From Gene Sharp’s From Dictatorship to Democracy:

The Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion

Formal Statements

• public speeches
• letters of opposition or support
• declarations by organizations and institutions
• signed public statements
• declarations of indictment and intention
• group or mass petitions

Communications with a Wider Audience

• slogans, caricatures, and symbols
• banners, posters, and displayed communications
• leaflets, pamphlets, and books
• newspapers and journals
• records, radio, and television
• skywriting and earthwriting

Group Representations

• deputations
• mock awards
• group lobbying
• picketing
• mock elections

Symbolic Public Acts

• display of flags and symbolic colors
• wearing of symbols
• prayer and worship
• delivering symbolic objects
• protest disrobings
• destruction of own property
• symbolic lights
• displays of portraits
• paint as protest
• new signs and names
• symbolic sounds
• symbolic reclamations
• rude gestures

Pressures on Individuals

• “haunting” officials
• taunting officials
• fraternization
• vigils

Drama and Music

• humorous skits and pranks
• performance of plays and music
• singing

Processions

• marches
• parades
• religious processions
• pilgrimages
• motorcades

Honoring the Dead

• political mourning
• mock funerals
• demonstrative funerals
• homage at burial places

Public Assemblies

• assemblies of protest or support
• protest meetings
• camouflaged meetings of protest
• teach-ins

Withdrawal and Renunciation

• walk-outs
• silence
• renouncing honors
• turning one’s back

The Methods of Social Noncooperation

Ostracism of Persons

• social boycott
• selective social boycott
• Lysistratic nonaction
• excommunication
• interdict

Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs, and Institutions

• suspension of social and sports activities
• boycott of social affairs
• student strike
• social disobedience
• withdrawal from social institutions

Withdrawal from the Social System

• stay-at-home
• total personal noncooperation
• flight of workers
• sanctuary
• collective disappearance
• protest emigration (hijrat)

The Methods of Economic Noncooperation

Economic Boycotts

Action by Consumers

• consumers’ boycott
• nonconsumption of boycotted goods
• policy of austerity
• rent withholding
• refusal to rent
• national consumers’ boycott
• international consumers’ boycott

Action by Workers and Producers

• workmen’s boycott
• producers’ boycott

Action by Middlemen

• suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott

Action by Owners and Management

• traders’ boycott
• refusal to let or sell property
• lockout
• refusal of industrial assistance
• merchants’ “general strike”

Action by Holders of Financial Resources

• withdrawal of bank deposits
• 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

Action by Governments

• domestic embargo
• blacklisting of traders
• international sellers’ embargo
• international buyers’ embargo
• international trade embargo

The Strike

Symbolic Strikes

• protest strike
• quickie walkout (lightning strike)

Agricultural Strikes

• peasant strike
• farm workers’ strike

Strikes by Special Groups

• refusal of impressed labor
• prisoners’ strike
• craft strike
• professional strike

Ordinary Industrial Strikes

• establishment strike
• industry strike
• sympathetic strike

Restricted Strikes

• detailed strike
• bumper strike
• slowdown strike
• working-to-rule strike
• reporting “sick” (sick-in)
• strike by resignation
• limited strike
• selective strike

Multi-Industry Strikes

• generalized strike
• general strike

Combinations of Strikes and Economic Closures

• Hartal
• economic shutdown

The Methods of Political Noncooperation

Rejection of Authority

• withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
• refusal of public support
• literature and speeches advocating resistance

Citizens’ Noncooperation with Government

• boycott of legislative bodies
• boycott of elections
• boycott of government employment and positions
• boycott of government departments, agencies and other bodies
• withdrawal from government educational institutions
• boycott of government-supported organizations
• refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
• removal of own signs and placemarks
• refusal to accept appointed officials
• refusal to dissolve existing institutions

Citizens’ Alternatives to Obedience

• reluctant and slow compliance
• nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
• popular nonobedience
• disguised disobedience
• refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
• sitdown
• noncooperation with conscription and deportation
• hiding, escape and false identities
• civil disobedience of “illegitimate” laws

Action by Government Personnel

• selective refusal of assistance by government aides
• blocking of lines of command and information
• stalling and obstruction
• general administrative noncooperation
• judicial noncooperation
• deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
• mutiny

Domestic Governmental Action

• quasi-legal evasions and delays
• noncooperation by constituent governmental units

International Governmental Action

• changes in diplomatic and other representation
• 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

The Methods of Nonviolent Intervention

Psychological Intervention

• self-exposure to the elements
• the fast
  • fast of moral pressure
  • hunger strike
  • Satyagrahic fast
• reverse trial
• nonviolent harassment

Physical Intervention

• sit-in
• stand-in
• ride-in
• wade-in
• mill-in
• pray-in
• nonviolent raids
• nonviolent air raids
• nonviolent invasion
• nonviolent interjection
• nonviolent obstruction
• nonviolent occupation

Social Intervention

• establishing new social patterns
• overloading of facilities
• stall-in
• speak-in
• guerrilla theater
• alternative social institutions
• alternative communication system

Economic Intervention

• reverse strike
• stay-in strike
• nonviolent land seizure
• defiance of blockades
• politically motivated counterfeiting
• preclusive purchasing
• seizure of assets
• dumping
• selective patronage
• alternative markets
• alternative transportation systems
• alternative economic institutions

Political Intervention

• overloading of administrative systems
• disclosing identities of secret agents
• seeking imprisonment
• civil disobedience of “neutral” laws
• work-on without collaboration
• dual sovereignty and parallel government