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The Power of Nonviolent Action

Gene Sharp created one of the seminal strategic playbooks for social and political change. His research—compiled in The Politics of Nonviolent Action—outlines nearly 200 diverse tactics that activists and movements have used around the world.

The Museum of Protest is pleased to offer detailed explainers for each of these methods. Click on the linked methods below to find historical insights, strategic considerations, and inspirational examples from movements around the world.

I. Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion

A. 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

B. Communications with a Wider Audience

  1. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
  2. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
  3. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
  4. Newspapers and journals
  5. Records, radio, and television
  6. Skywriting and earthwriting

C. Group Representations

  1. Deputations
  2. Mock awards
  3. Group lobbying
  4. Picketing
  5. Mock elections

D. Symbolic Public Acts

  1. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
  2. Wearing of symbols
  3. Prayer and worship
  4. Delivering symbolic objects
  5. Protest disrobings
  6. Destruction of own property
  7. Symbolic lights
  8. Displays of portraits
  9. Paint as protest
  10. New signs and names
  11. Symbolic sounds
  12. Symbolic reclamations
  13. Rude gestures

E. Pressures on Individuals

  1. “Haunting” officials
  2. Taunting officials
  3. Fraternization
  4. Vigils

F. Drama and Music

  1. Humorous skits and pranks
  2. Performances of plays and music
  3. Singing

G. Processions

  1. Marches
  2. Parades
  3. Religious processions
  4. Pilgrimages
  5. Motorcades

H. Honoring the Dead

  1. Political mourning
  2. Mock funerals
  3. Demonstrative funerals
  4. Homage at burial places

I. Public Assemblies

  1. Assemblies of protest or support
  2. Protest meetings
  3. Camouflaged meetings of protest
  4. Teach-ins

J. Withdrawal and Renunciation

  1. Walk-outs
  2. Silence
  3. Renouncing honors
  4. Turning one’s back

II. Methods of Social Noncooperation

A. Ostracism of Persons

  1. Social boycott
  2. Selective social boycott
  3. Lysistratic nonaction
  4. Excommunication
  5. Interdict

B. Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs, and Institutions

  1. Suspension of social and sports activities
  2. Boycott of social affairs
  3. Student strike
  4. Social disobedience
  5. Withdrawal from social institutions

C. Withdrawal from the Social System

  1. Stay-at-home
  2. Total personal noncooperation
  3. “Flight” of workers
  4. Sanctuary
  5. Collective disappearance
  6. Protest emigration (hijrat)

III. Methods of Economic Noncooperation: Economic Boycotts

A. Actions by Consumers

  1. Consumer boycott
  2. Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
  3. Policy of austerity
  4. Rent withholding
  5. Refusal to rent
  6. National consumers’ boycott
  7. International consumers’ boycott

B. Action by Workers and Producers

  1. Workmen’s boycott
  2. Producers’ boycott

C. Action by Middlemen

  1. Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott

D. Action by Owners and Management

  1. Traders’ boycott
  2. Refusal to let or sell property
  3. Lockout
  4. Refusal of industrial assistance
  5. Merchants’ “general strike”

E. Action by Holders of Financial Resources

  1. Withdrawal of bank deposits
  2. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
  3. Refusal to pay debts or interest
  4. Severance of funds and credit
  5. Revenue refusal
  6. Refusal of a government’s money

F. Action by Governments

  1. Domestic embargo
  2. Blacklisting of traders
  3. International sellers’ embargo
  4. International buyers’ embargo
  5. International trade embargo

IV. Methods of Economic Noncooperation: The Strike

A. Symbolic Strikes

  1. Protest strike
  2. Quickie walkout (lightning strike)

B. Agricultural Strikes

  1. Peasant strike
  2. Farm workers’ strike

C. Strikes by Special Groups

  1. Refusal of impressed labor
  2. Prisoners’ strike
  3. Craft strike
  4. Professional strike

D. Ordinary Industrial Strikes

  1. Establishment strike
  2. Industry strike
  3. Sympathetic strike

E. Restricted Strikes

  1. Detailed strike
  2. Bumper strike
  3. Slowdown strike
  4. Working-to-rule strike
  5. Reporting “sick” (sick-in)
  6. Strike by resignation
  7. Limited strike
  8. Selective strike

F. Multi-Industry Strikes

  1. Generalized strike
  2. General strike

G. Combination of Strikes and Economic Closures

  1. Hartal
  2. Economic shutdown

V. Methods of Political Noncooperation

A. Rejection of Authority

  1. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
  2. Refusal of public support
  3. Literature and speeches advocating resistance

B. Citizens’ Noncooperation with Government

  1. Boycott of legislative bodies
  2. Boycott of elections
  3. Boycott of government employment and positions
  4. Boycott of government departments, agencies, and other bodies
  5. Withdrawal from government educational institutions
  6. Boycott of government-supported organizations
  7. Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
  8. Removal of own signs and placemarks
  9. Refusal to accept appointed officials
  10. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions

C. Citizens’ Alternatives to Obedience

  1. Reluctant and slow compliance
  2. Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
  3. Popular nonobedience
  4. Disguised disobedience
  5. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
  6. Sit-down
  7. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
  8. Hiding, escape, and false identities
  9. Civil disobedience of “illegitimate” laws

D. Action by Government Personnel

  1. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
  2. Blocking of lines of command and information
  3. Stalling and obstruction
  4. General administrative noncooperation
  5. Judicial noncooperation
  6. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
  7. Mutiny

E. Domestic Governmental Action

  1. Quasi-legal evasions and delays
  2. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units

F. International Governmental Action

  1. Changes in diplomatic and other representations
  2. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
  3. Withholding of diplomatic recognition
  4. Severance of diplomatic relations
  5. Withdrawal from international organizations
  6. Refusal of membership in international bodies
  7. Expulsion from international organizations

VI. Methods of Nonviolent Intervention

A. Psychological Intervention

  1. Self-exposure to the elements
  2. The fast
  • a. Fast of moral pressure
  • b. Hunger strike
  • c. Satyagrahic fast
  1. Reverse trial
  2. Nonviolent harassment

B. Physical Intervention

  1. Sit-in
  2. Stand-in
  3. Ride-in
  4. Wade-in
  5. Mill-in
  6. Pray-in
  7. Nonviolent raids
  8. Nonviolent air raids
  9. Nonviolent invasion
  10. Nonviolent interjection
  11. Nonviolent obstruction
  12. Nonviolent occupation

C. Social Intervention

  1. Establishing new social patterns
  2. Overloading of facilities
  3. Stall-in
  4. Speak-in
  5. Guerrilla theater
  6. Alternative social institutions
  7. Alternative communication system

D. Economic Intervention

  1. Reverse Strike
  2. Stay-in Strike
  3. Nonviolent land seizure
  4. Defiance of Blockades
  5. Politically Motivated Counterfeiting
  6. Preclusive Purchasing
  7. Seizure of assets
  8. Dumping
  9. Selective patronage
  10. Alternative markets
  11. Alternative transportation systems
  12. Alternative economic institutions

E. Political Intervention

  1. Overloading of administrative systems
  2. Disclosing identities of secret agents
  3. Seeking imprisonment
  4. Civil disobedience of “neutral” laws
  5. Work-on without collaboration
  6. Dual sovereignty and parallel government

Made in protest in Los Angeles.

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