Direct action
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Direct action originated as a political activist term for economical and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to others (e.g. authorities) by, for instance, revealing an existing problem, using physical violence, highlighting an alternative, or demonstrating a possible solution.
Both direct action and actions appealing to others can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the action participants. Examples of nonviolent direct action (also known as nonviolence, nonviolent resistance, or civil resistance) can include (obstructing) sit-ins, strikes, workplace occupations, street blockades or hacktivism, while violent direct action may include political violence or assaults. Tactics such as sabotage and property destruction are sometimes considered violent.
By contrast, electoral politics, diplomacy, negotiation, protests and arbitration are not usually described as direct action, as they are politically mediated. Non-violent actions are sometimes a form of civil disobedience, and may involve a degree of intentional law-breaking where persons place themselves in arrestable situations in order to make a political statement but other actions (such as strikes) may not violate criminal law.
The aim of direct action is to either obstruct another political agent or political organization from performing some practice to which the activists object, or to solve perceived problems which traditional societal institutions (governments, religious organizations or established trade unions) are not addressing to the satisfaction of the direct action participants.
Non-violent direct action has historically been an assertive regular feature of the tactics employed by social movements, including Mahatma Gandhi's Indian Independence Movement and the Civil Rights Movement.
See also
- Active citizenship
- Activism
- Anarchism
- Arms trafficking
- Citizen journalism
- Civil disobedience
- Civil resistance
- Counterfeiting
- Critical animal studies
- Direct democracy
- Direct Action Day
- Dual power
- General strike
- Hacktivism
- Improvised explosive device
- Improvised fighting vehicle
- Improvised vehicle armour
- Independent Media Center
- Insurrection
- List of anti-war organizations
- List of civil rights leaders
- List of peace activists
- Nonviolence
- Nonviolent resistance
- Off-the-grid energy or Solar energy
- Pirate radio or free radio
- Political radicalism
- Propaganda of the deed
- Property destruction
- Rebellion
- Revolution
- Sabotage or Ecotage
- Satyagraha
- Security culture
- Smuggling
- Squatting
- Tax resistance
- Tree sitting
- Tree spiking
- Some groups which employ or employed direct action
- ADAPT
- AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP)
- Anarchists Against the Wall (Israeli group)
- Animal Liberation Front
- Anonymous (group)
- Antifa (United States)
- BAMN
- Camp for Climate Action
- Campus Antiwar Network
- Code Pink
- Committee of 100 (United Kingdom)
- Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
- Cop Block
- Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg
- Cypherpunk
- Direct Action Committee
- Direct Action Everywhere
- Direct Action to Stop the War
- Earth First!
- Earth Liberation Front
- Euromaidan
- Extinction Rebellion
- Food Not Bombs
- GetEQUAL
- Green Mountain Anarchist Collective
- Greenpeace
- Homes Not Jails
- Industrial Workers of the World
- Landless Workers' Movement
- Lesbian Avengers
- MindFreedom International
- National Bolshevik Party
- National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
- No Border network
- Occupy Wall Street
- Operation Save America
- PETA
- Plane Stupid
- Reclaim the Streets
- Rising Tide North America
- School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch)
- Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
- Sons of Liberty
- Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
- Squamish Five
- Students for a Democratic Society
- Take Back the Land
- Trident Ploughshares
- UkUncut
- Vetëvendosje! - Movement for Self-determination in Kosova
- War Resisters' International
- WOMBLES
- Yellow vests movement