Gene Sharp's 198 methods of nonviolent action
(from Gene Sharp, The Methods of Nonviolent Action, Boston 1973)
THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION
FORMAL STATEMENTS
- Public speeches
- Letters of opposition or support
- Declarations by organizations and institutions
- Signed public declarations
- 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
GROUP REPRESENTATIONS
- Deputations
- Mock awards
- Group lobbying
- Picketing
- Mock elections
SYMBOLIC PUBLIC ACTS
- Displays of flags and symbolic colours
- 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
PRESSURES ON INDIVIDUALS
- "Haunting" officials
- Taunting officials
- Fraternization
- Vigils
DRAMA AND MUSIC
- Humourous skits and pranks
- Performances of plays and music
- Singing
PROCESSIONS
- Marches
- Parades
- Religious processions
- Pilgrimages
- Motorcades
HONOURING THE DEAD
- Political mourning
- Mock funerals
- Demonstrative funerals
- Homage at burial places
PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES
- Assemblies of protest or support
- Protest meetings
- Camouflaged meetings of protest
- Teach-ins
WITHDRAWAL AND RENUNCIATION
- Walk-outs
- Silence
- Renouncing honours
- Turning one's back
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: ECONOMIC BOYCOTTS
ACTION 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
- Workers' boycott
- Producers' boycott
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 NONCOOOPERATION: THE STRIKE
SYMBOLIC STRIKES
- Protest strike
- Quickie walkout (lightning strike)
AGRICULTURAL STRIKES
- Peasant strike
- 100. Farm workers' strike
STRIKES BY SPECIAL GROUPS
- Refusal of impressed labour
- Prisoners' strike
- Craft strike
- Professional strike
ORDINARY INDUSTRIAL STRIKES
- Establishment strike
- Industry strike
- Sympathy 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
- Generalised 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 departments, agencies, and other bodies
- Withdrawal from governmental educational institutions
- Boycott of government-supported institutions
- 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 representation
- Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
- Withholding of diplomatic recognition
- Severance of diplomatic relations
- Withdrawal from international organisations
- Refusal of membership in international bodies
- Expulsion from international organisations
THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION
PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTION
- Self-exposure to the elements
- The fast
- Fast of moral pressure
- Hunger strike
- 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 theatre
- 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
POLITICAL INTERVENTION
- 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
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