INTRODUCTION TO NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION

CounterAct – counteract.org.au

Acknowledgeent

Acknowledgement

INTRODUCTION – NAME, PRONOUN, GROUP��MOST INSPIRING ACTION YOU’VE SEEN OR BEEN PART OF

Popcorn - Discussion

Agenda

• Acknowledgement
• Housekeeping – pictures/confidentiality/security check
• Introduction to nonviolent action, and direct action
• Fears and barriers to participation – discussion
• Physical preparation and action planning

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This is a sample powerpoint for an interactive workshop which will be expanded on by mid 2024 with supporting documentation

Working together – our values & agreement

Discussion of a participants agreement for the workshop and/or build a participants agreement for action��Remember – we don’t have to share exactly the same definitions of nonviolence vs nonviolence or theory of change or strategy – we just need to agree on how we will act together during action

Definitions – our version

NON-VIOLENT DIRECT ACTION

• Action that is both non-violent (this is a personal perspective that needs to be developed) and DIRECT… as in, you have agency, are taking action yourself, rather than asking someone/lobbying some for action�
• DIRECT ACTION – social, economic or political action that is taken by people directly (ie a strike, a stop work action), as opposed to indirectly – such as lobbying

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• CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE – A deliberate, peaceful violation of laws, decrees, regulations
• Action taken for moral or ethical reasons that risks arrest or breaks the law. A core principle of much civil disobedience is the willingness to accept the consequences of the action.
• Civil resistance
• Wide-spread, large scale, non-violent resistance usually over a political issue
• Sustained, collective action – outside the traditional lobbying/advocacy model

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198 methods

Three types of nonviolent action

• Protest and persuasion
• Noncooperation
• Nonviolent intervention

Participant agreement

What is nonviolent direct action?

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Nonviolent…

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Direct action…

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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. ~Martin Luther King

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WHAT IS EFFECTIVE/�WHAT IS NONVIOLENT

What are our objectives for nonviolent direct action?

• Discussion

Action is the antidote to despair ~

Joan Baez

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Direct action: Unusual suspects

Seaspray Victoria

A town of 300 people stared down Gina Rinehart to resist gas exploration

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In many cases activists did things which were illegal – but this civil disobedience was often what shifted public debate on issues and allowed the depth of inequality to be made visible. – David Pocock

Sit in

Love makes a way occupations

the Leard Blockade

Medics against coal – just another example of the diverse alliance building of the Leard campaign

300+ arrests in the first consistent show of resistance to fossil fuel expansion (2013-18)

Solidarity work with treaty signed between mob and farmers

“A new normal” in terms of response to coal mines and a generation of 100s of activists

#leardblockade

Broome Community No gas campaign

• Strong Aboriginal leadership
• Strength in a diversity of approaches
• Small town community advantages

Photo: Damian Kelly

Support crew with people blocking the road by locking onto a barrel

Key’s to success of campaigns using direct action

• Community organising… before, during and after action
• Dealing with fears, dispelling myths, being prepared
• Clear objectives for action
• Powerful story telling & strong visuals
• Unusual alliances, and unusual suspects
• Using the language of winning
• Direct action, both as deterrent & actual delay/media

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Sometimes the perfect quote comes along

SLIDESHOW OF CREATIVE ACTIONS AND PHYSICAL TACTICS

During this section you may want to try and debunk fears about using devices to attach people to delay activity – ie, various lock ons or tree sits. We do this because it can ensure longer delay, with less people, and can often reduce the volatility of holding a line with only our bodies

Sit in

Federal Parliament, over 100 climate activists gathered and refused to move

Dealing with attachment issues

Dealing with attachment issues

People locked together

Making it more difficult to move, people attach themselves to each other, with chains and bike locks

Sit in

Love makes a way occupations

Stopping vehicles with D locks

Banner drop

Quit Coal

2 climbers arrested for trespass and train station infringement notice

Banner drop

Let them stay

Locking down an entrance

How to lock down an entrance with just two people, D locks and an arm pipe

Tripod

Forest activists blocking road with a tripod. You need to ensure you have safety mechanisms in place, such as people stopping traffic in plenty of time

Maules Creek blockade

Ongoing actions at the site of the proposed coal expansion

Batgirls!

Community blockade

Broome community delaying passage of drill rig onto country

Community blockade

Blockade of MITA - Broadmeadows

Sit in –

Arm pipes

Community members in Broome laying down to block traffic locked to each other through arm pipes

Nana lock on!

Whilst there were 100 riot police flown up to Broome, 2 older women and their support team outsmarted them and blocked the access road to Woodside by locking into their van

Arm pipes

Climate activists used poly pipe to get into Federal Parliament, past metal detectors.

Maules Creek

Cranky koala locks on

Bentley blockade

Multiple people locked to one concrete barrel

Direct action builds community

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BUSHFIRES – Goongerah Wombat orphanage

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In organisation theory, mutual aid is a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit. Mutual aid, as opposed to charity, does not connote moral superiority of the giver over the receiver.

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What are our opportunities now? We can build community like never before – participating in action that challenges and confronts us can build bonds quickly, as anyone who has spent time at a blockade camp or convergence can tell you��Even if times are difficult and the outlook is bleak, Direct Action is not wasted as it is building skills and connections that will hold us for the crises to come

WE HAVE MORE IN COMMON THAN WE ARE TOLD, AND WE ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN WE REALISE

www.counteract.org.au