How Direct Action Campaigns Serve Personal and Social Liberation

After the flurry of election excitement people ask, “Now what?” In this lecture, George Lakey makes a case for nonviolent direct action campaigning as a technique that supports holistic change on personal, cultural, and political-economic levels. He tells campaign stories in which all of that happened, including Quaker stories of Spirit-led campaigns that are highly relevant for today. He assumes that polarization will accelerate in the United States, bringing more ugliness and violence, and suggests that campaigns can be the most effective single means for healing as well as the only means powerful enough to reverse the current trend. While George sees merit in other approaches to social change, he sees campaigning as the catalyst that supports other methods to reach their potential.

Leader(s)

We hope to have signed copies of George’s latest book, “How We Win,” available for purchase on the night.

Activist-sociologist George Lakey has used multiple approaches for positive change in his 60 years of experimenting with truth. He recently retired from Swarthmore College. He was arrested in the civil rights movement and this spring in the Power Local Green Jobs campaign.  His tenth book is How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning (Melville House).

Join George as he tinkles the ivories for a Broadway singalong following the talk.

Travel directions to Pendle Hill. Click to view the flyer.