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THE PLAYBOOK OF EVERY SUCCESSFUL NONVIOLENT STRUGGLE  
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Jamila Raqib
November 21, 2025
Waging Non-violence
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_ Nonviolent movements that have toppled oppressive regimes,
prevented coups and transformed societies follow these four essential
steps. _

Anti-ICE protesters with the Chicago Alliance rallied to demand the
closure of Broadview Detention Center on Nov. 1. , Twitter/The Chicago
Alliance

 

Democracy is being tested in our communities. Cities from Charlotte to
Memphis face escalating threats from the deployment of military troops
and immigration raids. States like Maryland and Vermont are being
denied federal funding for disaster recovery and response. However,
there are also many signs that resistance is building. Federal courts
have become an important tool to protect against federal overreach,
and Americans are increasingly getting activated — and yes,
radicalized, in the best sense of the word. They’re recognizing that
business as usual is no longer an option and that they have a role to
play in protecting our communities and political systems.

This is a time of great urgency, and the strategies being used against
us are meant to overwhelm us, instill fear and confusion, and make us
feel helpless. Authoritarians like to present the oppressive reality
as a fait accompli, one that cannot be undone, thus undermining the
will to resist.

In America, however, resistance is widespread and growing, and
there’s an urge to act quickly. Recent research
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out of Harvard shows that protests this year have reached “a wider
swath of the United States than at any other point on record.” This
is an important development, but _how_ we act also matters. Now, the
goal should be to use tactics and strategies that will increase our
effectiveness in the short term, while ensuring our achievements are
durable. 

What’s happening in America closely follows an authoritarian
playbook common throughout history and around the globe today. But we
have a playbook too — one that offers frameworks and lessons from
people who have successfully resisted invasions, occupations and
authoritarianism.

These four steps enable us to think holistically about nonviolent
resistance — a powerful tool in the fight for democracy and human
rights — and ensure that all pieces of the puzzle are put in place.

1. ASSESS THE SITUATION TO UNDERSTAND THE CONFLICT LANDSCAPE

Movements often jump into action without a clear picture of the
terrain they’re navigating. We must resist the impulse to respond to
every outrage with immediate mobilization. Instead, we should pause to
assess the situation, our objectives and the capabilities of the
groups we are mobilizing against, as well as those of our movements.

This kind of strategic assessment is a necessary prerequisite to
action. We need to know what harm is being done or planned and who is
doing it. And we need to know what systems and institutions enable
this harm through their cooperation and obedience, and which are
vulnerable to persuasion or pressure. It’s at that point that we can
assess our movement’s numbers, capabilities, resources and
people’s level of training and discipline.

This kind of analysis, carried out before mobilizing people, has been
crucial in past movements. It’s revealed untapped power and enabled
groups to target their actions in a way that makes success more
likely. For example, the Otpor movement in Serbia
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which was successful in removing the Slobodan Milosevic dictatorship
from power in October 2000 relied on strategic assessments to prepare
actions. One of its key objectives was to convince police to shift
their allegiance to the resistance, which seemed impossible. However,
the movement realized that appealing to and recruiting police
officers’ family members could prove effective given their proximity
and influence. At the final showdown, when hundreds of thousands of
protesters took to the streets of Belgrade, most police officers
simply refused orders
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to open fire on the crowd.

It’s this kind of clear-eyed, strategic assessment that comes first.
Then we build, and not just power in numbers, but also in skills,
strategy and infrastructure.

2. BUILD THE POWER TO CARRY OUT EFFECTIVE ACTION

Once we understand the strengths and weaknesses of the groups we’re
mobilizing against, as well as those of our movement, we need to build
power.

This means developing a strategy to recruit and train people beyond
the usual suspects. And ensuring that they have nonviolent discipline
so that our response to repression is strategic, not reactive, and
we’re not provoked into violence and other counterproductive
behavior. It also means building parallel institutions to meet our
needs as existing systems weaken, collapse or are used for
repression.Sudan’s neighborhood committees
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which emerged in the 2019 resistance and helped bring down Omar
al-Bashir’s regime, were decentralized, grassroots structures that
coordinated protests, disseminated information and organized mutual
aid — creating parallel centers of power grounded in local
legitimacy and trust. In Lithuania, during the final years of Soviet
rule, citizens built alternative
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communication networks, coordinated economic resistance and prepared
for civilian-based nonviolent defense. And during the anti-apartheid
movement in South Africa, street committees and people’s courts
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played a crucial role in both resisting apartheid policies and
building new forms of democratic participation, effectively
undermining the regime’s authority and replacing it with localized
self-governance.

In the U.S., faith groups, garden clubs and tenants’ unions could be
similarly utilized as pockets of power and organizing hubs. Supported
by a decentralized training infrastructure, any group in America,
anywhere, could design and carry out action, even if centralized
leadership doesn’t emerge or is disrupted.

When these alternative capacities are built and integrated into
resistance struggles and movement work, they become potent tools in
our nonviolent arsenal and can better facilitate the next step:
carrying out powerful actions.

3. ACT TO SHIFT POWER

Our default, too often, are marches and rallies. Yes, these can be
symbolically powerful, but unless they’re part of a broader strategy
to shift power — by withdrawing cooperation, applying economic
pressure and disrupting key functions — they rarely force change on
their own. Actions must not only express outrage, but help bring about
specific shifts in power.

There’s a reason why the list of 198 methods of nonviolent action
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by Gene Sharp
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is organized in three strategic buckets: protest, noncooperation and
intervention. The most effective movements sequence these methods
deliberately. That’s why timing, sequencing and clarity of objective
are key.

In Chile, civil resistance against Augusto Pinochet’s regime
involved student boycotts, labor strikes and underground media, all of
which were working in concert. In Israel, antiwar protesters recently
moved from street protests, involving military reservists, to a
general strike
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that carried the potential to create substantial economic and
political pressure.

Effective action builds momentum by involving a growing cross-section
of society and increasing costs for the regime or institution. In the
U.S., similar actions could include a coordinated tax resistance,
sustained student walkouts, rent strikes or labor disruptions — all
tied to specific demands, sequenced and scaled over time.

Any of these actions will need defending, which is the final step.

4. DEFEND OUR WINS TO ENSURE LONG-TERM RESILIENCE.

Every movement that wins a policy change, campaign or struggle must
ask how it’ll be defended. Without the capacity for defense, every
gain can be reversed.

This is where civilian-based defense
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essential. It involves preparing society for decentralized nonviolent
resistance in the face of attacks against our communities,
institutions and political systems. It means building the muscle not
just to mobilize once, but to sustain mobilization.

In Latvia and Lithuania, for example, while declaring independence
from the USSR, leaders prepared their entire societies, including
neighborhood committees, for civilian-based defense. They trained
people how to resist occupation without taking up arms. And it worked
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During Bangladesh’s recent nonviolent student uprising that removed
their authoritarian leader, when police vacated the streets, students
took over many of their functions
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such as directing traffic and providing security.

In the U.S., this means embedding resistance training in civil society
groups, civic education, labor unions and professional associations.
It means preparing city councils, schools and unions to reject
unconstitutional directives, and establishing watchdog groups to
monitor and respond to democratic backsliding. And it means preparing
for what comes after victory, so we’re not left scrambling during
the transition.

This is how decentralized, disciplined and strategic resistance can
topple oppressive regimes, prevent coups and transform societies.
Civil society in the U.S. is waking up: the No Kings protests on Oct.
18 brought 7 million Americans into the streets, making it one of the
largest mobilizations in U.S. history. Now we need to act with both
urgency and strategy. A decentralized and empowered civil society is
one of the most resilient forms of democratic defense. This moment
calls for us to assess wisely, build steadily, act strategically and
defend relentlessly. The time is now.

* non-violence
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* resistance
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