Nonviolent Action Resources

Photo Credit: eberhard grossgasteiger

Thank you for attending, or planning to attend, a Nonviolent Action Training. Here are resources to help you plan and implement nonviolent campaigns. We wish you much success in your efforts to create a more loving, compassionate, and peaceful world for all life.

Listing a resource here does not mean we endorse everything that resource has to say. Instead, we encourage you to learn from what is helpful, kind, and reconciling, and ignore that info which is unhelpful, unkind, or needlessly polarizing. Thank you.

Nonviolent Strategy and Planning

- Video of our Direct Action Strategy Training 11-16-2020

- Mindful Direct Action Training Handouts PDF (Contains lots of useful info not included in the training)

- Dr. Martin Luther King’s Six Principles of Nonviolent Action

- Kingian Nonviolence in a nutshell: The six principles, six steps, and beloved community.

- Understanding the Power of Political Jiu-Jitsu in Nonviolent Campaigns

- International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (Wealth of info on historical and current nonviolence and planning direct action)

- Organizing for Power (Resources to help you plan campaigns, direct actions, and more)

- Beautiful Trouble

Nonviolent Tactics

- How to Protest in the Age of COVID-19

- Three Tools for Nonviolent Activists: Pledges, Role Plays, and Freedom Songs

- Freedom Songs

Nonviolence Trainings

- Soul Force: From Spirit to Street: An online training provided by Campaign Nonviolence.

Peace-Keeping, Marshal, De-escalation Resources

- Peace-Keeper, Marshal, De-escalation Training

- Get in Formation: A Community Safety Toolkit

Stopping a Coup/Power Grab in the USA

- Preparing for Post-Election Scenarios

- Choose Democracy

- Hold the Line Guide

- Election Defenders

- Defending Democracy During Elections Webinar

- Songs to Stop a Coup and Defend Democracy by The Peace Poets

- Bringing Down a Dictator documentary

Inner Work Part 1: Loving All Life and Allyship

- Take the Beloved Community Pledge

- Creating the Beloved Community training series

- Loving Activism talk (Covers skillful ways to work with anger, overwhelm, and other strong emotions activists commonly face)

- Harsha Walia on Anti-Oppression, Decolonization, and Responsible Allyship (11 min video)

- A beloved community conversation between bell hooks and George Brosi (transcript)

- A beloved community conversation featuring bell hooks and Cornel West (video)

- Order a free Peace Pilgrim book

Inner Work Part 2: Meditation Resources

- Tips on starting/maintaining a meditation practice

- Free guided meditations (Nonsectarian mindfulness and love-based meditations)

- Tips for working with the "breathe" slogan (To incorporate mindful pauses throughout your day)

- The Four Kinds of Love training series

Recommended Readings

- Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm by Kazu Haha

- Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg

- Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown

- Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words edited by Friends of Peace Pilgrim (Obtain a free audio, digital, or physical version of the book at PeacePilgrim.org.)

- Strength to Love by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

- Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential by Gene Sharp

- We Are All Part of One Another: A Barbara Deming Reader edited by Jane Meyerding

- Why We Can't Wait by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

- You Can't Kill the Spirit: Stories of Women and Nonviolent Action by Pam McAllister

Nonviolence in History

Documentaries

- The Success of Nonviolent Civil Resistance: A Ted Talk by Erica Chenoweth

- A Force More Powerful: This excellent documentary shows a variety of nonviolent movements, direct action, and political jiu-jitsu at work across the world.

- Bringing Down a Dictator: How a physically nonviolent protest movement brought down a heavily militarized dictator in Yugoslavia in 2000-2001.

Podcasts

City of Refuge - Nonviolent Resistance to Nazis  in France during World War II

Nonviolent Communication Resources

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg (Book)

Nonviolent Communication Books and Resources (Website)

City House (Group that offers Spiritual/Deep Listening trainings)

Nonviolent Communication Learning Guide (PDF)

Feelings Inventory (Webpage)

Needs Inventory (Webpage)

People of Color for Nonviolent Communication (Group)

Nonviolence News Sources

Websites

Nonviolence News

Waging Nonviolence

Yes Magazine

Good News Network

PODCASTS

Nonviolence Radio

John Dear's Peace Podcast

Groups Mobilized to Stop Line 3

- StopLine3.org

- Honor the Earth

- Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light

- MN350

- Friends of the Headwaters

- Sierra Club

Get Involved with the Boundless Love Project

- Join our E-Newsletter to learn about upcoming meditation and nonviolence trainings.

- Volunteer with us to help us promote mindfulness, nonviolence, and social justice.

We Are Called to Increase the Love

Finally, I leave you with a quote from the excellent book Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds written by adrienne maree brown:

"If love were the central practice of a new generation of organizers and spiritual leaders, it would have a massive impact on what we considered organizing. If the goal was to increase the love, rather than winning or dominating a constant opponent, I think we could actually imagine liberation from constant oppression. We would suddenly be seeing everything we do, everyone we meet, not through the eyes of war, but through eyes of love. We would see that there's no such thing as a blank canvas, an empty land or a new idea--but everywhere there is complex, ancient, fertile ground full of potential."

May your light and love shine through in all that you do. May you plant seeds of compassion and hope wherever you go. And may you be a blessing to all you meet.