The following 198 methods of nonviolent action are taken from Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action.

(For more information and resources along these lines, make sure to visit my /resist page.)

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

Pressure on Individuals

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

Drama & 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 honor
  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 & 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 & Producers

  1. Workmen’s boycott
  2. Producers’ boycott

Action by Middlemen

  1. Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott

Action by Owners & 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 & Economic Closures

  1. Hartal
  2. Economic shutdown

The Methods of Political Noncooperation

Rejection of 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 depts., agencies, and other bodies
  5. Withdrawal from government educational institutions
  6. Boycott of government-supported organizations
  7. Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents

Citizens’ Alternatives to Obedience

  1. Removal of own signs and placemarks

  2. Refusal to accept appointed officials

  3. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions

  4. Reluctant and slow compliance

  5. Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision

  6. Popular nonobedience

  7. Disguised disobedience

  8. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse

  9. Sitdown

  10. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation

  11. Hiding, escape, and false identities

  12. Civil disobedience of “illegitimate” laws

Action by Government Personnel

  1. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
  2. Blocking of lines of command and information
  3. Stalling and obstruction
  4. General administrative noncooperation
  5. Judicial noncooperation
  6. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
  7. Mutiny

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
  4. Severance of diplomatic relations
  5. Withdrawal from international organizations
  6. Refusal of membership in international bodies
  7. Expulsion from international organizations

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