198 Methods of Nonviolent Action
This is now the sixth time I have posted this list of 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action by the late Gene Sharp (1928-2018) of the Albert Einstein Institution. The first time in April 2013, most recently in September 2020.
These methods were developed over decades as successful tools of change in resistance to authoritarian regimes. Which is to say: they have worked.
When I posted these in September 2020, I wrote at the time:
“As optimistic as I want to be about emerging sometime soon from dark governmental and political times, that day may not be tomorrow, or November, or January, or 2021.”
So it goes.
Please read this last thoroughly. Please consider which may be appropriate for you and for the current circumstances. Then please pass the list on and act.
These actions have worked before. And they can work again.
198 Methods of Nonviolent Action
Formal Statements
- Public Speeches
- Letters of opposition or support
- Declarations by organizations and institutions
- Signed public statements
- Declarations of indictment and intention
- Group or mass petitions
Communications with a Wider Audience
- Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
- Banners, posters, displayed communications
- Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
- Newspapers and journals
- Records, radio, and television
- Skywriting and earthwriting
Group Representations - Deputations
- Mock awards
- Group lobbying
- Picketing
- Mock elections
Symbolic Public Acts
- Displays of flags and symbolic colors
- Wearing of symbols
- Prayer and worship
- Delivering symbolic objects
- Protest disrobings
- Destruction of own property
- Symbolic lights
- Displays of portraits
- Paint as protest
- New signs and names
- Symbolic sounds
- Symbolic reclamations
- Rude gestures
Pressures on Individuals
- “Haunting” officials
- Taunting officials
- Fraternization
- Vigils
Drama and Music
- Humorous skits and pranks
- Performances of plays and music
- Singing
Processions
- Marches
- Parades
- Religious processions
- Pilgrimages
- Motorcades
Honoring the Dead
- Political mourning
- Mock funerals
- Demonstrative funerals
- Homage at burial places
Public Assemblies
- Assemblies of protest or support
- Protest meetings
- Camouflaged meetings of protest
- Teach-ins
Withdrawal and Renunciation
- Walk-outs
- Silence
- Renouncing honors
- Turning one’s back
The Methods Of Social Noncooperation
Ostracism of Persons
- Social boycott
- Selective social boycott
- Lysistratic nonaction
- Excommunication
- Interdict
Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs, and Institutions
- Suspension of social and sports activities
- Boycott of social affairs
- Student strike
- Social disobedience
- Withdrawal from social institutions
Withdrawal from the Social System - Stay-at-home
- Total personal noncooperation
- “Flight” of workers
- Sanctuary
- Collective disappearance
- Protest emigration (hijrat)
The Methods of Economic Noncooperation: Economic Boycotts
Actions by Consumers
- Consumers’ boycott
- Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
- Policy of austerity
- Rent withholding
- Refusal to rent
- National consumers’ boycott
- International consumers’ boycott
Action by Workers and Producers
- Workmen’s boycott
- Producers’ boycott
Action by Middlemen
- Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott
Action by Owners and Management
- Traders’ boycott
- Refusal to let or sell property
- Lockout
- Refusal of industrial assistance
- Merchants’ “general strike”
Action by Holders of Financial Resources
- Withdrawal of bank deposits
- Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
- Refusal to pay debts or interest
- Severance of funds and credit
- Revenue refusal
- Refusal of a government’s money
Action by Governments
- Domestic embargo
- Blacklisting of traders
- International sellers’ embargo
- International buyers’ embargo
- International trade embargo
The Methods Of Economic Noncooperation: The Strike
Symbolic Strikes
- Protest strike
- Quickie walkout (lightning strike)
Agricultural Strikes
- Peasant strike
- Farm Workers’ strike
Strikes by Special Groups
- Refusal of impressed labor
- Prisoners’ strike
- Craft strike
- Professional strike
Ordinary Industrial Strikes
- Establishment strike
- Industry strike
- Sympathetic strike
Restricted Strikes
- Detailed strike
- Bumper strike
- Slowdown strike
- Working-to-rule strike
- Reporting “sick” (sick-in)
- Strike by resignation
- Limited strike
- Selective strike
Multi-Industry Strikes
- Generalized strike
- General strike
Combination of Strikes and Economic Closures
- Hartal
- Economic shutdown
The Methods Of Political Noncooperation
Rejection of Authority
- Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
- Refusal of public support
- Literature and speeches advocating resistance
Citizens’ Noncooperation with Government
- Boycott of legislative bodies
- Boycott of elections
- Boycott of government employment and positions
- Boycott of government depts., agencies, and other bodies
- Withdrawal from government educational institutions
- Boycott of government-supported organizations
- Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
- Removal of own signs and placemarks
- Refusal to accept appointed officials
- Refusal to dissolve existing institutions
Citizens’ Alternatives to Obedience
- Reluctant and slow compliance
- Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
- Popular nonobedience
- Disguised disobedience
- Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
- Sitdown
- Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
- Hiding, escape, and false identities
- Civil disobedience of “illegitimate” laws
Action by Government Personnel
- Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
- Blocking of lines of command and information
- Stalling and obstruction
- General administrative noncooperation
- Judicial noncooperation
- Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
- Mutiny
Domestic Governmental Action
- Quasi-legal evasions and delays
- Noncooperation by constituent governmental units
International Governmental Action
- Changes in diplomatic and other representations
- Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
- Withholding of diplomatic recognition
- Severance of diplomatic relations
- Withdrawal from international organizations
- Refusal of membership in international bodies
- Expulsion from international organizations
The Methods Of Nonviolent Intervention
Psychological Intervention
- Self-exposure to the elements
- The fast
a) Fast of moral pressure
b) Hunger strike
c) Satyagrahic fast - Reverse trial
- Nonviolent harassment
Physical Intervention
- Sit-in
- Stand-in
- Ride-in
- Wade-in
- Mill-in
- Pray-in
- Nonviolent raids
- Nonviolent air raids
- Nonviolent invasion
- Nonviolent interjection
- Nonviolent obstruction
- Nonviolent occupation
Social Intervention
- Establishing new social patterns
- Overloading of facilities
- Stall-in
- Speak-in
- Guerrilla theater
- Alternative social institutions
- Alternative communication system
Economic Intervention
- Reverse strike
- Stay-in strike
- Nonviolent land seizure
- Defiance of blockades
- Politically motivated counterfeiting
- Preclusive purchasing
- Seizure of assets
- Dumping
- Selective patronage
- Alternative markets
- Alternative transportation systems
- Alternative economic institutions
Political Intervention
- Overloading of administrative systems
- Disclosing identities of secret agents
- Seeking imprisonment
- Civil disobedience of “neutral” laws
- Work-on without collaboration
- Dual sovereignty and parallel government
Bob Schwartz 