A lifetime of activist experience informs this playbook for building and conducting nonviolent direct action campaigns-teaching us how to achieve real progressive change.
GEORGE LAKEY has been active in direct action campaignsfor six decades. Recently retired from Swarthmore College, where he wasthe Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professor for Issues of Social Change, Lakeywas first arrested at a civil rights demonstration in March 1963, and hismost recent arrest was on March 29, 2018, as a participant in the PowerLocal Green Jobs Campaign. His previous book was Viking Economics- How the Scandinavians Got It Right-and How We Can, Too. He lives in Philadelphia.
“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
“Hard-won advice for community organizers … Clear, encouraging, and
potentially empowering.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Lakey doesn’t make it sound easy, but he employs a reasoned,
seasoned perspective to clearly convey principles of organization
that have proved their value to activists worldwide.” —Publishers
Weekly
“Inspiring stories of effective, successful campaigning …
I recommend George Lakey’s How We Win.” —Peace News
“Essential reading for anyone who seeks to contribute meaningfully
to social movements … Reading it will be well worth your time.
Applying its insights is even more useful.” —Friends
Journal
“George is a true elder; one that shows up to support the diverse,
youth-led nonviolent direct action campaigns of today.”
—Sarah Nahar, scholar-activist, interspiritual theologian, direct
action trainer
“Everyone who envisions a better world needs to read this
book.”
—Margaret Flowers, MD, National Coordinator, Health Over Profit for
Everyone (HOPE)
“This is, hands down, the single best book on building people-power
campaigns for change. ”
—Ken Butigan, Pace e Bene and Campaign Nonviolence
“We're lucky to have mentors like George Lakey, and lucky for the
many lessons and insights he shares in this book. Read it! Better
yet, use it.”
—Yotam Marom, former leader in Occupy Wall Street, co-founder,
IfNotNow and Wildfire Project
"Movement-building is a craft. But since you can't get a degree as
a Movement Builder, we have to make do with trial and error while
learning the lessons from those who have walked this road before.
That's where George Lakey comes in."
—Yonah Lieberman, founding member of IfNotNow.
“If you feel lost and unsure about what to do to help make positive
change in our troubled times, reading this book may
well provide you with a new sense of hope and purpose.”
—Mark and Paul Engler, authors of This Is An Uprising: How
Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the 21st Century
“Inspirational, practical, readable, with the distilled wisdom of
generations.”
—Kate Evans, author of Red Rosa and Threads from the
Refugee Crisis
“A timely book that balances ageless organizing strategies while
addressing many of today's specific challenges.”
—Kazu Haga, founder, East Point Peace Academy
“How We Win is both practical and visionary. It offers useful
stories, tools, and tips for on-the-ground organizers while
advancing how campaigns can build transformative movements.”
—Zein Nakhoda, Director, Training for Change, and filmmaker,
Grounded While Walls Fall
“A powerful guide in these perilous times from a master of social
change!”
—Judy Wicks, activist, entrepreneur, and author of Good Morning,
Beautiful Business
“How We Win doesn’t just challenge us to think big. It gives us the
tools we need to win big.”
—Milan Rai, Co-editor, Peace News, London
“Every person who wants to bring about fundamental change in our
society needs to read this book.”
—David Hartsough, author of Waging Peace: Global Adventures
of a Lifelong Activist
“This excellent book will give you insights through personal
stories and thoughtful analyses of successful campaigns, and you
will learn how ‘to win major changes rather than small reforms,’
how to move on from mere protest to ‘sustained power to force
a real shift.’”
—Angie Zelter, co-founder of the British nonviolent
direct-action network Trident Ploughshares
“George Lakey, a respected peace worker of experience and long
standing, has given us a book that deserves a place on the
bookshelves of any peace-minded activist.”
—Bruce Kent, Vice-president of the UK Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament
“An interesting and useful contribution to the growing literature
with ideas to inform and inspire present and future activists.”
—Rebecca Johnson, founding President of 2017 Nobel Peace
Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
(ICAN)
“Lakey gels strategy lessons for successful nonviolent direct
action into a single convenient reading with stories and tips from
his lifetime of study and practical experience (ideal for study
groups).”
—Mary Elizabeth King, Director, James Lawson Institute
“George Lakey distills hard-won insights from a lifetime of social
movement work around racial justice, queer organizing, nuclear
disarmament, civil rights, peace, environmental justice, in a
staggering breadth of contexts around the world.”
—Joshua Kahn, Executive Director, The Wildfire Project
“This book could not arrive at a better time for those of us who
wish to overcome the political and planetary challenges before
us.”
—Lissy Romanow, Momentum
“This book is a gift to progressive organizers everywhere!”
—Mary Lou Finley, sociologist, co-editor of The Chicago
Freedom Movement
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