Welcome to class. Today, we’ll be learning how to become (effective) troublemakers.

In this classroom, no one gets in trouble for defying authority. Designed for educators and facilitators from the union hall to the lecture hall, Roles of Resistance: Game Plans for Teachers and Troublemakers outlines revolutionary lesson plans on how to fight the power with people power. The thirteen lesson plans in this book created by John-Henry Harter and Mark Leier can be used independently or combined to create a semester-long course. Sections include units on teaching political economy, labour history, and social activism based on democratic, experiential teaching, including role-plays, simulations, and games. The tried and tested classroom activities in this teacher’s guide—successfully applied in high schools, universities, and union classrooms—are bound to create a vibrant learning experience, enriching debates, and providing the main tool we need to change the world: collective action.

John-Henry Harter is a lecturer in history and labour studies at Simon Fraser University. He is an award-winning teacher whose research and teaching focus on both environmental and labour history as well as pop culture. He has published in both academic journals and popular magazines. He lives with his partner and two dogs on the West Coast of what we call Canada. When not teaching or writing he is consuming far too much coffee and reality TV.

John-Henry Harter's profile page

Born in Ladner, BC, Mark Leier worked at several jobs, including dishwasher, bridge tender, printer, construction labourer, truck driver, cook, and busker before going to university. He received his PhD from Memorial University of Newfoundland and is currently in the History Department at Simon Fraser University. In addition to Rebel Life, he is the author of Bakunin: The Creative Passion (1996); Red Flags and Red Tape: The Making of a Labour Bureaucracy (1995); Where the Fraser River Flows: The IWW in BC (1990); and with M.C. Warrior, The Light at the End of the Tunnel: A History of the Tunnel and Rockworkers Union (1992). A regular media commentator on labour, left, and Canadian history, his work has appeared in daily newspapers as well as academic journals.

Mark Leier's profile page