Jay Nordlinger is a senior resident fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative and a contributor at The Next Move.
Author’s Note: The World Liberty Congress took place in Berlin on November 8 and 9. The WLC is an assembly—a parliament, if you will—for dissidents. This year, there were 180 delegates representing 60 nations—nations under dictatorship. The WLC is meant to be, in part, a United Nations for dissidents.
(Some of the delegates also belong to the Renew Democracy Initiative’s Frontlines of Freedom network.)
The WLC was founded in November 2022 by three well-known dissidents, from Russia, Iran, and Venezuela: Garry Kasparov (founder and chairman of RDI), Masih Alinejad, and Leopoldo López.
This year’s meeting was held at the Abgeordnetenhaus, i.e., the House of Representatives, in Berlin. Berlin is both the capital of Germany and one of the country’s 16 states. The Abgeordnetenhaus is a state legislature.
Below are some notes on, or related to, the WLC meeting, journal-style.
There is a press conference outside the Abgeordnetenhaus (a mouthful for a non-German mouth, and maybe even a German one). A little stage has been set up. To begin the press conference, two German officials give remarks, in German.
Then Masih Alinejad takes the stage, saying to one of the officials, “You must have said the word ‘freedom,’ Freiheit, about 50 times in five minutes. In Iran, we hardly ever heard that word!”
Masih is in exile, I might mention. So is Garry, so is Leopoldo.
Back to “freedom,” in German. I can’t help thinking of Christmas Day 1989. The Berlin Wall had fallen the month before. Leonard Bernstein came to this city to conduct a special performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. This is a choral symphony, setting Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” in the last movement.
Bernstein had the chorus change the word “joy”—Freude—to Freiheit. He explained that he felt “authorized by the power of the moment” to do so.
(To watch and listen to that Christmas Day performance, go here.)
***
Leopoldo López addresses the press and others in the crowd. He says, “I come from East Berlin in Venezuela. Masih comes from East Berlin in Iran. Garry comes from East Berlin in Russia.”
Billions of people are on the wrong side of the wall, López says—the wall separating the Free World from the Unfree World. These billions need a “1989” of their own.
***
Leopoldo López has led a brave and turbulent life, including years as a political prisoner. For a piece of mine about him, published in 2021, go here. Masih Alinejad, too, has led a brave and turbulent life. For a piece of mine about her—also published in 2021—go here.
***
In Berlin, at the press conference, Masih is back at the microphone. She notes that the co-founders of the World Liberty Congress are an Iranian, a Russian, and a Venezuelan.
She also notes the following:
Three years ago, the Iranian dictatorship hired members of the Russian mob to kill her. Before that, the dictatorship had plotted to kidnap her in New York and spirit her away to Venezuela. From there, she was to be taken to Iran (and a ghastly fate).
Obviously, the Iranian, Russian, and Venezuelan dictatorships are working together, says Masih. Doesn’t it make sense, then, for democrats and dissidents from those countries to do the same?
I think of a phrase from the past: “axis of evil.” Iran’s ayatollahs, Russia’s Putin, and Venezuela’s Maduro constitute an axis of evil. In my book, Masih, Garry, and Leopoldo constitute an axis of good.
Here in Berlin, Masih points out what she has often pointed out before: dictators are awfully good at allying and cooperating; democrats should be at least half as good.
***
At the end of last month, two of the men involved in this latest plot against Masih—two members of the Russian mob—were sentenced to prison in a New York federal court. Masih and Uriel Epshtein, jointly, wrote a piece about this, here. (Uriel is the CEO of the Renew Democracy Initiative.) I myself furnished some notes on the sentencing hearing: here.
***
For more than 50 years, Paris has had a fashion week: the famous Paris Fashion Week. Starting this year, Berlin will have a freedom week: “Berlin Freedom Week” (pegged to November 9, the day the wall fell in 1989).
At the press conference, outside the parliamentary building, Masih relates this with delight.
***
When it is his turn at the microphone, Garry Kasparov recalls his first visit to Berlin: it was shortly after the reunification of Germany. He had come for a chess congress. And though the East German state was no more, the “two Berlins” were still different, visually: the western part light, the eastern part dark.
Naturally, I think of the Korean peninsula, immediately. People have often remarked that South Korea is light at night—brilliantly lit—while North Korea is completely dark. (Donald Rumsfeld once handed me a satellite photo, showing just this.)
Well, Garry Kasparov proceeds to make exactly that point...
***
Inside the hall, the World Liberty Congress looks like the UN—complete with little flags next to the delegates, showing where they are from.
As it happens, I sit next to a man who knows all the flags of the world. He is George Bandy, an Englishman who studied in Holland and now works here in Berlin, for Alliance4Europe. That was his pandemic project: to learn all the flags of the world.
Time happily spent.
***
Garry opens his remarks to the delegates by saying, “Greetings, my fellow terrorists and extremists!” That’s how dictatorships label their critics: as “terrorists” and “extremists.” Garry says that these regimes, these dictatorships, are “temporarily occupying our countries.”
He also says that “terrorist” and “extremist” can be regarded as badges of honor, when those labels are affixed by dictatorships. “It’s a recognition of our work.”
Garry recalls his friend Boris Nemtsov, the Russian democracy leader, murdered within sight of the Kremlin in 2015. Nemtsov would say, “When you have no elections, no democracy, how do you measure your work? You measure it by the aggressiveness of the state against you.”
If that is true, says Garry, then all of the delegates here have done very well.
Before concluding, Garry says a word about Ukraine. It is only the heroism of the Ukrainians—their sacrifice, particularly on the front lines—that is sparing Europe a broader war, for now. We all owe the Ukrainians a great deal. And we should help them (and, in so doing, help ourselves).
Garry ends with words that are embedded in American history—they come from a song: “We shall overcome.”
***
Kasparov is vice president of the World Liberty Congress. Masih Alinejad is president. Leopoldo López is secretary-general. Leopoldo announces to the assembly that the three of them have decided to step down, to allow rotation in office. The delegates will elect new leaders.
In autocracies, rotation in office is unknown (though an Assad may succeed an Assad, a Kim may succeed a Kim, etc.). But in a democratic assembly, things must be different.
See you tomorrow, for Part II of this journal.
More from The Next Move:
Join the Renew Democracy Initiative in DC, Dec. 9-10
The Frontlines of Freedom Conference is about fostering a culture of freedom.
A Foreign Plot. A Test of American Freedom.
Iran tried to murder activist Masih Alinejad in Brooklyn. Her case should rally Americans around our First Amendment freedoms.
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I watched it on Youtube but in your description it is become more historical I would say. I really think WLC is great and wish them all the success, we need healthy alternative to UN. Garry Kasparov's speech was very powerfull and inspiring