In recent years in
Britain it has become clear that traditional methods of political protest -
demonstrations, public meetings, petitions, etc. - which have been used to
campaign against cuts in public services and bad practices by business firms
are largely ineffectual; they don’t achieve their objectives. Thus it is necessary to use and develop more
challenging and effective ways to disrupt the oppressive and exploitative
operations of the State and big business.
I refer to forms of direct action. So what is meant by
this term? In what ways is direct action
different from other types of political activity?
I suggest that the
term ‘direct action’ should be used to refer to activities which have the
direct aim of obstructing and disrupting the operations of the State and
business organisations.
For example,
going into and stopping a local council meeting passing a cuts budget is direct
action whereas standing outside the meeting place with placards and giving out
leaflets is not direct action in this sense. Holding a public meeting to demand
that the Trident nuclear missile programme is not renewed has no direct impact
on the State whereas blockading the entrance of a military base involved with
nuclear weapons is direct action.
Occupying the offices of private companies trying to get people off
Disability Living Allowance is direct action while simply giving out leaflets
to the public exposing this attack on disabled and sick people is not direct
action. Non-direct types of political
action do need to be used as well as direct action. The two can complement each o their but the
limitations of non-direct action should be clearly recognised.
TYPES OF DIRECT ACTION
Direct action can be
violent or non-violent. It can be
directed at persons or things and it may involve law-breaking. Actions can be carried out by individuals,
small groups or very large numbers of people.
An important aspect of direct action is that it encourages people to
break rules designed to protect the rich and powerful and gives them
self-confidence in so doing. Small
challenges can lead on to bigger ones.
The main types of
direct action are:
l Graffiti and fly posting
They
are used less often than in the past because of laws against these actions.
This does not mean these methods cannot be used on suitable occasions.
l Withholding tax
Council
Tax has to be paid directly by those eligible and so is an easy tax to withhold. As was shown by the Anti-Poll Tax
campaign, this can be a very effective
way of undermining the State. It is
particularly appropriate as a protest
against cuts in local public services.
To be effective such action needs
to be on a mass scale.
l Sit-downs
This
can be effective when authorities, especially the police, are trying to remove protesters from some space or other.
l Blockades
Preventing
access to some establishment or thoroughfare.
Usually, but not always, it
requires large numbers of people. This often attracts media attention.
l Occupations
These
can be of open spaces, as with the Occupy camps, or of buildings of various types, e.g, government offices,
company headquarters. The UK Uncut movement used this effectively in
occupying retail premises such as
tax-dodging Vodaphone.
l Stunts
Environmentalists
have climbed onto buildings, monuments etc. to display slogans and this has attracted much media
attention.
l Sabotage
Damaging
facilities and equipment is a direct way of attacking companies and state organisations. For example, protesters have broken through
the fences at RAF Waddington to try to
disable the drone control centre.
l Confrontation
Politicans
and unprincipled business people have been getting away with a lot without suffering any personal
accountability. They should be pestered
with phone calls and emails. Their homes should be picketed. They should be confronted on public occasions.
l Disrupting IT systems
The
state and business organisations are now heavily dependent on computer technology. Hacking into these systems is a way in
which considerable disruption of their
oppressive and exploitative activities could be
brought about.
LEGALITY AND ILLEGALITY
Some people hesitate
to engage in direct action because they fear it may be illegal. Many of the types of direct action
mentioned here are illegal or could be construed as such by the authorities.
The truth is that in Britain today there exists a matrix of laws which enable
just about any type of political activity to be declared illegal if State
bodies chose to do so, e.g. setting up a campaigning stall in a public
place.
Even if some activity cannot be
decreed illegal under present laws the State will quickly pass new laws to make
it so. Indeed, the Tory Government is
intent on placing further restrictions on taking industrial action even though
the trade unions have for the most part been impotent in defending their
members.
We should distinguish
between laws formulated to protect the common welfare, e.g, traffic
regulations, and those primarily designed to protect the interests of the rich
and powerful, e.g. libel laws.
Breaking
the former is not usually in the interests of the people but breaking the
latter is certainly legitimate to defend the interests of the great mass of the
people.
It should not be forgotten that
politicians and business people do not hesitate to break the laws they have
formulated if it suits them e.g. waging illegal wars, banks swindling their
customers. Of course, we should try not
to unnecessarily behave in ways which make it easy for the State to catch us.
Even so, don’t be afraid to tread on the grass.
VIOLENCE AND
NON-VIOLENCE
Some campaigners,
especially environmentalists and anarchists, put great emphasis on direct
actions being non-violent. In
Britain today protesters of all types are not trained and equipped to
successfully engage in violent confrontations with security guards and
police. To do so would result in defeat
and prosecution. It makes tactical sense
to engage in non-violent actions.
At the same time we
should be aware that if our actions achieve some degree of success then the
powers that be will respond firmly. They
will not hesitate to use violence against us if they consider it necessary. What is more, past experience shows that the
police can be particularly brutal towards people they know will offer no
resistance to such attacks, e.g. pacifists.
Protesters should realise that any effective direct action will turn
violent at a certain point and that we should be prepared to defend ourselves.
If our opponents know that we are prepared to resist assaults upon us then they
will be less likely to use violence against us.
THE NECESSITY OF
DIRECT ACTION
If we look at the
history of popular struggles in Britain then direct action has been a vital element. The early trade unions were banned so
workers, such as the Luddites, had to resort to underground organisation using
methods such as sabotaging employers’ equipment.
In the struggle to obtain the vote the
Chartists used petitions to Parliament but these were rebuffed so they had to
resort to physical force as advocated by Feargus O’Connor.
The suffragettes found that peaceful, legal
methods to win the vote for women did not work.
Thus they turned to direct action of a very militant kind. The bravery and militancy of the suffragettes
a century ago puts to shame the feeble methods of protest being employed in
Britain today.
The working class and
middle strata in Britain have been under attack ever since the Thatcher
Government came into office in 1979.
Earnings and conditions of employment have been deteriorating and public
services have been cut back.
Since the
financial crash in 2008 the capitalist ruling class and their political
representatives - Tory, Labour and Liberal-Democrat - have become more open and
bolder in their class war to browbeat the people into complete subservience to
the rule of the rich.
It is high time to
begin the fightback against this pack of parasites. Direct action is an essential tactic. If the
direct action approach is taken then at first it will consist of sporadic
actions with limited success.
But these can spread and involve growing numbers
of people as it is seen that you can stand up to the enemy and not be
defeated,
The main way in which our
masters restrain us is through what William Blake called “mind-forged
manacles”, people accepting that it is right and proper to knuckle under to
whatever assaults the ruling class throw at us.
We can begin to break these chains by striking back at the enemy through
direct action.
Dare to struggle, dare to win!
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