Workshop Outline

 

Please leave a comment here if you plan to attend:

 

Session # 1 Oct 3rd && 10th) (The Pre-Workshop) - Understanding Power

    What is power and where does it come from? Who has it, why? What are the sources of power? How do dissenters become empowered?

Optional reading: 'The Tyranny of Structurelessness'

Notes for Session #1

Session # 2 - Oct 17th - Understanding Political Action

    What are the assumptions and beliefs we have about political action, and are they valid? In concrete terms, what are the mechanisms we use in undertaking political action? What is it we’re actually trying to do? Added bonus, 197 recipes for nonviolent revolution.
 

Notes for Session #2

Session # 3 -Oct 24th - Violence, Nonviolence & Satyagraha

    What are violence, nonviolence & Satyagraha? Which is most effective? why?
   

Session # 4 -Oct 31st - Struggle

    Throughout history, and all over the planet people engage  in “struggle”. In the industrialized West we are “active”. Is there a difference? If so, what? And why? Understanding the social dynamic of political action.

Session # 5 - Nov 7th  - Successful Social Movements and Campaigns

    Why are some movements successful and others less so. Is it what they do, the issues they work on, the opposition they face? The Social Movement Empowerment Project, MAP, and Gamson.

Session # 6 -  Nov 14th - Goals and Roles as Activists

    As individuals, what can we do? What do we need to be doing?

Session # 7 - Nov 21st -: Strategies for Resistance

    As groups, how can we design our political action for maximum effectiveness?

Session # 8 - Nov 28th - Resistance and the Law

    What’s legal, what isn’t, what will the consequences of action be? Using the law to design your action for maximum effectiveness. Taking it to the courts and the jails. What is jail like?

Session # 9 - Dec 5th - Civil Disobedience

    Does civil disobedience work? If it works, why does it work? Tactical vs Pure nonviolent resistance. The pragmatics of designing and implementing a civil disobedience action.
   

Session # 10 - Dec 12th - From Resolution to Revolution

    Summary and Overview. Whatever outstanding questions, odds and ends that need to be dealt with.

 

Cost: Donation/optional - $50 suggested

Location: