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100 ideas for direct actions


Sub-Comandante Marcos small

 


These 100 ideas are taken from The Campaigning Handbook, by Mark Lattimer. Some are obviously discutable, and others are illegal. The list nevertheless presents an interesting panorama of direct actions used for thousands years for some. Others also proved their effectiveness in the history.

 

 

Protest (symbolic actions)

  • Refusal of assembly to disperse
  • Sit down
  • Bodily interjections (e.g. protesters placing themselves between whalers and their prey)
  • Bodily obstruction (e.g. lying in front of bulldozers)
  • Trespass into closed areas
  • Airborne invasion (flying balloons over a target)
  • Occupations
  • Inviting arrest / imprisonment
  • Sit-in
  • Stand-in (joining queues at sites to dissuade customers)
  • Ride-in (use of restricted transport)
  • Pray-in (attend services of religious institutions opposed to change)
  • Return of waste products (returning dumped waste)
  • Heckling
  • Guerrilla theatre (theatre involving bystanders)
  • Public burnings of papers
  • Protest strip
  • Graffiti
  • Defacing signs or advertisements
  • Adoption of new signs or names
  • Refusal to collaborate with government bodies
  • Declining government awards or appointments
  • Boycott of elections
  • Hunger strike
  • Penitential (satyagrahic) fast
  • Social actions
  • Ghosting (persistent following of individuals)
  • Personal harassment (e.g. taunting, picketing home)
  • Publicising individual’s activities
  • Social boycott (e.g. refusal to trade with individuals)
  • Ostracism (radical form of social boycott)
  • Denial of sexual relations
  • Excommunication
  • Boycott of meetings, events or lectures
  • Group silence (e.g. audience refusal to engage)
  • Walk-out
  • Picketing
  • Breaking social taboos
  • Socialising with outcasts
  • Harbouring fugitives
  • Sanctuary (use of buildings to harbour individuals)
  • People’s public hearings and courts


Boycotts and strikes

  • Consumers’ boycott of goods

  • Consumers’ boycott of producer

  • Withholding of rent

  • Refusal to pay tax

  • Refusal to pay debts or charges

  • Withdrawal of bank deposits

  • Retailers’ boycott

  • Blacking of goods by suppliers

  • Blacking of raw materials by workers

  • Demonstration strike

  • Go-slow

  • Work-to-rule (a form of go-slow in which all the rules and regulations are meticulously observed)

  • Co-ordination of reporting sick

  • Overtime strike

  • Selective strike (withdrawal of labour on selective activities)

  • Detailed strike (strike joined by workers one-by-one)

  • Bumper strike (striking firms in an industry one-by-one to expose them to competition by rivals)

  • Wildcat or lightning strike

  • Lock-up or stay-in strike

  • Reverse strike (e.g. carrying out public works unpaid in order to draw attention to need)

  • Personal strike (individual refusal to obey orders)

  • Hartal (cessation of economic activity for limited periods in protest by entire community)

  • General strike (strike by workers across industry, main tenet of revolutionary syndicalism)


Non-cooperation and obstruction: actions by outsiders

  • Overloading facilities or services

  • Overloading administrative systems

  • Slow or cumbersome compliance with regulations

  • Stalling by customers (e.g. by drawing out or complicating routine transactions)

  • Breaking bad laws on principle (e.g. non payment)

  • Publishing secret material

  • Disclosing secret identities

  • Tracking (e.g. following military deployments)

  • Forgery of letters

  • Breaking official blockades

  • Refusal to recognise appointed officials

  • Non-cooperation with police, etc.

  • Removal of street signs, door numbers, etc.

  • Closure of roads

  • Infiltration of institutions with spies or saboteurs

  • Electronic picketing

  • Spoiling or contamination of goods

  • Monkey-wrenching

  • Liberating animals in traps or laboratories


Non-cooperation and obstruction: actions by insiders

  • Refusal to perform selection actions

  • Failure to pass on information / instructions

  • Deliberate inefficiency

  • Industrial sabotage

  • Non-cooperation by juries

  • Non-cooperation or mutiny by security forces

  • Non-cooperation by government units


Positive direct action

  • Non-retaliation

  • Entryism

  • Alternative radio / newspapers

  • Alternative schools

  • Selective patronage (e.g. fair trade)

  • Alternative economic bodies (e.g. cooperatives)

  • Alternative economies (e.g. local exchange trading schemes)

  • Suspending specific regulations within community (e.g. property rights in a commune)

  • Selective refusal of entry (e.g. gun-free zones)

  • Alternative community with independent sovereign government.

 

 

 

Genoa 2001

Genoa 2001