Actions are the tools of a campaign. There are countless possible actions, which can broadly be categorized into protest, persuasion, non-cooperation, and intervention. Gene Sharp, the theorist behind, among other things, a handbook on overthrowing dictators, compiled a list of 197 types of actions. His classic work, The Politics of Nonviolent Action, provides explanations and historical examples of these methods. Use this guide as inspiration for your next campaign—after all, you can never have too many tools at your disposal.
1. Delivering public speeches 2. Sending letters/cards 3. Making statements from organizations and institutions public 4. Issuing signed declarations 5. Making statements of intent 6. Presenting group and mass petitions
Communication with a wider audience
7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols 8. Banners, posters, and identifying signs 9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books 10. Newspapers and magazines 11. Recordings, radio, and television 12. Writing messages in the air, on walls, or on the ground
18. Displaying flags and symbolic colors 19. Wearing symbols 20. Holding prayers and religious services 21. Offering symbolic objects 22. Undressing as a form of protest 23. Destroying personal property 24. Lighting symbolic fires 25. Displaying portraits 26. Painting as a form of protest 27. Replacing names and signs 28. Making symbolic sounds 29. Conducting symbolic land reforms 30. Making disapproving gestures
Pressuring individuals
31. Following officials 32. Mocking public figures 33. Seeking fraternization 34. Holding vigils at buildings and sights
Drama and music
35. Performing humorous parodies and jokes 36. Staging plays and musical performances 37. Singing
51. Walking out (e.g. from a meeting) 52. Observing silence 53. Refusing or renouncing honors 54. Turnes one's back to someone
Non-cooperation
A. SOCIAL NON-COOPERATION
Excluding people from a community
55. Social boycott 56. Selective social boycott 57. Refusing sexual community 58. Excommunication 59. Exile
Not cooperation with certain customs, events and institutions
60. Suspending social and sports activities 61. Boycotting social institutions 62. Boycotting student classes 63. Social disobedience 64. Withdrawing from social institutions
Withdrawing from social systems
65. Staing home 66. Total personal non-cooperation 67. ‘Refuge' of workers 68. Seeking 'refuge' in a safe haven 69. Collective disappearance 70. Emigration as a protest
B. ECONOMIC NON-COOPERATION:
Actions by consumers
71. Consumer boycotts 72. Practice of austerity 73. Refusing to pay rent 74. Refusing to rent 75. National consumer boycotts 76. International consumer boycotts
Actions by workers and produces
77. Worker boycott 78. Employer boycott
Actions by intermediates:
79. Supplier boycott
Actions by business owners
80. Traders boycott 81. Refusing to rent or sell property 82. Stopping production 83. Refusing to provide technical assistance 84. General shopkeepers' strike
Actions by financial resource holders/managers
85. Withdrawing bank accounts 86. Refusing to pay taxes or fees 87. Refusing to pay debts or interest 88. Withdrawing funds and credit 89. Refusing to pay taxes 90. Refusing to use official currency
Actions by governments
91. Domestic embargo 92. Blacklisting traders 93. International sales embargo 94. International purchasing embargo 95. International trade embargo
119. Refusing or withdrawing declarations of loyalty 120. Refusing political support 121. Calling people to resist
Refusing to Cooperate with the Government
122. Boycotting legislative bodies 123. Boycotting elections 124. Boycotting government jobs and operations 125. Boycotting ministries and other government institutions 126. Boycotting schools 127. Boycotting state-supported organizations 128. Refusing to assist in law enforcement 129. Removing signs and place markers 130. Refusing to accept designated officials 131. Refusing to dissolve existing institutions
Civil Disobedience
132. Complying slowly and hesitantly 133. Disobeying when not under direct supervision 134. General noncompliance by the population 135. Hidden disobedience 136. Refusing to disperse 137. Sit-in protest 138. Refusing conscription and deportation 139. Hiding, fleeing, or using a false identity 140. Disobeying immoral laws
Actions by Government Personnel
141. Refusing to follow certain orders 142. Blocking certain communication channels and information sources 143. Allowing certain processes to stall 144. Engaging in bureaucratic obstruction 145. Judicial obstruction 146. Inefficiency in law enforcement 147. Mutiny
Domestic Actions by Governments
148. Deliberately delaying or evading policies under a façade of legitimacy 149. Non-cooperation by representative government bodies
International Actions by Governments
150. Modifying diplomatic or other official representations 151. Postponing or canceling diplomatic events 152. Withholding diplomatic recognition 153. Severing diplomatic relations 154. Withdrawing from international organizations 155. Refusing membership in international organizations 156. Expelling members from international organizations
Non violent intervention
Psychological Intervention
158. Exposing oneself to discomfort or danger 159. Fasting 160. Reverse trial (where defendants become the accusers) 161. Personal psychological confrontation
174. Developing new social patterns 175. Overloading social services 176. Engaging in delay actions 177. Conducting interruption actions 178. Performing guerrilla theater 179. Developing alternative social institutions 180. Creating alternative communication systems
Economic Intervention
181. Reverse strike 182. Workplace occupation 183. Nonviolent land seizure 184. Breaking blockades 185. Counterfeiting currency 186. Mass purchasing to prevent others from buying certain goods 187. Seizing financial instruments or money 188. Dumping (deliberate price reduction or surplus disposal) 189. Selective patronage 190. Organizing alternative markets 191. Using alternative transport systems 192. Establishing alternative economic institutions
Political Intervention
193. Overloading administrative systems 194. Exposing secret agents’ identities 195. Provoking arrest 196. Disobeying common laws 197. Continuing work without collaboration 198. Establishing a parallel government
Finally
This guide is an adaptation of 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, published by the Albert Einstein Institution. The methods are taken from the book The Politics of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp (1973). The illustration at the top of the page is by Wichai Wi, via The Noun Project.
Activism is something you learn by doing. Great learning spaces include organizations that use organizing as a method, such as labor unions. Organize a training for your group together with Stroomversnellers.
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This guide is part of the ‘Toolbox for Movements’. This toolbox contains more short digital guides, offering fundamental knowledge about strategy, movement building, campaigning, and organizing.
We also love to learn. So, if you have any ideas for improving or adding to this guide based on your experiences, let us know!
