How do we confront tyranny when the world is rearming? Two voices meet in Barcelona on May 27

An anti-Trump intellectual from the United States and an Iranian peace strategist who helped place women on the UN’s global security agenda. Two different trajectories, one shared urgency: how to confront new forms of authoritarianism without accepting war as the answer.

On May 27 at 6:30 pm, Hub Social Barcelona will host the conversation Neither War nor Tyrants: Rethinking Power and Peace in Times of Conflict. Two speakers who do not approach authoritarianism from academic distance: they have lived through it, studied it from within, and spent decades working on political and social alternatives to violence and exclusion.

john a. powell grew up in the United States during racial segregation. From his position at the University of California, Berkeley, he has spent decades studying othering, the mechanism through which authoritarian power survives by creating a “we” against a “they”, and belonging as a response: building societies where everyone has a place. He has been one of the intellectual influences behind the Black Lives Matter movement and civil resistance to Trumpism.

Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini is Iranian and has worked in peacebuilding in conflict zones for more than 25 years. In 2000, she helped draft UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the first resolution to formally place women within the global peace and security agenda. She directs ICAN, an international civil society network active in more than 40 countries. Her position is unequivocal: against the Iranian regime, but also against any attempt to instrumentalize Iranian suffering to justify more bombs and more war.

The event is organized by BCN4Peace, a new platform promoted by ICIP, Centre Delàs and NOVACT, with the support of Barcelona City Council.

The conversation will take place on May 27 at 6:30 pm at Hub Social Barcelona (Girona 34, Barcelona). Places are limited. Registration is now open.