CRUSA

The Left’s Methods of Nonviolent Action

Look for these methods of non-violent actions on the streets of the USA

Gene Sharp’s famous list of 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action is included as an appendix in his book From Dictatorship to Democracy (and originally detailed more fully in his larger work The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Vol. 2). These methods are grouped into three main categories:

  1. Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion (Methods 1–54)
  2. Noncooperation (social, economic, and political — Methods 55–149)
  3. Nonviolent Intervention (Methods 150–198)

Here is the complete numbered list:

The Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion

Formal Statements

  1. Public speeches
  2. Letters of opposition or support
  3. Declarations by organizations and institutions
  4. Signed public statements
  5. Declarations of indictment and intention
  6. Group or mass petitions

Communications with a Wider Audience

  1. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
  2. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
  3. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
  4. Newspapers and journals
  5. Records, radio, and television
  6. Skywriting and earthwriting

Group Representations

  1. Deputations
  2. Mock awards
  3. Group lobbying
  4. Picketing
  5. Mock elections

Symbolic Public Acts

  1. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
  2. Wearing of symbols
  3. Prayer and worship
  4. Delivering symbolic objects
  5. Protest disrobings
  6. Destruction of own property
  7. Symbolic lights
  8. Displays of portraits
  9. Paint as protest
  10. New signs and names
  11. Symbolic sounds
  12. Symbolic reclamations
  13. Rude gestures

Pressures on Individuals

  1. “Haunting” officials
  2. Taunting officials
  3. Fraternization
  4. Vigils

Drama and Music

  1. Humorous skits and pranks
  2. Performances of plays and music
  3. Singing

Processions

  1. Marches
  2. Parades
  3. Religious processions
  4. Pilgrimages
  5. Motorcades

Honoring the Dead

  1. Political mourning
  2. Mock funerals
  3. Demonstrative funerals
  4. Homage at burial places

Public Assemblies

  1. Assemblies of protest or support
  2. Protest meetings
  3. Camouflaged meetings of protest
  4. Teach-ins

Withdrawal and Renunciation

  1. Walk-outs
  2. Silence
  3. Renouncing honors
  4. Turning one’s back

The Methods of Social Noncooperation

Ostracism of Persons

  1. Social boycott
  2. Selective social boycott
  3. Lysistratic nonaction
  4. Excommunication
  5. Interdict

Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs, and Institutions

  1. Suspension of social and sports activities
  2. Boycott of social affairs
  3. Student strike
  4. Social disobedience
  5. Withdrawal from social institutions

Withdrawal from the Social System

  1. Stay-at-home
  2. Total personal noncooperation
  3. “Flight” of workers
  4. Sanctuary
  5. Collective disappearance
  6. Protest emigration (hijrat)

The Methods of Economic Noncooperation: Economic Boycotts

Action by Consumers

  1. Consumers’ boycott
  2. Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
  3. Policy of austerity
  4. Rent withholding
  5. Refusal to rent
  6. National consumers’ boycott
  7. International consumers’ boycott

Action by Workers and Producers

  1. Workmen’s boycott
  2. Producers’ boycott

Action by Middlemen

  1. Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott

Action by Owners and Management

  1. Traders’ boycott
  2. Refusal to let or sell property
  3. Lockout
  4. Refusal of industrial assistance
  5. Merchants’ “general strike”

Action by Holders of Financial Resources

  1. Withdrawal of bank deposits
  2. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
  3. Refusal to pay debts or interest
  4. Severance of funds and credit
  5. Revenue refusal
  6. Refusal of a government’s money

Action by Governments

  1. Domestic embargo
  2. Blacklisting of traders
  3. International sellers’ embargo
  4. International buyers’ embargo
  5. International trade embargo

The Methods of Economic Noncooperation: The Strike

Symbolic Strikes

  1. Protest strike
  2. Quickie walkout (lightning strike)

Agricultural Strikes

  1. Peasant strike
  2. Farm workers’ strike

Strikes by Special Groups

  1. Refusal of impressed labor
  2. Prisoners’ strike
  3. Craft strike
  4. Professional strike

Ordinary Industrial Strikes

  1. Establishment strike
  2. Industry strike
  3. Sympathetic strike

Restricted Strikes

  1. Detailed strike
  2. Bumper strike
  3. Slowdown strike
  4. Working-to-rule strike
  5. Reporting “sick” (sick-in)
  6. Strike by resignation
  7. Limited strike
  8. Selective strike

Multi-Industry Strikes

  1. Generalized strike
  2. General strike

Combination of Strikes and Economic Closure

  1. Hartal
  2. Economic shutdown

The Methods of Political Noncooperation

Rejection of Government Authority

  1. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
  2. Refusal of public support
  3. Literature and speeches advocating resistance

Citizens’ Noncooperation with Government

  1. Boycott of legislative bodies
  2. Boycott of elections
  3. Boycott of government employment and positions
  4. Boycott of government departments, agencies, and other bodies
  5. Withdrawal from governmental educational institutions
  6. Boycott of government-supported institutions
  7. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
  8. Sitdown
  9. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
  10. Hiding, escape, and false identities
  11. Civil disobedience of “illegitimate” laws

Citizen Alternatives to Obedience

  1. Self-exposure to the elements
  2. The fast: (a) Fast of moral pressure, (b) Hunger strike, (c) Satyagrahic fast
  3. Reverse trial
  4. Nonviolent harassment

Note: Some sources vary slightly in sub-grouping or phrasing for the later sections, but the numbered methods are consistent.

Action by Government Personnel

  1. Changes in diplomatic and other representations
  2. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
  3. Withholding of diplomatic recognition
  4. Severance of diplomatic relations
  5. Withdrawal from international organizations
  6. Refusal of membership in international bodies
  7. Expulsion from international organizations

Domestic Governmental Action

  1. Quasi-legal evasions and delays
  2. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units

International Governmental Action

  1. Changes in diplomatic and other representations
  2. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
  3. Withholding of diplomatic recognition

The Methods of Nonviolent Intervention

Psychological Intervention

  1. Self-exposure to the elements
  2. The fast: (a) Fast of moral pressure, (b) Hunger strike, (c) Satyagrahic fast
  3. Reverse trial
  4. Nonviolent harassment

Physical Intervention

  1. Sit-in
  2. Stand-in
  3. Ride-in
  4. Wade-in
  5. Mill-in
  6. Pray-in
  7. Nonviolent raids
  8. Nonviolent air raids
  9. Nonviolent invasion
  10. Nonviolent interjection
  11. Nonviolent obstruction
  12. Nonviolent occupation

Social Intervention

  1. Establishing new social patterns
  2. Overloading of facilities
  3. Stall-in
  4. Speak-in
  5. Guerrilla theater
  6. Alternative social institutions
  7. Alternative communication system

Economic Intervention

  1. Reverse strike
  2. Stay-in strike
  3. Nonviolent land seizure
  4. Defiance of blockades
  5. Politically motivated counterfeiting
  6. Preclusive purchasing
  7. Seizure of assets
  8. Dumping
  9. Selective patronage
  10. Alternative markets
  11. Alternative transportation systems
  12. Alternative economic institutions

Political Intervention

  1. Overloading of administrative systems
  2. Disclosing identities of secret agents
  3. Seeking imprisonment
  4. Civil disobedience of “neutral” laws
  5. Work-on without collaboration
  6. Dual sovereignty and parallel government

Note: The exact numbering and sub-categorization in the final 150–198 range can vary slightly across publications due to how sub-types are counted, but the total is always 198, and the above reflects the standard list from Sharp’s work and the Albert Einstein Institution.

These methods are meant to be selected strategically depending on the context, and Sharp emphasized combining them wisely rather than using them in isolation.