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Direct Action

by Nemesis

"Just do it." --Nike ad slogan

DIRECT ACTION

By Nemesis

Okay, like Nike is the Greek goddess of victory, right? Maybe you didn't know that, so now you do. Well, Nemesis is the Greek goddess of retributive vengeance, so that's what I call myself. A perfect alias, don'tcha think? Onto my rant...

Direct action is heard about all the time in anarchic circles; magic words that solve all problems. We don't embrace political parties -- we support direct action. What is it?

I think that's been talked about enough, either on a4a or in many other places. Voltairine de Cleyre, French anarcha-feminist, wrote about at the beginning of the 20th century. It's been done.

What I was going to write about briefly was a simple methodology of direct action, like a planning checklist. This isn't some drawn-out essay or anything, just a handy how-to. Here's the basic list:

Plan
Scout
Practice
Troubleshoot
Act

PLAN

A direct action should be innovative, jarring, creative, imaginative -- a run-of-the-mill protest isn't much of a dirct action, because it's been done before so many times. Not that those don't have their value, but it's just that they're so within people's expectations.

A direct action should be startling and unforgettable. The much-maligned (or praised) window-breaking in Seattle at the WTO is an example of this -- the press and the authorities still shake in their boots as a result of a few broken store windows.

Any direct action worth its salt should have that same impact, if you do it right. Now, it needn't be confined to lobbing stones through windows or whatever -- again, the action should be unexpected and memorable, to catch people off-guard.

So, in the beginning, once you've picked a target, take some time to think of how to make your point. Direct actions should, on one level, appear spontaneous -- but they must, to work well, be well-planned out. That's what separates anarchists from simple vandals or looters. We are making a political statement by our action, whatever it may be.

The advantage of DA (sorry, got tired of writing out "direct action") is that it requires a lot of imagination -- the sky is the limit; that's also the disadvantage. Going to a parade or a protest and waving a sign is easier than a DA, because it doesn't require much of you.

Study the target you're campaigning against -- what are their practices? Are there creative ways of lampooning them, drawing attention to their practices, embarrassing them? Every corporation works hard to create a "corporate image" -- so think about what that image is, and how you can tweak them. Take some time to brainstorm, jotting down ideas and trying to come up with a theme. This is hard, so don't expect an instant brilliant idea or anything.

SCOUT

Once you have an idea, then you should take some time to scout out your chosen location. Note entrances and exits, security. Note anything unusual. You may even want to take pictures of the place you're scouting, if you can do so without being conspicuous.

That's really important -- while you're scouting the place out, try not to be obvious about it, or to draw attention to yourself. A lot of places have security cameras, including city streets (unfortunately), so be careful -- wear a baseball cap or some other hat if you have cameras in the area.

Also, if you've scouted in the daytime, be sure to scout the area at night, too -- sometimes an area can be totally different at night; maybe there are some bright security lights you weren't aware of, or something else you hadn't seen in the day.

The point of scouting is that you should become as familiar with the area as possible, so when you actually do the action, you'll know how to get in and out as quickly and as unobtrusively as possible. This applies to public spaces as well -- the last thing you want to do is engage in a DA and get trapped somewhere by taking a wrong turn.

PRACTICE

Once you've made your plan, and scouted your target, you should take some time to practice. Load up your gear, whatever it is, and go on a dry run, again being as inconspicuous as possible. You aren't actually doing the DA, yet -- rather, you're going through the paces, troubleshooting as necessary.

A stopwatch is a good thing to have, and a notepad. Walk through your route -- plan at least a couple of escape routes, in the event of problems -- you'd be surprised how often something unexpected happens. I always try to have three escape routes (A,B,C) to be on the safe side. This totally applies to public spaces, as I said before -- just because something's public (say, a strip mall or something) doesn't mean it's easily accessible or easy to escape from.

The stopwatch will give you a sense of how much time the DA will take, so you can get a better sense of how much time it'll take. Speaking of time, make sure you do a practice run-through on the day of the week you decided to do the DA -- like if you're planning for a Sunday, you should do a dry-run on some other Sunday, so you can see what a typical day/night looks like. The point is to minimize surprise for yourself, and maximize it for those you're campaigning against. That increases your odds of success.

Do not do anything to draw attention to yourself. Try to appear as normal as possible. Never loiter.

TROUBLESHOOT

By now, you've accumulated a lot of information, or you should have. You should know what you're doing, how long it'll take, and best ways of getting in and out of the area.

Take some time to troubleshoot -- has anything come up you hadn't considered before? When you pack your gear, make a note of how heavy it is, if it clanks or makes noise, etc.

Also, consider the date of the DA -- when will this action have the most impact. This is sticky, because sometimes a good action at the wrong time can be a waste, while an action at the right time can have amazing impact.

Choose your clothing wisely -- if the DA is taken during the day, you should take adequate precautions to conceal your identity and also to not draw attention to yourself. The important thing is to appear as normal and unremarkable as possible so you can fade into the crowd after you take the action. Alternatively, you can dress in a way to draw attention away from your face -- bank robbers do this, where they dress the same, so if people try to come up with descriptions of them, they tend to be more about what the guys were wearing than what they looked like, exactly. It might be useful to have a change of clothes with you -- like something you can quickly put on or remove so you no longer match the description of what you looked like during the DA.

If the DA is taken during the night, then you can simply go for something black -- but you might want to bring something you can put on/take off (as above) -- if you're all in black, waiting for a bus or walking down the street, you'll look awfully suspicious! Oh, make sure to wear sensible shoes -- very important. I also recommend you bring gloves, because they keep those pesky fingerprints off of sites and also help you get past obstacles, as needed.

Keep in mind there's no master checklist for a DA -- your preparation depends on the situation, hence the importance of scouting and planning.

One important thing that always applies: do not bring any ID, or anything else you can't afford to lose -- the last thing you want is to do a DA and leave your house keys in a field or in a gutter somewhere. Stuff always has a way of falling out of your pockets. I had a utility knife with me for one DA that I somehow lost during the action. It had been one I'd used at home, so I'm sure it had my prints all over it -- I even realized that I'd lost it during the DA, and wasted valuable time retracing my steps, trying to find it, and that led to the target becoming aware of my existence, forcing me to flee. Very annoying, and an example of how stuff like that happens. If it can be lost, it will be lost.

ACT

When the time comes for the DA, do it. Quickly, without screwing around. DA is actually a lot of fun -- like a major adrenaline rush, so it's easy to get caught up in the moment and lose your head. But don't do that, or you'll get caught. Instead, make your political point, and get out. Also, be prepared to scrap a DA if, for whatever reason, you don't think you can do it successfully -- you can always do it another time.

Try not to get caught -- cops may think (or choose to think) you're just doing typical criminal stuff -- vandalism, breaking and entering, graffiti -- whatever. If you're a minor, you're in better shape than if you're an adult, because legally, minors records are wiped clean when they become adults. That's useful. If you're an adult, you may get socked with criminal trespass, malicious mischief, or whatever else. And if they discover you're an anarchist, then you're really in for a thrill ride -- felony anarchy is a steep penalty, at least for adults.

But the point of all your preparation is to avoid that. Bad things happen when you don't plan, so plan and prepare, to minimize the role Chance plays in your direct action. That gives you the edge in the situation, because you've taken the time to plan well for your action.

Related to that, be sure it's clear that your action is a political one, and not simply would-be theft/breaking and entering or vandalism. You can leave a circle-A somewhere at the scene, or something like that. Something that lets people know this was done with political purpose, not simply the work of crooks or vandals.

Do your DA, and get out. Just like that.

AFTERMATH

So, if your DA goes off as planned, congratulations -- you did it! Depending on what you did, the press may or may not cover it. Some groups send out press releases, claiming responsibility for the action, as a way of trying to get some press. It's a judgement call on that, I think. Groups like ELF burned those ski lodges in Vail, Colorado, declaring responsibility; there's an Anarchist Golfers' Association that took out some biotech stuff, and left behind monogrammed golfballs as the scene, declaring responsibility. You get the picture.

If your action was memorable enough, the press ought to give it some coverage, although they'll spin it off to make you seem like the bad guy, of course.

One final note: don't do the same thing twice -- if you target a Starbucks, or a McDonald's, or a Gap, or whatever -- don't do multiple actions on that same place. The virtue of DA is it's unexpected, and catches them off-guard. If you repeat actions on a given location, you're increasing your odds of getting caught.

And also try to vary your actions -- it's like telling a joke; the first or second time, you can get good laughs, but if you keep telling the same joke over and over again, the laughs will go away. It's the same with DA's -- if you simply do the same stuff over and over again, it will lose its impact.

So, instead, be imaginative!

 
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