Violence de-escalation trainings are key to making movements stronger

This article Violence de-escalation trainings are key to making movements stronger was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

The specter of political violence in the United States is deeply troubling. It is not surprising that there has been a spate of articles calling for a dialing back of political violence, given the events of recent months.

Ever-growing political violence in the U.S. (not to mention abroad) has been a mainstay of current events. These tragic episodes have included political assassinations of Democratic state lawmakers in Minnesota; the assassination of Israeli Embassy personnel in mid-May; the attack on an interfaith gathering calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado in late May; the firebombing of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence in April; and the Trump administration’s deployment of the National Guard and the Marines to Los Angeles to quell demonstrations against militarized Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, raids on immigrant workers in Los Angeles.

While Trump himself has been the target of at least two assassination attempts, his administration and the movement supporting it have done their part to increase both violent discourse, imagery and actions — both to migrants and demonstrators.

Two recent op-eds in the New York Times, one by Robert Pape and the other by political scientist Omar Wasow and sociologist Robb Willer, raise the alarm, but also propose ways of dialing back from this current moment. Pape notes that contentious times can lead to political violence and an unraveling of social norms, but this trend can be reversed with bipartisan condemnation of political violence. He notes that while many politicians condemned the shootings in Minnesota, both administration officials and California politicians have used ramped-up, bellicose language around demonstrations in Los Angeles.

Wasow and Willer draw on the civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s — as well as a growing literature on the power of strategic nonviolence to successfully overthrow authoritarian regimes — to argue that nonviolent movements are more successful at establishing more democratic governments.  

It is increasingly clear, however, that implementing strategic nonviolence takes skill development and training. Skills can be imparted cognitively through workbooks and training manuals, such as the “Streetwise and Steady” workbook developed by Eileen Flanagan and Daniel Hunter.

But training — in person or online — is critical for people to begin to embody and intuit the skills of de-escalation. The skills are logical, but not natural: how to center oneself, listen, affirm the common ground one has, phrase things to create openings, intervene, distract and provide support for someone under assault, and use one’s body to redirect confrontation and rage.

At the Lansing, Michigan-based unarmed civilian protection organization Meta Peace Team where I serve on the “core” that helps support the organization, this skill set is referred to as CLARA (Center, Listen, Affirm, Respond, Add Information). But really, in training one realizes that de-escalation in most cases involves listening and affirming over and over. These skills not only come in handy for controlling counter-protesters, but also the protesters themselves — to keep them from reacting to counter-protesters. The skills can also be employed in daily interactions.

Thankfully, there is a growing network of institutes teaching these skills that need more support and attention. The Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University lists 140 organizations and institutes that provide training in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

The fact that at least 1,500 No Kings demonstrations involving millions of people around the U.S. occurred on June 14 with almost no incidents is likely a testament to the growing number of trainings about the skills of violence de-escalation and nonviolent protest. (However, there were three cases of violence: two where individuals tried to ram demonstrators with their car, and one where a bystander was killed when armed demonstration security opened fire at an armed counter-demonstrator. In a way, this proves the importance of unarmed, rather than armed, civilian protection.)

Organizers with 50501, as well as chapters of allied organizations such as Indivisible and Hands Off!, have been facilitating violence de-escalation trainings.

In Lansing, Meta Peace Team conducted an eight-hour violence de-escalation training for many of the No Kings demonstration marshals, and they have been running monthly violence de-escalation trainings for people via Zoom. They have also been fielding an unarmed civilian protection team to intervene to prevent violent interactions between demonstrators and the counter-protester provocateurs.

This preparation paid off at the demonstration I attended in Lansing, when a handful of counter-protesters showed up, clearly intending to egg on thousands of protesters. Trained nonviolent peacekeepers — both from the Meta Peace Team and protest marshals trained in nonviolence — kept them separated from protesters. The counter-protesters would try to shout, and were in turn shouted down, but there were no reports that anyone was hurt.

Cindy Campbell, a colleague at Meta Peace Team, attended a No Kings demonstration in more conservative northern New York, where there were 15 people who had some training among the 150 protesters who showed up.

“Trusting that when you turn up to a demonstration you will be surrounded by friends and people who know how to protect each other is key,” she said. “Spreading the word that training is readily available and people should routinely access this training will help others feel more confident about going.”

Research shows that sustained nonviolent action can undermine authoritarianism. Indeed, nonviolent action might well be the antidote for the climate of political violence associated with an American society deeply divided on important issues — from the Middle East to gender to immigration to the threat of ICE, militarized police and the National Guard. But nonviolence is not just about naming a strategy, it is about building the skill sets that facilitate de-escalation and listening.

Those who follow the literature on nonviolent protest know that the power of nonviolence is often underestimated. What needs to be emphasized is that nonviolence succeeds when people have the training and skills to stay centered and de-escalate. In a world where provocateurs are around hoping to discredit protests, trained civilians with the skills to de-escalate potential violence give people power a greater chance of succeeding.

This article Violence de-escalation trainings are key to making movements stronger was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

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Source: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/07/violence-de-escalation-trainings-are-key-to-making-movements-stronger/