George Russell Lakey (born November 2, 1937) is an activist,
sociologist, and writer who added academic underpinning to the concept of
nonviolent revolution.[1] He also refined the practice of experiential training for activists which he calls "Direct Education".[2] A
Quaker, he has co-founded and led numerous organizations and campaigns for justice and peace.[3]
In the late 1950s, Lakey was active in the
ban-the-bomb movement,[6] then participated in the
civil rights movement, in 1963 being arrested in a sit-in.[3] The following year he was a trainer for
Mississippi Freedom Summer and co-authored his first book, A Manual for Direct Action, which was widely used in the South by the
civil rights movement.[7] In 1966 he co-founded the national body
A Quaker Action Group (AQAG), whose activities took him in 1967 to
Vietnam to participate in the sailing ship Phoenix's protest action in
South Vietnam seeking to give medical supplies to the anti-war
Buddhist movement there.[8]
In 1970, Lakey was active within AQAG in the successful direct action in the
Puerto Rican struggle to stop the
U.S. Navy from using the island of
Culebra for target practice.[9] In 1971 he helped found
Movement for a New Society (MNS), a network of autonomous groups working for a
nonviolent revolution.[10] The network featured living collectives and
co-ops as well as participation in national movements of the 1970s and '80s. The network's training program at the Philadelphia Life Center Association became highly influential in the US and abroad in spreading
Paulo Freire's
Popular education and other participatory training methods.[11]
During the 1970s, he also gave national leadership to the Campaign to Stop the
B-1 Bomber and Promote Peace Conversion,[12] which succeeded in persuading
Congress and
President Carter to de-fund this Air Force program.[13] In 1976 he co-organized Men Against
Patriarchy, a pioneering anti-
sexism movement for men. In 1982 he organized the
Pennsylvania section of a national labor/community coalition named "Jobs with Peace" and directed that effort for seven years.[14]
In 1973, Lakey came out in public as a gay man, and joined the
LGBT movement, becoming part of what he later would call "
Gay Liberation's early visionary days."[15][16]
In 1991, he co-founded with
Philadelphia activist
Barbara Smith, Training for Change (TfC). Building on previous training at the
Martin Luther King Jr. School for Social Change and
Movement for a New Society, Training for Change developed a new
pedagogy called "Direct Education". Training for Change did trainings and consultations for activists and nongovernmental organizations in 20 countries.[17]
In 2009, Lakey co-founded Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT), to build a just and sustainable economy through nonviolent direct action campaigns. The group won its first campaign, forcing
PNC Bank to stop financing
mountaintop removal coal mining in
Appalachia. In that campaign, while in his seventies, Lakey was arrested and also led a 200-mile march.[18]
Academia
Lakey's first teaching post in higher education was in the Martin Luther King Jr. School of Social Change, a division of
Crozer Theological Seminary in
Chester, Pennsylvania.[19] Lakey helped formulate the curriculum and then taught there for its first four years, 1965–1969.[20] In this period he systematized the field of "Experiential Nonviolence Training" and the students were supported in efforts to connect field training with theory in
direct actions.[21]
A Manual for Direct Action: Strategy and Tactics for Civil Rights and All Other Nonviolent Protest Movements, co-author with Martin Oppenheimer; Chicago IL:
Quadrangle Books, 1965
In Place of War: Moving toward a New Society, co-author with the
American Friends Service Committee working party; lead author: James E. Bristol) New York City NY:
Grossman, 1967
Strategy for a Living Revolution: a World Order Book; New York City:
Grossman, and San Francisco CA:
W.H. Freeman, 1973
Revised and published as Powerful Peacemaking, Philadelphia, PA:
New Society Publishers, 1987
Revised and published as Toward a Living Revolution, London, England:
Peace News, 2013, then published with the same title in a North American edition by
Wipf & Stock, 2016 (The central thesis of the above book on nonviolent revolution is found in "A Manifesto for Nonviolent Revolution" also by George Lakey and released by
War Resisters International (WRI), 1975 (see above).)[22]
Moving toward a New Society (co-author), Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publishers, 1975
No Turning Back: Lesbian and Gay Liberation in the ‘80s (co-author with Erika Thorne), Philadelphia, PA:
New Society Publishers, 1983
Grassroots and Nonprofit Leadership: A Guide for Organizations in Changing Times (co-author with Berit Lakey, Rod Napier, and Janice Robinson), Philadelphia, PA:
New Society Publishers, 1995; new edition (self-published), 2016; also published in translation in Cairo, Belgrade, and Bangkok
Opening Space for Democracy: Curriculum and Manual for Training for Third Party Nonviolent Intervention; co-author with Daniel Hunter), Philadelphia, PA: Training for Change, 2004
Facilitating Group Learning: Strategies for Success with Diverse Adult Learners. San Francisco CA:
Jossey-Bass, 2010
Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians got it right and how we can, too; New York, NY and London, England:
Melville House Publishing, 2016
How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning; New York, NY and London, England:
Melville House Publishing, 2018
Dancing with History: A Life for Peace and Justice; New York, NY:
Seven Stories Press, 2022
Internet Development and Writing:
Global Nonviolent Action Database, internet – ongoing[23]
Over 1,000 researched cases from nearly 200 countries with focus on campaigns back to
ancient Egypt that used
nonviolent direct action. Searchable, and includes a narrative for each case. Developed by George Lakey with
Swarthmore and other university students, with Swarthmore's Peace and Conflict Studies, the Peace Collection, and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.[24]
Living Revolution. column internet website WagingNonviolence.org, ongoing
Waging Nonviolence. Blog (featured columnist) internet website WagingNonviolence.org, ongoing on-line blog where George Lakey has been a regular featured columnist since 2010.