Tools

At protests, the police, counter-demonstrators or infiltrators, and angry passersby can start conflicts that disrupt the focus of the action, including provoking protestors into impulsive acts to discredit the cause. Having our own security or “de-escalators” at actions helps track and diffuse unstrategic conflicts, no matter the source, and support the action to be as effective as possible.

De-escalation can have different goals: ensuring physical safety, reducing the likelihood of violence, maintaining the desired tone or mood of an action, or reducing violence such that a fight can be worked out. Every situation is unique: there is no formula for dealing with hostility or conflict. When entering an action, it’s best to think through possible difficult situations and prepare ahead of time.

By themselves, rulers cannot collect taxes, enforce repressive laws and regulations, keep trains running on time, prepare national budgets, direct traffic, manage ports, print money, repair roads, keep markets supplied with food, make steel, build rockets, train the police and army, issue postage stamps or even milk a cow. People provide these services to the ruler though a variety of organizations and institutions. If people would stop providing these skills, the ruler could not rule. - Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action

A quick tool for skill-building and practice, where everyone is involved. It's an elegant role-play format, one of our favorites, known as parallel lines (sometimes referred to as "hassle lines").

• desarrollar la habilidad de realizar actividades diferentes (tal como recabar fondos) • otorgar una nueva experiencia a los participantes (tal como la intervención no violenta)

This approach to strategizing serves bottom-up preferences in building social movements. In Starhawk's terms, it serves power-with rather than power-over, and is inherently democratic.

A tool to connect many activists favorite topic -- tactics -- with larger questions of strategy. It uses tactical thinking to help connect to larger frameworks for social change.

A physical strategy tool: to assist groups in understanding more deeply the internal and external forces that impact their organization's success.

"Strategy -- in the face of impending war, financial crises, time crunch, staff changes or despair -- is impossible." Well, I don't think that's true, but certainly lots of us do carry that belief! So here's a one-hour tool that I've used when all of those factors were true! -- maybe it can work for you and your group, too.

In demonstrations, vigils and anywhere else you are making a public statement, banners are terrifically useful. They tell who you are and either graphically or by their presence in a place, declare your intent. They also help you get a group together in a large gathering, or focus the TV cameras, as well as catching the eye of other, related groups that may want to associate themselves with you.

This tool is support participants in increasing their awareness around their own self care practices

Activists know to act. But they may not create the space to reflect. Reflection without action is impotent; but action without reflection is aimless. This tool gives participants a structured way to review “what they have been up to” – it’s a great intro to sessions on strategy, a simple tool, and a great way to catch themes carrying a group. Place this tool early in a strategy workshop to get a diagnostic read on the issues and struggles in the group.

This simulation/exercise serves to build community and give groups an experience of nonviolent action. Participants report it as a powerful tool to help them understand more fully the challenge and strategy of nonviolent action.

A political group we work with has a slogan, "Speak up before your silence is misunderstood." This tool gives participants a chance to practice confidence-building skills, especially concerning voice. It is easy to lead and we've had great success every time we lead it. A great tool to counter voicelessness!

An updated version of the commonly used "nonviolence spectrums." Use this tool to help a group looks at its diversity of opinion on issues related to nonviolence along with see unexpected commonalities and similarities.

A classic nonviolent training tool: quick decisions. In one minute, groups are challenged to reach a decision of an action to take based on some situation. Great for action basic workshops, consensus training, and affinity group preparation.

This strategy game explores ways of navigating difficult scenarios and gain perspective from multiple angles of an issue through a fictional country Eslandia, whose economy is faltering, ethnic tensions are high and terrorism is on the rise.

A roleplay is an improvised dramatic enactment of a problem situation in order to find new and creative ways to respond. This may be done in preparation for an anticipated situation or for evaluating a past one.

Here’s a chance to stretch and practice creating new actions or tactics for your organization. It is about creativity. It can also be a chance to apply strategy lessons taught in earlier activities.

A tool to assist people to notice more in the midst of conflict. Great practice for training observers, protestors, and anyone wanting to help people practice staying aware in the middle of conflicts.

Street Speaking takes participants out of the training space and into the street to make a real time soap-box style public speech! In it we face our fears and practice the art of public speaking.

This exercise is meant as a follow-up to the Spectrum of Allies exercise. We develop arguments and one specific request to move a given constituency one wedge over to our side. We then roleplay the interaction.

Here is a way to bring out unreflected wisdom about what makes actions effective. Depending on your goals, you may have your own generalization pieces of theory, but a great winner to help kick-start people thinking innovatively about tactics.

Three related tools to help any group interact with its own margin. A good workshop provides opportunities for mainstream people to get new information about margins, in a way that goes below the surface and involves the emotional learning channel. The expectation is that, by highlighting the experience of a few margins in a dramatic way, participants will learn that they need to become pro-active in order to be fair with people on the margins. Similarly, the experience of powerfully speaking often increases the margins' self-confidence and clarity.

Recent events, from major political set-backs to police violence against Black civilians and Indigenous water protectors at Standing Rock, have many of us on the left having to absorb the shock of hard news on an all-too-regular basis. As movement trainers, educators and organizers, it’s our job to help groups build up their skill and resiliency for weathering these moments.