Nonviolent Action + Campaigns
War Resisters League believes change happens through the implementation of revolutionary nonviolence. Nonviolent Direct Action (NVDA) is powerful. There are many dramatic images of nonviolent action; indeed, the ability to dramatize an issue is one of the strengths of nonviolence. However, this drama doesn’t just happen. It gestates – in groups or cells of activists, in discussions, in training sessions, in reflecting on previous experiences, in planning, in experimenting, in making contacts.
As a century-old organization, War Resisters League has been training for, and doing, nonviolent direct actions since the 1940’s. We ground ourselves in what groups around the world, in the War Resisters International community, have done and how they have done it. As a radical organization, we go to the roots, not only of the problems but also the solutions. WRL declares its commitment to “strive nonviolently for the removal of all the causes of war, including racism, sexism and all forms of exploitation.” While addressing the root causes of war, we also nurture the roots of nonviolent action, recognizing that blooms will be stronger if we root ourselves in nonviolent direct action training and history.
We do not try to present a definitive model, but to suggest methods that have worked in various contexts, that can be adapted by creative nonviolent activists in their own situations. We want to share these lessons with you.
Handbooks
The War Resisters’ International’s Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns is a 232 page toolbox of ideas and resources to support activists to run more effective campaigns. The original edition, published in 2009, was translated into over ten languages, including Spanish, German, Nepalese, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, Korean, and Arabic, and has been used by activists all over the world. The 2014 edition added 50 pages.
The 2nd edition of the Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns (2014) is nearly out of print. You can access it online here. We are working on a format that will be more conducive to printing individual sections. While they last the paperback is for sale from our store.
The 1st edition of the Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns (2009) has online versions in English and Spanish organized by chapter. You can purchase a copy of the paperback from our store.
War Resisters League’s Handbook for Nonviolent Action (1989), a 34 page booklet first printed in 1989, is quite dated in some of its language, particularly in the sections on oppression in the second half. However, the front includes helpful description of affinity groups, consensus decision making, a legal flow chart, etc. It can be purchased on our store, and can be found at the Digital Library of Nonviolent Resistance at the Rutgers International Institute for Peace.
Read this introduction to nonviolence training + history!
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