Civil Disobedience Index

"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet depricate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist

 

The history of Civil Disobedience is a long and international one. ACT UP practices a form that comes from a variety of progressive movements. Below are several pages describing some of the history, theory, and practice of civil disobedience.

Many of these sections were taken (with love) from the Handbook for Nonviolent Action available from the
War Resister's League in New York City.

 

• ACT UP Direct Action Guidelines
  
  
• History of Mass Nonviolent Action
  
  
• Nonviolent Response to Personal Violence
  
  
• Practicing Nonviolence
  
  
• Nonviolence Training
  
  
• Affinity Groups and Support
  
  
• Steps Toward Making a Campaign
  
  
• Consensus Decision Making
  
  
• Legal Issues/Risking Arrest
  
  
• Legal Flow Chart: What Happens in an Arrest and Your Decisions
  
  
• Legal Terms: What They Mean
  
  
• Jail Solidarity

 

see also the following DOCUMENT links:

• The Demonstrator's Manual (crucial)
  
  
• Marshal Training Manual
  
  
• Getting Arrested: Why do we do it?
  

 

Civil Disobedience Training ACT UP, an activist group famous for its direct action against government inaction and drug company profiteering involving AIDS, is widely acknowledged as re-energizing civil disobedience tactics in America. From its inception in 1987, ACT UP continually held 5-hour training sessions for its members. DIVA TV (Damned Interfering Video Activists) taped one of these sessions and edited a 29 minute video, which was originally telecast on public access. The video describes how to do civil disobedience and what must be planned for it to take place safely and successfully. 29:00 WATCH NOW * * Streaming Video Netcast TEMPORARILY NOT ACTIVE ..will shortly update streaming video files for further info ~ DIVA TV

 

ACT UP/New York DOCUMENTS