Declarations Of Indictment And Intention
Summary
Declarations Of Indictment And Intention is method 5 in Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, listed under Formal Statements — the institutional-voice sub-cluster of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion [source: commons-198-methods].
Body
Sharp listed declarations of indictment and intention as method 5, the closing item of his Formal Statements sub-cluster (methods 1-6) [source: commons-198-methods]. The method names a public written statement that names what the campaign opposes (indictment) and what it intends to do about it (intention), designed to put the target on record, pre-commit the campaign’s next steps, and create a public accountability artefact.
The two halves of the declaration work together. The indictment names the action, the actor, the harm, and the remedy; without these, the declaration reads as mood. The intention part is what makes the declaration dangerous to the target: it forecloses on a face-saving climb-down (“we acknowledge the problem but we’ll study it for years”) by committing the campaign to specific next steps if the demand is not met. A declaration that lacks either half is a press release; together they form an escalation-ready record.
The format is forgiving — open letters, joint statements, mass-meeting resolutions, communique, public letters from named groups of constituents. What matters is that the document is named (no anonymous op-eds), dated, archived (so the campaign can refer back to it later), and delivered publicly to a recipient who cannot quietly ignore it. Pre-digital campaigns used rallies and full-page newspaper ads; modern campaigns use coordinated publication across the campaign’s owned and earned channels.
See methods-of-nonviolent-action for the broader method library / context.
Use it for
A public written statement that names what the campaign opposes (indictment) and what it intends to do about it (intention) — designed to put the target on record, pre-commit the campaign’s next steps, and create a public accountability artefact.
Worked examples
- african-americans-boycott-buses-for-integration-in-montgomery — the MIA’s mass-meeting declarations indicted bus segregation and pre-committed the boycott’s continuation.
- estonians-campaign-for-independence-the-singing-revolution — Estonian declarations of intent drove the trajectory from cultural song-gatherings to full independence declaration.
- australian-campaign-case-study-stop-adani-2012-2022 — Stop Adani declarations of intent kept the decade-long campaign’s goal clearly stated.
Learn more
- On Wikipedia: Indictment — CC BY-SA 4.0
FAQ
What is the declarations of indictment and intention method?
Declarations of indictment and intention is method 5 in Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, the closing item in the Formal Statements sub-cluster of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion. It is a public written statement naming what the campaign opposes and what it intends to do about it, putting the target on record, pre-committing next steps, and creating a public accountability artefact [source: commons-198-methods].
What should an indictment and intention declaration include?
The indictment should name the action, actor, harm, and remedy; the intention should commit the campaign to specific next steps if the demand is not met. Together, the two halves create an escalation-ready record. Without the indictment, the statement lacks a clear account of the problem; without the intention, it does not foreclose a face-saving delay by the target.
How should a public declaration of indictment and intention be delivered?
The format can be an open letter, joint statement, mass-meeting resolution, communique, or public letter from named groups of constituents. The document should be named rather than anonymous, dated, archived for later reference, and delivered publicly to a recipient who cannot quietly ignore it. Publication can use rallies, full-page newspaper ads, or coordinated campaign-owned and earned channels.
Related
Open Questions
- Page relies only on the Commons 198-methods pointer. A grounded write-up drawing on Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action, vol. 2, would strengthen the rationale sentence above.