198 Methods of Nonviolent Action

GeneSharp_198MethodsOfNonviolentAction_02

 

198 Methods of Nonviolent Action. – Gene Sharp.

Practitioners of nonviolent struggle have an entire arsenal of “nonviolent weapons” at their disposal.

Listed below are 198 of them, classified into three broad categories: nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation (social, economic, and political), and nonviolent intervention. A description and historical examples of each can be found in volume two of The Politics of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp.

The Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion

Formal Statements
 1. Public Speeches
 2. Letters of opposition or support
 3. Declarations by organizations and institutions
 4. Signed public statements
 5. Declarations of indictment and intention
 6. Group or mass petitions

Communications with a Wider Audience
 7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
 8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
 9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
 10. Newspapers and journals
 11. Records, radio, and television
 12. Skywriting and earthwriting

Group Representations
 13. Deputations
 14. Mock awards
 15. Group lobbying
 16. Picketing
 17. Mock elections

Symbolic Public Acts
 18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
 19. Wearing of symbols
 20. Prayer and worship
 21. Delivering symbolic objects
 22. Protest disrobings
 23. Destruction of own property
 24. Symbolic lights
 25. Displays of portraits
 26. Paint as protest
 27. New signs and names
 28. Symbolic sounds
 29. Symbolic reclamations
 30. Rude gestures

Pressures on Individuals
 31. "Haunting" officials
 32. Taunting officials
 33. Fraternization
 34. Vigils

Drama and Music
 35. Humorous skits and pranks
 36. Performances of plays and music
 37. Singing

Processions
 38. Marches
 39. Parades
 40. Religious processions
 41. Pilgrimages
 42. Motorcades

Honoring the Dead
 43. Political mourning
 44. Mock funerals
 45. Demonstrative funerals
 46. Homage at burial places

Public Assemblies
 47. Assemblies of protest or support
 48. Protest meetings
 49. Camouflaged meetings of protest
 50. Teach-ins

Withdrawal and Renunciation
 51. Walk-outs
 52. Silence
 53. Renouncing honors
 54. Turning one’s back
 The Methods of Social Noncooperation

Ostracism of Persons
 55. Social boycott
 56. Selective social boycott
 57. Lysistratic nonaction
 58. Excommunication
 59. Interdict

Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs, and Institutions
 60. Suspension of social and sports activities
 61. Boycott of social affairs
 62. Student strike
 63. Social disobedience
 64. Withdrawal from social institutions

Withdrawal from the Social System
 65. Stay-at-home
 66. Total personal noncooperation
 67. "Flight" of workers
 68. Sanctuary
 69. Collective disappearance
 70. Protest emigration (hijrat)

The Methods of Economic Noncooperation: Economic Boycotts

Actions by Consumers
 71. Consumers’ boycott
 72. Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
 73. Policy of austerity
 74. Rent withholding
 75. Refusal to rent
 76. National consumers’ boycott
 77. International consumers’ boycott

Action by Workers and Producers
 78. Workmen’s boycott
 79. Producers’ boycott

Action by Middlemen
 80. Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott

Action by Owners and Management
 81. Traders’ boycott
 82. Refusal to let or sell property
 83. Lockout
 84. Refusal of industrial assistance
 85. Merchants’ "general strike"

Action by Holders of Financial Resources
 86. Withdrawal of bank deposits
 87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
 88. Refusal to pay debts or interest
 89. Severance of funds and credit
 90. Revenue refusal
 91. Refusal of a government’s money

Action by Governments
 92. Domestic embargo
 93. Blacklisting of traders
 94. International sellers’ embargo
 95. International buyers’ embargo
 96. International trade embargo

The Methods of Economic Noncooperation: The Strike

Symbolic Strikes
 97. Protest strike
 98. Quickie walkout (lightning strike)

Agricultural Strikes
 99. Peasant strike
 100. Farm Workers’ strike

Strikes by Special Groups
 101. Refusal of impressed labor
 102. Prisoners’ strike
 103. Craft strike
 104. Professional strike

Ordinary Industrial Strikes
 105. Establishment strike
 106. Industry strike
 107. Sympathetic strike

Restricted Strikes
 108. Detailed strike
 109. Bumper strike
 110. Slowdown strike
 111. Working-to-rule strike
 112. Reporting "sick" (sick-in)
 113. Strike by resignation
 114. Limited strike
 115. Selective strike

Multi-Industry Strikes
 116. Generalized strike
 117. General strike
Combination of Strikes and Economic Closures
 118. Hartal
 119. Economic shutdown
 The Methods of Political Noncooperation

Rejection of Authority
 120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
 121. Refusal of public support
 122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance

Citizens’ Noncooperation with Government
 123. Boycott of legislative bodies
 124. Boycott of elections
 125. Boycott of government employment and positions
 126. Boycott of government departments, agencies, and other bodies
 127. Withdrawal from government educational institutions
 128. Boycott of government-supported organizations
 129. Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
 130. Removal of own signs and placemarks
 131. Refusal to accept appointed officials
 132. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions

Citizens’ Alternatives to Obedience
 133. Reluctant and slow compliance
 134. Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
 135. Popular nonobedience
 136. Disguised disobedience
 137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
 138. Sitdown
 139. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
 140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
 141. Civil disobedience of "illegitimate" laws

Action by Government Personnel
 142. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
 143. Blocking of lines of command and information
 144. Stalling and obstruction
 145. General administrative noncooperation
 146. Judicial noncooperation
 147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by
 enforcement agents
 148. Mutiny

Domestic Governmental Action
 149. Quasi-legal evasions and delays
 150. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units

International Governmental Action
 151. Changes in diplomatic and other representations
 152. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
 153. Withholding of diplomatic recognition
 154. Severance of diplomatic relations
 155. Withdrawal from international organizations
 156. Refusal of membership in international bodies
 157. Expulsion from international organizations

The Methods of Nonviolent Intervention

Psychological Intervention
 158. Self-exposure to the elements
 159. The fast
 a) Fast of moral pressure
 b) Hunger strike
 c) Satyagrahic fast
 160. Reverse trial
 161. Nonviolent harassment

Physical Intervention
 162. Sit-in
 163. Stand-in
 164. Ride-in
 165. Wade-in
 166. Mill-in
 167. Pray-in
 168. Nonviolent raids
 169. Nonviolent air raids
 170. Nonviolent invasion
 171. Nonviolent interjection
 172. Nonviolent obstruction
 173. Nonviolent occupation

Social Intervention
 174. Establishing new social patterns
 175. Overloading of facilities
 176. Stall-in
 177. Speak-in
 178. Guerrilla theater
 179. Alternative social institutions
 180. Alternative communication system

Economic Intervention
 181. Reverse strike
 182. Stay-in strike
 183. Nonviolent land seizure
 184. Defiance of blockades
 185. Politically motivated counterfeiting
 186. Preclusive purchasing
 187. Seizure of assets
 188. Dumping
 189. Selective patronage
 190. Alternative markets
 191. Alternative transportation systems
 192. Alternative economic institutions

Political Intervention
 193. Overloading of administrative systems
 194. Disclosing identities of secret agents
 195. Seeking imprisonment
 196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws
 197. Work-on without collaboration
 198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government

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