Editorial

Providing resources to strengthen and deepen our understanding of nonviolence, nonviolent strategies, and nonviolent campaigning is one of the main aims of the Nonviolence Programme.

With this Broken Rifle we give you a taste of what you will find in the Handbook for Nonviolent Action that will soon be published by War Resisters' International. The handbook has tools on how to develop nonviolent campaigns and actions, with various resources and stories on international experiences of nonviolent action.

Since training plays an important role for successful actions, the handbook includes exercises for helping a group through various learning processes. The handbook highlights the importance of actions as part of longer term nonviolent campaigns.

As Joanne Sheehan says in her article on developing strategic nonviolent campaigns "A campaign is more than projects strung together, or doing the same thing over and over. A campaign is not simply a matter of identifying a problem and using a tactic to address it - such as "a leafleting campaign" or a "campaign of civil disobedience".

The power of a nonviolent campaign comes in the creative combination of tactics; the strategic thinking and commitment of the participants".

The handbook will have two versions: one printed, that we hope to make as accessible as possible and a web - version that we hope you will help us update. You can already find the draft version at http://wri-irg.org/wiki/index.php/Nonviolence_Handbook.

Hopefully both The Broken Rifle and the Handbook for Nonviolent Action will be resources used by the WRI network and the broader nonviolent movement. And will contribute to make nonviolence play a major role in the struggle for social change.
Javier Gárate