A few thoughts from a long-time (if not very successful) activist waiting for a hard strike to end:

1) Try and develop a philosophy of life or a core of belief out from which you operate. This can be strategically helpful because it helps you to see links and make connections and be creative in ways that your opponents -- typically government bureaucrats and other constrained folk -- cannot. Don't try and be a mirror or mimic of the forces of power -- they are better at what they do than you will ever be. Strike out for new terrain. Don't get locked into convention. Use your integrated sense to find new partners, allies, ideas that will always elude your adversaries. The strength of the unofficial is in their larger horizon.

2) Never forget that your adversary is usually smart, and learns lessons. Most 60's activists thought that the adversary would never smarten up -- boy, were they wrong.

3) Treat your adversary with as much kindness and respect and thoughtfulness as possible. Give your adversary lots of room to come to you. You will often find that there are people in the enemy camp who are unhappy with the position they are in. Where do you think all those brown envelopes come from? Don't push your adversary to the point where there is no escape, unless you are fighting to the death.

4) Protect your family and friends. I repeat: protect your family and friends. A third time: protect your family and friends. You need them.

5) Choose your issue, or let it choose you with care, and after some brooding. Gandhi went to endless trouble to study all sides of an issue, and would then pick on one little piece of it that captured the essence of the issue, or was the most vulnerable part of the adversary's case.
6) Find copies of the work of Saul Alinsky, Judith Brown's biography of Gandhi's early work in South Africa and India, and one of the big biographies of Martin Luther King. These are completely invaluable.

7) Make sure that you help fold up the chairs at the end of the meeting, help wash the dishes, bring some food, learn people's names, have some fun.

8) Learn a prayer or two that you can have when things go really bad.

yours, Peter T.