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Taken from Gene Sharp's ‘The Politics of Nonviolent Action’,
3 volumes, 1973, Porter Sargent, Boston, 902 pages, ISBN 0-87558-070-X.
Please note that USA English spellings and terms are used in the following
list as in the original.
Very limited annotation has been added in brackets "[…]"
where a term may be unclear or misleading to a general reader; the usage
is quite clear in the book (volume 2 contains details and extensive historical
examples). A few notable historical examples have also been added here,
again in brackets, but this does not do justice to the breadth of the
original and is done because of the difficulty you may have in getting
hold of the book. Examples marked * are not from Sharp's book.
Formal statement
- Public speeches [e.g. 1934 speech by non-Nazi vice-chancellor
in Germany expressing alarm and calling for restoration of freedoms]
- Letters of opposition or support
- Declarations by organisations and institutions [priests
in Vichy France against deportation of Jews]
- Signed public statements
- Declarations of indictment and intention
- Group or mass petitions
Communications with a Wider Audience
- Slogans, caricatures, and symbols [Baum Jewish group
in Berlin, 1941-2]
- Banners, posters and displayed communications
- Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
- Newspapers and journals
- Records, radio, and television [Czechoslovakia in 1968
most advanced use of radio for nonviolent resistance within a country]
- Skywriting and earthwriting
Group representations
- Deputations
- Mock awards [Dawn magazine's 'Adolf' awards named after
20th century dictator!*]
- Group lobbying
- Picketing
- Mock elections
- Displays of flags and symbolic colours [Hungarian flags
1865 to Austrian emperor]
- Wearing of symbols [Jewish yellow star in WW2 adopted
voluntarily]
- Prayer and worship
- Delivering symbolic objects [rats, rubbish etc]
- Protest disrobings [women protesting at men-only Forty
Foot bathing place, Dublin*]
- Destruction of own property [tea in colonial North America]
- Symbolic lights [candles etc]
- Displays of portraits
- Paint as protest
- New signs and names [Poland in 1942, Northern Ireland
ongoing*]
- Symbolic sounds
- Symbolic reclamations [e.g. planting seeds to reclaim
land]
- Rude gestures
Pressure on Individuals
- "Haunting" officials [following them around
etc.]
- Taunting officials
- Fraternisation [e.g. winning people over by being friendly
as deliberate strategy]
- Vigils
Drama and Music
- Humorous skits and pranks [1956 East German skits on
communist propaganda]
- Performances of plays and music
- Singing
Processions
- Marches
- Parades [marching in an organised manner as protest]
- Religious processions
- Pilgrimages [e.g. Gandhi, 1947, to persuade Muslims and
Hindus to live together peacefully]
- Motorcades
Honouring the Dead
- Political mourning
- Mock funerals [e.g. 'Liberty']
- Demonstrative funerals [half a million attended Jan Palach's
funeral, Prague, 1969]
- Homage at burial places
Public Assemblies
- Assemblies of protest or support
- Protest meetings
- Camouflaged meetings of protest [e.g. political 'banquets'
in Russia, 1904-5] [when protests were banned in Marcos-era Philippines,
protest jogs took place!*]
- Teach-ins
Withdrawal and Renunciation
- Walk-outs
- Silence
- Renouncing honours [during Ronald Reagan's Irish visit,
some people handed back honorary degrees when he was awarded one*]
- Turning one's back.
Ostracism of Persons
- Social boycott
- Selective social boycott
- Lysistratic nonaction [where women refuse to sleep with
their warring menfolk, named after Lysistrata in play of same name by
Aristophanes]
- Excommunication [religious]
- Interdict [i.e. general excommunication of an area or
district]
Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs and Institutions
- Suspension of social and sports activities [e.g. Norway
in World War 11]
- Boycott of social affairs
- Student strike
- Social disobedience [e.g. fraternising with untouchables,
India]
- Withdrawal from social institutions
Withdrawal from the Social System
- Stay-at-home
- Total personal noncooperation
- "Flight" of workers
- Sanctuary [giving refuge with religious connotations]
- Collective disappearance
- Protest emigration (hijrat)
Action by Consumers
- Consumers' boycott
- Non-consumption of boycotted goods [even where you've
already bought them]
- Policy of austerity
- Rent withholding [e.g. withholding 'unjust' rents, Land
League, Ireland, 1879]
- Refusal to rent
- National consumers' boycott
- International consumers' boycott
Action by Workers and Producers
- Workmen's boycott
- Producers' boycott [refusal to sell or deliver products]
Action by Middlemen
- Suppliers' and handlers' boycott
Action by Owners and management
- Traders' boycott
- Refusal to let or sell property
- Lockout [all examples given by Sharp are politically
reactionary]
- Refusal of industrial assistance [by other firms]
- Merchants' "general strike"
Action by Holders of Financial Resources
- Withdrawal of bank deposits [e.g. people protesting about
apartheid era S Africa]
- 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 [e.g. paper money]
Action by Governments
- Domestic embargo
- Blacklisting of traders
- International sellers' embargo [refusal to sell to another
country]
- International buyers' embargo [prohibition of goods from
specific country]
- International trade embargo
Symbolic strikes
- Protest strike
- Quickie walkout (lightning strike)
Agricultural Strikes
- Peasant strike
- Farm workers' strike
Strikes by Special Groups
- Refusal of impressed labour
- Prisoners' strike [e.g. USA 1943 against racial segregation
at meals]
- Craft strike [i.e. a single craft, e.g. dressmakers]
- Professional strike [salaried or self-employed]
Ordinary Industrial Strike
- Establishment strike [at a single unit under one management]
- Industry strike
- Sympathetic strike [outlawed in UK under Thatcher regime*]
Restricted Strikes
- Detailed strike [leave or stop one by one]
- Bumper strike [taking on one firm at a time]
- Slowdown strike
- Working-to-rule strike
- Reporting "sick" (sick-in) [e.g. Garda Siochana
'blue flu' in the Republic over pay!*]
- Strike by resignation
- Limited strike [e.g. refusal to do marginal work or work
more than 8 hours]
- Selective strike
Multi-Industry Strikes
- Generalised strike [less than a majority of industry]
- General strike
Combination of Strikes and Economic Closures
- Hartal [India; suspension of economic life to make a
political point]
- Economic shutdown [everyone]
Rejection of Authority
- Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance [Hungary, America,
Ruhr 1923, Ireland]
- Refusal of public support
- Literature and speeches advocating resistance
Citizens' Noncooperation with Government
- Boycott of legislative bodies [e.g. Ireland 1919]
- Boycott of elections [Northern Ireland, various*]
- Boycott of government employment and positions
- Boycott of government departments, agencies and other
bodies [e.g. by unionists and loyalists in Northern Ireland, post Anglo-Irish
Agreement of 1985*]
- Withdrawal from government educational institutions
- Boycott of government-supported organizations
- Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents [Ireland
1881; cattle moved before bailiffs arrive]
- Removal of own signs and placemarks
- Refusal to accept appointed officials
- Refusal to dissolve existing institutions
Citizens' Alternatives to Obedience
- Reluctant and slow compliance [e.g. to paying taxes]
- Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
- Popular nonobedience
- Disguised disobedience [e.g. banned newspaper changes
its name]
- Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse [e.g.
France, 1789]
- Sitdown
- Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
- Hiding, escape, and false identities
- Civil disobedience of "illegitimate" laws [e.g.
salt tax in British-occupied India]
Action by Government Personnel
- Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
- Blocking of lines of command and information
- Stalling and obstruction [scientists engaged in atomic
research, Nazi Germany]
- General administrative noncooperation
- Judicial noncooperation
- Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation
by enforcement agents
- Mutiny [military refuse orders]
Domestic Governmental Action
- Quasi-legal evasions and delays
- Noncooperation by constituent governmental units
International Governmental Action
- Changes in diplomatic and other representations
- Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
- Withholding of diplomatic recognition
- Severance of diplomatic relations
- Withdrawal from international organizations
- Refusal of membership in international bodies
- Expulsion from international organizations [USSR expelled
from league of Nations over attack on Finland, 1939]
Psychological Intervention
- Self-exposure to the elements
- The fast: Fast of moral pressure [e.g. St Patrick to
get King Trian to treat slaves well], Hunger strike [could be to death],
Satyagrahic fast [Gandhian, intention to convert people but coercive
elements]
- Reverse trial [defendants hold prosecutors and authorities
to account]
- Nonviolent harassment [psychological harassment by various
means]
Physical Intervention
- Sit-in
- Stand-in
- Ride-in [on public transport]
- Wade-in [e.g. on beaches]
- Mill-in [staying mobile]
- Pray-in
- Nonviolent raids
- Nonviolent air raids [e.g. leaflets]
- Nonviolent invasion [e.g. Goa 1955]
- Nonviolent interjection [placing body inbetween]
- Nonviolent obstruction [body used as physical barrier]
- Nonviolent occupation
Social Intervention
- Establishing new social patterns [social mixing across
barriers]
- Overloading of facilities
- Stall-in [conducting legitimate business as slowly as
possible]
- Speak-in
- Guerrilla theatre
- Alternative social institutions
- Alternative communication system ['samizdat' publishing
in USSR]
Economic intervention
- Reverse strike [work in]
- Stay-in strike [strike but stay in work place]
- Nonviolent land seizure
- Defiance of blockades [e.g. Berlin in Cold war]
- Politically motivated counterfeiting
- Preclusive purchasing [buying resources so others can't
get them]
- Seizure of assets
- Dumping [deliberately selling at low price]
- Selective patronage
- Alternative markets
- Alternative transport systems
- Alternative economic institutions
Political Intervention
- Overloading of administrative systems [e.g. excessive
compliance as protest against USA involvement in Vietnam]
- Disclosing identities of secret agents
- Seeking imprisonment
- Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws
- Work-on without collaboration
- Dual sovereignty and parallel government [e.g. Ireland,
1919]
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