198 Forms of NonViolent Resistance

198 Methods of Nonviolent Action

These methods were compiled by Dr. Gene Sharp and first published in his 1973 book, The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Vol. 2: The Methods of Nonviolent Action. (Boston: Porter Sargent Publishers, 1973). The book outlines each method and gives information about its historical use.

You may also download this list of methods.

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: (1) 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: (2)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 depts., 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

Source: Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Vol. 2: The Methods of Nonviolent Action (Boston: Porter Sargent Publishers, 1973).

Women in Italy speak up against the sexism of President Berlusconi

"If Not Now, When?" was a national demonstration of Italian women, against Berlusconi and, to put it bluntly, his porno-democracy. The demo had other slogans as well: Resign! Basta! I don't give up! ADESSO, NOW!

A flash mob in 280 cities of Italy and 50 cities abroad, millions of people, mostly women, but also men and children. The demonstrations have been growing in the months since Berlusconi got caught up in the sex scandal vertigo with minors, prostitutes, pimps and orgies.

A week ago in Milan, in a big rally, the prominent intellectuals in Italian public life threw themselves into the campaign: the distinguished professor and writer Umberto Eco, Roberto Saviano the star of the antimafia campaign, the judges of of the constitutional court, trade union leaders and many others. But as one of the speakers, the orchestra director Pollini remarked : Berlusconi will never step down.

Berlusconi did not leave public life. On the contrary, he sped up his counter-campaign, attacking the judges in Milan who brought the latest of many legal cases against him. He even threatened to take his case to the European Parliament and sue the nation of Italy. He organized rallies in his support , claiming that his innocent altruistic interest in young girls had been cruelly misunderstood. He also accused the investigators of orchestrating a communist-biased coup against himself as head of government.

But his luck may be turning these days, after sixteen long years of media monopoly and political domination. Even the Catholic daily, Avvenire, came out with a big editorial claiming that decent Catholic women should be in the public squares on the 13th of February. It's rare of the Church to urge women to take to the streets to defend their dignity. Then there is the dignity of the state to consider, for the ludicrous shambles of Italian public life has become a matter of international concern.

A British comment in the Guardian justly noted that European Union as the monitor of high democratic standards within the community of states. Yet while they preach good governance to applicant countries like Turkey and Serbia, they ignore the calamitous decline of democracy in Italy, an EU founding state. Italy has become a European laughingstock, all harems, dictators, old men and underage girls.

An irate 18 year old guy in Italy demanded publicly: how am I supposed to get a girlfriend of my own age, since Berlusconi, the grandad of the nation, is buying them all? I don't have his years, his money and power, I don't even have a job or a decent education. University and hospital funds are cut, jobs are in recession and Berlusconi's parliamentary allies are cutting the country apart with regionalist laws. Berlusconi' s government still holds the majority in the parliament. The president of Italy had to admonish him that the country is not his private property.

The president also alleged that Italian democratic institutions are sound, but clearly Berlusconi doubts that and so do the millions of Italians today in the squares all over Italy. In Torino, the capital of Italy in its unification years ago, a protester said: we are the head of the boot extending toward Africa.

The demo today lacked party or ideological symbols: it was a flash mob with umbrellas and screams; RESIGN. It was extremely successful, unitary and grand. It brought out of the closet what is left of Italian decency after long reign of a small macho dictator, who has publicly realized the worst dreams of Italian macho culture. As a woman demonstrator put it: some men after all do prefer a partner to a harem.

Today women of all ages and political opinions were in the squares and streets; I saw Italian women, foreign women, clandestine women, special needs women, female beggars and hobos, girls, babies, even nuns!...and I saw men, boys, old men... The performance was to open the umbrellas, scream RESIGN and spread colorful woolen threads among the crowd to bind those different people. Music played: Patti Smith, Fabrizio de Andre. Girl bloggers asked for a ban of internet use of nude bodies. Women have a value, not a price! Men made fun of their macho patriarchal language with banners and in drag clothes. Pornocrazia!

Today 13th February is the "international day of mistresses." Tomorrow it's Valentine's day, the day of love. Whatever this meeting will bring to future of Italy and the reign of Berlusconi, it's clear beyond doubt that nobody doubts Berlusconi's guilt. They despise his use and abuse of girls and money. Now the big question is -- does public indignation matter? The old Sultan will leave his thone someday, and if not now, when?

Women toppled their rich, remote, corrupted regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. If not here, where? So why not in Italy too?

Jasmina's blog: jasminatesanovic.wordpress.com

Nawal El-Saadawi: 50 Pounds and a Chicken

Egypt Women Show Courage Participating In Mubarak Protests

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/02/egypt-women-protests_n_817822.html
Jake Bialer      HuffPost Reporting
jake@huffingtonpost.com 


First Posted: 02/ 2/11 07:33 PM Updated: 02/ 3/11 11:39 AM
"If I wasn't pregnant, I would've just stayed home." Marwa Rakha told the Huffington Post by phone, explaining her attendance of the protests inEgypt while seven months pregnant. "I went out because of my baby. I owe this to him."

Rakha, an adjunct professor at the American University in Cairo, is one of many women who has participated in the recent protests in Egypt. In these demonstrations, which have already led to Mubarak agreeing not to run for re-election, women have taken an active role: promoting them, leading crowds, and providing aid to harmed protesters.

This is in a country where women typically don't have a large public role. Before their last election, Al Jazeera reported that even with election reforms, women would only hold 12 percent of the seats in the Egyptian parliament:

Last year, the assembly passed a law mandating the creation of 64 new seats in the house that must go to women. With only four women elected in 2005, that means parliament's female cadre will leap by a whopping 1,500 percent, and 12 percent of the new house will consist of women.

The Atlantic's Garance Franke-Ruta characterizes Egypt as "a country in which men and women are barely tolerated holding hands in public in the most liberal precincts of comparatively Christian Alexandria, and where public displays of affections are frowned upon and likely to be met with cutting glances and vicious neighborhood gossip elsewhere."

But in the recent wave of protests in Egypt, women have been important contributors and have been accepted by their male counterparts.

ABC News reported earlier that unlike past Egyptian protests, these protests were largely free of sexual harassment.

"Egyptian state TV was spreading rumors that in the protests girls were being sexually harassed," said Rakha. "That's a complete lie. In those protests, I've witnessed Egyptians that I didn't think still existed. They're very supportive of one another. If a girl fell, they would just pick her up, help her, no sexual harassment of any sort."

Rakha said she went to the protests alone.

"I just took my cell phone and went," she said. "I met people and we just began talking, regardless of our religion, regardless of our gender, regardless of our age, regardless of our social class, regardless of anything, we were Egyptians out there who were very angry at lies we've been fed for the last 30 years."

Anna Day, a 22-year-old American M.A. student who is studying conflict resolution, who is writing freelance on the Palestinians and lives in Israel-Palestine, traveled down to Egypt from Israel to attend and document the protests.

Day told The Huffington Post by phone she stood out amongst the crowd. "Everyone wanted to talk to me because I was like the only white person there and I have blonde hair so I looked ridiculous," she said.

Having previously lived in Cairo, she "didn't expect many women to be at these protests," and she was surprised by the involvement of women in the protests. "Women were leading the chants and men were responding which I didn't expect to see in Cairo," she said.

Women's role in the protests wasn't limited to their activity on the street, they were also involved in the online campaigns that led up to the protests. The New York Times reported on Asmaa Mahfouz who used social media to help spread the message of the protests.

That's not to say women were the majority of the protesters. "If you look at the pictures, it's clearly mainly men," Day said. "But for the society of Egypt, the number of women at these protests and their role, they were at the front with tear gas and everything, their role was not something I expected to see."

The majority of women have been avoiding the more dangerous events. "In the evenings, I didn't see as many women out at nighttime," Day added. "At nighttime, it just does set a different mood. People get a little angrier, a little crazier, so I haven't seen women in the nighttime at the same rates as I've seen men."

The number of female participants are in the protests are hard to determine. Slate looked into the participation at the protests on Tuesday:

"Ghada Shahbandar, an activist with the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, estimated the crowd downtown to be 20 percent female. Other estimates were as high as 50 percent. In past protests, the female presence would rarely rise to 10 percent."

But the anecdotal evidence of their participation is everywhere. A "Women of Egypt" Facebook group has emerged to collect pictures of women at the protests. The Global Post has published photos of women. There have been photos of women kissing police officers. They've beeninterviewed. And they've been shown alongside men in videos.

According to Day, women helped treat protesters who were overwhelmed by tear gas using Pepsi.

"If you put Pepsi in your eyes, it neutralizes the pain of the teargas," she said. "These cars full of protesters were bringing Pepsi and water to the protesters."

It was women who discovered the Pepsi trick, Day said. "They're bringing Pepsi and helping people back, putting Pepsi in people's eyes."

Despite their increased role, the women still weren't the rowdiest participants. "They aren't the ones on top of government vehicles holding Egyptian flags," Day said.

But, as the Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi told Democracy Now, "Women and girls are beside boys in the streets."


Follow our Egypt live blog here and learn about the unrest with our Egypt revolution guide.

You can also send us Egypt tips anytime at egypt@huffingtonpost.com or by leaving a message at 00-1-315-636-0962.


Read More: Egypt, Egypt Protests, Egypt Protests 2011, Egypt Revolution, Egypt Women, Egypt Women Protests, Egyptian Women, Women Egypt, Women In Egypt, Women Of Egypt, World News


Around the Web:

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   The Female Factor - In Egypt, Women Have Burdens but No Privileges ...

   Where are Egypt's women? Right here. | FP Passport

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   Protests raise hope for women's rights in Egypt

   The role of women in the Egyptian democracy protests

Women of the Egyptian Revolution from sawt al niswa

http://www.sawtalniswa.com/2011/02/women-of-the-egyptian-revolution/This is a homage to all those women out there fighting on the streets of Egypt, to those whose voices and faces were hidden from the public eye during the first days of the revolution! The album by now has traveled the world back and forth via online social networks, blogs and websites.Patience and modesty are highly appreciated.

First and foremost the credit for this album goes to the courageous people of Egypt who are teaching us that freedom is taken and not given.

Second, to the women who by their courage, determination and strength are inspiring millions of us around the world.

Third to the photographers who took these photos and especially to those who have caused absolutely no problems when it came to copyright issues.

Fourth, to the amazing web of people who have been sending me photos and captions for the album, and to those who are sending corrections of mistakingly posted or labeled photos.

This compilation is meant to further shed the light on the Egyptian people´s strife for freedom, and the complicity of the world governments with the Mubarak regime. It is meant as a call for action and active solidarity with the Egyptian people. A call to protest companies like Vodafone and Orange/France Telecom who have left the Egyptian people incommunicado in the face of a brutal and a repressive regime. The world governments and big corporations have ignored the voices of millions of Egyptians, and the voices of millions of us worldwide and continue to further support and whitewash the crimes of the dictatorship, both vocally and silently.

This album is just a small reminder of what is happening right now, as you are reading this, on the streets of Egypt. A hint of the grassroots and popular revolution facing up to around 41 years of a totalitarian regime, a dictatorship and emergency laws (around 11 years under Sadat, and around 30 years under Mubarak)

It is also very important to highlight the first spark of it all, the Tunisian revolution and its women. To stress that we should not shift our attention from them. They are still fighting and the battle is not over yet. Here is a link to a photo-stream from Le Monde / France in total admiration of the inspiring and courageous women of Tunisia http://ow.ly/3MDyZ

It is important to note that I did NOT TAKE ANY of these photos and that neither I nor Sawt Al-Niswa have the rights to any of them. For any commercial usage we suggest getting in contact with the people who have the rights to them, agencies and photographers.

I´m trying to confirm that all the photos I´m receiving are from Egypt and that they were taken during the past week´s rebellion. It is not an easy task judging the amount of photos I´m receiving and the limited resources I have. If you identify any photo that is mistakingly posted here, or that is not from Egypt or from the ongoing revolution please don´t hesitate to contact me.

For photographers and agencies (a.k.a. Copyright information and the other excruciating reality)

As much as I don´t support nor agree with copyright, I know I´m legally bound to credit you for these photos and take permission to use them. But I hope you understand that the importance of giving visibility to the women in the Egyptian revolution comes before your commercial “rights”. And that this album is NOT being used in any commercial way (i.e. no one is making money out of your work, not a dime) But nevertheless, I´m trying to include the sources of all the photos in a way to acknowledge the work of the photographers and as a thread to who has the copyright for them (in case of agencies). If you see any of your photos here, and wish to be credited for it, please contact me with a clear reference to the photo and the corresponding credits. If your photo was mistakingly credited to someone else, I apologize, contact me and I will fix it.