By Guy Page
Vermont activists are being invited to a two-day “Election Defense Workshop” next month that will include planning and scenarios for “mass non-violent direct action” if election results are threatened in Vermont or elsewhere in the country.
The Sept. 19-20 training in Montpelier is being promoted by the Vermont Public Interest Research Group’s Democracy Vermont campaign and will be hosted in conjunction with Freedom Trainers and 198 Methods.
Among activist Gene Sharp’s 198 methods of nonviolent action, covering many different protest situations, are:
- Haunting and taunting officials
- Protest disrobings
- Mock funerals
- Lysistratic nonaction (denying sex)
- Boycotts
- Rent Withholding
- Strikes
- No or slow compliance by government officials
- Mutiny
- Disclosing identities of secret agents
According to an Aug. 25 email from VPIRG Democracy Vermont Campaign Director Jordan Heiden, the second day will be devoted specifically to “Scenarios and Planning for Mass Non-Violent Direct Action.”
“The goal is simple,” Heiden wrote. “Make sure our community is ready to protect the vote and respond swiftly if the results are threatened here in Vermont or anywhere across the country.”
The invitation also asks recipients not to advertise the workshop broadly. “Please only share this invite with trusted individuals and groups,” the email says, adding that targeted newsletters and Signal groups are acceptable but “not public social media posts.”
The precise Montpelier location is also being withheld for now and will be provided to registrants shortly before the event, according to the email. Attendance is free, lunch will be provided and the sessions will not be recorded.
Day One, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 19, will cover voter mobilization, “Hands Off Our Vote” (Indivisible) messaging and election-defense scenarios, along with guest speakers. VPIRG, 198 Methods and Freedom Trainers are listed as hosts.
The Sunday session shifts the emphasis to direct action, with Freedom Trainers and 198 Methods leading participants through scenarios and planning for what organizers specifically describe as “mass non-violent direct action.”
The email does not identify what specific events would trigger such action, where demonstrations might occur, what tactics participants would be trained to use, or how organizers would determine that election results had been “threatened.”
The training is part of a broader election-related organizing effort promoted in the VPIRG email. The organization said it recently conducted a virtual Get Out the Vote training covering door-to-door conversations, canvassing territory and safety, and said it expects volunteers to be knocking on doors this fall.
The email also promotes League of Women Voters of Vermont election-observer trainings on Sept. 3 and Sept. 9.
Other upcoming activist events listed by VPIRG include a Sept. 25-26 Civil Rights Summit in Randolph, an “ICE Out Week of Action” Oct. 4-9 in Williston and an Oct. 17 “No Kings” event.
The election-defense workshop comes less than seven weeks before the Nov. 3 general election. Organizers say seats for the Montpelier training are limited and additional details will be released later.