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Sample Short Agenda for Prague 2000:
(Here Ìs how I put them together into a sample agenda)
- Introductions 10 min.
- Agenda Review 5
- Victory Brainstorm 10
- Direct ActionÛwhy we do it 10
- Hassle Lines: 30
- Blockader/tourist
- Blockader/media
- Debrief with discussion of nonviolence as communication, specific techniques and
principles
- Practical Resistance Techniques: 30
- Going limp, puppy piling, self protection from beating, etc., linking arms, getting
dragged, etc, etc.Ûdemonstrations and practice
- Gas, Pepper spray, what to wear to the action
- Affinity Groups 15
- How they function, different roles, spokescouncil model of organization, etc.
Introduce and describe. Be sure to describe the role of support in an action.
- Decision Making: 30
- Introduction to Consensus decision making, roles, steps in the processÛdifferent
groups and cultures use different models
- Practice role play:
- In affinity groups (if present) or form mock affinity groups, practice a decision.
Some suggestions:
- Quick decision: (5 minutes) You are an affinity group who has chosen to stay with
the large, legal march on the 26th. The march is blocked by police. Four other
marches peel off the main march to attempt to encircle the center. Do you stay with
the main march, join a smaller march, try to push through the police lines, go out to
lunch? Or?
- Longer decision: (15 minutes) You are an affinity group planning to be in PragueÛ
come up with a creative, autonomous action for the morning of the 26th.
- Jail/Legal:
- I suggest ideally a separate legal briefing given by lawyers, and/or a handout about
our rights under Czech law.
- Brief basic legal info: 10
- Surviving jailÛintroduce ideas of self organizing, solidarity, protection techniques,
emotional survival and post jail support. 15
- Jail role play: 15
- The group has been arrested. They are all together, for the moment, in a holding area.
Give them some time to begin organizing (finding out who is there, is anyone
missing? Hurt? Setting up a plan for contacting supporters if and when phone calls
are available, etc.) As they are discussing, guards move in, grab someone who
appears to be a leader, and attempt to remove that person. The role play itsel can be
fairly short, leave time to discuss.
- Action role play: 30
- Role play a scenario based on what we anticipate in the action, and discuss. It could
expand on one of the role plays described above.
- Evaluate/Close: 10
- This is four hours exactly with no break. If translation is necessary, it will all take
longer. To shorten it, IÌd probably combine the consensus role play with the final
blockade role playÛyou might find other parts that could be trimmed. This is, of
course, my suggestionÛyou might come up with a different agenda of your own, and
priorities may change as the situation changes closer to the action.
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