Resources

Have you:

• Got a clear aim and objective for the action

o How will you know if this aim has been achieved? What will have changed?
o Does this aim fit into your broader campaign goals?
o Who is your target and how will you engage with them?
o What other audiences / third parties, if any, do you hope to reach and what actions do you want them to take?
o What is your (clear) message?

• Made group decision about…

Great resource from Gene Sharp also available at www.aeinstein.org/organizations/org/198_methods-1.pdf

Myth 1. Direct Action doesn’t achieve anything

The reason we have weekends is because of labour movement protests. Women have the vote because the Suffragettes took to the streets. The anti-slavery movement, Gandhi, Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement all used civil disobedience to win fundamental freedoms that we now enjoy.

In Australia’s recent history, direct action movements have protected millions of hectares of forests across the continent, saved cultural heritage sites and urban parkland in Sydney through Union Green Bans and ten years ago halted uranium mining at Jabiluka cultural and environmental World Heritage Site.

This guide to large protests was written by Anthony Kelly of the Pt’chang Nonviolent Community Safety Group. For a more thorough discussion check out the attached Activist Survival Handbook published by the same group.

Medical matters

If you have a medical condition or have medication that you take regularly please make sure someone knows. Tell a friend, someone in your affinity group (Action Team) or an organiser of your condition.

Direct (without intervening persons, influences, factors: straightforward; frank; candid: inevitable; consequential:)

Action (to start doing something: the process or state of acting or of being active: something done or performed : an exertion of power)

If we are going to turn things around and stop the worst impacts of climate change, we need action now. And if Goverenments aren't doing it, it is up to citizens of conscience to take direct action. It is easy to foget that peaceful direct action and civil disobedience are a fundamental part of our democracy. The reason we have weekends is because of labour movement protests. Women have the vote because the Suffragettes took to the streets. The anti-slavery movement, Gandhi, Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement all used civil disobedience to win fundamental freedoms that we now take for granted. This page aims to provide some tools, and to share some of the rich experience of succesful direct action over recent years. So whether you're young or old, whether you were born on top of a tripod or have been a law abiding citizen your whole life, we'd like to provide some guidance and assistance on your journey towards becoming a noble troublemaker.

Links to resources on nonviolent direct action