Strongmen, Cockroaches, and Flamingos

India and Albania reveal how small protests can transform into big movements, creating possibilities for massive change. Support Next Comes What + Get Andrea's posts FIRST: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/subscribe Read the post: https://degenerateart.beehiiv.com/p/roots-for-real-change WATCH YouTube: https://youtu.be/CRVe4pVKoIM TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@degenerateartnews Listen everywhere: https://pod.link/1779885475 This week's Next Comes What considers what can be learned from overseas movements for political change. Andrea Pitzer reviews a few big examples she's discussed before, from Brazil and South Korea to Hungary. But she points out that these countries, which were able to prosecute and or expel corrupt authoritarians from power, are examples of the end stages of political movements. For today's episode, she looks instead at countries that are earlier in the same process. In Albania, she traces political protests and dissatisfaction that rose in the wake of parliamentary elections last year. This generalized anger found a flash point and a symbol with the attempts of Jared Kushner and Invanka Trump this year to develop an environmentally fragile part of the country as a high-end resort. Anger over what appears to be government corruption in opening the region to development has galvanized the people and led to what is being called the Flamingo Revolution: massive protests of a kind not seen in the country in decades. In India, student anger of a lack of jobs and opportunities for the country's young adults exploded after a chief justice described them as cockroaches. Seizing on the nickname, the students formed a Cockroach People's Party. The online movement expanded into physical protests in New Delhi. After police violence against protesters, demonstrations multiplied across India, eventually securing the resignation of the education minister and other promised concessions. Both movements are still in the early stages, but Andrea highlights the examples they offer for everyday people on ways to make a stand against authoritarian government. The episode closes by outlining how a focus on local issues can be a potent force for fighting Trumpism here in the U.S.

• 00:00 – Everyday Resistance & The Limits of Authoritarian Power

• 03:30 – Defeating ICE: How Local Communities Blocked PA Detention Facilities

• 06:45 – Dismantling Authoritarian Infrastructure: The Closure of Alligator Alcatraz

• 10:00 – Albania's Flamingo Revolution: Resisting Jared Kushner's Island Development

• 15:30 – India's Cockroach Janata Party: Youth Uprising Against Exam Scandals & Modi

• 20:45 – Student Activism Under Fire: ICE Arrests, Columbia Expulsions & UMich Indictments

• 25:00 – Symbols of Resistance: Lessons from Serbia's Otpor! Movement

• 28:30 – Organizing for Long-Term Political Change