WHAT ARE SURVIVAL DIALOGUES?
The Survival Dialogues series is a curated set of 8 virtual gatherings that bring together movement lawyers from around the world to make sense of the moment we’re in and strengthen how we respond to it. Not at all a typical webinar, each session will combine political analysis with practices that support emotional, physical, and collective resilience, while strengthening our connection and collaboration in the face of rising global authoritarianism.
Deadline Extended: Apply by July 10
At the height of the Bolsonaro administration in Brazil, a carnival bloc marched through the streets under a shared call: Organize rage, defend joy.
Photo: Marlon Costa/Pernambuco Press
Why Join Survival Dialogues?
Authoritarianism does not only repress—it narrows our imaginations and erodes our sense of possibility. Resisting it means not only confronting its violence, but also defending our capacity to envision and live other futures.
The Survival Dialogues are about organizing rage, defending joy, and sustaining hope. All sessions will take a global, holistic approach by weaving sharp analysis with artistic, cultural, and somatic experiences.
Here’s what sets the Survival Dialogues apart from conventional webinars and political education spaces:
Holistic Analysis: Rather than treating authoritarianism as isolated national trends, this series deepens collective understanding of the “authoritarian playbook” across interconnected local and global contexts.
People’s Strategies: Participants will learn from both emerging and ancestral “people’s playbooks,” drawing on resistance strategies rooted in diverse movements, histories, and geographies.
Transnational Solidarity: The series intentionally builds meaningful relationships across borders, cultivating solidarity as an active, ongoing practice rather than an abstract principle.
Beyond Traditional Learning: This is not a webinar series—it is a restorative, participatory space that weaves political analysis with popular education, somatic practices, art, music, and ancestral knowledge.
Collective Imagination: At its core, the Survival Dialogues strengthen collective hope and political imagination as shared practices, grounding participants in solidarity and sustaining them for long-term struggle.
The sessions were developed in partnership with members of the Global Network of Movement Lawyers (GNML)
Sessions Calendar
All sessions are from:
8:00 AM to 11:00 AM Eastern Time | 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM Greenwich Mean Time | 2:00 PM - 5:00 Central European Time
Double-check the event time in your local time zone using this time-zone calculator.
Introduction to Survival Dialogues: Organizing Rage and Defending Joy
July 14, 2026
A grounding session that orients participants to the Survival Dialogues’ purpose, methodology, and collective learning approach, situating the series in the current global political moment and planting the core question of the series: How must the people’s resistance playbook adapt in these times?
From Authoritarian Playbook to People’s Playbook
August 11, 2026
A deep dive into Hungary as a “laboratory of illiberalism,” unpacking contemporary authoritarian tools and the grassroots organizing, journalism, and coalition-building that inform a transnational people’s playbook of resistance.
Xenophobia, Dispossession, and The Politics of Exclusion: Law, Spatial Segregation and Justice through the Lens of South Africa
September 22nd, 2026
A critical exploration of how law, space, and migration intersect in South Africa to produce xenophobic exclusion, while also highlighting legal and grassroots strategies for survival, protection, and justice that resonate across borders.
Palestine, Genocide, Complicity and the Crisis of International Law and Global Legal Order
November 10, 2026
An urgent examination of Palestine that names ongoing practices of genocide, traces global economic and political complicity, and probes what this moment reveals about the limits and possibilities of international law. Where do we go from here?
Tech Oligarchs vs. The People: Organizational, Personal, and Digital Security in the Age of Surveillance
December 15, 2026
A practice-oriented session on confronting digital repression and tech-driven authoritarianism, grounded in frontline experiences and focused on concrete organizational, personal, and digital security strategies.
Courts in Times of Rising Authoritarianism: Between resistance, capture, and the struggle for rights
January 26, 2027
A nuanced conversation on the role of courts under democratic erosion, examining both their capture and their potential as contested sites within broader movement strategies to confront authoritarian power.
Confronting the Criminalization of Dissent: Joy, Solidarity and Collective Action to Counter State Violence
April 13, 2027
A closing gathering that centers survival as a collective political practice, inviting participants to explore how movements organize rage, defend joy, and sustain hope and imagination across long cycles of violence and crisis.
Collective Survival and Political Imagination
March 9, 2027
An investigation into how protest is criminalized, and security forces are militarized through legal and institutional means, alongside the defense strategies movements are developing in response.
The sessions will feature speakers, experts, and facilitators from the following countries and movements, including:
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![Mazibuko Jara]()
Mazibuko Jara
Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara is a South African pan-Africanist popular educator, strategist, and activist with three decades of work across social justice movements. He is the Executive Director of Zabalaza Pathways Institute in South Africa. He co-founded and led major movements, including the Treatment Action Campaign and the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality, and served as founding Board Chair of Oxfam South Africa. Mazibuko will be joining us to discuss the current political moment and offer an initial analytical framework for understanding the rise of global authoritarianism.
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![Danah Abueida]()
Danah Abueida
Danah Abueida is a Palestinian lawyer and Legal Officer at the European Legal Support Center, where she works at the intersection of human rights, abolitionist politics, and legal defense of Palestinian advocacy in Europe. Trained in European law at Maastricht University, she draws on her experience in Gaza and a commitment to revolutionary love, collective care, and solidarity with prisoners and communities under repression. Danah will be joining us for Session four to present on the legal landscape beyond genocide, including sanctions regimes, banking restrictions, and indirect or “unspoken” sanctions.
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![Nkosinathi Sithole]()
Nkosinathi Sithole
Nkosinathi Sithole is the Director of Litigation at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), where he oversees strategic litigation to advance the socioeconomic rights of poor communities, homeless people, and residents of informal settlements. He is an attorney with more than eight years of post-admission experience and has rights of appearance in South Africa’s higher courts. Nkosinathi holds an LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand and an LLM in Property Law from the University of South Africa, both awarded with distinction. Nkosinathi will be speaking in Session Three to discuss how anti-migrant policies, border enforcement, detention practices, labor precarity, and xenophobic narratives are being mobilized to redefine belonging and legitimize exclusion.
*More speakers will be added in the coming weeks.*
IS THIS COURSE RIGHT FOR YOU?
We’re looking for lawyers, advanced law students, legal scholars, and legal workers from anywhere in the world with at least 2 years of experience using law to support working-class communities.
Applicants should be committed to using law and organizing to build social movement power, eager to build long-term relationships with movement lawyers from around the world, and able to attend all eight sessions.
Photo: Free DC
FAQS
Still have questions? Take a look at the FAQ or reach out anytime.
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No, these sessions and the application are completely free.
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We plan to offer simultaneous interpretation in English, Spanish and Portuguese, and will consider adding other languages to ensure everyone can fully participate.
Apply by June 29 to join a global legal community that exchanges experiences, builds international solidarity, and lays the groundwork for global collaboration.
The Global Network of Movement Lawyers offers these sessions in partnership with Movement Law Lab, the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), Socio-economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Observatori DESCA, Socio-Legal Information Center, El Colectivo de Abogados y Abogadas ‘José Alvear Restrepo’ (CAJAR), and Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF).
We especially want to acknowledge the contributions of key GNML members to the design of this series and want to honor the Brazilian Carnival Bloc, Bloco Eu Acho É Pouco, for inspiring our “organize rage, defend joy” banner.