Peace Tools for Teachers - peaceCENTER - 198 Methods of Nonviolence

198 Methods of Nonviolence

Gene Sharp, a senior scholar at the Albert Einstein Institution, Cambridge, MA, wrote The Methods of Nonviolent Action, which describes 198 methods of nonviolent action, ranging from public speaking to civil disobedience. This list can be used in conjunction with the peaceCENTER's This Day in Peace and Justice History to delve deeper into the meaning of nonviolent action.

Age Group: Adult and young adult (high school and older)

Time Required: Minimum one half hour-one hour, depending on amount of time available for discussion.

Preparation:

Print one copy of the Timeline of Peace and Justice History:
www.salsa.net/peace/timeline/thisday.html (16 pages) or
One copy of the same timeline in Excel spreadsheet format
www.salsa.net/peace/timeline/thisdayinhistory.xls (32 pages)
Depending on the space available and the size of your group, you can either tape the entire timeline to the walls or divide it into packets consisting of several months for each small group of 3-5 students.
Print enough copies of Gene Sharp's list of 198 nonviolent methods to furnish one to each small group. The list is online at:
www.salsa.net/peace/genesharp.html (6 pages)
A three page Adobe Acrobat document, more suitable for printing, is at:
www.salsa.net/peace/sharp.pdf (3 pages)

Exercise: Break the class into smaller groups of 3-5 people. Each group should have their own copy of Gene Sharp's list of 198 methods of nonviolent action and access to all or part of the This Day in Peace and Justice History list, as described above.

Introduce Gene Sharp's list. You may want to note that some actions might fit under more than one category. Also, some of the categories may be obscure to those who have not read the entire book - students can skip over those that aren't clear, work it out amongst themselves, or ask the teacher for advice. Lysistratic nonaction (#57), for example, is wives withholding affection from their husbands, a term derived from Aristophenes' play Lysistrada. Also note that not every item on the list is an example of nonviolent action

Give the class about 15 minutes to comb through the list of events and match them up with a nonviolent methods from Sharp's list. In that amount of time it would be reasonable for each group to come up with 5-10 matches. A group's list might look something like this:

31-May: Tax protester Lady Godiva rides naked through Coventry, England (1678)
    #22. Protest disrobings
10-Jan: Thomas Paine published his influential pamphlet, "Common Sense." (1773)
    #9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
21-Aug: Cesar Chavez ends 36 day hunger strike to protest the use of pesticides on field workers (1988)
    #159. The fast
9-Nov: 78 Native Americans take over Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, CA (1969)
    #29. Symbolic reclamations

For the remainder of the session, have each group present their lists. Allow time for discussion.

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For further information contact:
peaceCENTER
P.O. Box 36, San Antonio, Texas 78291
(210) 224-HOPE or 224-4673 FAX (210) 222-1097