SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
dissenters
Dissenters Against European Autocrats Warn of 'Democratic Backsliding' in Trump's America
"Many Americans think this is something that only happens to others, and I think that mindset has to be fought," said Katalin Cseh, a member of Hungary's opposition Momentum Movement Party.
Jul 17, 2025
Eastern European dissidents are warning that the autocratic politics that took over their countries is in the process of taking over the United States as well.
At a web forum hosted Tuesday by the Center for American Progress, opposition politicians and journalists from Hungary, Serbia, and Turkey spoke about the tactics that strongman leaders used to rip up the foundations of their nations' democratic institutions. They urged Americans to resist President Donald Trump as he tries to do the same.
"I do believe that many Americans think this is something that only happens to others, and I think that mindset has to be fought," said Katalin Cseh, a member of Hungary's opposition Momentum Movement Party.
Her nation, under authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is often cited as a textbook example of "democratic backsliding" in the 21st century.
Since his election in 2010, with a supermajority in the parliament, Orbán has worked to steadily capture key political institutions like election authorities and the judiciary, and cultural ones like the media and universities to bend them toward a "nationalist conservative narrative."
Notably, Cseh says, Orbán did this not by formally abolishing institutions, but by purging dissent and taking them over:
The first month of the new government back in 2010 started with the complete overhaul of the Hungarian constitution without democratic discussion. Senior judges were forced into early retirement and a new judicial administration was created...
The freedom of the media is almost lost...The media authority was staffed by loyalists. A pro-government businessman acquired private media and later donated it to a foundation run by the government. This means that if you turn on almost any channel, it has Fox News running on it...
The electoral system is very heavily manipulated. The government, after they got into power, changed the electoral system to one that is more fitting to them and gerrymandering very heavily to disenfranchise more progressive voters and to change the districts to a more favorable one for them...
The universities' minds were centralized and now mostly run by foundations set up by the government. The curriculum was also centralized and was very heavily infused with nationalist and conservative theory, and minorities, LGBTQI+ and women's rights are almost obliterated.
Cseh noted that the so-called "Hungarian blueprint" is heavily influential among American conservatives, who have hosted Orbán at conventions like CPAC and consulted pro-Orbán think tanks to create the 'Project 2025' agenda Trump has used during his second term.
Trump, moreover, has been carrying out similar ideological purges of government through the mass firings of disloyal public servants, threats to defund universities that refuse to teach the MAGA worldview as doctrine, and attempts to legally erase the government's recognition of nonwhite and LGBTQ+ individuals.
"What if this is a blueprint for MAGA? What if this is something you will see in your country?" she asked.
Szabolcs Panyi, a journalist with the Hungarian website Direkt36, likewise raised comparisons between Orbán and Trump's assaults on the press.
"It's not a coincidence that Orbán went after the free media," Panyi said. "He understood for him to grab power it's essential that people just don't see behind the curtains and don't understand what's happening."
He pointed to Trump's attacks on the free press, including his use of lawsuits, FCC investigations, and threats of prosecution against critical media outlets.
"It's interesting to see how large outlets or media owners or conglomerates try to appease Trump by settling lawsuits, firing journalists and editors," Panyi said. "It reminds me of what happened in Hungary in the 2010s."
Dissidents from Serbia and Turkey have dealt with a similar backslide and raised similar parallels to the situation in America.
Ceylan Akça, a member of the pro-Kurdish People's Equality and Democracy Party in the Turkish parliament, discussed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's use of citizenship as a political weapon against minorities like the Kurds. He has moved to strip the citizenship of naturalized Kurds, who he says support "terrorism" by militant groups like the PKK.
"We'll see people with Turkish citizenship, who were naturalized, stripped of their citizenship and being deported," Akça said, "which is the example you're having in the U.S. where you're having a discussion about naturalized citizens losing citizenship."
"We have to be aware that they are using [tools that] are usually legal but misused, institutional but hollowed out, democratic in appearance but authoritarian in essence," said Tamara Tripic, the chair of the Democratic Dialogue Network in Serbia.
Tripic said that the recent youth-led anti-corruption protests against President Aleksandar Vučić in her country provide a roadmap for how to resist. She cited the importance of mobilizing young people.
"Students actually started the process. They were the most powerful resistance we saw in recent years," she said.
Cseh said that part of building that engagement needed to come from creating a viable alternative to the right that promises people "tangible change" in their lives.
"Autocrats are not always good at governing," she said, "so the cost of living crisis, cost of healthcare, education, everything. Everybody senses that."
She said that Americans have "a very good opportunity ahead" in the next elections to reassert power.
"Start preparing for the midterms like yesterday," said Cseh. "Go to every protest, go to every march, stand right beside everybody who is being attacked, no matter if it is a group you belong to, or something that you do not share personally. You have to stand side by side [with] each other and help and support those who might feel isolated and alone."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Barcelona Dockworkers Vow Not to Load Weapons for Israel or Any Conflict Zone
The move builds on a growing number of direct actions targeting weapons bound for Israel as its bombardment of Gaza has claimed more than 10,000 lives.
Nov 07, 2023
The union representing Barcelona's dockworkers promised Monday not to load or unload military materials onto any ship bound for Israel or another warzone where they could be used against civilians.
In their statement, the Organization of Port Stevedores of Barcelona, OEPB in Catalan, called for a cease-fire in Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, and every other global conflict.
"We have decided... not to allow shipping activity in our port that contains military equipment, with the sole purpose of protecting any civilian population in any territory," the union wrote. "No cause justifies sacrificing civilians."
OEPB said it was its duty as a workers' organization to "respect and vehemently defend" the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—"Human rights that appear to have been forgotten by the countries that have signed their Magna Carta, and that are now being violated in Ukraine, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and other parts of the planet."
The union's statement came as the death toll from Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip surpassed 10,000. Hamas also killed 1,400 in the October 7 attack on Israel that launched the current bout of open conflict, though Gaza has been under Israeli blockade for 16 years. At least 9,614 civilians have been killed in Ukraine between when Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, and September 10, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
In addition to calling for a cease-fire in all global hostilities, the OEPB called on the United Nations specifically to "cease its posture of complicity through inaction" and return to its mission of preserving international peace and security, protecting human rights, distributing humanitarian aid, supporting sustainable development and climate action, and protecting international rights.
"We, several unions active in ground logistics, call on our members not to handle any flights that ship military equipment to Palestine/Israel."
It's unsure how many weapons the OEPB's promise will actually stop from reaching their destination, according to Reuters. Spain exported 1.3 billion euros in military equipment during the first half of 2022, with 9 million of that sent to Israel. However, the Spanish government has said it does not plan to export any deadly weapons to Israel to use in its current attack on Gaza.
OEPB secretary Josep Maria Deop told Reuters Tuesday that the statement was largely symbolic and intended to encourage other Spanish ports to follow his union's example. But he said that military equipment did likely ship from Barcelona and that peace organizations could help the union pinpoint which vessels to avoid.
The move also builds on a growing number of direct actions targeting weapons bound for Israel. It came a week after four Belgian transport unions issued a statement urging their members not to handle Israel-bound military equipment, as Reuters reported at the time.
"While a genocide is under way in Palestine, workers at various airports in Belgium are seeing arms shipments in the direction of the war zone," the unions said.
"We, several unions active in ground logistics, call on our members not to handle any flights that ship military equipment to Palestine/Israel, like there were clear agreements and rules at the start of the conflict with Russia and Ukraine," their statement continued.
Protesters also attempted to block the MV Cape Orlando from leaving the ports of Oakland and Tacoma after receiving word it was being loaded with weapons destined for Israel. They delayed its progress for nine hours in Oakland on Friday and more than eight in Tacoma on Monday.
Also on Monday, more than 75 activists blocked the entrances to a Boeing plant in Missouri that manufactures bombs used by Israel in Gaza, as Middle East Eye reported. The plant had provided Israel with nearly 1,000 bombs including Small Diameter Bombs and Joint Direct Attack Munitions.
"We are joining millions of people across the U.S. and around the world in demanding an end to Israel's brutal assault on Gaza and its decades-long occupation of Palestine," Ellie Tang, an organizer with the anti-war group Dissenters, told Middle East Eye.
The protest, which also included members of the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and Resist STL, prevented Boeing workers from entering the plant for a few hours Monday morning, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Members of Palestine Action in the U.K. and Palestine Action U.S. have also carried out several direct actions targeting weapons makers, in particular Elbit Systems, which is Israel's largest arms manufacturer. On Monday, Palestine Action blockaded an Elbit factory in Kent, after which three protesters were arrested. On Tuesday, they blocked off the entrance to Elbit headquarters in Bristol.
In Bristol, police arrested four protesters and took more than three hours to remove the blockade once they arrived, the group said.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Canadian Government Lambasted for Stifling Science and Dissent
'Together, we feel neither secure nor valued,' says coalition of more than 200 civil society groups
Jun 16, 2015
From muzzling watchdog groups to persecuting whistleblowers, from devaluing Indigenous voices to undermining labor unions, from defunding environmental charities to criminalizing peaceful protests, the Canadian government made civil society organizations "Public Enemy #1."
So charges a new report released Tuesday by Voices-Voix, a coalition of 200 organizations and 500 individuals who say Canada's federal government has pursued a deliberate strategy to repress alternative views.
"Together, we feel neither secure nor valued," the signatories write in Dismantling Democracy: Stifling Debate and Dissent in Canada (pdf). "In a culture of pervasive scare tactics and punishment, it can be easy to become paralyzed with fear, to accept the advocacy chill and give way to self-censorship."
This "crude campaign to stifle dissent" has manifested in myriad ways, according to Voices-Voix, which includes Amnesty International Canada, Greenpeace Canada, and the Council of Canadians.
Such concerns have been raised several times before, but Voices-Voix's analysis is perhaps the most comprehensive. Drawing heavily from more than 100 case studies, the report—which journalist Karl Nerenberg, writing at Rabble.ca, said "should be compulsory reading for all Canadian voters before the next election"—documents dozens of examples of such silencing tactics.
The coalition says organizations that disagree with the government's positions have had their funding threatened, reduced, or discontinued. It adds that individuals have been fired or intimidated after speaking out on human rights or being critical of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's administration.
In a strongly worded Declaration calling for transparency and civil liberties protections, Voices-Voix notes that "an unprecedented level of secrecy now shrouds a long list of government activities and decisions, making it increasingly difficult for the public to hold the government accountable across a range of fundamentally important issues."
The report comes on the same day as the Canadian science advocacy group Evidence for Democracy launched its 'Science Pledge' campaign, asking Members of Parliament, candidates, organizations, and citizens to "pledge their support for science and evidence-based government decision-making."
Specifically, Evidence for Democracy—which supported the public service unions' call last month for language on "scientific integrity" to be included in public science workers' next contract—is recommending the implementation of a new government-wide communications policy to ensure that government scientists can speak publicly about their research and the creation of a new federal science office to advise decision-makers.
"The trends we've seen in recent years--funding cuts to science, government scientists not being able to speak about their work, and decisions that appear to play fast and loose with scientific evidence--are deeply troubling to many in the scientific community," said Dr. Scott Findlay, associate professor of biology at the University of Ottawa and Evidence for Democracy Board member. "Their concerns are, in turn, giving rise to more widespread public concerns about the science necessary to ensure healthy bodies, healthy minds, healthy environments, and healthy economies."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular