Author talks nonviolent action at Eagle Harbor Books

George Lakey will visit Eagle Harbor Book Company at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 17 to discuss his new book, “How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigns.”

The book draws lessons from a century of successful direct action campaigns by women and civic, labor, civil rights, LGBTQ, immigrant, environmentalist, religious and student groups.

With a new generation of activists looking to take action — from the Women’s March, to Black Lives Matter, to the students of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School — the time is ripe for a guide on campaigning today.

Through vivid stories the reader learns a variety of activist tools and how they built powerful movements that won victories despite sometimes-violent opposition.

In addition to strategy and tactics, the author reveals best practices for fostering cooperative, inclusive leadership and unity with diversity. He explains how campaigns can become building blocks for a movement that transforms an unjust society.

Lakey recently retired from Swarthmore College where he was Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professor for Issues in Social Change. He created and managed the Global Nonviolent Action Database research project. In 2010, he was named “Peace Educator of the Year.” Each of his 10 books has been about change and how to get it, including his recent “Viking Economics.”

He has supported a number of movements, co-leading a sailing ship with medical aid to Vietnam in defiance of the U.S. war, campaigning with others in the LGBTQ community, organizing Men Against Patriarchy, and leading a statewide cross-race, cross-class coalition to fight back against Reagan. His first arrest was for a nonviolent civil rights sit-in.

Visit www.eagleharborbooks.com to learn more.