How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning

£17.00

By George Lakey

Melville House Publishing, 2018

A lifetime of activist experience from a civil rights legend informs this playbook for building and conducting nonviolent direct action campaigns.

In an era of massive worldwide protests for racial and economic justice, it is important to remember that marching is only one way to take to the streets. Protest must be supplemented with the sustained direct action campaigns that are crucial to winning major reforms.

Beginning as a trainer in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, George Lakey has spent decades helping direct action tactics flourish and succeed on the front lines of social change. Now, in this timely and down-to-earth guide, he passes the torch to a new generation of activists. Lakey looks to successful campaigns across the world to help us see what has worked, what hasn't, and why: from choosing the right target to designing a creative campaign; from avoiding burnout within your group to building a movement of movements to achieve real progressive victories.

Drawing on the experiences of a diverse set of ambitious change-makers, How We Win shows us the way to justice, peace, and a sustainable economy. This is what democracy looks like.

George Lakey's Manual for Direct Action was literally a lifesaver for many during the height of the struggle for Black freedom and dignity in the 1960s. How We Win has arrived to us at another key moment in our human journey. It is a guide for our collective liberation, informed by decades of Professor Lakey's ongoing research and teaching since the '60s. Following these steps will indeed help us achieve a more just and humane society.
Rev. Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change

If you want to be a soldier, you can go to West Point. If you want to be a nonviolent change-maker--well, this is an awfully good place to start. George Lakey has been near the center of American resistance for decades, and so he has both remarkable stories and remarkable insights--not to mention some remarkable colleagues who add their perspective to this necessary manual!
Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org

This book is a chance to sit around the supper table with a living legend of U.S. social movements, a mentor who speaks from experience yet honors the young. His lessons and stories leave us all stronger, wiser, and more hopeful about our capacity for making a better world.
Nathan Schneider, author of Everything for Everyone