How do people stand up to injustice, defend democratic values, and drive change in times of crisis? The Civil Resistance Showcase brings together powerful stories and perspectives from across Europe, exploring the many forms resistance can take. Through cross-border journalism, it highlights acts of courage, solidarity, and civic engagement that shape societies and challenge the status quo. From grassroots movements to individual acts of defiance, the showcase reveals how ordinary people can make an extraordinary impact.
This reportage explores the growing student activism in Slovakia and Lithuania, focusing on five initiatives and their responses to political, social, environmental and cultural crises. Through personal testimonies, it examines protest strategies, online activism, community building, harassment, exhaustion and solidarity, showing how young people seek meaningful ways to influence society and their future.
Author: Gréta Čandová
Medium: Kapitál
Original title: Máme všetky krízy v telefóne. Reportáž o študentskom angažovaní sa
The relationship between modern states and the indigenous peoples of the Americas is one of the most remarkable chapters in our history. Whilst there were once brutal attempts to wipe out entire cultures, we have now reached a point where these people are becoming key partners in the preservation of wild and hitherto untouched places on the planet.
Author: Ester Dobiášová
Medium: JÁDU
Original title: Jak se z utlačovaných národů stali aktéři klimatické politiky
The article examines the continuing protests in Georgia and the weakening of civil society outside Tbilisi. Through activists, artists, and local communities, it explores political pressure, propaganda, economic dependence, Soviet nostalgia, and shrinking civic space. The stories reveal how fear and resignation undermine democratic participation while highlighting those who continue resisting despite mounting risks.
Never before has press freedom been in such a dire state in Serbia. Politicians are fanning the flames of hatred, and attacks on journalists are a recurring reality. Step by step, the state is extending its influence. Now the already small number of independent media outlets is at risk of shrinking significantly once again.
Authors: Astrid Benölken & Tobias Zuttmann
Medium: JÁDU
Original title: Pressefreiheit in Serbien: Schlagstock statt Schlagzeile
In various parts of the world, more and more young people are bringing climate change cases before the courts. For them, climate change is a human rights issue. The courts are gradually ruling in their favour.
We live under the illusion that it would be enough simply to work harder, and then everything would be fine again. But what if this false hope is merely a kind of trap that keeps us in a state of passivity? In today’s world, true courage does not begin with believing in a better tomorrow, but rather with accepting the fact that no saviour is coming, argues Stanislav Biler in his essay.
Author: Stanislav Biler
Medium: JÁDU
Original title: Stinné stránky optimismu: Naděje pro strašidla
When ISIS was raging in northern Syria in 2014, the Western world caught sight of armed Kurdish women fighting against the jihadists – their hair loose in the wind – and fell in love with their image. But behind it lay a far more radical project: Rojava, the Kurdish-led autonomous region built over a decade, where gender equality is enshrined and defended by both law and arms. Now, after years of struggle for survival, Syria’s transitional government wants to reverse this process.
News is gradually reaching Iranians in exile about which of their loved ones have fallen victim to the regime’s violence. The bloody suppression of anti-government protests by the local Islamist regime at the turn of 2025 and 2026 ranks among the most tragic events in Iran’s modern history. According to independent estimates, members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps killed up to thirty thousand people and injured tens of thousands more. How do Iranians who have found a new home in the Czech Republic perceive the origins of the current Iranian Islamist terror, civil resistance, and the struggle for freedom?
The debut novel by Swedish-Kurdish author Agri Ismaïl, titled *Hyper*, follows in the tradition of family sagas and literature written by second- or third-generation immigrants. The main character—the proud founder of the Communist Party of Iraqi Kurdistan—flees the country only to watch his ideals crumble as his children strive to succeed in London, New York, and Dubai. The novel captures the hyper-fragmented life under capitalism in the wake of the financial crisis from the perspective of uprooted Kurds.
Author: Laura Vassileva
Medium: Revue Prostor
Original title: HYPERkapitalismus v kurdském zrcadle
The experiences and struggles of people with health-related disadvantages have been, and continue to be, systematically erased from our collective memory. In her reflection on a number of groundbreaking films, the author Petra Eller explores this erasure and the power that can bring these experiences back into the public consciousness.
Author: Petra Eller
Medium: JÁDU
Original title: Crip dejiny: ich vymazávanie a filmy, ktoré ich uchovávajú
