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Вкратце
Training is not a distraction from the struggle; in fact, it’s critical for cultivating three key elements of social movement success: unity, strategic planning, and nonviolent discipline.
In times of change, the learners will inherit the earth, while the knowers will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
— Eric Hoffer
Some people say you are born an activist or organizer, and training is just a distraction from the real work. In reality, training in social movement settings is critical to achieving real change. It’s especially useful in developing the three key strategic components of movement success: adherence to nonviolent discipline, unity of participants and organizations, and active planning.
Training also supports long-term transformational work, providing learning and rehearsal time for new forms of governance and collective decisionmaking, as well as the personal growth and anti-oppression awareness of participants.
Social movement trainings span a wildly diverse spectrum of activities and formats — everything from deep political education work; to strategic planning, analysis, and theory development; to specific skill and capacity building sessions, including: nonviolent action trainings, leadership and team development activities, logistics exploration, cultural and arts work, anti-oppression education, media skills development, medical and safety sessions, even boat driver or climbing trainings. Depending on the campaign’s goals, needs, and organizational resources, a training could be a 45-minute action prep for 300 people prior to a mass arrest at a coal mine, or a multi-day strategic planning session with six people in an NGO conference room to frame a new campaign.
The best trainings — especially for campaigns dedicated to transformational work — are typically experiential. Here, Paulo Freire’s popular education framework is a frequent inspiration. When done right, participatory and experiential training can function as both the theory and practice of transformational campaigns, helping to build capacity to win major victories.
Реальные примеры
This United States Institute of Peace report highlights strategic functions and outcomes of training in global nonviolent civil resistance movements.
In the uprising against Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos, nonviolent action education served as a key middle-class mobilization tool.
Nonviolent direct action training and education was key to the tactical occupation of proposed nuclear power plant sites in the US and Germany.