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THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION
- 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, and displayed communications
- Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
- Newspapers and journals
- Records, radio, and television
- Skywriting and earthwriting
- 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
Withdrawal and Renunciation
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: (1) 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
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: (2)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: Fast of moral pressure
- The fast: Hunger strike
- The fast: 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
- 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
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.
Also check out The Politics of Nonviolent Action Part One / Part Two / Part Three.
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