they come to two conclusions that first of all, decentralized movement.

358
00:26:11,360 --> 00:26:14,080
 I meant that when people organize according to their neighborhood,

359
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:19,200
 they have autonomy over the solutions and political solution they have and also their organizations.

360
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:21,880
 We get more efficient system of work.

361
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:24,440
 Then we have a way of communication.

362
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:26,640
 So we use an open platforms.

363
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:30,440
 So this resistant committee, for example, in the last three years, they drafted something

364
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:34,680
 is called the Revolutionary Constitution for the power of the people,

365
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:36,680
 which is circulated around the country.

366
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:40,880
 Everybody commenting on it, using the Internet tools, people taking it with their hand,

367
00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:44,600
 because not all of the place that Internet people printing it and discussing it with their communities

368
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:47,400
 and then giving a feedback and then resisting committee.

369
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:52,600
 One of the existing committees in Khartoum decided to create something is called the the editing room.

370
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,320
 So they created the editing room and then they edit all of those comments

371
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:59,720
 and they release something called the Revolutionary Draft for People Power.

372
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:04,880
 And that was actually kind of really uplifting because people think, are we able to communicate as well?

373
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:06,920
 We're not just we are a headless movement.

374
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:08,560
 We're a movement without a leader.

375
00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:10,880
 We're a movement that was a more democratic approach.

376
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,080
 I mean, the ground up movement, everybody in the neighborhood could take a decision.

377
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:15,640
 There's more political participation.

378
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:22,200
 And in the same time, we are able to articulate our demand in the 50 pages that everybody could talk to.

379
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:25,960
 And because of that, one of the things is the German guy, the United Nation guy,

380
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:30,120
 the head of the United Nations, transitional, whatever in Sudan.

381
00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:34,400
 He said that those people, they don't have a political opinion because they don't have a leader and a spoken person.

382
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:36,760
 And then it's just like people sending sending him the link.

383
00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:38,400
 It was in an online conversation.

384
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:41,040
 Oh, that's actually a document they released in that day.

385
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:42,280
 That's a document they released.

386
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:50,080
 So they articulated themselves and in the same time, you cannot take somebody and and kind of negotiate with them.

387
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:56,200
 And that's actually the movement and the standard from how reformers political party was easy to get co-opted.

388
00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:02,120
 And because of that, again, I'm going to repeat this movement need novel solutions in order to optimize those

389
00:28:02,120 --> 00:28:13,680
 starting of communications and a secure one, a powerful one that able to integrate because they are trying to be democratic as much as possible, including everybody's opinion.

390
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:17,000
 But we could enhance that by providing more solutions.

391
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,520
 But and they actually not are coming as a savior.

392
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:20,680
 That's also got to be.

393
00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:22,760
 They actually they already have the agency.

394
00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:31,360
 They have their missions and they ask for solidarity and support where they teach their model to the people outside and they can learn from the people outside in their model.

395
00:28:31,360 --> 00:28:33,600
 And that's exactly how the movement develops through.

396
00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:41,800
 Actually, I may say the last 40 years are most critical because the revolutionary process and people met physically in the street and they have buddies meeting each other.

397
00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:58,200
 But also within 30 years are struggling to one of them, like one of the brutal regimes in the region, a military sharia based regime that able to practice a lot of extra legal killing all over the last 30 years.

398
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:06,920
 So they created that because of brutality and their tactics against repression turned to be a very good tools of creating political discourses.

399
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:23,640
 So are there any more questions?

400
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:29,280
 You again.

401
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:36,640
 Or someone else is there.

402
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:41,320
 Yeah.

403
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:52,720
 OK, so I think that Ahmed already gave us like some really good and extensive.

404
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:53,720
 You have one.

405
00:29:53,720 --> 00:29:56,240
 Yeah, but I still want.

406
00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:58,040
 All right.

407
00:29:58,040 --> 00:29:59,200
 Thank you.

408
00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:00,600
 But you have a question, right?

409
00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:01,160
 Oh, yeah.

410
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:05,840
 Just wondering if there was any like online resources where we could learn more.

411
00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:09,120
 Yeah, specifically about how you're how this is working.

412
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:16,720
 Yeah. So as a diaspora community in Berlin, we created a platform in the last two years basically for communicating.

413
00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:21,880
 The the movement discourses and we're translating a lot of stuff in German and English.

414
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:24,760
 It's called Sudana Pricing Germany dot net.

415
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:29,400
 And it is a group, actually, it's a physically that exists in Berlin.

416
00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:37,120
 This this website, I just showed that we're still working on it to optimize it because we have like some kind of formation.

417
00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:43,440
 I would love to get your support and help in developing it further and also maintaining its security and its integrity.

418
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:45,240
 And then we could actually publish it.

419
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:50,800
 We are planning to publish it next month as a kind of visualizing the movement in Sudan.

420
00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:54,080
 And also, you know, all of this stuff, we're going to work on it.

421
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:58,880
 The Sudana Pricing dot net is where we publish the first informations.

422
00:30:58,880 --> 00:30:59,080
 Yeah.

423
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:15,880
 Just to follow up on that, what you were saying that people could plug in to try and volunteer and help.

424
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:21,680
 And so on that URL, there be somewhere where we could like contact you and volunteer.

425
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:23,120
 Yeah, exactly.

426
00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:27,880
 There is I don't know if you're based in Germany or somewhere else, but if you're based in Germany, there's this group.

427
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,040
 It's all the user. And there's also a lot of Sudanese community.

428
00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:39,040
 But that group is kind of providing a lot of work on to provide solution for this committee.

429
00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:41,880
 Yeah. And we are just there physically or exist there.

430
00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:44,800
 And there's a website. And also, we have a mailing list.

431
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:52,880
 We're putting it there. And also, if you just write us an email that or if now came to me and then, hey, I saw that work in your talk earlier.

432
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:55,440
 And I could actually help you with this. It would be amazing.

433
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:57,360
 We're going to just connect forever.

434
00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:08,760
 Yeah. Thank you, Ahmed, for your wonderful talk.

435
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:12,760
 It's lovely to keep seeing it progress.

436
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:15,440
 My question is actually about the resistance committees.

437
00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:20,360
 Like you said that the narrative is always about the rapid support forces in the army.

438
00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:26,600
 Can you tell us maybe a story or something about what the resistance committees are doing during the current crisis?

439
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:32,440
 Yeah, exactly. That's what the emergency response room is.

440
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:35,040
 So, yeah, there's this committee.

441
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:42,520
 There is two saying that the narrative of militarization, which is the country divided among two fractions.

442
00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:45,680
 That what is the narrative is like controlled by generals.

443
00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:49,280
 And then there's this committee so that their agency being taken away from them.

444
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:51,680
 And they are representative of this neighborhood.

445
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:56,600
 And then they saw also a humanitarian crisis happening unfolding because of the war.

446
00:32:56,600 --> 00:33:01,320
 So they decided to form this emergency response rooms and those emergency response room.

447
00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:08,560
 They have three main objectives, first of all, like serving medical support to people in the same time,

448
00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:15,400
 making this open street kitchen where everybody could eat and also maintenance for like electricity,

449
00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:17,720
 water supply and all of the kind of stuff, even there.

450
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:22,200
 Because what is the neighbors in Sudan is mean that as engineers, there's doctors living in just neighbors,

451
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:25,920
 in addition to the people who coming from a different like working background,

452
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,920
 where could they work together and provide solutions to people.

453
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:34,440
 And as a political, but also they separated the emergency rooms from the resisting committee in the political sense,

454
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:37,600
 because they said like emergency response room, they don't have a political agenda,

455
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:41,040
 so they can serve anybody, even the people who are opposing the revolution.

456
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:46,760
 But the resisting committee, they started to forge this anti-war coalitions.

457
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:51,360
 But in the same time, working with the diaspora closely to challenge this narrative of the war

458
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:57,320
 that propagated by the United Nations and United Nations workers, international NGOs,

459
00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:03,480
 international community in the center of it, Germany, USA and Saudi Arabia.

460
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:06,440
 Those is all of those kind of political work they are doing.

461
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:11,880
 And in the same time, we're just pushing toward that it will not transform to be, you know,

462
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:13,800
 like what's happened in other revolutions.

463
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:19,600
 It is not a war, it's a revolution and this war is an obstacle, so they're going to overcome it.

464
00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:22,040
 And they are still working together on that.

465
00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:26,200
 I hope, and if we got defeated, I don't really want to be like the optimistic revolution.

466
00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:30,640
 If we got defeated, the model that until now those people, they survived so much obstacles

467
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:35,160
 and they metamorphosis in a different kind of, you know, what do you call it,

468
00:34:35,160 --> 00:34:39,480
 like organizations to just work against challenges.

469
00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:45,320
 And that way of transformation could be actually a model to understand, learn from it.

470
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:48,520
 And for me, it was a really big learning process the last three years.

471
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:49,520
 Yeah.

472
00:34:49,520 --> 00:35:00,120
 I saw another question there.

473
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:05,680
 Hey guys, we can just also talk in the tent, you know.

474
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:08,520
 [Laughter]

475
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:11,680
 Might be more comfortable, but please ask away.

476
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:12,680
 No, I'm just kidding.

477
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:18,440
 No, it's just thanks again for your talk and all these great discussion points.

478
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:22,960
 One thing that I just wanted to pick up on right now because it was peculiar to me.

479
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:31,080
 You mentioned three countries just a minute ago, United States, Germany and Saudi Arabia.

480
00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:34,920
 I understand maybe a little bit when you bring up United States and Saudi Arabia

481
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:38,600
 and the Sudanese context, I'm not so certain about Germany.

482
00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:40,800
 Could you maybe explain the role of Germany?

483
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:44,600
 So yeah, so maybe if I just bring it to you from the Foreign Affairs,

484
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:47,120
 the Auswärtsgärder in Germany.

485
00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:51,520
 So they have this program, it's called stabilization program.

486
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:53,560
 So they just want stability.

487
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:56,800
 Stability as a sense that regardless who is in power, but stability.

488
00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:58,360
 So that's the first thing.

489
00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:01,040
 The second thing, Germany have worked during the transition period

490
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:06,560
 with three different organizations, which is Friedrich Eibart,

491
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:10,680
 Henry Schpool and GIZ working in the ground in Sudan

492
00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:13,720
 in order to support the constitutional transition.

493
00:36:13,720 --> 00:36:16,000
 They had a problem on their political consciousness.

494
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:19,240
 They could not imagine a decentralized movement without a political leader

495
00:36:19,240 --> 00:36:21,080
 who can come and sit in them in the table.

496
00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:26,680
 And that's lack of imaginations and lack of thinking that political outside the box.

497
00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:28,480
 And that's what they say all the time when you meet people,

498
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:30,920
 I was like, "Where is the resistance committee? We don't see them."

499
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:34,120
 Yeah, you see their documents, you see their work, you see their materiality,

500
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:36,000
 their material representation in the street.

501
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:38,040
 You see that they can actually move all of that street.

502
00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:41,760
 They can occupy the country for one day and all of that neighborhood.

503
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:44,200
 But you didn't see them in the negotiation table.

504
00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:46,040
 And you think that they don't have a political agency

505
00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:48,560
 because you want to co-opt them with any kind of neoliberal narrative.

506
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:49,960
 They don't want to go in that.

507
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:51,400
 So just read their documents.

508
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:55,400
 They translated in your language in German, in English, in Farsi even.

509
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:57,680
 Just understand it and try to replay.

510
00:36:57,680 --> 00:37:00,800
 This is the demand of those movement and work with it.

511
00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:04,160
 You say, for example, "I achieved from your demand 40 percentage."

512
00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:09,000
 And try to negotiate the movement in the public, not negotiate in the closed table.

513
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:14,840
 So Germany is one of the countries that wanted to work with this lack of imagination,

514
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:18,400
 political consciousness, which is sitting and want to co-opt the movement.

515
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:23,520
 And that's what they did between 2019, 2020, when they supported the model

516
00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:26,160
 of a sharing power between political parties and the army,

517
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:29,360
 when the resistance committee was telling them the army cannot be in power.

518
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:33,880
 And they're just thinking, "This army, people, they're going to have a fight soon in the country."

519
00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:35,280
 And Germany didn't listen.

520
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:37,800
 And now they said, "Oh, we didn't know they're fighting.

521
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:39,200
 Oh, shit, there's a war.

522
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:40,720
 Let's take our people out."

523
00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:41,760
 And they took their people out.

524
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:42,800
 "Yeah, we were not there.

525
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:43,840
 You were there for two years.

526
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:45,440
 We saw you.

527
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:46,800
 You were there.

528
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:48,600
 We talked to you and you were, "Shut up.

529
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:49,680
 You are the resistance committee people.

530
00:37:49,680 --> 00:37:50,440
 You are very radical.

531
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:51,120
 Don't talk to us.

532
00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:52,160
 You are not really radical.

533
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:56,440
 We're asking for democracy, social justice, collectivization of rights and everything."

534
00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:58,520
 You know, we didn't even ever like taking the state down.

535
00:37:58,520 --> 00:38:04,560
 We just want basic thing that's, you know, and then they said, "You are very radical for

536
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:07,640
 the demands because they cannot imagine our political agency."

537
00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:09,280
 And that's what they did, basically.

538
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:14,560
 So Germany in the middle because they project themselves as this like neutral, adult,

539
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:19,040
 mutual, they don't have, you know, like Switzerland in the past.

540
00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:21,360
 They don't want like to kind of exploit you.

541
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:27,400
 But actually, they lack, their lack of imaginations is resulting to a very oppressive actions.

542
00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:28,400
 Yeah.

543
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:45,120
 I'm looking very sharply at you and counting to three in my head.

544
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:50,600
 One, two, three.

545
00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:55,320
 Thank you so much for coming.

546
00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:58,240
 Yeah, be around.

547
00:38:58,240 --> 00:38:58,760
 Yeah.

548
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:03,400
 Thank you so much, Ahmed, for sharing your knowledge with us.

549
00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:09,120
 [Music]