Nonviolence Handbook

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Other training manuals and web resources on nonviolence Nonviolent Action (General) Campaign Development Direct Action Tools Organisational Structures (inc. Affinity Groups) Decision-Making (inc. Consensus) Dealing with Emotions (Fear, Burn-Out, Anger) Anti-oppression Gender Awareness Working with media

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In this section we describe a number of exercises to help you develop your nonviolent campaigns and actions. These exercises can be used during nonviolence trainings, workshops and group meetings. Exercises help make our time together more participatory and contributes to the process of learning and building capacities among participants.

The exercises we have collected come from a variety of sources, following the rich history of using exercises to strengthen our work in nonviolence. Many times these exercises have been adapted and changed during the course of the years. We expect that you will do the same, changing these exercises to meet your needs.

Most of the exercises shared in this section can be used for different purposes, we give you some recommendation for where and how to use them best,and tips for the facilitator/trainer.

We hope you find these exercises useful in your process of building nonviolent campaigns, and that they motivate you to search for more exercises and to develop exercises of your own, to continue to enrich the repertoire of exercises of the nonviolence movement.

Intellectual property

Only a few of these exercises have been 'credited' as having been designed by particular trainers or training groups. We apologise in advance to anybody who feels they should have been credited as the author of a particular exercise. Please let us know so that we can rectify this on the web and in future printed editions. However, most exercises used in nonviolence training have been passed on from group to group, each being adapted according to new situations or styles.

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1) Several of the organisers and all the trainers should meet well in advance to plan the training. Depending on the situation, the organisers may need to go back to the group for further decision-making. The trainers' questions may help the organisers understand what more they need to do to prepare the group for the training.

2) Discuss how much time is needed to accomplish the goals of the training. Can it be done in one day (how many hours) or a weekend? Can the training be done in steps, following the process of campaign development? Do you need a series of trainings to plan a campaign? Some groups take a holiday week to plan and prepare for a campaign. If people are travelling to an action, how can you plan for training?

3) Trainers need information about the participants: are they people coming together just for this action or do they meet regularly? What level of experience do they have? Have they done trainings before? Have they done nonviolent actions and what kinds?

4) Discuss the group's approach to nonviolence and training. Does it have nonviolence guidelines?

5) Ask the campaign organisers to present specific information at the training (e.g., scenario plans, campaign background). Be clear how much time they have for this task.

6) Identify what handouts are needed; use maps and pictures if appropriate.

7) Be clear who is responsible for bringing supplies (markers, paper, tape, photocopies of handouts, copies of the handbook, equipment for films, etc.) and arrangements for food or other physical needs.

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Planning and facilitating nonviolence training requires a range of tasks, which should be shared by a number of people.

First of all, the campaign organizers need to be aware of when training is needed. Does the group need training in strategic campaign development or gender sensitivity? Is training needed to prepare a new group of people to participate in nonviolent actions, or an experienced group to achieve new skills? Do affinity groups need training in group process?

Once a decision is made to have a training, trainers need to be found. As stated in the “Introduction to Nonviolence Training”, if trainers are not available, create a team of co-facilitators to do the training. This section has check lists to help organize, plan and faciliate trainings.

Organizers and trainers need to talk with each other before working on their own tasks. Lack of clarity and assumptions made on the part of trainers or organizers can result in an ineffective training. If the trainers are part of the group, they need to be clear about their role as trainers. A training can be an important opportunity to test plans, to find weaknesses in the group, to bring more people into the process. A trainer must be open to those roles. While understanding the context, the group, the campaign, the action scenario, etc. better than an outside facilitator, it can be a challenge for a trainer deeply involved in the work to step into a different role. This clarification of roles should help in that process.

“Nonviolent Campaigns” and “Organizing for Effective Nonviolent Actions” sections include information that can also help trainers and organizers understand what they need to do and what they may need to train for.

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By Milan

The International Nonviolent March for Demilitarisation (International March) was an annual event in Europe from 1976 until 1987 that helped spread the idea of organising through affinity groups, with nonviolence training and consensus decision-making.

I attended four of the marches and was involved in organising three of them: 1983 in Brussels against the IDEE (electronic defence exhibition), 1984 Grebenhain, (Fulda-Gap, blocking military maneouvres) and 1985 in Denmark (against Nuclear Arms).

My first blockade was in 1979 at Ramstein when already we were organising in affinity groups, making decisions by consensus and with a speakers' council (that is one 'speaker' from each group). Nearly all the International Marches (or camps) and bigger actions were organised in that way. So it looks to me as if this idea of non-hierarchical ways of organising nvda was being spread at least in part thanks to the International March - but it might be simply that those were the kind of events I chose to attend.

In 1982 I attended my first "Training for Trainers" where we learnt more about the affinity group system and consensus decision making. During the 1980s, there was a big demand for nonviolent trainings and one of the regular topics was "non-hierarchical ways of organising nvda".

I found the intercultural profile of the International March very empowering, and suppose that many participants were enthused to go home to spread the ideas and forms of organising. Also, we could use the attraction of an international event to draw in more and different people into the action than would have happened with a purely locally organised event.

On these marches we also made connections with related themes. For instance, I learnt about gestalt therapy as a way of confronting personal patterns that restrict our creativity. This is happening with the G8 actions / camps today. One reporter commented "perhaps the biggest political impact of these days will happen when these young men and women go home, back to their 'normal' life - changed by this experience, empowered and nurtured by the actions they did, and by the support they have given and received".

A good experience is like a seed which rests for a while in fertile ground and then grows, becoming perhaps a pretty fly or a nourishing vegetable. For me - and I think for many others - the International March planted such seeds.

When 18 people walked onto the construction site of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire on 1 August 1976, it was the first collective nonviolent direct action against nuclear power in the USA. Many opponents of nuclear power considered such tactics too radical. Later that month, when 180 people committed civil disobedience at the site, the organisers, the Clamshell Alliance, used nonviolence training and the affinity group structure for the first time. In the future, these elements became well-known and practised throughout the nonviolent social change movement. On 30 April 1977 over 2400 people, organised in hundreds of affinity groups, occupied the site. During the next two days 1415 were arrested, many jailed for two weeks. This action inspired the anti-nuclear power movement and created a new international model for organising actions that consisted of training for nonviolent direct action and consensus decision-making in a non-hierarchical affinity group structure.

 

Inspiration for the Seabrook action actually came from Europe. In the early 1970s, people in Germany and France became concerned about plans to build a nuclear power plant in , Germany. Nearby, across the border in Marckolsheim, France, a German company announced plans to build a lead factory alongside the Rhine. The people living in Whyl and Marckolsheim agreed to cooperate in a cross-border campaign, in August 1974 founding a joint organisation, the International Committee of 21 Environmental Groups from Baden (Germany) and Alsace (France). Together they decided that wherever the construction started first, together they would nonviolently occupy that site to stop the plants.

After workers began constructing a fence for the Marckolsheim lead plant, on 20 September 1974 local women climbed into the fencepost holes and stopped the construction. Environmental activists erected a tent, at first outside the fence line, but soon moved inside and occupied the site. Support for the campaign came from many places. The German anarcho-pacifist magazine Graswurzelrevolution had helped to spread the idea of grassroots nonviolent actions. A local group from Freiburg, Germany, near the plants, introduced active nonviolence to those organising in Whyl and Marckolsheim. In 1974, a 3-day workshop in Marckolsheim included nonviolence training; 300 people practised role-plays and planned what to do if the police came.

People from both sides of the Rhine—farmers, housewives, fisherfolk, teachers, environmentalists, students and others—built a round, wooden 'Friendship House' on the site. The occupation in Marckolsheim continued through the winter, until 25 February 1975 when the French government withdrew the construction permit for the lead works..

Meanwhile, construction of the nuclear reactor in Whyl, Germany, had begun. The first occupation of that site began on 18 February 1975 but was stopped by the police a few days later. After a transnational rally of 30,000 people on 23 February, the second occupation of the Whyl construction site began. Encouraged by the success in Marckolsheim, the environmental activists, including whole families from the region, continued this occupation for eight months. More than 20 years of legal battles finally ended the plans for the construction of the Whyl nuclear power plant.

In the summer of 1975, two U.S. activists, Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner, visited Whyl after attending the War Resisters' International Triennial in the Netherlands. They brought the film 'Lovejoy's Nuclear War', the story of the first individual act of nonviolent civil disobedience against a nuclear power plant in the United States. They brought back to the United States and to those organising to stop the Seabrook nuclear power plant the inspiring story of the German community's occupations. More information exchange followed. During the 1976 occupation of Seabrook, WRI folks in Germany communicated daily by phone with the Clamshell Alliance. German nonviolent activists had been using consensus, but the affinity group structure was new to them, and they saw it as a excellent method for organising actions.

In 1977, German activists and trainers Eric Bachman and Günter Saathoff made a speaking trip to the United States, visiting anti-nuclear groups in the northeastern United States as well as groups in California where there were protests against a nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon. Activists from both sides of the Atlantic continued this process of cross-fertilisatio

The Marckolsheim and Whyl plants were never built. Even though one of the two proposed nuclear reactors was built in Seabrook, no new nuclear power plants have started in the United States since then. Both Whyl in Germany and Seabrook in the United States were important milestones for the anti-nuclear movement and encouraged many other such campaigns.

The Clamshell Alliance at Seabrook, which was itself inspired by actions in Europe, in turn became a source of inspiration to others in the USA and in Europe. In the United States, the Seabrook action inspired the successful campaign to stop the Shoreham, Long Island, New York, nuclear power plant, then 80 percent completed. That began when an affinity group of War Resisters League members returned from the Seabrook occupation and began to organise in their community. British activists who took part in the 1977 occupation of Seabrook, together with activists who read about it in Peace News, decided to promote this form of organisation in Britain, leading to the Torness Alliance opposing the last 'green field' nuclear site in Britain. In Germany, a number of nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel reprocessing plants were prevented or closed due to growing protests. In the early 1980s, large nonviolent actions were organised in both Britain and Germany in opposition to the installation of U.S. cruise missiles, using the affinity group model. And the story has continued, with affinity groups being used in many nonviolent actions around the world (including in the 1999 sit-ins in Seattle to stop the World Trade Organisation meetings).

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This section is a collection of stories and strategies on the use of nonviolence around the world. Stories help us learn from past experiences, and many of these describe how people learned strategies from campaigns in other parts of the world and strengthened their campaigns through international cooperation.

The motivation to act can be influenced by what has been done in another place, inspired by their creativity and success. We have collected a number of experiences where contact with activists from other regions has been inspirational. In some occasions the visit of a member of another group can do the trick, in others reading materials produced elsewhere or attending an international event that gave them ideas for their campaigns.

While the contexts of these stories differ, they all have nonviolence as a common denominator. Some cases focus on education and promotion of nonviolence within the activist scene in their country as in Turkey and South Korea. Solidarity work, such as with South Africa during the anti-apartheid movement can be a model for other situations. Learning across borders took place between Seabrook, Whyl and Markolsheim; Israel and South Africa. International participation is key to the International Antimilitarist Marches, Bombspotting campaign and 15th of May activities. The work of building alternatives to violence and against human rights violations in conflict areas are key contributions from the nonviolence movements of Chile and Colombia.

While planning your campaigns it is always good to research if someone else has done it before, and learn from their successes and errors. And remember to document your own campaigns, sharing your stories. We hope that the following stories can help as an inspiration for your nonviolent strategies. War Resisters' International, which played a role in connecting people in most of these cases, supports the exchange and support among nonviolent and antimilitarist movements, believing it is crucial to create an international movement against war and for peace and justice.

International solidarity campaign with South Africa Seabrook - Wyhl - Marckolsheim - transnational links in a chain of campaigns International Antimilitarist marches Chile: Gandhi's Insights Gave People Courage to Defy Chile's Dictatorship Israel - New Profile learns from the experience of others Turkey- Building a nonviolent culture South Korea - Challenges and successes of working in nonviolence Peace Community of San José de Apartadó,Colombia : A lesson of resistance, dignity and courage Bombspotting - towards an European Campaign 15th of May - International Day of Conscientious Objection

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By Jørgen Johansen and Brian Martin

What makes a protest action effective? Organisers have lots of potential choices: what, when, where, how and who. Looking at how audiences are likely to respond to messages can give guidance.

Heads of government are coming to town. Let’s organise a protest! We’ll have a massive rally and march. Those who want to can blockade the venue. We’ll make our concerns about inequality, exploitation and aggression known far and wide.

But wait a second. Is this sort of protest going to be effective? Is it going to change people’s viewpoints, mobilise support and help bring about a better society? Or, instead, will it enforce prejudices, alienate potential supporters and suck energy away from more effective initiatives? And anyway what does it mean to “be effective”?

There are no simple answers to these questions. Actions have many different impacts. Many are hard to measure and some are entirely overlooked. Weighing up the pros and cons is difficult: it’s an emotional as well as a rational matter.

Context

Actions need to be designed with the context in mind. What is appropriate in one situation could be completely counterproductive in another. Laws, media, police, culture, religion, civil society and many other factors are very different in Burkina Faso, Germany, Nepal, Indonesia, and China.

In India in 1930, Gandhi chose to build a campaign around salt, a potent symbol for Indians because of the British salt laws. What could protesters use as a potent symbol in Swaziland or Sweden today?

Actions must be designed with a deep knowledge of the local conditions. As a general rule, success stories should never be copied, but they can function as inspirations and as useful cases from which to learn.

Open-ended hunger strikes are regarded very differently in a Christian culture than in a Hindu society. For atheists and Christians it means a lot to sacrifice your life, whereas a Hindi anticipates thousands more lives to come — an important difference!

In a country where an activist risks torture, lengthy imprisonment or the death penalty, civil disobedience is a different matter than where the likely outcome is a fine or a few weeks in a decent prison. It is wise for activists to act differently in countries with strict censorship and state-run media than where free and oppositional media regularly cover demonstrations.

Choices

There are two main types of actions: (1) oppose and (2) promote. The first focuses on what you disagree with and the other on your alternative. Within each of these there are many options. In most cases, it’s much easier to create a positive image when you have an alternative. To say no! is common and easy, but it will often be regarded as unhelpful, as blocking progress. To present alternatives is more demanding but often rewarded by being seen as constructive.

Within each of these main categories there is again a choice to be made: direct action or indirect action. By direct action we mean to do something about the problem/conflict ourselves. It could be to close a city street to change it into a space for pedestrians. Or it could be to squat in a house and turn it into a cultural centre. When the activists in Genetix Snowball destroy genetically modified plants from fields in Britain they are not only demanding that these fields should be made illegal but are removing them themselves.These types of actions are often illegal and risky. The point here is that the activists themselves are making the change directly: they are taking direct action.

Indirect actions involve asking someone else, such as politicians or business executives, to respond to a demand or deal with an unjust situation. In many countries you need permission from the local police to have a demonstration and sometimes they will be helpful in keeping calm during the demo. These types of actions are dependent on sympathy from someone else in order to be successful. If neither power holders nor the public support your demands you will not achieve what you want.

Note that in a dictatorship, making requests can be a form of direct action, because it is an exercise of free speech.

For both direct and indirect actions there is a need to develop more types of actions. Creativity, fantasy and experiments are crucial. Just as arms producers come up with more sophisticated weapons every year, activists need to develop new forms of action. Good examples should be tested, documented and adapted for use at other times, places and circumstances.

Audiences

On many issues there are three main groups: activists, opponents and third parties. When a group wants to challenge a repressive government, the activists are those involved in protests. The opponents are the government and its agencies such as the police and the army. The third parties are those not directly involved in the struggle: the general public and most people in other countries. People can move from being a third party to being an activist, and the other way around, as a consequence of actions. One goal is to engage more people. In most cases the media are carriers of information/propaganda and messages from the event to wider audiences.

As well as looking at who the audiences are, it’s helpful to look at the interaction between activist methods and audiences.

Alignment

Media guru Marshall McLuhan said “The medium is the message.” For example, television encourages a certain way of viewing the world, irrespective of what’s on the screen. Personal conversation encourages a different perspective.

In activism, too, the medium — namely the method of action — is the message. According to a perspective in psychology called correspondent inference theory, audiences make assumptions about someone’s motivations according to the consequences of the actions they take.When activists threaten or use violence — for example, bombings, assassinations or hijackings — many observers believe the goal of the activists is to destroy society. The method, namely destruction, is assumed to reflect the goal. For example, after 9/11, many people in the US thought al Qaeda’s goal was to destroy US society. This was the wrong message. Very few US citizens knew that Osama bin Laden’s key goals concerned US government policies in the Muslim world.

The same thing applies on a much smaller scale. If a worker on a picket spits on a manager, the message is one of contempt and disrespect, which can distract audiences from the message that the pay is too low or working conditions are unsafe.

Actions are more powerful when the method used — the medium — is aligned with the message. In the US civil rights movement, well-dressed blacks entered white-only restaurants and sat politely and quietly at lunch counters, not responding to abuse and police provocation. Their presence and respectful demeanour sent a powerful message that was aligned with the short-term goal, equal access to the restaurant, as well as the long-term goal of racial equality. On the other hand, the abuse by white patrons and aggressive action by police, directed only at blacks in the restaurant, sent the message that segregation was a system of racism, exclusion and aggression. These powerful messages helped discredit segregation among audiences in the rest of the US and the world.

Dealing with attack

Protesters often come under attack: they may be slandered, harassed, beaten, arrested, imprisoned, even killed. Their communications may be intercepted, their offices raided and their equipment confiscated or destroyed. These attacks are hurtful and expensive, damaging to morale and can discourage participation. But with the right preparation and tactics, and good luck, some attacks can be made to backfire on the attackers.It’s not easy and doesn’t happen often but it can be very powerful.

Perpetrators and their supporters regularly use five methods to inhibit outrage from their attacks:

cover up the attack devalue the target reinterpret what happened (including lying, minimising effects and blaming others) use official channels to give an appearance of justice intimidate and bribe targets and their supporters.

For example, after police assault protesters, the police and their supporters may use every one of these five methods.

Police, in assaulting protesters, often try to do it away from witnesses and cameras. Police, politicians and commentators denigrate protesters as being unprincipled, foul-mouthed, ill-behaved brats, rent-a-crowd (professional protesters), thugs, scum, criminals or terrorists. They claim that police were doing their duty, that protesters were violent and disturbing the peace and indeed that it was the police who came under attack. When protesters make formal complaints or go to court, seldom are there any serious consequences for abusive police. Meanwhile, the whole process takes so long that most people lose interest while activists are tied up in technicalities and distracted from activism. In many cases protesters don’t speak out for fear of police reprisals; in a court action they may accept a settlement to resolve the matter, often with a silencing clause attached.

Each of the five methods can be challenged.

Conclusion

In deciding on what, when and how to protest, it’s useful to think of audiences and messages.

Context

Actions need to be designed with the context in mind. What is appropriate in one situation could be completely counter-productive in another.

Choices

There are two main types of actions: (1) oppose and (2) promote. The first focuses on what you disagree with and the other on your alternative.

Audiences

How do audiences and activist methods interact? Opponents, third parties and activists themselves are important audiences.

Alignment

How do activist methods align with activist goals? If there is close alignment, it’s more likely the right message will be received.

Attacks

How will an attack be perceived? It’s vital to be prepared to counter the methods of cover-up, devaluation, reinterpretation, official channels, intimidation and bribery.

Postscript: documentation, evaluation and dissemination

For actions to become more effective, activists need to learn from past experiences. They need to document and evaluate what they are doing and make this information available for others. Just as students at war colleges learn about historical battles from lectures and textbooks, activists must build a similar system for coming generations to learn from the history of social movements. This requires serious, critical evaluations of planning, actions and outcomes. It is just as important to study mistakes as to celebrate victories. Then these evaluations must be made available for other activists, taking into account different languages and contexts. It is a large task. There are many actions from which to learn!

This is a shorter version of an article published in Gandhi Marg, Vol. 29, No. 4, January-March 2008, pp. 503-519. You can access the full article at: http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/08gm.html

Taken from "People Power and Protest Since 1945: A Bibliography of Nonviolent Action" Compiled by April Carter, Howard Clark and Michael Randle. The bibliography and a supplement are available on sale from Housmans bookshop or online at 1

H. Preparation and Training for Nonviolent Action

Movements that expect their nonviolent actions to be met with violence generally pay attention to how to prepare themselves for that reaction. However, nonviolence training has come to involve much more than that – a range of activities embracing personal empowerment, group formation, campaign planning, strategy development and preparation and evaluation of actions. This section focuses strictly on preparation for action.

Nevertheless the dividing lines between preparation for action and nonviolence as a way of life are by no means clear. A quality such as self-discipline, for Gandhi, was something best instilled by daily participation in constructive programme activities. - constructive work was, he said, the best training for satyagraha (nonviolent direct action). Rather than self-discipline, today's activists are more likely to emphasise the element of “empowerment” necessary for action. Again, however, they treat this not as a quality simply to be “switched on” during a particular event but as something that touches on attitudes underpinning everyday behaviour.

Many materials used in nonviolence training overlap with other forms of workshops – conflict transformation, pedagogy of the oppressed (Paolo Freire), theatre of the oppressed (Agosto Boal), nonviolent communication (Marshall Rosenberg), or the Alternatives to Violence programmes on institutional and domestic violence. Nonviolent action training has evolved according to what people have found useful and practical. Therefore workshop leaders have been eclectic in choosing and developing methods, using whatever works in their experience and culture, be it from the world of human potential workshops, of religious or spiritual practices, of business management options analysis or be it from other forms of campaigning.

Without going back to any of these sources, this section narrowly addresses preparation for nonviolent action. It omits technical “how-tos” (such as on fence-scaling, making tripods, ways to lock on to objects, coping with tear gas) as well as briefings on the legal consequences of actions.

A much fuller – but somewhat dated - Annoted Bibliography of Nonviolent Action Training produced by Nonviolence International can be found at 2. This includes reports and evaluations of nonviolent action training workshops in all continents as well as handbooks produced for particular actions or campaigns.

Beck, Sanderson, Nonviolent Action Handbook (Goleta, California: World Peace Communications, 2002, pp95), introductory texts, downloadable from or print copies from World Peace Communications, 495 Whitman St. #A, Goleta, CA 93117, USA. MARGINAL.

Clark, Howard, Crown, Sheryl, McKee, Angela and MacPherson, Hugh, Preparing for Nonviolent Direct Action (London: Peace News/CND, 1984 pp80). A small book written for and by activists in the 1980s British nuclear disarmament movement, placing nonviolent direct action in a wider strategic framework, urging a small group approach to organising nvda, describing a range of tools and exercises, and offering short success stories. Fanny Tribble's cartoons provide a humorous commentary on the text.

Coover, Virginia, Deacon, Ellen, Esser, Charles and Moore, Christopher, Resource Manual for a Living Revolution (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, first edition 1977, latest 1985), 351 pp. Familiarly known as “the Monster Manual”, this was the source book for English-speaking nonviolence trainers in the 1970s and 1980s. Produced collectively within the US Movement for a New Society, the Resource Manual aimed to be comprehensive – dealing with theory, working in groups, developing communities of support. personal growth, consciousness raising, training and education, organising for change, and offers a host of exercises and other tools for preparing and evaluating nonviolent action, plus a section on practical skills (cooking, sign making, legal support).

Desai, Narayan, Handbook for Satyagrahis: A Manual for Volunteers of Total Revolution (New Delhi: Gandhi Peace Foundation, 1980. pp 57). The founder of the Institute for Total Revolution outlines a Gandhian approach to nonviolence training.

Fisher, Simon, Abdi, Dekha Ibrahim, Ludin, Jawed, Smith, Richard, Williams, Steve, Williams, Sue, Working with Conflict: Skills and Strategies for Action (London: Zed, 2000, pp185). Includes exercises and advice on active nonviolence.

Francis, Diana, People, Peace and Power: Conflict transformation in action (London: Pluto 2002, pp264). In addition to reflecting on her experiences as a workshop facilitator, Francis includes various tools and exercises. Puts people power and active nonviolence firmly at the centre of conflict transformation.

Genetix Snowball Handbook for Action: A Guide to Safely Removing Genetically Modified Plants from Release Sites in Britain (1998), 3, is a detailed guide to the issues and methods of this “campaign of nonviolent civil responsibility”.

Greenpeace, Nonviolent Direct Action – advice sheets on planning actions, running a nonviolent direct action workshop and nvda and the law from 4

Hartford, Bruce, Notes from a Nonviolent Training Session (1963, edited 2004), and Nonviolence and Nonviolent Training (2004), 5 describe the practical and philosophical content of the nonviolence training of the US civil rights movement. MARGINAL

Herngren, Per, Paths of Resistance: The Practice of Civil Disobedience. (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1993, 214pp). Reflections and practical advice on civil disobedience by Swedish Ploughshares activist covering, amongst other things, nonviolence, affinity groups, accountability and overcoming fear.

Hunter, Daniel and Lakey, George, Opening Space for Democracy: training manual for third-party nonviolent intervention (Philadelphia: Training for Change, 1501 Cherry St. Philadelphia PA 19102-1477 USA, 2004, pp634). Devised as a training resource for the Nonviolent Peace Force, this manual contains hundreds of training activities in detail, over 60 handouts with the content of how to defend human rights against violence, an integrated 23-day curriculum, many tips for trainers, and mini-essays on pedagogical theory. Most of the book can be downloaded from 6

Jelfs, Martin and Merritt, Sandy, Manual for Action (London: Action Resource Group, 1982, pp81) – a shorter and more readable version of a mimeographed manual produced by Martin Jelfs after the early 1970s wave of British nonviolence training. Descriptions of various tools and exercises.

Lakey, George and Oppenheimer, Martin, Manual for Direct Action (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1965, pp??) Produced during the US civil rights movement. Foreword by Bayard Rustin.

Macy, Joanna, Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age (Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 1983, pp??). Includes 47 group exercises to “ignite creative responses” to the nuclear threat. Out-of-print but consult

Moyer, Bill (with JoAnn McAllister, Mary Lou Finley, and Steven Soifer), Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements (Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers, 2001, pp228). From his central insight that some movements could not recognise when they were succeeding, Bill Moyer constructed his model MAP – Movement Action Plan – as a tool of strategic analysis for nonviolent movements. The book includes case studies of five US movements: civil rights, anti-nuclear energy, gay and lesbian, breast cancer, and anti-globalisation.

Nonviolence Training Project, Nonviolence Trainers Resource Manual (Melbourne, May 1995, pp. 211 – printed version available from Pt’chang Nonviolence Training Project, PO Box 2172MDC, Fitzroy VIC 3065, Australia or downloadable as pdf from [http://www.nonviolence.org.au/downloads/trainers_resource_manual_may05.pdf.] Wide-ranging manual with sections on Defining nonviolence, Power and conflict, Learning from other movements, Strategic Frameworks, Nonviolence and communication, Working in groups and g Preparing for nonviolent action. Also includes case studies of action campaigns and a variety of sample agendas. The web page www.nonviolence.org.au/training/ lists a number of resources, and information sheets.

Olsen, Theodore and Shivers, Lynne, Training for Nonviolent Action (London: War Resisters' International, 1970, pp42). An introduction, long out-of-print.

Rose, Chris, How to win campaigns: 100 steps to success (London: Earthscan 2005, pp231). Tips from an environmental campaigner and communications consultant who has worked for Greenpeace, among other organisations. MARGINAL.

The Ruckus Society web page offers manuals on Action Planning Manual and Media among other topics, plus numerous links to other weg pages. 7

Schutt, Randy, Papers on Nonviolent Action and Cooperative Decision-Making, 8, a nonviolence trainer's sample agendas and workshop notes dealing with Preparing for Nonviolent Action, Nonviolent Action Strategic Planning, Cooperative Decision-Making and Interpersonal Behaviour.

Sharp, Gene, Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential (Porter Sargent 2005, pp598) includes an appendix (pp525-541) on “Preparing a Strategic Estimate for a Nonviolent Struggle” based on Robert Helvey's work. A checklist of questions for such a Strategic Estimate is an appendix in Robert Helvey's On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: Thinking about Fundamentals (Boston, Mass. Albert Einstein Institution, 2004, pp178) or downloadable from 9

Smuts, Dene and Westcott, Shauna (eds), The Purple Shall Govern: A South African A to Z of Nonviolent Action (Cape Town: Oxford University Press/Centre for Intergroup Studies, 1991, pp 165). An illustrated introduction to the methods of nonviolent action – ordered alphabetically and using primarily South African examples.

Starhawk, Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery (New York: Harper Collins, 1990, pp370). Based in Starhawk's experience in 1980s peace movement affinity groups, this exploration of eco-feminist spirituality proposes an understanding of power along three axes – power-over, power-within and power-with. the book includes many “exercises, rituals and mediations for individuals and groups” on themes connected with empowerment, group functioning, preparing for action, and recovering from violence. Starhawk's web page includes a section on resources for trainers developed by herself and by others, including sample short and long agendas used in the anti-globalization movement and a wide range of advice sheets.

Taylor, Richard K., Blockade: A Guide to Nonviolent Intervention, Maryknoll NY, Orbis Books, 1977, pp. 175. Part 2 is a manual for direct action (also published separately, but now out-of-print) derived from the campaign to block supplies to Pakistan from US East Coast ports during Pakistan's repression in East Bengal.

Trident Ploughshares, Tri-Denting It Handbook (3rd edn 2001), 10, has sections arguing the illegality of nuclear weapons before introducing the campaign and its action philosophy and suggesting how to prepare for action.

Turning the Tide – a British Quaker project - offers information sheets on various elements of preparing for nonviolent action, currently Planning a campaign, Nonviolence and active nonviolence, Power, How change happens and Consensus decision-making. It also publishes Making Waves, a newsletter. Find taster sheets here: http://turning-the-tide.org/resources/manual#Taster%20Sheets Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ

War Resisters League, Handbook for Nonviolent Action (New York: War Resisters League, Donnelly/Colt Graphix, 1989, reprinted 1991, 1995, 1999, pp36). Designed as a tool for learning about different aspects of nonviolent civil disobedience actions, this draws on the handbooks produced for some of the major US civil disobedience actions of the 1970s and 1980s, and covers every stage of action preparation from planning a campaign to evaluation.

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¿Por qué deberíamos usar los medios de comunicación en nuestras campañas? Parece una manera extraña de empezar esta sección del Manual, pero es una pregunta importante que los grupos deben hacerse antes de empezar una relación con los medios de comunicación corporativos o con los alternativos. Los medios lo abarcan todo en la vida moderna, especialmente en el mundo occidental, donde las imágenes y los sonidos –la televisión, la radio, la red, los carteles– nos bombardean por todas partes.

Pero intentar usar los medios de comunicación para nuestra campaña es como coger una espada de doble filo: los medios pueden apoyar y destruir buenas campañas. Nos deberíamos de aproximar con cautela y también con una buena compremsión de lo que queremos de esa relación. Esta sección puede ayudar a identificar lo que queremos de los medios y por qué, y sugerir algunas estrategias para extender el mensaje a una audiencia lo más amplia posible.

Objetivos del grupo

Pensad lo que quieres conseguir al usar los medios. Hábladlo en el grupo y sed claros sobre los objetivos, que podrían ser:

Conseguir miembros nuevos/ participantes para la acción o el evento. Aplicar presión crítica sobre un asunto específico mostrando una oposición generalizada. Hacer más visible una cuestión o manera de trabajar que criticais. Enviar mensajes a vuestros oponentes.

Enviando mensajes

Invertid tiempo como grupo trabajando sobre los “mensajes clave”. Preferentemente no pongáis más de tres para cada acción o campaña. Definidlos cuidadosamente y hacedlos lo más concisos posible. Anotadlos y aseguraros de que todo el mundo en vuestro grupo sabe cuáles son y que están satisfechos o al menos pueden aceptarlos. Recordad: estos son vuestros mensajes públicos así que escribidlos en un leguaje claro y fácilmente digerible, que todo el mundo (tanto de dentro como de fuera del grupo) pueda entender. Pensad cómo puede recibir estos mensajes claves el grupo o grupos destinatarios. ¿Se pueden cambiar los mensajes para que sean más atractivos y que se mantengan enfocados? Definir y ponerse de acuerdo sobre los mensajes es útil porque permite que más gente de vuestro grupo se comunique con los medios de comunicación. Hará que vuestras comunicaciones sean más coherentes, reforzará vuestra posición y os mantendrá centrados. Aseguraros de que todas vuestras comunicaciones con los medios incluyen uno o más de estos mensajes clave. Haced prácticas de encuentros con periodistas para practicar vuestros mensajes clave y cómo relacionarse con los medios de un modo efectivo (ver Ejercicio “Juego de roles”, p. X).

Tipos de comunicación

Existen varias maneras de tratar con los medios. Lo que es común a todas las maneras presentadas abajo es la importancia de pensar como un periodista. Preguntaos: ¿Qué es de interés periodístico? ¿Qué les interesa leer a los demás? ¿Cuáles son las noticias? ¡Al mismo tiempo centraos en los mensajes clave!

Tened en cuenta que los medios de comunicación funcionan de manera distinta en diferentes países. Averiguad cómo funcionan en vuestro país y realizad los cambios apropiados.Pedidle a un periodista, o a un activista que tenga experiencia con los medios en tu país que os dé pistas a las que darles vueltas.

Comunicado de Prensa: Un buen comunicado de prensa se escoge. Intentad “embarcaros” en noticias más importantes si podéis relacionarlas con la actividad de la campaña. Por ejemplo si un gobierno o un famoso hacen una afirmación sobre vuestro campo en general, escribid un comunicado de prensa corto el mismo día con la respuesta de vuestro grupo. Podéis usar también esta oportunidad para anunciar un evento o acción que habéis planeado o un aspecto de la campaña que tenéis en marcha (por ejemplo: una petición que estáis haciendo). Escribid clara y concisamente, dadle a vuestro escrito un encabezamiento rápido, de actualidad e inteligente y enteraos de cómo hacerlo llegar a los periodistas (mantened una base de datos de correo electrónico/ fax/ teléfono). Siempre incluid la fecha y los detalles de contacto de un portavoz o contacto con los medios de vuestro grupo. Haced llegar vuestros comunicados de prensa a la prensa local y temática. Por ejemplo: “Una mujer de Oxford es detenida en una protesta contra el armamento nuclear” a un periódico de Oxford o, “Un sacerdote sueco es detenido en una protesta contra el armamento nuclear” a un periódico de la iglesia, eclésiástico / cristiano sueco. La persona encargada de los medios de comunicación de vuestro grupo debería recoger información para los comunicados de prensa que elijáis de todas las personas del grupo de acción. Por ejemplo, nombre (bien escrito), edad, trabajo, origen, cita sobre la acción. Si las citas, los hechos y la situación general están incluidas en un comunicado de prensa, habéis hecho mucho del trabajo periodístico y los medios pueden publicarlo fácilmente.

Portavoz/ Persona designada para los medios de comunicación: Aseguraos de que siempre tenéis un punto de contacto identificable para los medios. Conseguidle correo electrónico y teléfono móvil a ese miembro del grupo. Aseguraros que ella o él es una persona bien informada, y que puede observar los medios de comunicación, para ver los progresos que se hacen en vuestro campo, y así responder adecuadamente a nueva información. Si hay riesgo de detención, la persona con este cargo debería ser “no detenible”, para poder tener acceso a los medios de comunicación mientras los otros están detenidos. Lo ideal sería que tuviérais más de una persona con este cargo.

Encuentros con los periodistas: Es posible entablar buenas relaciones con periodistas a nivel individual. Recordad que si están interesados en vuestro tema, probablemente conseguiréis resultados si les ayudáis, proporcionándoles información precisa y de buena calidad y si les hacéis el extraño favor de darles información clave que no habéis dado a otros periodistas. Después de todo a la mayoría de los periodistas les encantan las esclusivas. Sin embargo, tened cuidado; algunos periodistas os citarán incorrectamente y tergiversarán lo que digáis (deliberadamente o no). Suele pasar con prensa sensacionalista y más de derechas, pero no sólo.

Agencias: Aseguraos de que mandáis vuestros comunicados de prensa a agencias nacionales e internacionales. Algunas noticias no recogidas por las delegaciones que habéis contactado directamente, son recogidas más tarde porque la historia aparece en los teletipos. Llamad a las agencias y a los medios después de haberles mandado un comunicado de prensa. Aseguraos de que sepan quienes sois y cómo os pueden localizar si quieren tener más información más tarde.

Cartas al director: Una buena manera de comunicar los mensajes al público en general, es tener una o dos personas del grupo que compran los periódicos más importantes todos los días y que escriben cartas sobre lo que dicen los periódicos en relación con vuestro tema. De esta manera os pueden publicar muchas cartas en los medios locales y regionales. Este tipo de visibilidad ayuda a que vuestra campaña parezca quizá más grande, más fuerte, y más dedicada de lo que en realidad es. ¡Que no escriba siempre la misma gente porque los editores lo notarán después de un tiempo!.

Página web: Vuestra página web es una herramienta importante para difundir vuestros mensajes; los periodistas la visitarán para recabar información. Aseguraos de que esté siempre al día. Considerad el crear una sección aparte “un centro de información”, para vuestros comunicados de prensa, que tenga imágenes de alta calidad (que sean vuestras y que no os importe que otros usen e impriman) e información general que sea concisa. Obviamente, debería incluir también datos de vuestro contacto directo con ellos (teléfono, correo electrónico). Un blog (una página Web escrita por un miembro del grupo) es una nueva manera de difundir información sobre la acción. No escribáis cosas que no queráis que los medios publiquen si es que queréis usar el blog para los medios o si es público.

Escribiendo para/ comprometiéndose con los medios alternativos: Los medios alternativos en sus diversas formas pueden ser vuestros amigos para ganar apoyo. Sin embargo no lo lee o ve normalmente una gran cantidad de gente. ¡Y probablemente os tendréis que encargar de escribir vosotros! Los sitios web de la red global indymedia os pueden ayudar a dar a conocer vuestra campaña a un público comprensivo, pero posiblemente “no aplicará presión crítica” ni dará a conocer al gran público una cuestión / forma de trabajo poco popular.

Sin embargo, sí que os puede ayudar a que ganéis unos pocos nuevos activistas, y en algunos casos enviar mensajes a vuestros oponentes (la policía y algunas compañías están controlando constantemente parte de los medios alternativos). Los medios alternativos os pueden dar un espacio, para que campañas dispares vean oportunidades para trabajar juntos, y explorar ideas sobre lo que funciona y lo que no, basadas en la experiencia colectiva.

Planeando una campaña en los medios de comunicación

hasta aquí ya tenemos alguna idea de los métodos prácticos para comunicar nuestros mensajes, pero para sacar el máximo resultado de vuestros esfuerzos, dedicad tiempo en planear una campaña en los “medios de comunicación”. Esto quiere decir buscar la mejor manera de comunicaros tanto de una manera efectiva como estratégica y con el consentimiento del resto del grupo. Estas campañas funcionan bien si son entendidas como proyectos cortos o si se dividen en pequeñas dosis. Para conseguir el máximo de este proceso debéis integrar la campaña de medios en una estrategia de campaña completa y definir vuestros mensajes claves claramente (ver “Enviando mensajes”, p. X). Por ejemplo, imaginaos un grupo cuyo objetivo es desenmascarar y socabar la imagen pública de una compañía de armamento concreta. Digamos que el grupo planea trabajar los próximos seis meses para conseguir que algunos de los distribuidores dejen de trabajar para ellos. El grupo puede considerar escribir a estas personas, presionar a sus trabajadores, bloquear sus almacenes, y otras cosas similares. Una buena campaña de medios debería ser capaz de vender las actividades del grupo como positivas y las de la compañía como negativas. Primero, considerad las críticas obvias de la estrategia de vuestro grupo. Por ejemplo: “el mercado es legal”, “están molestando a trabajadores normales”, o “sus tácticas son agresivas”. Una manera de hacer esto es preparar una hoja básica de “preguntas y respuestas” para cualquiera de los miembros que esté con los medios. Esta hoja informativa debería incluir los mensajes claves en la parte superior. Si la campaña tiene eventos clave durante el periodo de seis meses, marcadlos y trabajad sobre qué información deberíais enviar a los medios y cuándo. No olvidéis mandar una nota de avance con dos semanas de antelación e información más detallada, y confirmada tres o cuatro días antes (o a tiempo para que coincida con la fecha tope de los medios de comunicación locales. Por ejemplo, en Gran Bretaña la mayoría de los periódicos semanales se imprimen el jueves, así que mandad la información el martes por la noche o el miércoles por la mañana). Enviad información sobre lo que ocurrió en el evento durante ese mismo día. Marcad esos comunicados a lo largo de los seis meses de campaña. De igual modo, si hay eventos claves del gobierno o de las industrias, se publican informes, se celebran reuniones de organismos internacionales, etc., marcad esas fechas y mirad cómo podéis responder a cada una de ellas. ¡Estad preparados!. Aseguraos de que tenéis un buen número de imágenes de buena resolución que vendan vuestra campaña. Haced buenas fotos de los actos y acciones y ponedlas al de los periodistas que os las pidan o para descargarlas de vuestra página web. Pensad qué medios serán más afines a la campaña y sus tácticas, pero también tened un número de lectores más grande y amplio. Invertid energía en cuidar vuestra relación con ellos. Los medios regionales (prensa, radio, televisión) son más fáciles de satisfacer y muy probablemente os publicarán o anunciarán. Aseguraros de que incluís a los medios locales y regionales en todas vuestras comunicaciones.

Resumen de los consejos generales

Intentad crear una buena relación con los periodistas; os podéis ayudar unos a otros. Pero recordad: no os podéis fiar siempre de ellos. Comunicaos siempre con las agencias porque nunca se sabe dónde se puede recoger algo. Tened siempre un miembro del grupo a mano para que se entienda con las preguntas de las prensa. Mantened las comunicaciones simples y cortas. Estad preparados para las preguntas difíciles. Manteneos en el mensaje. Optad por los puntos de vista locales. Preguntad a otros que hacen campañas, compartid conocimientos, leed manuales y participad en cursos de formación de bajo coste o gratis.

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How does a peace group interweave gender awareness into its peace work? This can be done through its organisational identity and structures, its training and orientation of members, and its development of program strategies.

New Profile, the Israeli peace organisation, describes itself as 'a group of feminist women and men who are convinced that we need not live in a soldiers' state'. Such a clear identification publicises the connections between gender and peace from the very beginning, for anyone who comes in contact with the organisation. New Profile breaks traditional organisational patterns by rotating leadership roles and all paid functions and tries to avoid having a hierarchy of activities. The group's many training and educational programs for new members and the public—workshops, seminars, youth groups, and conferences—always include an analysis of how gender and militarism are connected in Israeli culture and society. It also conduct whole-day study circles that look more deeply at the connections. One such study day in 2007, for example, used photographs of female soldiers from the army's archives to look at the the military recruitment of women in Israel and the general militarisation of the whole society. With such opportunities for study and discussion, New Profile members bring a deeper gender awareness to their problem analysis of militarism and their strategic action planning. New Profile's Small Arms and Light Weapons project not only looked into the problems and structure of the Israeli arms trade, but also investigated how small arms affected individual's lives and how New Profile could help redefine the term 'security' in Israeli culture.

More on New Profile in Israel - New Profile learns from the experience of others

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Gender and Nonviolent Action

Wars will cease when men refuse to fight – and women refuse to approve. Jesse Wallace Hugan, founder of War Resisters League

 

Introduction

 

It may seem simple and obvious that we want both men and women involved in our struggles against war and injustice. However, if we want to fully utilise people's talents, energy, and insights, we need to apply gender awareness to how we organise ourselves, how we design our campaigns, and how we conduct our trainings for action.

Why? Because gender, our societies' definitions of male and female roles, of masculinity and femininity, influences all of us. And the social traditions that have constructed masculinity as dominant, aggressive, and controlling and femininity as weak, submissive, and serving have deeply affected each of us. Gender awareness helps us to make sure that in our nonviolent actions and campaigns, we don't perpetuate the same injustices we are trying to stop.

In antimilitarist campaigns, gender awareness and gender-based analysis are also valuable tools for creating an effective strategy. Gender is an element in every conflict. It may not be the cause of a conflict, but different ideas of masculinity and femininity are at the heart of why and how people fight. Military systems are built to function on certain ideas and assumptions about male and female roles. If we want to create nonviolent structures and systems for resolving conflict, we will need to create new assumptions and expectations about gender.

In this section, we include concepts and exercises to help you to incorporate gender awareness in your trainings and to examine your campaigns and nonviolent actions through a gender lens.