Stages of
Movement Development
(from George
Lakey, Strategy for a Living Revolution)
Stage one:
Cultural preparation
What
are your long-range goals?
What
changes do people need in the way they look at themselves?
What
methods of consciousness raising makes sense for the kind of people
you want to work with?
All
Indians could join the campaign for a free India with simple changes
in their livesboycott foreign clothes, untouchability
Stage Two: Organization Building (Creating Model Alternative
Institutions)
Looking
ahead to stage five where strong organization is necessary, can the form
withstand growth?
What
is the role of alternative institutions in building the revolutionary
movement?
How
can organizational units link? Informal networks? Hierarchical
arrangements? Other?
Indian
National Congress, suits to hand spun cloth
Waiting 10
years between national civil disobedience campaigns
Stage
Three: Confrontation (Propaganda of Deed)
Who
is the "audience," the people who, when watching the drama of
confrontation, can be won over to the side of revolution?
What are the tactics, or methods, of confrontation which will
communicate the central messages?
What
support do people need to get through this stage successfully, so they
will not back down, become intimidated, or get isolated?
Relationship
between violent and nonviolent resistance: India, U.S. civil rights
Inviting
government crack downs- Gandhi salt works
Stage
4: Mass Noncooperation
Whose
cooperation is the system dependent on?
What
noncooperation tactics may be appropriate (strike, boycott, tax refusal,
slow-downs, etc.)?
How
can the movement reach out to opponents, and help individuals in the
ruling class and bureaucratic command posts cross over to the revolution
or at least be supportive in some ways?
John Adams:
U.S. noncooperation with Britain in the 1770s
Stage
5: Parallel Institutions
What
are the actual tactics of power transfer?
What
are the international connections in this process?
How
can the empowerment of people continue to be deepened and strengthened
after the excitement of getting rid of the old order wears off?
Stages of
a Nonviolent Campaign (like
Gandhis salt march)
Fact-finding
and analysis
Public
Education about the issues
Developing
a personal commitment and resolution to do something
Negotiating
with the opponent
Direct
Action
Reconciliation
with the opponent
Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride
Toward Freedom
Identify an
issue that has personal meaning to the people and is also a symbol of
broader injustice British part of Lucknow
Stages in
Direct Action
1.
Hold protests which build sympathy and commitment
2.
When protests have strengthened the movement, an ultimatum is given to
the opponent
3.
If the opponent doesnt change substantially, large numbers of people
begin to resist, or to withdraw their cooperation
Dave Delinger, More Power than We
Know
