“COK’s powerful undercover animal cruelty investigations shine a bright light on cruelties kept hidden behind the closed doors of animal agribusiness. In addition to garnering international media coverage reaching millions of viewers, our video exposés have led to a slaughterhouse shutdown, animal cruelty charges, groundbreaking lawsuits, and animal rescues. Please watch and share the footage below.”
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Training material on how to protect your data with good security habits.
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Book: “The Community Organising Guide is a unique resource for campaigners, community leaders and activist educators. It’s a collection of 39 process guides, 50 handouts 4 original case studies and 3 sample workshop schedules: everything you need to design and lead participatory workshops with activists, organisers and citizens. The 300 pages of training resources deepen our understanding of relational meetings and self-interest, the power of story in organising, building alliances, coalitions and networks, holding decision-makers accountable and leadership development. The guide also sharpens core organising skills such as recruitment, doorknocking and phonebanking. The Community Organising Guide draws on wisdom gained in social movements over several decades. It doesn’t advocate ‘one right way’, but integrates broad-based, social movement and grassroots organising approaches. The Guide is the second of six instalments in the People Power Manual series and follows the August 2015 launch of our Campaign Strategy Guide.”
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Book: “Civilian Ally: A Guide to Organizing with Veterans and Servicemembers to Build a GI Resistance Movement is a manual for peace activists who are organizing alongside veterans, servicemembers and conscientious objectors to end war or organizers who want to build those working relationships.”
Read More “Christian Peace Witness is an ecumenical, ad hoc group of Partners who are called and committed to raising a Christian voice for peace. Our staff is volunteer (although often staff of Partner peace organizations) and our budget is based on donations. We witness to the power of God’s Spirit in bringing us together and enabling this work….Christian Peace Witness is committed to making “Conscience in War” a major theme for our work. We seek to foster a serious nationwide discussion on following Jesus in matters of conscience and duty, violence and nonviolence, war and peace.”
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“The Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) is a non-profit, non-governmental, international network, oriented to educational work related to strategic nonviolent conflict…The core of CANVAS’s work is rather to spread the word of “people power” to the world than to achieve victories against one dictator or another. Our next big mission should obviously be to explain to the world what a powerful tool nonviolent struggle is when it comes to achieving freedom, democracy and human rights.”
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Book: “The Campaign Strategy Guide is the first instalment of the People Power Manual, a resource created for organisers, activist educators and facilitators. Campaign strategy needn’t be mystifying, lonely or stressful. Social movements become more powerful as more people are equipped to analyse their political context, consider paths to change and mindfully plan tactics. This Campaign Strategy Guide equips activist educators to facilitate a range of participatory exercises with activists, organisers and citizens. It can also be used as a do-it-yourself guide for campaigners. The guide incorporates 16 handouts, several workshop schedules and process guides for 24 strategising processes that have been tried and tested by thousands of campaigners.”
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“CND campaigns non-violently to achieve a global nuclear weapons band, especially the British nuclear disarmament – to get rid of the Trident nuclear weapons system and stop its replacement.”
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“Welcome to TCA’s exclusive resource search application….All of the campaigners’ resources in our extensive collection have been tagged with keywords to help you find what’s most helpful to you or your organisation.”
Read More“The BlackOUT Collective is a radical direct action full service organization that provides on the ground support, training and deep space visioning in communities that prioritize the liberation of Black people. BlackOUT Collective address “anti-Blackness” and views direct action as a critical movement strategy to achieve this outcome both in terms of internalized oppression as well as historic and contemporary of white supremacy. Using direct action training and support as a vehicle, we help organizations craft strategies that win; in addition to training newly formed formations comprised of politicized Black people. In the past three years, we have witnessed the power of direct action to create instant accountability and its ability to quickly amass power in Black communities. We aim to increase and harness that power. By 2020, we aim to train to 10,000 Black people to be Direct Action Practitioners and Strategists.”
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“BlackOUT Collective is a radical full service direct action organization. We build organizations’ capacity to execute creative and effective direct actions in service of their organizing and advocacy work. We do this through providing personalized direct action trainings and on the ground action support. We see ourselves as a “Liberation Lab”- a container for experimentation, deep space visioning and learning.”
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“Beautiful Rising harnesses the insights of changemakers worldwide to help make our movements more strategic, creative and effective.”
Read More “Beautiful Trouble exists to make nonviolent revolution irresistible by providing an ever-growing suite of strategic tools and trainings that inspire movements for a more just, healthy, and equitable world.”
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Book: “From Cairo to cyberspace, from Main Street to Wall Street, today’s social movements have a creative new edge that’s blurring the boundaries between artist and activist, hacker and dreamer. But the principles that make for successful creative action rarely get hashed out or written down. Until now. Beautiful Trouble brings together ten grassroots groups and dozens of seasoned artists and activists from around the world to distill their best practices into a toolbox for creative action. Among the groups included are Agit-Pop/The Other 98%, The Yes Men/Yes Labs, Code Pink, SmartMeme, The Ruckus Society, Beyond the Choir, The Center for Artistic Activism, Waging Nonviolence, Alliance of Community Trainers and Nonviolence International…Beautiful Trouble puts the accumulated wisdom of decades of creative protest into the hands of the next generation of change-makers.”
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“Backbone Campaign amplifies the aspirations of “We the People” with creative strategies and artful activism to manifest a world where life, community, nature, and our obligations to future generations are honored as sacred…Though we work on many causes, Backbone frames it all as part of one battle between paradigms. One paradigm idolizes capital, gives corporations rights, and considers everything For Sale. It commodifies people, democracy, communities, and the planet itself. The paradigm we fight for is one in which people communities and nature and our obligation to future generations are considered sacred, and clearly NOT for sale.”
Read More“From our annual week-long activism training camp to individual workshops and mentorship, trainers in Backbone’s network will help you design creative interventions that keep the news cameras captivated and get more people activated…We are excited to help you amplify your activism and reenergize your engagement with a new set of skills and tactics!..Backbone Campaign amplifies the aspirations of “We the People” with creative strategies and artful activism to manifest a world where life, community, nature, and our obligations to future generations are honored as sacred.”
Read More “Opening the doors to an industry that relies on secrecy. An increasing number of cruelty exposés at Australian slaughterhouses highlight the barbaric and terrifying nature of the annual killing of hundreds of millions of animals for human consumption. The Aussie Abattoirs website seeks to bring these practices into the public consciousness in order to ask the question, is any of it really necessary?”
Read More “An undercover investigation by Animal Liberation NSW… The regulating authorities have failed to advocate for these animals. We see it as our duty to assist and protect these animals by documenting evidence of their suffering and to show the public the truth of what is happening behind these shed walls, to put pressure onto the regulating authorities to act to end this suffering.”
Read More News. “Animal Liberation Victoria (ALV) was founded 40 years ago, with the mission of saving lives and ending animal exploitation.”
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Book: ““An Action A Day Keeps Global Capitalism Away,” according to Mike Hudema, describing his action guide for the 21st century. This lively, challenging, and decidedly fun book is designed for activists and concerned citizens who want to change the world. Hudema introduces readers to a variety of issues, including social action, organizing, theatrical action, civil disobedience, and using the media.The book contains fifty-two tried and tested actions, one for every week. Each action includes a rationale–what you need to pull it off, and examples of where it could be used. From Radical Cheerleading, to Fishing in the Sewers, and Gas Mask Car Shopping, there’s something for everybody.”
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“The stunning documentary Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony tells the story of protest music in South Africa–but as it does so, it tells the story of the struggle against apartheid itself, for the music and the revolution are inseparable. Through archival footage and interviews with musicians, freedom fighters, and even members of the former government police, Amandla! creates a vivid and powerful portrait of how music was crucial not only to communicating a political message beyond words, but also to the resistance itself–how songs bonded communities, buoyed resistance in the face of bullets and tear gas, and sowed fear in the ruling elite. Part history, part musical exploration, part sheer force of life, Amandla! captures both the sorrow and the triumph of life in South Africa from the 1950s to 1990, when Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress came into power. “
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“The Alliance of Community Trainers is a small collective that works with broader networks of trainers, allies organizations and projects. ACT offers knowledge, tools, and skills to individuals, organizations and communities to empower sustainable transformation.”
Read MoreBook: “Aftershock is about the real war against terror―the struggle for a world in which nobody lives in fear of atrocities perpetrated by human beings. Every day, people who push against violence and injustice or pull for peace and freedom must face their own fears. Many activists also must struggle with “aftershock,” the physical and emotional reverberations of frightening, horrifying, or otherwise traumatizing experiences endured in the course of their activism. This book is for aftershocked activists and their allies, as well as for people and organizations that practice high-risk activism. It includes practical tips for individuals, organizations, and communities, as well as information about how traumatic events affect our bodies and abilities. Aftershock explores the culture of trauma that people have created through our violent exploitation of the Earth, other animals, and one another. As long as we continue to perpetrate such violations, we will never fully heal our own traumatic injuries. This book, therefore, is for survivors of all kinds of trauma, for therapists who treat trauma, and for anyone who hopes to reduce the amount of terror in the world.”
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“The Albert Einstein Institution is a nonprofit organization founded by Dr. Gene Sharp in 1983 to advance the study and use of strategic nonviolent action in conflicts throughout the world. We are committed to the defense of freedom, democracy, and the reduction of political violence through the use of nonviolent action. Our goals are to understand the dynamics of nonviolent action in conflicts, to explore its policy potential, and to communicate this through print and other media, translations, conferences, consultations, and workshops. The Institution has been responsible for the translation and dissemination of some of the most influential texts on nonviolent action. Many of these works have been studied among resistance movements worldwide.”
Read More 2 page pdf on affinity groups for nonviolent civil disobedience with practical tips and information. “If you are planning to do civil disobedience, it is a good idea to either form an affinity group or join an already existing one. Affinity groups serve as a source of support and solidarity for their members. “
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Film: “In 1969 the police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village, leading to three nights of rioting by the city’s gay community. With this outpouring of courage and unity the Gay Liberation Movement had begun. After Stonewall, the sequel to Before Stonewall, chronicles the history of lesbian and gay life from the riots at Stonewall to the end of the century. Narrated by Melissa Etheridge, it captures the hard work, struggles, tragic defeats and exciting victories experienced during this time, and it explores how AIDS dramatically changed the direction of the movement. The two films, Before & After, tell the remarkable tale of how LGBT people, a heretofore hidden and despised group, became a vibrant and integral part of America’s family, and, indeed, the world community. Featuring Dorothy Allison, Michael Bronski, Rita Mae Brown, Barney Frank, Barbara Gittings, Arnie Kantrowitz, Larry Kramer, Craig Lucas, Armistead Maupin, Leslea Newman, Barbara Smith, and many more!”
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“We’re an international collective of artists, designers, poets, punks, writers, directors, musicians, philosophers, drop outs, and wild hearts. Join us to take down broken banks and break the backs of big business. To hold corrupt politicians accountable and wake up a thoughtless, complacent culture; quit following and retweeting, start thinking and talking for ourselves again. To fight the mental takeover of an ever-present ad industry; dream up a self of your own, live it but never buy or $ell it. Join us; come together and commit to the sole goal of fucking up every system that keeps you from living your dreams.”
Read More “What defines an action as nonviolent? Is it nonviolent to go limp when the police come around to break up a demonstration? To “re-face” billboards by changing their message with paint and paste? To break into a draft board office in the middle of the night and burn its files? To slip onto a military installation at dawn and hammer on a weapon of mass destruction (or a component of or support system for such a weapon), then stand there singing ’til the MPs come? To throw a brick through the storefront of a shop that sells sweat-shop goods? To throw a stone at a soldier armed with lethal weapons?”
Read More “During the less than 13 years of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s leadership of the modern American Civil Rights Movement, from December, 1955 until April 4, 1968, African Americans achieved more genuine progress toward racial equality in America than the previous 350 years had produced. Dr. King is widely regarded as America’s pre-eminent advocate of nonviolence and one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in world history.”
Read More “Actions can empower a generation, catapult an issue onto the international stage, and force political change. Yet, actions can also be poorly executed or harmful to your group and goals. This handout is here to help you design a strategic action. The Ruckus Society defines direct action as the strategic use of immediately effective acts to achieve a political or social end and challenge an unjust power dynamic.”
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Book: “In A Theory of Nonviolent Action, Stellan Vinthagen draws on these examples as well as a rich collection of other historical social events that represent nonviolence movements that combined resistance and constructive change. With this groundbreaking book, Vinthagen provides the first major systematic attempt to develop a theory of nonviolent action in decades, making this essential reading for anyone involved in the study of nonviolence movements.”
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“With a new introduction by Anthony Arnove, this edition of the classic national bestseller chronicles American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official narrative taught in schools—with its emphasis on great men in high places—to focus on the street, the home and the workplace. Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People’s History of the United States is the only volume to tell America’s story from the point of view of—and in the words of—America’s women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As historian Howard Zinn shows, many of our country’s greatest battles—the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women’s rights, racial equality—were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance. Covering Christopher Columbus’s arrival through President Clinton’s first term, A People’s History of the United States features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history. “
Read More “Practitioners of nonviolent struggle have an entire arsenal of “nonviolent weapons” at their disposal. Listed below are 198 of them, classified into three broad categories: nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation (social, economic, and political), and nonviolent intervention.”
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“Between 1900-2006, campaigns of nonviolent civil resistance were twice as successful as violent campaigns. Erica will talk about her research on the impressive historical record of civil resistance in the 20th century and discuss the promise of unarmed struggle in the 21st century. She will focus on the so-called “3.5% rule”—the notion that no government can withstand a challenge of 3.5% of its population without either accommodating the movement or (in extreme cases) disintegrating. In addition to explaining why nonviolent resistance has been so effective, she will also share some lessons learned about why it sometimes fails.”
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“The Youth Justice Coalition is working to build a youth, family, and formerly and currently incarcerated people’s movement to challenge America’s addiction to incarceration and race, gender and class discrimination in Los Angeles County’s, California’s and the nation’s juvenile and criminal injustice systems. The YJC’s goal is to dismantle policies and institutions that have ensured the massive lock-up of people of color, widespread law enforcement violence and corruption, consistent violation of youth and communities’ Constitutional and human rights, the construction of a vicious school-to-jail track, and the build-up of the world’s largest network of jails and prisons. We use transformative justice and community intervention/peacebuilding, FREE LA High School, know your rights, legal defense, and police and court monitoring to “starve the beast” – promoting safety in our schools, homes and neighborhoods without relying on law enforcement and lock-ups, preventing system contact, and pulling people out of the system. We use direct action organizing, advocacy, political education, and activist arts to agitate, expose, and pressure the people in charge in order to upset power and bring about change. “
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Book by Leo Tolstoy
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“Written in 1986, but still a fountain of commonsense tips, theory, and practice for getting organized. Whether its settling up a literature table, batting through the courts, contacting the media, or staging a sit-down protest, this is a great place to start.”
Read More Videos: “-World without Wars and Violence – presentation of activities in the Czech Republic, -Increasing peace or growing destruction, -Drum flashmob for nuclear disarmament, -A world without wars and violence on a demonstration against a crossing American convoy across the territory of the Czech Republic, -History repeats. To laugh or cry?, -What is active nonviolence: M. Gandhi, -What is active non-violence: M. L . King, -Noam Chomsky on the crisis in Ukraine, -Short history of NATO, 1949 – 2015”
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“World BEYOND War is a global nonviolent movement to end war and establish a just and sustainable peace. We aim to create awareness of popular support for ending war and to further develop that support. We work to advance the idea of not just preventing any particular war but abolishing the entire institution. We strive to replace a culture of war with one of peace in which nonviolent means of conflict resolution take the place of bloodshed.”
Read MoreBook: “Martin Luther King’s classic exploration of the events and forces behind the Civil Rights Movement—including his Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963. “There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.” In 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, was perhaps the most racially segregated city in the United States. The campaign launched by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights movement on the segregated streets of Birmingham demonstrated to the world the power of nonviolent direct action. In this remarkable book—winner of the Nobel Peace Prize—Dr. King recounts the story of Birmingham in vivid detail, tracing the history of the struggle for civil rights back to its beginnings three centuries ago and looking to the future, assessing the work to be done beyond Birmingham to bring about full equality for African Americans. Above all, Dr. King offers an eloquent and penetrating analysis of the events and pressures that propelled the Civil Rights movement from lunch counter sit-ins and prayer marches to the forefront of American consciousness. Since its publication in the 1960s, Why We Can’t Wait has become an indisputable classic. Now, more than ever, it is an enduring testament to the wise and courageous vision of Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Read More “Black bloc tactics have received much praise in recent weeks, but there are many valid questions about their effectiveness that we ignore at our own peril…I believe we can build such a movement. One that is grounded in nonviolence, but is just as powerful and militant as violence. That, however, requires work, strategy and training. Violence is easier, faster and more natural to us. Its dynamics are simpler to understand. “I make you suffer until you give in.” But now is not the time to get seduced by the short-term. We need to continue to train and grow, to have the humility to be self-critical, and to objectively evaluate our tactics and strategies. We need to continue to build a movement to transform violence.”
Read More “Implicit in recent scholarly debates about the efficacy of methods of warfare is the assumption that the most effective means of waging political struggle entails violence. Among political scientists, the prevailing view is that opposition movements select violent methods because such means are more effective than nonviolent strategies at achieving policy goals. Despite these assumptions, from 2000 to 2006 organized civilian populations successfully employed nonviolent methods including boycotts, strikes, protests, and organized noncooperation to challenge entrenched power and exact political concessions in Serbia (2000), Madagascar (2002), Georgia (2003) and Ukraine (2004–05), Lebanon (2005), and Nepal (2006). The success of these nonviolent campaigns—especially in light of the enduring violent insurgencies occurring in some of the same countries—begs systematic investigation.” 38 page pdf
Read MoreBook: “For more than a century, from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving their stated goals. By attracting impressive support from citizens, whose activism takes the form of protests, boycotts, civil disobedience, and other forms of nonviolent noncooperation, these efforts help separate regimes from their main sources of power and produce remarkable results, even in Iran, Burma, the Philippines, and the Palestinian Territories. Combining statistical analysis with case studies of specific countries and territories, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan detail the factors enabling such campaigns to succeed and, sometimes, causing them to fail. They find that nonviolent resistance presents fewer obstacles to moral and physical involvement and commitment, and that higher levels of participation contribute to enhanced resilience, greater opportunities for tactical innovation and civic disruption (and therefore less incentive for a regime to maintain its status quo), and shifts in loyalty among opponents’ erstwhile supporters, including members of the military establishment. Chenoweth and Stephan conclude that successful nonviolent resistance ushers in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war. Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, they originally and systematically compare violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and that it is necessary to achieve certain political goals. Instead, the authors discover, violent insurgency is rarely justifiable on strategic grounds.”
Read More “It took years for King to understand nonviolence not merely as a moral force, but as an effective strategy for leveraging political change. Yet his embrace of that idea allowed him to shape history. Few are aware that Martin Luther King, Jr. once applied for a permit to carry a concealed handgun…To not merely adopt pacifism as a personal philosophy, but rather to stake your career and your organization’s future on a belief in the power of nonviolence as a political force, requires tremendous determination. It took years of deliberation and delay for Martin Luther King to take such a step. But when he finally did, the result was decisive: King went from being someone who had been repeatedly swept up in the saga of civil rights — a reluctant protagonist in the battle against American apartheid — to being a shaper of history.”
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Monograph: “Why do some nonviolent revolutions lead to successful democratization while others fail to consolidate democratic change? And what can activists do to push toward a victory over dictatorship that results in long-term political freedom? Several studies show that nonviolent revolutions are generally a more positive force for democratization than violent revolutions and top-down political transitions. However, some nonviolent revolutions, such as the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt, do not seem to fit this pattern. This study takes on this puzzle and reveals that the answer lies in large part in the actions of civil society prior to and during transition. Democracy is most likely when activists can keep their social bases mobilized for positive political change while directing that mobilization toward building new political institutions.” 104 page pdf
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Book: “Since her arrest and five-day jail stay during the Seattle anti-WTO protests in November 1999, Starhawk has poured her energy into the global justice movement, participating in direct actions, leading nonviolence training workshops, and writing, always writing. Webs of Power is the outcome: an account from the front lines of that movement as it migrated from Seattle to Prague, then Brazil, Quebec City, and Genoa. As well as reporting the actions on the street, it includes a privileged glimpse behind the scenes, too, at the fierce discussion of the issues, strategies, and tactics of an always-evolving social movement. The book is also a personal vision of what an alternative future might look and feel like beyond the version offered up to us by the promoters of corporate globalization. Webs of Power is a unique contribution to our understanding of one of the most pivotal struggles of our time.”
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Book: “While draught and desertification are intensifying around the world, corporations are aggressively converting free-flowing water into bottled profits. The water wars of the twenty-first century may match or even surpass the oil wars of the twentieth. In Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit -Vandana Shiva, the world’s most prominent radical scientist ( the Guardian) , shines a light on activists who are fighting corporate maneuvers to convert this life-sustaining resource into more gold for the elites. In Water Wars, Shiva uses her remarkable knowledge of science and society to outline the emergence of corporate culture and the historical erosion of communal water rights. Using the international water trade and industrial activities such as damming, mining and aquafarming as her lens, Shiva exposes the destruction of the earth and the disenfranchisement of the world’s poor as they are stripped of rights to a precious common good. In her passionate, feminist style, Shiva celebrates the spiritual and traditional role water has played in communities throughout history, and warns that water privatization threatens cultures and livelihoods worldwide. Shiva calls for a movement to preserve water access for all, and offers a blueprint for global resistance based on examples of successful campaigns.”
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“The War Resisters League affirms that all war is a crime against humanity. We are determined not to support any kind of war, international or civil, and to strive nonviolently for the removal of all causes of war, including racism, sexism and all forms of exploitation.”
Read More“Over the past several years, War Resisters League has developed several interactive, popular education workshops that deal variously with: the war economy, tear gas, police militarization, and the complex role of identity in organizing, all with an eye towards day-to-day libratory organizing and training. This page then, gathers some of those efforts, often in partnership with activist groups, and offers them for download. Let’s go!”
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“The most comprehensive book available on war tax resistance, covering everything from legal issues to the history of war tax resistance, to the hows and whys.”
Read More“War Resisters’ International (WRI) works for a world without war. WRI is primarily a global pacifist and antimilitarist network of organisations, groups and individuals with over 90 affiliated groups in 40 countries.”
Read MoreBook: “The son of an Alabama sharecropper, and now a sixth-term United States Congressman, John Lewis has led an extraordinary life, one that found him at the epicenter of the civil rights movement in the late ’50s and ’60s. As Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Lewis was present at all the major battlefields of the movement. Arrested more than forty times and severely beaten on several occasions, he was one of the youngest yet most courageous leaders. Written with charm, warmth, and honesty, Walking with the Wind offers rare insight into the movement and the personalities of all the civil rights leaders-what was happening behind the scenes, the infighting, struggles, and triumphs. Lewis takes us from the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he led more than five hundred marchers on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” While there have been exceptional books on the movement, there has never been a front-line account by a man like John Lewis. A true American hero, his story is “destined to become a classic in civil rights literature.” (Los Angeles Times)”
Read MoreBook: “Instructs how to strategically plan nonviolent action, a technique of waging conflict that uses protest, noncooperation and intervention. Draws parallels between nonviolent and military strategy. Documents twenty-three cases showing how nonviolent action has been applied to conflicts throughout the world in the twentieth century”
Read More“Waging Nonviolence is an independent, non-profit media platform dedicated to providing original reporting and expert analysis of social movements around the world. We believe that when ordinary people organize they have incredible power and are the drivers of social change — not politicians, billionaires or corporations. In short, people power is our beat, and we cover the ways it is shaping our world, grounded in both history and the latest research. Since our founding in 2009, we have published reporting from contributors in more than 80 countries — with a special focus on overlooked movements in the Global South, as well as issues that traditional media tend to ignore.”
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“Voices for Creative Nonviolence has long-standing roots in active nonviolent resistance to U.S. war-making. Begun in the summer of 2005, Voices draws from the experiences of those who challenged the brutal economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and U.N. against the Iraqi people between 1990 and 2003. Members of Voices led over 70 delegations to Iraq to challenge the economic sanctions and were present in Baghdad in resistance the 2003 U.S. military invasion. Since 2009, Voices has led delegations to Afghanistan to listen and learn from nonviolent grassroots movements and to raise awareness about the negative impacts of U.S. militarism in the region. We are on the precipice of a full blown world war if one is not already under way. And we ask: what must our response be? And our answer- as tentative, grappling, searching and seeking as it may be- is that it falls upon us as citizens of the country initiating this world war to utilize all nonviolent means available to turn off war- to engage the electoral and legislative process, most definitely; to protest, of course; and to march and demonstrate. We must also move from protest to active nonviolent resistance. We must withdraw our collaboration and complicity with this system and use our bodies and lives as a means to bring the machinery of death to a grinding halt. Nonviolence cannot be a single day event- it must be a commitment we make and act upon every day of our lives. What might this active nonviolent resistance look like? And how might we act in solidarity with the Iraqi and Afghan peoples and others who find themselves in the crosshairs of U.S. war-making? Voices is committed to strategic campaigns and experiments. We engage in active nonviolent resistance. Such resistance must take into account that war-making is both military and economic.”
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“Voices for Creative Non-Violence UK work in solidarity with non-violent Afghan peacemakers; namely the Afghan Peace Volunteers (APV). Our activities include taking peace delegations to Afghanistan to gather testimonies and analysis from grassroots Afghan peace activists then using that information for campaigning purposes. We want to support non-violent Afghans in voicing their wishes for their country and do what we can in the UK to strengthen the peace movement and pressurise our Governments to end its involvement in a war which has lasted 13 years, is fuelling violent radicalism in Afghanistan as well as the UK, and moreover continuing a stream of violence in a country which has experienced bloodshed for over three decades.”
Read More “The Vernal Education Project is a long-term effort to create a comprehensive education and support network that can bolster and sustain grassroots progressive social change movements in the United States. The project is described in the book Inciting Democracy: A Practical Proposal for Creating a Good Society by Randy Schutt. The project seeks to create a network of 50 educational centers around the United States, each of which would facilitate a 1-year program on social change for 120 students every year. The project is currently in the early development stages, focused on distributing Inciting Democracy and recruiting volunteer staffmembers.”
Read More “Vegan Gal – Change Your Food, Change Your Life (diet weight health nutrition vegetarian vegan)… Earthlings (Vegan Animal Rights) Documentation… Behind the Mask [2006, Shannon Keith][Vegan Animal Rights Liberation]”
Read More “While Dr. King was one of the greatest advocates for peace we had ever seen, behind him were dozens, hundreds, and thousands of unsung individuals – men and women – who helped to shape him and the movement. We encourage everyone to know their names and acknowledge their contribution to the struggle. Below is a list of just a few of the unsung heroes/sheroes of the Civil Rights Movement. Click on their names to learn more.”
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“Behind closed doors, animals are suffering on factory farms. Mercy For Animals’ brave undercover investigators risk everything to expose and end the abuse.”
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“We, the members of United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), stand opposed to the “pre-emptive” wars of aggression waged by the Bush administration…We come together to turn the tide, to overwhelm war with peace, and oppression with justice…We seek to build a broad mass movement for peace and justice composed of all who are threatened by the new war program…We will link the wars abroad with the assaults at home, and U.S. militarism to the corporate economic interests it serves…We will work for peace and justice through nonviolent means. We will strive to embody in our day-to-day work the values we espouse and the world we seek to build.”
Read More List divided into categories. “Examples of changes from which we benefit today. Some are ongoing. Grassroots groups began the work, faced opposition, and were primarily nonviolent. ” (2 page pdf)
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“Inspired by the words and deeds of social justice visionaries of past eras, we create documentary films, educational web sites, critical thinking essays, teaching presentations and grassroots advocacy programs that expose hidden injustices, awaken compassion, empower individual transformation and encourage nonviolent resistance to oppression and socially sanctioned violence.”
Read More “Share knowledge, build relationships and lead effective workshops…tools and activities for leading interactive workshops, seminars, and retreats…tools and activities for leading group meetings…tools and handouts to build long-term capacity and power…Educate yourself! Become an expert on climate change and social change, and learn the actions you can take to help.”
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Online Training Series. “The Online Training Series offers innovative tools and techniques for maximizing the effectiveness of virtual groups. The Series includes four online public workshops, each focusing on a unique skill-set. These trainings can be taken individually, but the complete Series is a special opportunity for those wanting to get the most out of the tools and techniques we’ve developed….The complete Series is for organizers, activists, and educators who facilitate or train virtual groups and want to do it most effectively. It’s designed to be useful across experience levels – from beginner online trainers to those with years of experience wanting to skill-up. No matter what software you use, you’ll find tools and approaches in our series that you can apply..”
Read More Publications (books, training activities, handouts, etc). “Training for Change is a training and capacity building organization for activists and organizers. We believe strong training and group facilitation is vital to movement building for social justice and radical change.”
Read More “Below is our toolbox of tool topics. Click to reveal tools that correspond with the categories you select…3rd Party Nonviolent Intervention, De-escalation & Peacekeeping, Direct Action, Diversity & Anti-Oppression, Energizers & Games, Meeting Facilitation, Online Training Tools, Organizing & Strategy, Team Building, Training Fundamentals”
Read More“All of our workshops are rooted in our Direct Education approach. Our trainers center the group, building upon dynamics in the room and participants’ own experience to introduce new content and help the group access their own wisdom. Many of our public workshops are “training of trainers”; they’re designed for folks facilitating and training across contexts and with varying levels of experience. Some are offered regularly throughout the year, but many are offered less frequently.”
Read More “Training for Change is a training and capacity building organization for activists and organizers. We believe strong training and group facilitation is vital to movement building for social justice and radical change. Since 1992, we’ve supported groups taking direct action, building strong teams and organizations, and working at the grassroots. We train thousands of people each year in North America, and also internationally, across issues and sectors – from campaign strategy retreats for anti-gentrification community groups, facilitation training for union leaders, to de-escalation skills for immigrant rights groups resisting deportation.”
Read More Recordings of webinars on nonviolent action. “The name “Towards a Nonviolent World” stands for a big vision that this world can be more nonviolent, if there is the awareness and willingness to direct our actions towards that goal. It is a process, or ‘journey’, for which we need to train our ‘peace-building’ skills.”
Read More “Time: 5 to 10 minutes to practice each variation. Goal or purpose: To learn physical tools that can help you protect yourself and others in your group, and de-escalate a situation.”
Read More “Books contributed by Thoreau Society Collections at the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods.”
Read MoreBook: “There is a craft to uprising—and this craft can change the world. From protests around climate change and immigrant rights, to Occupy, the Arab Spring, and #BlackLivesMatter, a new generation is unleashing strategic nonviolent action to shape public debate and force political change. When mass movements erupt onto our television screens, the media consistently portrays them as being spontaneous and unpredictable. Yet, in this book, Mark and Paul Engler look at the hidden art behind such outbursts of protest, examining core principles that have been used to spark and guide moments of transformative unrest. With incisive insights from contemporary activists, as well as fresh revelations about the work of groundbreaking figures such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Gene Sharp, and Frances Fox Piven, the Englers show how people with few resources and little conventional influence are engineering the upheavals that are reshaping contemporary politics. Nonviolence is usually seen simply as a philosophy or moral code. This Is an Uprising shows how it can instead be deployed as a method of political conflict, disruption, and escalation. It argues that if we are always taken by surprise by dramatic outbreaks of revolt, we pass up the chance to truly understand how social transformation happens.”
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Film: “Cut from the footage of over 100 media activists, This is What Democracy Looks Like captures the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. The film marks a turning point in collaborative filmmaking and acheives a scope and vision possible only through the lenses of over 100 cameras. With a driving soundtrack by Rage Against the Machine, DJ Shadow, and Anne Feeney, This is What Democracy Looks Like, delivers an intensely political and emotional account of a week that changed the world. The film is a co-production between Corrugated Films founder, Jill Freidberg, and Big Noise Films founder, Rick Rowley.”
Read MoreBook: “The Trajectory of Change charts a course for the growing, international movement against corporate globalization. Michael Albert, a longtime activist and analyst of popular struggles, challenges the movement to reach out to “ordinary people” by demonstrating how their lives are negatively affected by creeping corporatism. Albert connects issues confronting working people in the United States (such as access to health care, workplace rights and safety, declining wages, and unemployment) to a critique of institutions that currently dominate the global economy. And he offers a compelling argument for a strategy based on civil disobedience and protest rather than individual acts of vandalism or violence. Albert also suggests reasons for the recent revival of political protest, from the Battle in Seattle to the demonstrations in Quebec, Canada, and Genoa, Italy. At the same time, he argues that it isn’t enough for protesters to stand against global economic injustice. To be effective, Albert argues that we need to develop a clear vision of what we stand for. He makes the case for collectively creating a vision of a participatory, democratic, and egalitarian society.”
Read More “Three attributes can make the difference between success and failure for nonviolent movements around the world: unity, planning, and nonviolent discipline.”
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“The Thoreau Society exists to stimulate interest in and foster education about Thoreau’s life, works, legacy and his place in his world and in ours, challenging all to live a deliberate, considered life.”
Read More“The Kingian Nonviolence workshops are transformational experiences that have helped thousands of people from around the world understand the depth of the philosophy of nonviolence, and learn to begin to bring the practices into their lives and their work…Whether you are an organizer working for social change, a teacher trying to change the culture of your school or simply an individual trying to deal with the conflicts in your personal life, each person will walk away from our workshops with new skills and a new perspective.”
Read MoreBook: “Is There No Other Way? is the mature work of one of the world’s most widely respected peace scholars and activists. Beginning with the achievements of Mahatma Gandhi, and following the legacy of nonviolence through the struggles against Nazism in Europe, racism in America, oppression in China and Latin America, and ethnic conflicts in Africa and Bosnia, Nagler unveils a hidden history. Nonviolence, he proposes, has proven its power against arms and social injustice wherever it has been correctly understood and applied. Nagler’s approach is not only historical, but also spiritual. He argues, drawing upon the experience of Gandhi and other activists, that the shift to nonviolence begins within the individual, through the reshaping and re-visioning of how one understands the world. He then shows how from changes in the individual, changes in the larger community follow. Is There No Other Way? is a provocative and emotionally powerful document that challenges readers’ assumptions about the workings of power in their homes and communities, as well as the larger political arena.”
Read More “The Ruckus Society is a multi-racial network of trainers dedicated to providing the necessary tools, preparation, and support to build direct action capacity for ecological justice and social change movements. We work with Indigenous communities and other communities of color working to preserve their homes and environments and for climate justice.”
Read MoreBook: “Excerpts from Thoreau’s journals concerning civil disobedience, conscience, law, government, slavery, war, and economics. These passages are what Thoreau considered to be “the price of freedom” – his attempts to mine the richest vein of observations about human conscience and political philosophy, and to present what he found free from all censorship.”
Read MoreBook: “The idea of non-violence (passive-resistance) has always seemed beautiful but too good to be true. As a practical proposition it arouses scepticism and ridicule. But Mr Gregg is strangely convincing. He marshals the whole weight of contemporary knowledge,and uses the experience of Gandhi,who has employed non-violence methods on a wider scale and with greater success than any other figure in history. Non-violent resistance is the doctrine of absolute pacificism. In theory, it recognizes no use of violence as legitimate in practice it includes all human relations,national and social as well as individual. Contents Include Modern Examples of Non-Violent Resistance Moral Jiu-Jitsu What Happens Utilising Emotional Energy How is Mass Non-Violent Resistance An Effective Substitute for War The Class Struggle and Non-Violent Resistance Non-Violence and the State Further Political Aspects Biological Considerations Doubts and Queries Preperation for Non-Violence Further Understanding Self Discipline Group Training and Discipline Notes by Chapters”
Read More “The mission of the Peace Abbey Foundation is to create and install public works of art that promote peace and nonviolence; and to administer and care for Abbey Interfaith Peace Chaplaincy, The Pacifist Memorial, The Animal Rights Memorial, Abbey Cremation Cemetery for Conscientious Objectors and the National Registry for Conscientious Objection. Throughout the year, the Foundation presents the Int’l Courage of Conscience Award at conferences and peace ceremonies and extends the impact of the Peace Seeds interfaith prayers for peace through their dissemination worldwide. We conduct and support programs that bring together and promote the cooperation of people of different faith traditions and non-theists as well. We do this in the spirit of the 1986 International Day of Prayer for World Peace, as celebrated that year by religious leaders from around the globe in Assisi, Italy. The Foundation supports grassroots efforts to link the many dimensions of the peace movement with a committed emphasis on human rights and animal rights. We recognize these two dimensions of intrinsic rights as inextricably interconnected, just as social and economic justice require environmental sustainability and deep respect for the biosphere. Central to our universalist approach is the premise that nonviolence is the most effective and long-term strategy in addressing the multitude of challenges that now threaten our increasingly imperiled planet.”
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“A partnership of nonviolence training organizations and individuals offering educational programming for nonviolent transformation in our lives and our world”
Read More Resource directory: “A partnership of nonviolence training organizations and individuals offering educational programming for nonviolent transformation in our lives and our world”
Read More Articles from The Nonviolent Activist Magazine » NVA July – August 2001
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“A non-profit organization whose mission is to educate the general public by providing a forum that strives to highlight issues of relevance to human rights, national struggles, freedom and democracy in the form of daily news, commentary, features, book reviews, photos, art, and more.”
Read More “A Greenpeace guide to cooking up people powered campaigns…Learn the “key ingredients” of people-powered campaigns and approaches for becoming more engagement-centric.” 44 page pdf available in Arabic, Chinese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Taiwan), French, Slovenian and Spanish.
Read More “Building upon the achievements of Stanford University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, the King Institute supports a broad range of activities illuminating Dr. King’s life and the movements he inspired.”
Read More Direct Action Everywhere – Blog. “We openly rescue animals in captivity, exposing violence behind closed doors.”
Read More Books to do with Martin Luther King, Jr. “The King Center envisions a world where global brotherhood and sisterhood are not a dream but the state of humankind.”
Read More “We fight the big fights to end suffering for all animals. Together with millions of supporters, we take on puppy mills, factory farms, trophy hunts, animal testing and other cruel industries. With our affiliates, we rescue and care for thousands of animals every year through our animal rescue team’s work and other hands-on animal care services. We fight all forms of animal cruelty to achieve the vision behind our name: A humane society. And we can’t do it without you.”
Read More Headlines from the front lines. “We fight the big fights to end suffering for all animals. Together with millions of supporters, we take on puppy mills, factory farms, trophy hunts, animal testing and other cruel industries. With our affiliates, we rescue and care for thousands of animals every year through our animal rescue team’s work and other hands-on animal care services. We fight all forms of animal cruelty to achieve the vision behind our name: A humane society. And we can’t do it without you.”
Read More “Founded in 2013, The FANG Collective seeks to escalate resistance to the fracked gas industry while supporting other movements for justice.”
Read MoreBook: “Here, from a brilliant young writer, is a paradigm-shifting history of both a utopian concept and global movement—the idea of the Third World. The Darker Nations traces the intellectual origins and the political history of the twentieth century attempt to knit together the world’s impoverished countries in opposition to the United States and Soviet spheres of influence in the decades following World War II. Spanning every continent of the global South, Vijay Prashad’s fascinating narrative takes us from the birth of postcolonial nations after World War II to the downfall and corruption of nationalist regimes. A breakthrough book of cutting-edge scholarship, it includes vivid portraits of Third World giants like India’s Nehru, Egypt’s Nasser, and Indonesia’s Sukarno—as well as scores of extraordinary but now-forgotten intellectuals, artists, and freedom fighters. The Darker Nations restores to memory the vibrant though flawed idea of the Third World, whose demise, Prashad ultimately argues, has produced a much impoverished international political arena.”
Read MoreBook: “In this riveting anatomy of authoritarianism, acclaimed journalist William Dobson takes us inside the battle between dictators and those who would challenge their rule. Recent history has seen an incredible moment in the war between dictators and democracy—with waves of protests sweeping Syria and Yemen, and despots falling in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. But the Arab Spring is only the latest front in a global battle between freedom and repression, a battle that, until recently, dictators have been winning hands-down. The problem is that today’s authoritarians are not like the frozen-in-time, ready-to-crack regimes of Burma and North Korea. They are ever-morphing, technologically savvy, and internationally connected, and have replaced more brutal forms of intimidation with subtle coercion. The Dictator’s Learning Curve explains this historic moment and provides crucial insight into the fight for democracy.”
Read More “Over the past ten years we’ve put together a catalogued collection of over 200 books on social change, social movements, activist research and community campaigns and that challenge, inform and inspire. This is a list of our current favourites.”
Read More Chapter available for download in multiple languages. Peter Ackerman and Hardy Merriman From the book: Is Authoritarianism Staging a Comeback? “Description: Today the most deadly conflicts in the world are not between states but rather within them, pitting tyrants against the populations they oppress. It is widely believed that these oppressed populations have two choices: acquiesce to tyranny in hopes that it will evolve to something milder or launch a violent insurrection to gain freedom. This limited view is refuted by the fact that civil resistance campaigns (sometimes referred to as “people power” movements or nonviolent conflicts) have occurred far more frequently than generally realized. Beginning in 1900, there has been on average one major campaign of civil resistance challenging an incumbent ruler per year. These citizen-‐led movements have increasingly defined the outcome of the most geo-politically significant conflicts and democratic transitions since 1972. Yet policy makers, scholars, journalists, and other interested observers consistently underestimate this capacity of ordinary people to undermine tyranny and achieve rights without violence.”
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US Admits to Pushing Ukraine Into a Fight It Can’t Win
We’re Taught About Liberal And Conservative Bias In Media, But Not US Empire Bias
Across the West, People Are Dying in Greater Numbers. Nobody Wants To Learn Why
The Imminent Extradition of Julian Assange and the Death of Journalism
Another Act of Terror. How the Media Do PR for Biden and Zelensky
Safety Third
How BBC Coverage Is Enabling Israeli State Violence at Al-Aqsa
It’s Not Just the Settlers – or Israel – Responsible for the Torching of Huwwara
Caitlin Johnstone: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Woke Imperialism