Direct action

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For the Canadian urban guerrilla group "Direct Action" see Squamish Five.

Direct action is a form of political activism which seeks immediate remedy for perceived ills, as opposed to indirect actions such as electing representatives who promise to provide remedy at some later date.

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[edit] Overview

Direct action can include such activities as strikes, workplace occupations, sabotage, sit-ins, squatting, revolutionary/guerrilla warfare, vandalism or graffiti. Less confrontational forms of direct action include boycotts, establishing radical social centres, and performing street theatre. Direct actions are often (but not always) a form of civil disobedience and are thus sometimes illegal. For example vandalism is illegal, while demonstrations are not illegal (in most constitutional democracies). Utilizing resources within their power, direct action participants aim to either:

  • obstruct another political agent or political organization from performing some practice to which the activists object; or,
  • solve political problems elected officials are not addressing.

While some participants in direct actions also engage in "indirect actions" (e.g. voting in elections) as part of larger campaigns, some supporters of direct action view this kind of reformist politics as ineffective in bringing about meaningful change. The reasoning against reformist indirect action is this: party politics gives the (perceived) oppressive democratic state or governmental institutions legitimacy. Anarchist Emma Goldman articulated this idea by claiming "if voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." [1]. In this quote, with "they," Goldman is probably referring to democrats, liberal politicians and the business elite.

[edit] History

Direct action tactics have been around for as long as conflicts have existed, but the theory of direct action developed primarily in the context of labor struggles. In his 1920 book, Direct Action, William Mellor placed direct action firmly in the struggle between worker and employer for control "over the economic life of society." Mellor defined direct action "as the use of some form of economic power for securing of ends desired by those who possess that power." Mellor considered direct action a tool of both owners and workers and for this reason he included within his definition lockouts and cartels, as well as strikes and sabotage. However, by this time the American anarchist and feminist Voltairine de Cleyre had already given a strong defense of direct action, linking it with struggles for civil rights:

"the Salvation Army was vigorously practising direct action in the maintenance of the freedom of its members to speak, assemble, and pray. Over and over they were arrested, fined, and imprisoned ... till they finally compelled their persecutors to let them alone." (de Cleyre, undated)

By the middle of the 20th century, the sphere of direct action had undoubtedly expanded, though the meaning of the term had perhaps contracted. Most campaigns for social change—notably those seeking suffrage, improved working conditions, civil rights, an end to abortion, an end to gentrification,and environmental protection—employ at least some types of violent or nonviolent direct action.

The anti-nuclear movement used direct action, particularly during the 1980s. Groups opposing the introduction of Cruise missiles into the UK employed tactics such as breaking into and occupying US air bases, and blocking roads to prevent the movement of military convoys and disrupt military projects. In the US, mass protests opposed nuclear energy, weapons, and military intervention throughout the decade, resulting in thousands of arrests. Many groups also set up semi-permanent 'peace camps' outside air bases such as Molesworth and Greenham Common, and at the Nevada Test Site.

Anti-globalization activists made headlines around the world in 1999, when they forced the Seattle WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 to end early with direct action tactics such as blocking traffic and destroying corporate property.

One of the largest direct actions in recent years took place in San Francisco the day after the Iraq War began in 2003. Twenty-thousand people occupied the streets and over 2,000 people were arrested in affinity group actions throughout downtown San Francisco, home to military-related corporations such as Bechtel. (See March 20, 2003 anti-war protest). Another more successful example of large scale direct action was the 2005 Cronulla riots, which largely achieved their goal of ethnically cleansing Cronulla beach.

Direct action has also been used on a smaller scale. Refugee Salim Rambo was saved from being flown from the UK back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo when one person stood up on his flight and refused to sit down. After a two hour delay the man was arrested, but the pilot refused to fly with Rambo on board. Salim Rambo was ultimately released from state custody and remains free today.

[edit] Nonviolent direct action

Nonviolent direct action is any form of direct action that does not rely on violent tactics. Mahatma Gandhi's teachings of Satyagraha (or truth force) have inspired many practitioners of nonviolent direct action (NVDA). In 1963, civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr. described the goal of NVDA in his Letter from Birmingham Jail: "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored."

One major debate is whether destruction of property can be included within the realm of nonviolence. This debate can be illustrated by the response to groups like the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, which use property destruction and sabotage as direct action tactics. Although these types of actions are often viewed as a form of violence, and even terrorism, supporters define violence as harm directed towards living things and not property.

In the U.S., the term has come to signify civil disobedience, and protest in general, particularly where the organizers are not concerned with preventing violence. In the 1980s, a California direct action protest group called Livermore Action Group called its newspaper Direct Action. The paper ran for 25 issues, and covered hundreds of nonviolent actions around the world. The book Direct Action: An Historical Novel took its name from this paper, and records dozens of actions in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"Direct Action" has also served as the moniker of at least two terrorist groups: the French Action Directe as well as the Canadian group more popularly known as the Squamish Five. Direct Action was also the name of the magazine of the Australian Wobblies. The UK's Solidarity Federation currently publishes a magazine called Direct Action.

[edit] Direct action and anarchism

As a principle, direct action is central to many strands of anarchist theory, including anarcho-syndicalism, anarcho-communism, insurrectionary anarchism, green anarchism and anarcho-pacifism.

[edit] See also

[edit] Some groups which employ direct action

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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