What do we mean by Direct Action
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news report
Wednesday March 19, 2003 16:22
by Joe
What follows is not a lecture in theory but rather a listing of some of the dozens of direct actions that are taking place across the globe against the war machine. There is much here that we can copy and some is stuff that has happened here that others can copy Full details at http://struggle.ws/stopthewar.html
Top Brazil port to boycott US, UK ships
Labor unions at Santos, the largest port in Brazil and Latin America, are planning a 24-hour strike for peace by boycotting ships and goods
Direct Action Against Armed Forces Recruiting Station in Edison, NJ
Specifically it was intended to increase the costs to pursue the invasion and to eliminate another piece of the American military-industrial complex
Thirty B52 Support Vehicles Disabled at RAF Fairford
Activists disabled the ground service vehicles needed for B52 bombers
Northwood blitz blockade
For the second day in a row, the main gate of Northwood PJHQ
Britains military HQ blocked
Activists blocked the gates to the planning headquarters for Britain's war with Iraq this morning at 8.50 am, as hundreds of staff attempted to enter the base
"RAF" Lakenheath runway blocked
This time with the novel idea of bringing bicycles through the fence and cycling them up and down
US Soldiers Storm UK Peace Camp at RAF Fairford
Dressed in boiler suits and armed with serrated combat knives, the men stripped banners off the 10ft steel fence at Gate 10.
Anti-war activist takes Tornado "Out of Action"
I took my hammer to the nose-cone, the cockpit, the fuselage, the wings, the tailplane and other parts of the plane which it was safe to damage
Fence breached and damage caused at Fairford
An entire row of landing lights somehow got totally obliterated, along with several other landing lights of various description and colour
Grannies Blockade Fairford
100 women, many of them grandmothers, blockaded the main entrance to Fairford airbase
Fairford inspected again
USAF Fairford got inspected again this afternoon by Oxford Students Stop the War, while more than 10 people got into the base.
Some military reservists will risk jail to resist Iraq duty
Alarcon said he'd rather risk going to jail than participate in a conflict he considers immoral.
To the next time [with pics]
A report at an attempt at a publically announced Direct Action (GNAW) protest at Shannon
US Military Jet disarmed at Shannon
Activists grounds jet with 500,000 worth of damage.
Peace Activists Close Trident Refit Factory
7 peace activists blockaded both gates of the Rolls Royce factory in Derby
Cardiff Anarchists invade arms factory
Eight members of the group easily scaled the 3m high fence with the help of a home-made rope ladder
War trains blocked in Italy
A blocade of trains carrying US men and equipment results in the army falling behind schedule
Gates torn down at RAF Fairford
Ten arrests as activists storm base
Greenpeace Stalls US Military Shipment to the Gulf
Police used water cannons against a Greenpeace blockade of a cargo ship loaded with U.S. military equipment bound for Iraq, and arrested 19 demonstrators
Runway blocked at RAF Brize Norton
Brize Norton is the RAF's main transport centre, 360 British troops were due to be flown out to join the UK contingent of the war effort
Plowshares disarmament action in the Netherlands
Dutch woman armed with a sledgehammer smashes three satellite dishes at a NATO airbase
Israeli Conscientious objectors to be court-martialed
In an obvious change of policy, the Israeli military is now starting to court-martial conscientious objectors.
One in three reservists try to get out of joining the call-up for war on Saddam
The figures are a blow to the MoD, which says 6,000 reservists are needed to support up to 35,000 regular troops committed to the Gulf
Greenpeace tank girls occupy war machine
For over a week we have tried to stop the supplies from loading and leaving the Uk and today 14 volunteers entered the military port occupying tanks and jeeps ready to roll on the ferry Stena Shipper bound for the Gulf
RAF Lakenheath Shut Down
RAF Lakenheath has been closed in an act of peaceful protest against war
Faith-based Disarmament Action at Shannon Airport
"The train tracks at Auschwitz brought people to their deaths, the runway at Shannon brings death to the people."
20 arrested attempting to inspect New Zealand US embassy
A group of around 150 protesters marched on the embassy and announced they wanted to enter the embassy to look for weapons of mass destruction
Three peace activists arrested attempting to break into RAF Menwith Hill
US Spy Base, and an essential part of Bush's plan for war on Iraq
Greenpeace set up Peace Camp on military supply ship
Greenpeace volunteers boarded and set up a peace camp on a military supply ship bound for the Gulf with a cargo of military hardware
British rail workers refuse to transport munitions to Iraq
Two Anti-war train drivers refuse to move arms freight, supported by their union ASLEF.
Pittsburgh - Marine recruitment office smashed during breakaway march
"The Marines recruitment center has no right to exist. That institution exists primarily for the purposes of recruiting politically marginalized people into the ranks of the Marines, who then enforce the policies of America's corporate state through murder and violence."
Rainbow Warrior blockades UK military port
The Rainbow Warrior, entered Marchwood Military port in Southampton and blocked the departure of UK military supply vessels UK government seizes Rainbow Warrior
2000 Anarchists take direct action in San Francisco
The high point of the demonstration was in attacks on the building that houses the Federal government's Immigration and Naturalization Service. Numerous windows were broken and a cement pylon and a newspaper box were thrown through the INS building's glass front doors
Fairford airbase invaded
Sun 26 Jan 30 people breached the compound fences in a direct action movement.MOD police ejected all of them through the hole in the fence they made but have now very violently arrested 3 people
Northwood Military HQ Blockaded
Sunday 19th January 2003 - Over 70 activists arrested blocking the entrances of the Military HQ
Protester arrested trying to blockade the gates of Portsmouth naval base
Les Gibbons, a former British marine attempted to blockade the gates to the base on the day the Ark Royal was due to leave for the Gulf
5 anti-war demonstrators were arrested inside the RAF Base at Feltwell
Feltwell is an electronic warfare and surveillance site and part of a network of "near-space tracking facilities"
15 protesters arrested on main runway of U.S. Airbase at Mildenhall
Mildenhall houses the U.S. Air Force's 100th Air RefuellingWing.
More minor stuff but still worth recording
Welsh assembly occupied (again!) in anti-war protest
Totnes Demo and Action
Whitehall blocked by students
Washington, DC: Anarchists storm World Bank
Anti-War Billboard
Manchester's Princess Parkway blocked by anti-war activists
Protester confronts Blair near Parliament
Demonstrators form human blockades at Lansing gas station
E$$O and army recruitment office in hereford targeted by peace activist
Cambridge protestors moon defence minister and block his car
Dumping shite on new Labour
Two Anti-War activists were arrested in Plymouth
Greenpeace protest closes Esso pumps across Britain
Seattle: Anti-War Protestors Erect Tripod on Highway
Anarchists and allied anti-war protesters disrupt Scottish parliament
Protesters get into BBC
30 LSE students occupy EXXON headquarter in London
Batavia, Illinois: Sit-In Against Speaker of the House
Chicago - blocking the entrances at the Federal Building
Cincinnati billboards hit with anti-war messages
Direct Action at the Holland Tunne
SF Feb 15 Breakaway March
Details of all these actions at http://struggle.ws/stopthewar.html
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Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8what, in your mind, is the difference between Direct Action and Non-Violent Civil Disobedience?
"what, in your mind, is the difference between Direct Action and Non-Violent Civil Disobedience?"
None.
Just depends whose posters it is.
Paul
NVDA/CD is a subset of DA.
Direct Action can include both violent civil disobedience and non-violent civil disobedience. The important thing about DA is that you don't ask someone to do (or not do) something because they're nice or moral. You put them in a position where the costs of not taking the correct action are prohibitive. This was what happened during the Vietnam era protests: the war was abandoned both because of military losses abroad and the economic and social disruption at home (see points 2 & 7 here: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=2527 )
Civil Disobedience Index
http://www.actupny.org/documents/CDdocuments/CDindex.html
This infoshop article suggests that the history of mainstream peace movements in the USA is a complete failure in their stated objective to stop _any_ of the wars that USA has been engaged in over the past half-century.
It argues that the thrust of these movements has been a utopian belief in "public education" and this has been proven to be a worthless target. The calls that we saw here on indymedia.ie for "changing American public opinion" by the St.Patrick's day "wear black" campaign, the calls for massive street protests once per month all fall into the same mode: a patronising and misguided belief that the "population" needs to be "educated" about war and that the leaders and media need to "get the message".
This article argues that such an argument ignores all the available lessons of recent history and the demonstrable failure of these tactics and instead suggests six practical steps that YOU can take instead.
Of course, these suggestions won't be for everyone and if all you're up for is calling on other people to educate themselves then go for it: it's a little bit better than nothing.
Phuq Headd, you're the one who needs to be educated.
The Vietnam war, for instance, was not stopped by a self proclaimed anarchist vanguard elite. It was stopped by the Vietnameese people i.e. the majority of the workers, peasants and young people in that country. The anti war movement in the States also played a part.
The reason why this anti war movement frightened the Establishment was that it was a MASS movement made up of the very same general public for whom you seem to have thinly disguised contempt. And yes, this mass movement did use civil disobediance among other tactics such as mass rallys.
You see, if you take no account of where the working class people are coming from, if you refuse to engage with people's consciousness and don't bother trying to persuade others then you'll always be a lonely toytown revolutionary.
"Direct action" or whatever you chose to call it can be effective as part of a mass campaign, but lone actions undertaken by self proclaimed "revolutionaries" who don't bother to try and build public support can be damaging to a movement.
all in all you're completly rubbishing the importance of the consiousness of the working class in your obsession with "DA".
QUOTE: Phuq Headd, you're the one who needs to be educated.
ANSWER: The name is Phuq Hedd.
QUOTE:The Vietnam war, for instance, was not stopped by a self proclaimed anarchist vanguard elite.
ANSWER:Show me where anarchists proclaim themselves to be a vanguard elite? The only people claiming this are the pseudo-socialists that have done everything in their power to stymie the DA undertaken because they can't claim it as a party victory.
QUOTE:It was stopped by the Vietnameese people i.e. the majority of the workers, peasants and young people in that country. The anti war movement in the States also played a part.
ANSWER:See my first post in this thread where I clearly acknowlege the primary role of the NVA in stopping the war. I also provide an informative link to a Shalom/Albert article which you may want to read, especially points 2 & 7.
QUOTE:The reason why this anti war movement frightened the Establishment was that it was a MASS movement made up of the very same general public for whom you seem to have thinly disguised contempt. And yes, this mass movement did use civil disobediance among other tactics such as mass rallys.
ANSWER:Given that I'm part of the anti-war movement and I've argued that the tactic of telling people again and again that "war is wrong" is patronising and misses the point that we all know that already I think that gives the lie to your assertion that I have a "thinly disguised contempt" for myself and others. Show me one example of this behaviour and attitude on my part.
QUOTE:You see, if you take no account of where the working class people are coming from, if you refuse to engage with people's consciousness and don't bother trying to persuade others then you'll always be a lonely toytown revolutionary.
ANSWER:Given that I am working class and that everyone that I know is working class and that most of them are anti-war I have to wonder what the hell you are talking about.
QUOTE:"Direct action" or whatever you chose to call it can be effective as part of a mass campaign, but lone actions undertaken by self proclaimed "revolutionaries" who don't bother to try and build public support can be damaging to a movement.
ANSWER: The ideal DA is mass DA. That's what GNAW tried to facilitate at Shannon. It was open to all to try. That said the actions of a few, lone individuals (Dubsky, Kelly, CW5, Hourigan) have done more than all the pomp, rhetoric and "educating people's consciousness" engaged in by the posturing pseudo-left. Don't forget that this Republic was born of the actions of no more than a couple of hundred people. They didn't sit around trying to find space for both their thumbs and their heads in their arses while they waited for "public support" to "build".
QUOTE:all in all you're completly rubbishing the importance of the consiousness of the working class in your obsession with "DA".
ANSWER: all in all you're obsessed with rubbishing DA because it threatens your attempt to lead my "consciousness". Instead of taking up the proven effective tactic of DA (which drove 3 carriers out of Shannon and exposed the whole thing) you'd rather elevate it into a principle which has to be fought against because you mistakenly associate it solely with anarchists.
SUMMARY: You are not thinking. You insist on doing nothing and waiting for something you won't specify. Drop the rhetoric, look at the objective conditions right now, forget that anarchists have anything to do with DA, reclaim it for the SP and don't insist that "the working class" needs to be "educated" by you. It's patronising, false and wasteful.
The main point of the post was that it was MASS DA and disruption including riots, the burning of Draft and Recruitment Centers, the sabotage of university researchers engaging in work funded by the Pentagon, the confrontation with the security forces; all this combined with the resistance of the NVA that ended the Vietnam War.
Other "protests" did nothing because those organising them were liberals that didn't or couldn't take actions that threatened their own position in society.
It sickens me that someone calling themself "socialist" can argue the line that you do. You're no more socialist than Blair.