Iran proves autocrats can never silence the call for freedom

The rise and concentration of autocratic powers across the world should alarm us all, but the enduring strength of peaceful resistance teaches us that free thinking is always an unstoppable force

Iranians have taken to the streets in numbers not seen for years. Thousands have been killed in the regime’s brutal crackdown on the latest protest movement, executed by gunfire in the street. Tens of thousands have been arrested, and many more are at risk of the dreaded knock on the door. Yet mindful of the human cost, the fact that so many ordinary people are willing to stand up to one of the world’s most oppressive dictatorships should give us hope for a freer, more equal world. At the time of writing this, the regime remains in power, but experts say it is severely weakened. The long repression of a people and the distortion of the truth cannot command governing legitimacy. This should be a warning to autocrats everywhere; no matter how much fear you sow, ordinary people are defiant and can mobilise quickly when pushed to their limits.

Political scientists have recorded the highest level of autocracy since 1985. This in mind, you would expect the West to be rallying for democracy and human rights on an unprecedented scale– yet never have we looked so hypocritical, disunited and convoluted. Confronting autocracy becomes difficult when the US President increasingly resembles a dictator. The Trump administration attacks the free press through the courts and sends heavy-handed immigration enforcement as blatant political vengeance. ICE immigration officers roam the streets of suburban America, racially profiling citizens, demanding evidence of citizenship. The US increasingly resembles the autocracies it has long stood against. President Trump, like the many strongmen of history, demands total loyalty. His drive to expand US federal power feels less American and more personal. As centralised power grows, it becomes more difficult to control an autocrat’s whims. The next few months will determine whether Trump is just that, and, in the meantime, a staggered West needs to figure out how to fight back.

Here in Europe, the far-right inches closer to power in its major states, the UK, France and Germany. Liberal America, if it ever existed, has fallen, and so too can liberal Europe. Many of these parties propose similar plans to the US President: mass removals of people with nowhere safe to go. Yet unlike our American cousins, Europeans have experienced fascism and extremist politics in our not-so-distant past. Our antennae for injustice and impatience at lofty promises of overnight transformation will protect democracy on much of this continent. European values are not just EU propaganda, but a lived reality for all of us.

The international order is fundamentally reshaping in a way we haven’t seen since the end of the Cold War. Consensus politics and the institutions that grounded it no longer stand firm. In order to fight autocracy, we need to get back to democratic basics: protest in the street, chat with your neighbour and not instantly demonise those we disagree with. The old order is finished. We can no longer focus solely on domestic issues and then a vague threat from afar; our world is interconnected, and so the fight against autocracy must be too.