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The CampCamp Seminar took place in Yerevan between November 7th – 11th, 2018.
Its organized by the Prague Civil Society Centre and “involves four days of intensive teamwork and cooperation between creative civil activists and talented media, marketing and business specialists. A series of masterclasses, brainstorming sessions, presentations of successful projects and expert consultations help civic initiatives improve their collaboration with local communities so they can achieve better results when fundraising, advocating and attracting public support.”
A look into it by RT, however, revealed that the Prague Civil Society Centre received funding from the US under the August 2, 2017 H.R. 3,364 “On Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” (CAATSA).
The 254th article of this document spelled out funding for “countering Russian influence” in the amount of $ 250,000 for 2018 and 2019. The supposed “Russian influence”, according to politicians from Capitol Hill, extends to the countries already part of NATO and its potential members – Georgia, Moldavia, Kosovo, Serbia, and Ukraine.
“Armenia was chosen as the venue for the CampCamp workshop. After the overthrow of Serzh Sargsyan, opposition members from all CIS countries reached out to Yerevan for inspiration for protests,” RT reported.
There were 150 guests at the forum – mostly they came at the expense of curators from Prague. Local speakers were honored as heroes, and boys and girls from other countries of the former Soviet Union receive confidence that they would succeed too.
The organizers have relied on a young audience, lightness, style and high technology.
“The fight against power must be fashionable,” teaches the head of the St. Petersburg movement, Vremya, Nikolai Artemenko.
In his portfolio are banners at St. Isaac’s Cathedral against the transfer of the Museum of the Russian Orthodox Church, cutting the Constitution into noodles through a shredder a la Banksy, inflatable ducks against corruption, stickers “Tyrant” with a photo of Putin in the style of the famous election poster of Obama.
It is necessary to include imagination, in the market of activism now. Protests are becoming expensive.
Then RT, presents Zhenya’s story:
“He recently turned 18, but he has already become a star of local activism – photo stories about his single pickets have repeatedly decorated city publications. Each picket of Zhenya is a theater of one actor with bright props. Every time Zhenya chooses the theme of the performance, taking into account the iron logic of the Administrative Code: “It is necessary to fall under various articles of violation in order not to double the penalty.”
They have been arguing with Sasha from St. Petersburg for a long time about which public action will be given a smaller penalty and how to reduce these “expenses.” Sasha’s St. Petersburg man has more experience in this matter: after all, he is already a law student and knows how to strike in order to ‘get rid of the minimum salary.’”
An interesting conclusion is reached thus relating to the popularization of protests: it should not be perceived as a feat and associated with heavy victims. Stick a sticker in the stairwell, post a meme, in extreme cases, go to an inconsistent action, take a selfie in a paddy wagon and pay a fine. In the world of social networks, anyone can be a journalist, an expert, a critic, a TV presenter, which means that anybody can also be a revolutionary.
“It’s easy to get a grant – you can work for a month in the Czech Republic, or on Radio Liberty, or in some political center,” Mikael Zolyan shares his experience. Mikael – “the very frontman of the velvet revolution”, as the organizers present him. Coincidentally, he is also an expert at the Prague Civil Society Centre.
Other speakers also openly advertised that the money for the event comes from the Prague Civil Society Centre.
“In the general chorus of those who “dream to repeat” the protest experience of more successful colleagues, the voices of Belarusians and Russians are heard. So, Vanya from Perm enthusiastically speaks into the microphone that he came for the “export of the revolution”. How to set up export success in Yerevan – this will be taught all four days by representatives of European democratic thought, “friends” and partners of the organization from Prague. But the general protest rush violates the main organizer – Maria Sereda. She asks to remember about security and not to rush to dump the unexpectedly born slogan about “export” on Twitter: ‘People with Russian cameras will not come to us.’”
Within the framework of the forum, several trainings were held to promote and transfer protest moods to the masses.
Young activists are taught to choose the right audience – the people who are most susceptible to promoting liberal values. Those who “do not belong to human rights groups” and do not go to rallies are called useless audiences.
“If a person approves or at least neutral towards the annexation of the Crimea, then, according to the lecturers, there is no sense in working with him. Efforts to recruit supporters are proposed to concentrate on residents of large cities from 20 to 40 years old with higher education and average earnings. The lecturer teaches to perceive such people as a resource.”
“Evaluate who is in front of you: a person with money, reputation, influence, or simply enraged to such an extent that he can do something,” the moderator said.
The RT also noted that the CampCamp atmosphere rather reminds of a pioneer camp of the former Soviet Union.
Furthermore, one of the more interesting individuals is Nicholas Detsch from the USA. He is a sort of partner to the OSCE and shared his many years of experience in Central Asia.
Nick does not tell that he works in the American-Russian Foundation for Economic and Legal Development (an organization recognized as undesirable in Russia). He was one of the first people sent by the said organization to Ukraine in 2014.
The CampCamp seminar had an entirely liberal feeling: toilets had no gender designations on them, for example.
In attendance during all days were organizers of the Ukraine protests in 2013, in the more recent Armenian ones – mostly sharing their experiences and admitting that the “revolutions” were not spontaneous, but rather a continuous effort aimed in a specific direction. Successful in no small part thanks to foreign investments, from the US or other organizations and states.
There were also issues that needed to be tackled in Russia: the NGO scene is too fragmented, the opposition organizations need to be united in order to produce the necessary results.
The CampCamp workshop is part of the systematic work of the Prague Civil Society Centre for the fostering of a new pool of “activists”. The organization has provided for a rather strict system of selection of the participants of the event – it was possible to get to the seminar in Yerevan only after passing a kind of loyalty test. The “lucky” ones received a “grant” in the form of a paid flight. Most of the young people who thus “earned” a ticket to the capital of Armenia are sure that they are “saving the world.”
The Prague Civil Society Centre has been carrying out its efforts for a while, in 2009 the executive director of the center, Rostislav Valvoda, tried to conduct something similar in Russia.
The seminar back then was called “Methods of conducting a campaign, successful examples.” However, due to the violation of migration legislation, Valvoda was detained and left the territory of the country.
I know how to stop this. It ain’t pretty, but it works.
The point when you are afraid of a 18yo. Pretty priceless.