How to Protest Effectively: Non-Violent Methods
The evidence that non-violence works, and the discipline every protester is expected to keep — on message, on the right side of the law, respectful to police, and on camera.
1. The facts: non-violence works
Start with the evidence, because it settles the argument. Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan studied 323 major campaigns between 1900 and 2006. Of the violent ones, 26 per cent succeeded. Of the non-violent ones, 53 per cent did — about twice the rate. Since the 1970s the gap has widened: peaceful campaigns have won more than half the time, and in the strongest stretch around seven in ten, while violent campaigns never cleared 40 per cent.
There is a figure that goes with it — the 3.5 per cent rule. In that century of data, no government withstood a sustained, peaceful mobilisation of about three and a half per cent of its population at a peak moment without either giving way or falling. For Australia that is a large but reachable number, and the point of every meeting place in every town is to build toward it.
Be honest about the limits. This is a historical pattern, not a guarantee, and since around 2010 both peaceful and violent resistance have become harder as governments learn to counter them. That is an argument for more discipline and more numbers, not less — which is exactly what this memo is about.
Why does peaceful protest out-perform violence? Because it lets ordinary people in. Families, older Australians, the cautious and the careful will stand in a peaceful crowd; they will not throw a brick. That is how a movement reaches the numbers that count. Violence does the opposite — it empties the crowd of everyone but the few, and unites the rest of the country against you.
2. Why violence loses
When a peaceful movement is met with force, the force is what looks bad. Repression aimed at calm, disciplined people backfires and wins the movement support — but only while the movement stays peaceful. The moment one protester throws a punch or a bottle, the story flips. Now the other side has its excuse, the cameras have their picture, and the cautious majority you needed goes home.
One violent act tars everyone. It will be filmed, and it will be played on a loop, and no one will remember the cause it was attached to. Discipline is not weakness and it is not timidity. It is how we deny the other side the one thing that would let them win: a reason to call us a mob.
3. The behaviour expected of every protester
Four things are expected of everyone who turns up under this banner.
- No violence, under any provocation. Not to people, not to property. Stay calm when you are baited — being baited is often the point.
- Stay on message. Clear demands, consistent words, unified chants. Discipline beats volume; scattered anger just dilutes the point.
- Protect each other. Come with mates, look out for the vulnerable, leave no one behind — legally, physically and emotionally. Community care is part of the strategy.
- Stay lawful. Lawful behaviour increases our legitimacy. Know your rights and the local rules, and keep the attention on the issue, not on an avoidable arrest.
4. Respect the police — most of them are on our side
Treat the police with respect, and you will get respect back. This is not naivety; it is the truth of our situation. On the things we are asking for — independence, our sovereignty back, an honest review of AUKUS — most of them quietly agree. They are Australians too, with families and a mortgage, sent to do a job. On our issues, the majority are on our side, uniform or not.
It is also the smart play. The police are one of the pillars that hold any government up. You do not win by hardening them against you; you win by keeping them sympathetic, or at the very least not hostile. Respect does that. Abuse does the opposite, and it hands the government the one thing it wants — a reason to send them in hard.
So never give them that reason. Be calm and be polite. Follow lawful directions. If an order is unclear, you may ask, politely, for it to be clarified. Keep the disagreement where it belongs — with the government, not with the constable standing in front of you.
5. Record every interaction
Record every interaction with authorities — openly and calmly, never to provoke. Not because we expect trouble, but because a clear record is the best protection there is if anyone gets heavy-handed. Footage protects the protester and the movement; it also protects the police who do their job properly. That is why our camps run visible body cameras (see the Simpson Villages guide), and why every phone in the crowd is an asset.
Keep the footage for what it is for: protection and legal defence. Not for picking fights online, and not for goading anyone. The camera is calm, visible, and on.
6. Don’t feed provocateurs
Anyone urging violence, vandalism or an illegal stunt is not one of us — and may be there precisely to discredit us. Do not argue with them and do not confront them. Step back, alert a marshal, and document calmly. The discipline of the crowd around them is the defence; an agitator with no one to follow him is harmless.
7. De-escalation and marshals
De-escalation is strength, not weakness. Lowering your voice, stepping back, calming the people around you — the person who keeps composure is the person who controls the moment. A large action runs better with trained peace marshals (guides, protectors and witnesses), medics, and legal observers who keep things calm and keep people safe.
8. Train before you go
Staying non-violent under pressure is a skill, not a mood. The movements that won trained for it: in the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, volunteers role-played being screamed at and shoved until they had learned not to swing back before they ever sat down at a counter. Run the drill in your own group. What do you do when someone gets in your face? You breathe, you don’t take the bait, you protect your mate, and you keep filming.
9. How we protest
This is the part people remember — not what we are against, but what we look and feel like. We protest in a way that is impossible to dismiss and good to be part of.
We wear our colours. Green and gold first — ours and the nation’s. White and black alongside, with each colour turning out together as a group, so the crowd forms into clean blocks of colour rather than a scatter. Ordered colour reads as one organised people, and it carries the flag without a word. Australian flags are always welcome.
We keep it calm and ordered. A group sitting together in meditation, a minute’s silence at the doors of Parliament, stillness held by thousands. Calm on that scale is more powerful than any shouting, and a camera cannot make it ugly.
We bring music and culture. Live music, song, and the food, dance and traditions of all the people who make up this country — every heritage that calls Australia home. A protest that is also a celebration of the nation draws people in; a grievance pushes them away. Bring something to share, bring your family, and make it a place people want to be.
The aim is a movement that looks like Australia at its best: calm, colourful, welcoming and united — the one thing no government can sneer at and no outlet can write off as a mob.
10. The method, in one line
Be many. Be calm. Stay on message. Stay on the right side of the law. Keep it on camera. Respect the people sent to police you. That is what makes a movement impossible to ignore and impossible to write off. If you want it in motion, come to your meeting place and bring someone with you.
11. References
The strategic evidence is from Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict (Columbia University Press, 2011), and Chenoweth’s work on the 3.5 per cent rule (2013, with a cautionary update in 2020). The methods framework is Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (1973) and From Dictatorship to Democracy (1993). The conduct draws on the long practice of the civil-rights movement and on Martin Luther King Jr.’s principles of non-violence. Our own standing code is set out in the Simpson Villages field guide. Protest and public-assembly law is specific to each state and territory and changes over time — check the current rules for your location. This memo is general guidance, not legal advice.