05 join the club

A lecture by Melih Arat – melarat.blogspot.com

Join the ClubHow Peer Pressure Can

Transform the World

Tina Rosenberg



The Untouchables Babai Sathe


Ivan Marovic

A lecture by Melih Arat – melarat.blogspot.com• A Dinar for Change: Otpor activists painted Milosevic's face

on a barrel and set up in front of the Belgrade National Theater, asking passersby to pay one dinar to hit the portrait. The activists went to the sidelines and watched as the barrel attracted more and more attention. Police eventually arrested the barrel.

• Happy Birthday Milosevic: Activists in Nis created this event to "celebrate" Milosevic's party with a cake, a card, gifts, and wishes. More than 2,000 citizens had the opportunity to sign the card, and gifts such as handcuffs, a one-way ticket to the Hague, and a prison uniform were received on his behalf.

• The Fist is the Salute: A poster campaign depicting many well-known Serbians raising their fists in opposition to the Milosevic regime. Over 50,000 copies were distributed. The campaign ended on New Year's with a Santa Claus fist poster.

• Resistance, Because I Love Serbia: The most widespread poster campaign with a circulation of 150,000.


• This is THE Year: 3,000 people gathered in downtown Belgrade for a New Year's party in January 2000. After a night of celebration, Otpor interrupted the jubilation with pictures of the horrors of the past ten years, telling Serbian they had nothing to celebrate. The people were asked to go home peacefully and to think about how they were going to change their situation.

• It's spreading: In Spring 2000, Otpor undertook efforts to spread the movement to rural areas and the nonacademic population.

• It's time!: A clock showing five minutes to twelve with the slogan "vreme je!" was used to convince all audiences that they must quickly act.

• He's finished!: Otpor's most well-known campaign. Close to the elections, volunteers put up over 1,500,000 "He's finished!" (Gotov je!) stickers on existing posters of Milosevic and all over cities.

• Stamp it! and Use it!: Campaigns employed by Otpor after the fall of Milosevic. They were to remind Serbians that they must follow through by defeating Milosevic in the December parliamentary elections, as well.


Ivan Marovic


Otpor-resistance• Protest and persuasion• Public theater and street acts to mock

Milosevic• Extensive branding by hanging posters and

stickers in widely trafficked areas• Rallies, marches, and demonstration• Electoral politics - campaigning &

coalition-building• Concerts and cultural celebrations• Distribution of anti-Milosevic materials• Strategic use of internet, fax, and email to

organize and distribute information and volunteers

• Covert and public communication important community leaders to cultivate allies

• Public statements, press releases, petitions, and speeches

• Distribution of training manuals, frequent workshops for activists


Otpor-resistance• Strategies• Take an offensive approach• Understanding the concept "power in

numbers" [17]• Developing a superior communication

strategy[18]• Creating the perception of a successful

movement[19]• Investing in the skills and knowledge of

activists [20]• Cultivating external support [21]• Inducing security force defections [22]• Resisting oppression[23][24]• By means of decentralized leadership,

education, using humor to maintain morale, and supporting members who had been arrested

• Using elections to trigger change [25]• Enabling peaceful transition of power[26]


• Noncooperation• Boycotts and strikes by

students, artists, actors, and business owners

• General strikes• Defection of both security

forces and members of the media

• Organization that occurred outside the electoral system

• Election monitors and well-organized election results reporting system


• Nonviolent Intervention• Blockades of highways in

order to debilitate the economy and show the regime the people's power

• Occupation of key public buildings, occasional nonviolent invasions of said buildings

• Bulldozers moving aside police barricades


Using humor to put an oppressive government in a lose-lose situation


Lovelife TV Ads…• The campaign was unrolled through TV and radio Public Service

Announcements (PSAs) in four distinct phases, and unpacked in loveLife’s various media platforms. Each phase posed tough questions, without providing the answers, to spark an internal dialogue within young people:

• “Who are you?” was geared to getting young people to look within themselves and question their identity.

• “Do you disappear without your gear?” aimed to get young people to think about who they are beyond the material – it’s not what you have, but who you are (self-worth).

• “Who are you without your crew?” addressed the issue of peer pressure, asking young people to think of themselves beyond their ‘friends’ and negative influences.

• “I am somebody!” provided a conclusion to the questions that were asked in the first three PSAs. It highlighted the individual’s resolve to move beyond negativity and constraints to realise their worth and make their move.

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