Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns (WRI)
https://wri-irg.org/en/handbook-for-nonviolent-campaigns
Body
War Resisters’ International’s Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns is a comprehensive practitioner reference covering the full campaign lifecycle - planning, organising, decision-making, direct action, activist protection, media, de-escalation, and post-action review - and is published by War Resisters’ International, a 100-year-old pacifist federation headquartered in London with member sections across dozens of countries [source: wri-handbook]. The handbook is organised in eight sections (planning and analysis; organising and recruitment; decision-making and consensus; direct action tactics; activist protection and security; media and communications; de-escalation and conflict management; post-action review and self-care), each paired with case examples, sample documents, and facilitator notes for training contexts [source: wri-handbook].
The handbook is the most-comprehensive single-volume practitioner reference for international nonviolent campaigning and has been updated multiple times since its first edition; current versions cover contemporary contexts including digital organising, transnational campaigns, and pandemic-era adaptations [source: wri-handbook]. Its central argument is that nonviolent discipline is both a strategic choice and a practical operating discipline: campaigns that maintain nonviolent discipline tend to have higher success rates and lower casualty counts than those that abandon it under pressure [source: wri-handbook]. The publisher distributes the handbook as a free PDF from wri-irg.org, with the visible-language editions matching WRI’s working languages; the text is link-only and should be paraphrased when drawn on for specific claims [source: wri-handbook].
Trainers use it as the core text for introductory and intermediate nonviolent-action workshops; campaign planners use the worksheets to structure strategy sessions; activists use the security and self-care chapters to prepare for high-risk actions and to support peers through post-action recovery [source: wri-handbook]. A campaigner reaches for it when they need one handbook that covers the whole arc of a campaign, end to end, with downloadable worksheets they can adapt. Treat as link-only. [source: wri-handbook]
Use it for
Assigning a comprehensive campaign handbook; finding WRI’s direct-action safety guidance.
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Learn more
- On Wikipedia: War Resisters’ International — CC BY-SA 4.0