People Power and Protest since 1945: a bibliography of nonviolent action
compiled by April Carter, Howard Clark and Michael Randle

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Section I: 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 emphasize 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. For bibliographies on training, see:  

915. Nonviolence International, Annotated Bibliography of Nonviolent Action Training.  

A large but somewhat dated bibliography available on the website: http://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/
It includes reports and evaluations of nonviolent action training workshops in all continents as well as handbooks produced for particular actions or campaigns. See also Randle, Michael and Gene Sharp, ‘Annotated Bibliography on Training for Nonviolent Action and Civilian-Based Defence’ (H a).  

916. Beck, Sanderson, Nonviolent Action Handbook, Goleta, California: World Peace Communications, 2002, pp. 95. introductory texts, copies available from World Peace Communications, 495 Whitman St. #A, Goleta, CA 93117, USA and on their website: www.san.beck.org/worldpeacebooks.org/News.html  

917. Clark, Howard, Sheryl Crown, Angela McKee and Hugh MacPherson, Preparing for Nonviolent Direct Action, London, Peace News/CND, 1984, pp. 80. 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 organizing nvda, describing a range of tools and exercises, and offering short success stories. Fanny Tribble’s cartoons provide a humorous commentary on the text.  

918. Coover, Virginia, Ellen Deacon, Charles Esser and Christopher Moore, Resource Manual for a Living Revolution, Philadelphia, New Society Publishers, first edition 1977, latest 1985, pp. 351. 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, organizing for change. 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).  

919. 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.  

920. Fisher, Simon, Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, Jawed Ludin, Richard Williams, Steve Smith and Sue Williams, Working with Conflict: Skills and Strategies for Action, London, Zed, 2000, pp. 185. Includes exercises and advice on active nonviolence.  

921. Francis, Diana, People, Peace and Power: Conflict Transformation in Action, London, Pluto 2002, pp. 264. 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.  

922. Genetix Snowball Handbook for Action: A Guide to Safely Removing Genetically Modified Plants from Release Sites in Britain (1998), http://www.fraw.org.uk/gs/handbook.html A detailed guide to the issues and methods of this ‘campaign of nonviolent civil responsibility’  

923. Greenpeace, Nonviolent Direct Action. Advice sheets on planning actions, running a nonviolent direct action workshop and nvda and the law from: www.greenpeace.org.au/getactive/happen/nvda.html 

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

925. Hunter, Daniel and George Lakey, Opening Space for Democracy: Training Manual for Third-Party Nonviolent Intervention, Philadelphia, Training for Change, 1501 Cherry St. Philadelphia PA 19102-1477 USA, 2004, pp. 634. Devised as a training resource for the Nonviolent Peace Force, this manual contains hundreds of training activities, with special emphasis on team-building and defending human rights. It includes over 60 handouts, an integrated 23-day curriculum, and many tips for trainers. Much of the book can be downloaded from www.trainingforchange.org  

926. Jelfs, Martin and Sandy Merritt, Manual for Action, London, Action Resource Group, 1982, pp. 81 – 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.  

927. Lakey, George and Martin Oppenheimer, Manual for Direct Action, Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1965, pp. 137. Produced during the US Civil Rights Movement. Foreword by Bayard Rustin.  

928. Macy, Joanna, Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age, Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 1983, pp. 178. Includes 47 group exercises to ‘ignite creative responses to the nuclear threat’.  

929. 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, pp. 228. From his central insight that some movements could not recognize 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.  

930. Nonviolence Training Project, Nonviolence Trainers Resource Manual, Melbourne, May 2005, pp. 211 – [PRINTED VERSION NO LONGER AVAILABLE]. 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 Preparing for nonviolent action. Also includes case studies of action campaigns and a variety of sample agendas. 

931. Olson, Theodore and Lynne Shivers, Training for Nonviolent Action London, War Resisters’ International, 1970, pp. 42.  

932. Rose, Chris, How to Win Campaigns: 100 Steps to Success. London, Earthscan, 2005, pp. 231). Tips from an environmental campaigner and communications consultant who has worked for Greenpeace, among other organisations.  

933. Schutt, Randy, Papers on Nonviolent Action and Cooperative Decision-Making, www.vernalproject.org/Papers/shtml, 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.  

934. Starhawk, Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery, New York: Harper Collins, 1990, pp. 370. 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 meditations 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 others, including sample short and long agendas used in the anti-globalization movement and a wide range of advice sheets. See: http://www.starhawk.org/ 

935. Trident Ploughshares, Tri-Denting It Handbook (3rd edn 2001), http://www.trident.ploughshares.org/article1068 has sections arguing the illegality of nuclear weapons before introducing the campaign and its action philosophy and suggesting how to prepare for action.  

936. Turning the Tide – A British Quaker project which offers information sheets on various elements of preparing for nonviolent action. Current titles: Planning a Campaign, Nonviolence and Active Nonviolence, Power, How Change Happens, and Consensus Decision-Making. It also publishes Making Waves, A Newsletter available at www.turning-the-tide.org/infoSheets and from Turning the Tide, Quaker Peace & Social Witness, Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ  

937. UHC collective, NVDA Toolbox – http://www.uhc-collective.org.uk/knowledge/toolbox Produced and distributed as a CD for the anti-Gulf War demonstrations of 2003. Compiled from diverse sources – from the peace to anti-motorway movements. Material ranges from meetings and organizing to particular methods, including ‘howtos’ on techniques such as tripods and tunneling, and legal information.  

938. War Resisters League, Handbook for Nonviolent Action, New York: War Resisters League, Donnelly/Colt Graphix, 1989, reprinted 1991, 1995, 1999, pp. 36. 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. Most of it can be downloaded as part of ACT UP New York’s Manual for Civil Disobedience: http://www.actupny.org/documents  

See also:  

Sharp, Gene, Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential (A. 1.) which includes an appendix (pp. 525-541) on ‘Preparing a Strategic Estimate for a Nonviolent Struggle’ based on Robert Helvey’s work. A checklist of questions for such a strategic estimate appears as an appendix in Helvey’s On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: Thinking about Fundamentals, (A.1.).  

Taylor, Richard K., Blockade: A Guide to Nonviolent Intervention (G.3.d.) Part 2 is a manual for direct action.  

The Ruckus Society web page: http://www.ruckus.org Offers manuals on Action Planning and Media among other topics, plus numerous links to other web pages.  

The Seeds for Change Network – http://www.seedsforchange.org.uk offers a variety of workshops from practical organising skills (computers, fund-raising) to action preparation. Although their own writing does not use the term nonviolence, their web page includes material on nonviolence reproduced from Turning the Tide. 

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