Session I: The Purpose and Importance of Training
SESSION I
THE PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING
PURPOSE OF THIS SESSION: (1) To introduce trainers and participants to one another; (2) To get participants to understand the purpose and importance of training.
MATERIALS NEEDED: (1) Flip-chart stand; (2) Magic markers; (3) Pad of newsprint.
ESTIMATED TIME FOR THE SESSION: 1 hour, including the Question and Answer period. The session may go longer if the group is large and/or if trainers use a long process to introduce participants.
INTRODUCTIONS (Time: Variable, depending on group’s size)
1. Introduction of Trainers
a. Trainers introduce themselves, giving their names and highlighting any experience they may have had in nonviolence training and action.
b. Point out that participants in the training have important practical experience that will be extremely valuable for the training. “We trainers will expect to draw upon your experience and insights.”
c. Therefore, this is a two-way learning experience, rather than a series of lectures by “experts.”
2. Introduction of Participants
a. Trainers organize a “creative introductions exercise” to help workshop participants get to know one another.
b. This could be a simple exercise, like having participants give their names, what they do, and why they are interested in the training. Or trainers can design a more complex exercise, using small groups, dyads, etc.
AGENDA AND LOGISTICS REVIEW (10 minutes)
1. Trainers explain briefly what the training will entail. (A summary of the workshop agenda could be written on the newsprint or could be handed to each participant on a paper.)
2. This is also a time for announcements about logistics for the workshop, e.g., locations of meeting rooms, meals, sleeping arrangements, etc.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING (Talk by a Trainer – 20 minutes)
Trainer discusses the value of training. Some of the following points might be made:
1. Although unprepared actions have sometimes accomplished great feats, it rarely makes sense to rush into action without preparation. People have scaled mountains without readying themselves, but success is more likely when one has a plan and the necessary equipment.
2. Training helps us to anticipate crises or problem situations we may encounter in the actual struggle. It helps us think carefully about the best response, away from the heat of the battle. It is a place to test strategies and tactics, to weed out those that will not work and to emphasize those that will.
3. Training confronts people’s fear and anger. People worry that they may not be able to stay nonviolent in the face of opponents’ hostility. They worry that they will lose their courage and run away. Or that they will respond to antagonists with anger or counter-violence. Practicing nonviolent responses to hostility in training exercises gives people confidence that they can remain nonviolent even in the face of belligerent opposition in a real conflict situation. “We made it clear,” said Martin Luther King, “that we would not send anyone out to demonstrate who had not convinced themselves and us that they could accept and endure violence without retaliating.”
4. Training gives time to think through the many roles that need to be played and the functions that need to be fulfilled to make a nonviolent campaign well-organized.
5. Training develops solidarity among participants and confidence in companions, the organization, and its leadership.
6. Training reminds us of the long history of nonviolent struggle, in all its many forms, from which we can draw inspiration and strength.
7. Preparation gives time to develop an organizational structure and leadership based on democratic decision-making, whereas leadership in unplanned actions tends to go to the most charismatic person or to those seeking power.
8. Nonviolence training has been an essential part of many of history’s most powerful nonviolent movements. It is said that Gandhi trained 100,000 Indians in his campaign against British colonialism. Such training was crucial in the black power civil rights movement in the U.S. It had a prominent place in the movement against the war in Vietnam. More recently, it played a vital role in the “People Power” movement, which overthrew the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines.
QUESTION AND ANSWER PERIOD (15 minutes)
Trainers solicit questions from the participants by asking questions such as –
“Do people have any questions about what we’ve said so far?”
“Do people have anything they would like to add from their own experience of training?”
