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Blog: The Whole World Stopped Watching (Part II): How "Diversity of Tactics" offers neither

Philippe Duhamel's picture
Posted October 17th, 2008 by Philippe Duhamel
rncNobody can argue against the proven benefits of using a diversity of well-chosen tactics to wage successful struggles. The sequencing of multiple creative tactics ranging from protests to legislative pressures, from secondary boycotts to civil disobedience, has been a fundamental feature of countless successful campaigns. A wide variety of tactics lies at the core of the emphasis nonviolent activists have put for decades on knowing a repertoire of at least 198 methods of action, and on clever ways to sequence them.

But dangerous slips of logic have presided over a protest framework known as "Respect for a Diversity of Tactics". I believe the failure of protests such as the one at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul (USA) last September is inherent in the Diversity of Tactics approach.