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200+ Nonviolent Resistance Tactics

A practical guide to the methods movements have used throughout history to build pressure, challenge power, and create change.

Use the spreadsheet below to sort tactics by risk, impact, time commitment, and group size. You can also open it directly here.

Acknowledgements: This list would not be possible without the pioneering work of Gene Sharp, the Global Nonviolent Action Database at Swarthmore College, and independent scholars like Patrick Meier and Mary C. Joyce who have updated Sharp’s original list for the digital age.

Formal Statements

1. Public speeches
2. Private letters of opposition or support
3. Declarations of opposition or support by organizations and institutions
4. Signed public statements
5. Declarations of indictment and intention (e.g., the U.S. Declaration of Independence)
6. Group or mass petitions

Communications with a Wider Audience

7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
12. Skywriting and earthwriting (i.e., messages written in the sky by airplanes or on the ground so they are visible from above)

Group Representations

13. Deputations (i.e., someone is deputized to present grievances to an authority)
14. Mock awards (e.g., “Worst Polluter of the Year”)
15. Group lobbying (i.e., a group meets with one or more authorities)
16. Picketing
17. Mock elections (i.e., symbolic voting to demonstrate lack of confidence in a leader)

Symbolic Public Acts

18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
20. Prayer and worship
21. Delivering symbolic objects (e.g., delivering empty shoes to represent lives lost)
22. Protest disrobings (e.g., removing clothing to protest body shaming)
23. Destruction of own property (e.g., burning of military draft notices)
24. Symbolic lights (e.g., candlelight vigils)
25. Displays of portraits (e.g., showing pictures of victims of police violence)
26. Paint as protest (e.g., graffiti or murals)
27. New signs and names (e.g., renaming streets after activists)
28. Symbolic sounds (e.g., ringing bells to signify freedom)
29. Symbolic reclamations (e.g., feminist “Take Back the Night” events)
30. Rude gestures

Pressures on Individuals

31. “Haunting” officials (e.g., following a public figure while carrying signs)
32. Taunting officials (e.g., chanting slogans directed at officials)
33. Fraternization (e.g., socializing with police or soldiers to humanize protestors)
34. Vigils

Drama and Music

35. Humorous skits and pranks (e.g., Tina Fey’s portrayals of Sarah Palin)
36. Performances of plays and music (e.g., The Vagina Monologues)
37. Singing/chanting

Processions

38. Marches (i.e., processions to or from a significant place)
39. Parades (i.e., processions with arbitrary starting and ending points)
40. Religious processions (e.g., walking with religious icons)
41. Pilgrimages (i.e., journeying en masse to a significant place, often religious)
42. Motorcades (e.g., a procession of cars honking in protest)

Honoring the Dead

43. Political mourning (e.g., wearing black to symbolize loss of democracy)
44. Mock funerals (e.g., carrying a coffin to symbolize the death of justice)
45. Demonstrative funerals (i.e., a funeral that turns into a protest)
46. Homage at burial places (e.g., laying flowers at the grave of a civil rights leader)

Public Assemblies

47. Assemblies of protest or support (i.e., public)
48. Protest meetings (i.e., private or semi-public)
49. Camouflaged meetings of protest (e.g., a book club that discusses banned books)
50. Teach-ins (i.e., educational sessions on social or political issues)

Withdrawal and Renunciation

51. Walk-outs
52. Silence
53. Renouncing honors (e.g., returning a medal in protest)
54. Turning one’s back (i.e., turning away when a controversial figure speaks)

Ostracism of Persons

55. Social boycott
56. Selective social boycott (e.g., a representative is willing to negotiate, but will not shake her adversary’s hand)
57. Lysistratic nonaction (i.e., refusal of sex until demands are met)
58. Excommunication (i.e., formal exclusion from a community or religious group)
59. Interdict (i.e., suspension of religious services)

Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs, and Institutions

60. Suspension of social and sports activities
61. Boycott of social affairs
62. Student strike
63. Social disobedience (i.e., refusing to follow social norms or rules)
64. Withdrawal from social institutions (e.g., quitting a discriminatory club)

Withdrawal from the Social System

65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation
67. “Flight” of workers (e.g., mass resignation from a company)
68. Sanctuary (i.e., escape or withdrawal to a place where one cannot be taken or harmed without violation of religious, moral, social, or legal prohibitions)
69. Collective disappearance (e.g., an online group goes offline in protest)
70. Protest emigration, or hijrat (i.e., voluntary exile to protest conditions)

Action by Consumers

71. Consumers’ boycott
72. Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
73. Policy of austerity (i.e., reducing personal spending in protest)
74. Rent withholding (e.g., tenants withhold rent until building repairs are made)
75. Refusal to rent
76. National consumers’ boycott (i.e., one country refuses to buy from another)
77. International consumers’ boycott (i.e., multiple countries refuse to buy from another)

Action by Workers, Producers, and Middlemen

78. Workers’ boycott (e.g., refusal to work with non-union labor)
79. Producers’ boycott (i.e., refusal to sell or deliver products)
80. Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott (e.g., refusal to transport certain goods)

Action by Owners and Management

81. Traders’ boycott (i.e., retailers refuse to buy or sell certain goods)
82. Refusal to let or sell property (e.g., refusing to sell land for use in harmful industries)
83. Lockout
84. Refusal of industrial assistance (e.g., refusing to do business with a company)
85. Merchants’ “general strike” (i.e., all local merchants close their stores)

Action by Holders of Financial Resources

86. Withdrawal of bank deposits
87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
88. Refusal to pay debts or interest
89. Severance of funds and credit (e.g., closing credit lines to a controversial project)
90. Revenue refusal (e.g., refusal to pay taxes or buy licenses)
91. Refusal of a government’s money (e.g., not accepting funds tied to certain conditions)

Action by Governments

92. Domestic embargo (i.e., a government boycotts opponents within its borders)
93. Blacklisting of traders (i.e., creating a list of companies not to do business with)
94. International sellers’ embargo (i.e., refusal to sell to another country)
95. International buyers’ embargo (i.e., refusal to buy from another country)
96. International trade embargo (i.e., total prohibition of trade between countries)

Symbolic Strikes

97. Protest strike (i.e., a temporary strike for a predetermined time)
98. Quickie walkout/lightning strike/wildcat strike (i.e., a sudden, unannounced strike)

Agricultural Strikes

99. Peasant strike
100. Farm workers’ strike

Successful Movements Use More Than Passion

Awareness alone rarely creates change. Successful movements build pressure, leverage, organization, participation, and disruption over time.

Learn the Strategy Behind Social Change

Strikes by Special Groups

101. Refusal of impressed labor (i.e., refusing to do forced or coerced labor)
102. Prisoners’ strike (i.e., inmates refusing to work or eat)
103. Craft strike (e.g., carpenters, other skilled workers)
104. Professional strike (e.g., teachers, doctors, civil servants)

Ordinary Industrial Strikes

105. Establishment strike (i.e., all workers at a company strike)
106. Industry strike (i.e., all workers in a certain industry strike)
107. Sympathy strike (i.e., workers in one industry strike to support workers in another industry)

Restricted Strikes

108. Detailed strike (i.e., different types of workers in a company strike at different times)
109. Bumper strike (i.e., workers at different companies in an industry strike at different times)
110. Slowdown strike
111. Working-to-rule strike (i.e., a form of slowdown in which rules and regulations are followed so closely that output is reduced)
112. Sick-in (i.e., large numbers report they are too sick to work on the same day)
113. Strike by resignation (i.e., resignation en masse)
114. Limited strike (e.g., workers do most duties but refuse some aspect of their work, such as working overtime or on weekends)
115. Selective strike (i.e., workers refuse to do a specific task they find objectionable)

Multi-Industry Strikes

116. Generalized strike (i.e., a strike of several industries in an area, but less than a majority)
117. General strike (i.e., a strike of a majority of workers in an area, attempting to bring labor to a standstill)

Combination of Strikes and Economic Closures

118. Hartal (i.e., total suspension of economic activity for a day or two to express displeasure, especially common in India)
119. Economic shutdown (i.e., a combination of merchants’ strike (085) and general strike (117), especially common under military occupation)

Rejection of Authority

120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
121. Refusal of public support
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance

Citizens’ Noncooperation with Government

123. Boycott of legislative bodies
124. Boycott of elections
125. Boycott of government employment and positions
126. Boycott of government departments, agencies, and other bodies
127. Withdrawal from governmental educational institutions
128. Boycott of government-supported institutions
129. Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
130. Removal of own signs and placemarks
131. Refusal to accept appointed officials
132. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions

Citizens’ Alternatives to Obedience

133. Reluctant and slow compliance (e.g., taking as long as possible to follow an order)
134. Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
135. Popular nonobedience (i.e., disregarding laws, but not openly)
136. Disguised disobedience (i.e., disguising disobedience as compliance)
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
138. Sitdown
139. Noncooperation with conscription or deportation
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities (e.g., using a pseudonym to avoid detection)
141. Civil disobedience of unjust laws (i.e., deliberate, open, peaceful violation of laws)

Action by Government Personnel

142. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
143. Blocking of lines of command and information (e.g., not passing on orders)
144. Stalling and obstruction
145. General administrative noncooperation (e.g., paperwork keeps getting “lost”)
146. Judicial noncooperation (i.e., judges consistently rule against government policy)
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
148. Mutiny (i.e., enforcement agents refuse to follow orders)

Domestic Governmental Action

149. Quasi-legal evasions and delays (e.g., using loopholes to delay execution of a law)
150. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units (e.g., states or provinces refusing federal orders)

International Governmental Action

151. Changes in diplomatic and other representation
152. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
153. Withholding of diplomatic recognition
154. Severance of diplomatic relations
155. Withdrawal from international organizations
156. Refusal of membership in international bodies
157. Expulsion from international organizations

Psychological Intervention

158. Exposure to the elements (i.e., staying outside in extreme weather)
159. Fasting/hunger strike
160. Reverse trial (i.e., the accused puts an unjust law or policy on trial)
161. Nonviolent harassment (i.e., “haunting” and taunting taken to an extreme)

Physical Intervention

162. Sit-in
163. Stand-in
164. Ride-in
165. Wade-in
166. Mill-in (i.e., “milling around” in a significant place)
167. Pray-in
168. Nonviolent raids (i.e., a nonviolent demand of entrance or possession)
169. Nonviolent air raids (e.g., dropping pamphlets from drones)
170. Nonviolent invasion (i.e., open, deliberate entrance into a forbidden area)
171. Nonviolent interjection (i.e., placing one’s body between a person and the objective of his work or activity, like a logger and a tree)
172. Nonviolent obstruction (i.e., physical blocking of a road, building, or other place by one or more people)
173. Nonviolent occupation (i.e., people occupy a space and resist commands to disperse)

Social Intervention

174. Establishing new social patterns
175. Overloading of facilities (e.g., mass use of public transport to protest fare hikes)
176. Stall-in (i.e., customers or clients deliberately slow a business’s operations)
177. Speak-in (i.e., interruptions of speeches/meetings to address an issue)
178. Guerrilla theater (e.g., street performances to highlight social issues)
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication systems

Economic Intervention

181. Reverse strike (i.e., working when it is forbidden)
182. Stay-in strike (i.e., striking workers occupy and remain in their workplace)
183. Nonviolent land seizure (e.g., occupying unused land to create a community garden)
184. Defiance of blockades (e.g., delivering food to a blockaded area)
185. Politically motivated counterfeiting (i.e., printing new or fake money)
186. Preclusive purchasing (e.g., buying all the tickets to a controversial event)
187. Seizure of assets
188. Dumping (i.e., selling something at lower than market value to pressure an opponent)
189. Selective patronage (i.e., customers are urged to only buy from specific producers or retailers)
190. Alternative markets
191. Alternative transportation systems
192. Alternative economic institutions

Political Intervention

193. Overloading of administrative systems (e.g., flooding an office with complaints)
194. Disclosing identities of secret agents (e.g., revealing undercover police at a protest)
195. Deliberate seeking of arrest or imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of “neutral” laws (e.g., protesting without a permit)
197. Work-on without collaboration (i.e., continuing to do things “the old way” as a form of resistance)
198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government (e.g., establishing a community council parallel to local government)

Additional Offline Methods

199. Nonviolent confinement (i.e., one or more people are confined in a place until demands are met)
200. Communication jamming (e.g., disrupting cell phone service)
201. One-person protests, with or without aggregation (e.g., people posting photos of themselves wearing hoodies to protest the murder of Trayvon Martin)
202. One-on-one lobbying
203. Jury nullification (i.e., jurors vote “not guilty” despite the evidence, due to their belief that the law is unjust)
204. Strategic voting (e.g., voting in an open primary for the weakest candidate among the opposition)
205. Leaking/whistleblowing
206. Funding opposition or resistance groups

Additional Online Methods

207. Social media posts and comments
208. Trending hashtags
209. Live-streaming
210. Viral videos/posts
211. Flash mobs
212. Blocking/reporting social media users
213. Creating fake social media profiles
214. Closing social media profiles
215. QR codes
216. Online check-ins
217. Self-surveillance (i.e., live-streaming oneself for protection or as parody)
218. Crowdsourced surveillance (e.g., monitoring police activity during a protest)
219. Influencing search engines (e.g., a politician’s biography is returned as the top result after a search for “criminals”)
220. Maptivism (i.e., public or semi-public digital maps are updated with information)
221. Digital merchants’ strike (e.g., Etsy sellers go offline to protest platform fees)
222. Digital stall-in (e.g., flooding a forum with protest posts to slow it down)
223. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks (i.e., a website is overwhelmed with requests and cannot function)
224. Hacking (e.g., gaining unauthorized access to a database to expose corruption)
225. Apps (e.g., communicating via encrypted messaging apps)