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Direct Action Workshop: Expanding your Activist Toolkit

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Why is direct action so powerful?

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Nonviolent direct action asks:

Which side are you on?

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What are the benefits of direct action?

Draws attention to an issue
Demonstration of numbers and force
Disrupts business as usual
Builds community and creates a vision of what a better world could look like
Allows organizers and participants to meet one another and plan new actions for the movement

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What can we do to combat these injustices?

Determine the structural and infrastructural causes of oppression

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Strategy

Strategy involves identifying your group’s power and then finding specific ways to concentrate it in order to achieve your goals

What are your goals for the movement?
What is your desired outcome for this action?
Who has the power to give you what you want?
How do you put pressure on the people in power?
What can you accomplish without mediation by those in power?

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What can we do to combat these injustices?

Determine a point of intervention

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Points of Intervention

Point of Production (e.g. Factory A which is collaborating with ICE): usually an economic target, tactics may include strikes, picket lines, factory takeover
Point of Destruction (e.g. detention center): a place where harm/injustice is happening, frequently these locations are less visible to the public, tactic include blockades
Point of Consumption (e.g. retail store selling product from Factory A): where people are interacting with the product or service, tactics include consumer boycott
Point of Decision (e.g. CBP headquarters): the place where the people with power to act are located, tactics include meeting disruption
Point of Assumption (e.g. Border wall): places that build the ideology of problematic systems, tactics highlight the unexamined nature of these beliefs and call attention to them

(from: https://beautifultrouble.org/theory/points-of-intervention/)

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Tactics: Tools to Create Pressure

(from www.ruckus.org)

Protest Non-cooperation

Intervention Creative solutions

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Blockades

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Street art/theatre

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Important things to remember: Privilege and Oppression

Work in solidarity, not as a savior
Center the voices, leadership, and stories of people most affected
All movements for liberation are intertwined:

Work to uplift other movements as you work on your own.

Change only occurs when you risk privilege

You have to be willing to risk some of your privilege, which is also the goal in creating equity

Quiet your inner cop/Stop your outer cop

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Taking Risks

What does it mean to take risks as a student, resident, fellow, attending?

How can we weigh these risks in the context of our work as doctors?

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Breakout Brainstorm

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Case Example – San Diego Flu Vaccine Protest

November 2019: D4CC writes letter to Secretaries of DHS and HHS offering free flu vaccine clinic with donated supplies and volunteer doctors
December 2019: 3-day event, San Diego CA

Day 1: Pop-up flu vaccine clinic set up outside detention center gates
Day 2: Protest at San Diego DBP Headquarters
Day 3: Vigil at International Border Crossing for those who have died in DHS custody

For each event:

what was the point of intervention, strategy, and tactics?

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Credits

www.ruckus.org
https://beautifultrouble.org/theory/points-of-intervention/
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
Close the Camps NYC/Cosecha - nonviolent direct action training
Queer Nonmonogamy Anarchist Community in Detroit (RAD) - facilitation exercises and advice
Hannah Janeway MD, Marie DeLuca MD, Bonnie Arzuaga MD, Danielle Deines DO
Rocio Rodriguez MPH , Emeka Iloegbu MPH MLS(ASCP), Katherine McCan EMT MPH

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Extra Slides

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Background

What is Asylum?:

Asylum is a legal process by which a person who fears persecution in their home country seeks refuge in another

Who can apply for asylum?

Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival)

How is asylum determined?

Through determining in court if the individual has suffered or will suffer persecution due to 1) Race, 2) Religion 3) Nationality 4) membership in a particular social group or 5) Political opinion

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Case Example:

Sandra

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Case Example: At the US Border

Metering

Detention

After making her way from her home country, Sandra gets to the US border. In the past, individuals could walk up to the border and present their application for asylum right then and there but now a process know as “metering” which is illegal under international law is in effect.

Under “metering,” CBP limits the number of individuals who are permitted to access the asylum process each day at ports of entry across the border. Metering was first used as early as February 2016 primarily at the San Ysidro port of entry for the Haitian population but it wasn’t until 2018 that it became implemented as a long term strategy.

Metering, which constitutes the turning-back of asylum seekers at ports of entry where they are forced to wait in haphazardly operated queues amounting to weeks or months of delay, had been a tactic used by CBP going back to 2016. This policy "compounds other longstanding border-wide tactics that CBP has implemented to prevent migrants from applying for asylum in the U.S., such as lies, intimidation, coercion, verbal abuse, physical force, outright denials of access, unreasonable delays, and threats—including the threat of family separation."

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Case Example: Awaiting Asylum Hearing

Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) - “Remain in Mexico”

Around 60,000 people returned to Mexico since program enacted
Recently the program was cancelled by the Biden Administration

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Beyond MPP

Prompt Asylum Claim Review (PACR)

Humanitarian Asylum Review Process (HARP)

Asylum Ban 2.0

There are many other policies influencing individuals like Sandra at the Border, for instance PACR and its sister policy HARP.

PACR (applies to all non-mexican nationals) and HARP (mexican nationals): Under the PACR and HARP programs, asylum seekers remain in CBP custody rather than being transferred to ICE for their credible fear processing (the threshold interviews for determining asylum eligibility). PACR and HARP result in asylum seekers being unjustly rushed through the credible fear process and ultimately sent back to dangerous situations. Additionally, asylum seekers are effectively precluded from receiving meaningful help and support from counsel or loved ones due to limited access to phone calls

Asylum Ban 2.0: which makes all individuals who enter, attempt to enter, or arrive to the United States across the southern border ineligible for asylum if they have transited through at least one country outside of their country of origin, and have not applied for protection in that country. This is leading to deportations to Guatemala

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Now it’s Your Turn!

Plan an Action

Break up into small groups

Use the guiding questions on the handout to plan an action related to immigration advocacy

Identify: points of intervention, strategy, and tactics
Each group will share their action plan with us!

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Blockades

Purpose:

To physically shut down something bad (a coal mine, World Trade Organization)
To protect something good (a forest, someone’s home)
To make a symbolic statement, such as encircling a target (the White House)

Types:

Soft blockades - human barricades, such as forming a line and linking arms
Hard blockades - using gear such as chains, U-locks, lock-boxes, tripods or vehicles

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What can we do to combat these injustices?

2. Determine the Strategy

“Inside” strategies: goal is to directly influence lawmakers

Writing letters to elected officials
Lobbying
Being a consultant for policy creators

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What can we do to combat these injustices?

“Outside” strategies: goal is to influence public opinion, which in turn, influences lawmakers

Signing petitions
Social media posts
Appearing on news interviews
Writing op-eds
Public protests

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Objectives

Understand the structural and infrastructural causes of inequities
Identify strategies for creating change in and outside of the medical system through an expanded activist toolkit
Increase your comfort in organizing others through identifying your group’s power and organizing around a common goal
Collectively plan an action around an injustice identified by participants.