Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns

Revised Second Edition

The Revised Second Edition of the Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns (2025) is an important resource for campaigning and activist organizations all over the world. The Revised Second edition (originally published in 2014) has been given a bit of a freshen up – it’s now available in color, with new photos and a clearer and more accessible design.
There is no definitive recipe for successful nonviolent actions and campaigns. This handbook, however, is a series of resources that can inspire and support your own work, especially if you adapt the resources to your own needs and context. This handbook has been a collaborative effort of people working in nonviolence within the WRI network from Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Chile, Germany, Italy, Israel, South Korea, Scandinavia, Spain, Turkey, and the USA.
You can purchase a paperback edition at the WRL store or download a free ebook PDF version here. This ebook PDF version is easily searchable for specific topics and activities. A print version is available globally from the print-on-demand service Lulu, here: https://www.lulu.com/shop/war-resisters-international/handbook-for-nonviolent-campaigns-version-2/paperback/product-jeym8g6.html

Second Edition

The 2nd edition of the War Resisters’ International’s  Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns is a 232 page toolbox of ideas and resources to support activists to run more effective campaigns. It includes: Introduction to Nonviolence, Developing Strategic Campaigns, Organizing Effective Actions, Case Studies, Training and Exercises, plus a glossary and resource list. Published in 2014, 50 pages were added and some of the pieces revised since the 2009 edition.

About This Handbook and How to Use it

Table of Contents

Introduction to Nonviolence

• What is nonviolence, and why use it?
• Seven interlocking principles of nonviolence
• How does nonviolence work?
• Check-List for facilitating a training
• Historical uses of nonviolent action
• Historical uses of nonviolence: What works where, the role of pacifists, organizing
• Nonviolence training 
• Case Study: Nonviolence training in the U.S. civil rights movement
• Gender and nonviolence and Gender awareness in a nonviolent campaign 
• Violence 
• Conflict 
• Nonviolence and power 

Developing Strategic Campaigns

• Why things don’t ‘just happen’ and Strategy
• Planning nonviolent campaigns
• Constructive programme 
• Theories of change
• Stages of escalation in a nonviolent campaign
• The movement action plan
• Education is freedom: Popular education
• Mobilising for change: Building power in Nepal

Organising Effective Actions

• Sending the protest message
• Working in groups 
• Affinity groups
• Consensus decision-making 
• Maintaining nonviolence during an action
• Fear 
• Coping with the stress and strain of taking a stand 
• Burnout
• Activism in oppressive regimes
• Humour and nonviolent campaigns
• Forms of nonviolent action
• Tactic star 
• Roles before, during, and after an action
• Dilemma actions 
• Media 
• Legal support and Responding to violence
• Jail support (MOC-Spain experience) 
• Action evaluation

Case Studies: Stories and Experiences

• International solidarity campaign with South Africa 
• Seabrook—Wyhl—Marckolsheim: Transnational links in a chain of campaigns
• Chile: Gandhi’s insights gave people courage to defy Chile’s dictatorship
• South Korea: The power of international solidarity 
• South Korea: The use of social media in nonviolent campaigns
• Colombia: Peace Community of San Jose de Apartadó
• Turkey: Building a nonviolent culture 
• ANFEM (antimilitarist feminists) 
• Castor — How we mobilised people for civil disobedience
• Freedom Flotilla to Gaza — a dilemma action case study
• Israel: New Profile learns from the experience of others
• Nonviolent intervention in Kenya: Empowering community action for social justice
• West Papua: “We will be free”
• Afghan nonviolence handbook
• Diaspora solidarity for Eritrea: The Arbi Harnet campaign

Training and Exercises

• Tasks and tools for organising a training
• Parallel lines 
• Brainstorming 
• River of Life — gender lens
• Imagine the future: Setting goals
• 10/10 strategies
• The problem tree/healthy tree
• The pillars of power
• Power flower
• Letter from a Birmingham jail 
• Risky situation
• Spectrum of allies
• Tree and wind 
• Decision making 
• I could do that if 
• Role playing
• Spectrum and cross spectrum
• “Is it newsworthy?”
• Forum theatre
• Who has power in a school?
• Tools for grounding, protecting, and blockading

Doing Your Own Handbook – general tips

Glossary – list of terms from War Resisters’ International

Resources – list from War Resisters’ International

WRL Resources – Nonviolent Action + Campaigns