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Resources for Non-violent Direct
Action and Civil Disobedience
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If you or your group are going
to be involved in direct action or civil disobedience it
is advisable to inform yourself about legal issues, how
to prepare and how to involve the media. Here are some sources
and advice:
General
advice for activists
Legal
Briefings for activists
Legal
support
Using
the media
Nonviolence
training and affinity groups
DIY
guide to occupying your pr-war MP's office
Recipe
for fake blood
General
advice for activists
Accessible, encouraging and practiccal advice gleaned from
a long activist career can be found at Starhawk.
Good bits include 'How to plan an action' and materials
for people organising preparation sessions and wise reflections
on tactics/strategy.
Great advice also on the New
York ACT-UP site and the Genetix
Snowball site.
Schnews also have a list of resources for activists.
A new resource for activists is NVDA-UK
with listings, ressources and reports of actions.
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Legal
Briefings for Activists
Anyone thinking of risking arrest
at your action should understand the arrest process and
the sort of offence(s) s/he could be charged with (for most
die-ins this will be 'obstruction of the highway').
Excellent briefings on both of these topics, suitable for
distribution at a nonviolence training, are available on-line
from the Activists Legal Project which has produced some
excellent briefings on possible charges for nonviolent civil
disobedience, police arrest procedures, and how to run a
legal support group (ESSENTIAL if you expecting arrests).
Briefings available on the ALP website.
Legal
support
Again, if your 'die-in' or other action has an arrestable
component, you should be aiming to provide legal support
for those arrested. For information about what this involves
see the Activists' Legal Project Briefing 'How
to set up a legal support group'.
The Law
Collective has more detailed and US based information.
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Using
the media
Good press work can make an action
ten times more effective. George Monbiot has written a brief,
readable and all-round excellent guide for activists doing
media work. The pamphlet costs £1.50 (inc. p&p)
from Voices, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX or can be read
online
or are available from ARROW by sending 1.50 to ARROW, 5 Caledonian
Road, London N1 9DX.
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Nonviolence
training and affinity groups
If you are organising civil disobedience/direct action for
the first time, it’s good to have a group to do it with. Briefing
on Affinity Groups
It is also useful to do some
nonviolent direct action preparation with a trainer (perhaps
from the Quaker organisation Turning
the Tide, 020 7663 1064) or contact ARROW, 0845 458 2564.
After the London Preparation
session on October, people said:
"I feel a lot more confident now about risking arrest,
especially after the legal briefing".
"There was a feeling of inclusiveness and everyone got
to have their say, which doesn't always happen".
"It was enjoyable and
information, and it was good to have lots of material to take
away at the end."
PLACE
Make sure that the place for the training is warm and wheelchair
accessible. If you can, organise childcare in an adjacent
room.
SAMPLE AGENDA for organising a Die-in action
Here's a possible agenda, which should give you an idea of
what happens at such a workshop. Decide on time limits for
various sections, and stick to them. Try really hard not to
let the meeting over-run - people will have other commitments
to return to:
Welcome: facilitator to explain the agenda (preferably have
it written large and displayed)
Go-round: everyone to take it in turn to say their name, why
they're taking part and whether they've taken part in anything
like this before
Pair-work: split the group into pairs and take it in turns
(3 minutes each) to share any hopes or worries about the die-in
Go-round: share briefly any of the hopes and worries shared
in pairs. Write them down on a large piece of paper. This
helps people feel that they are not alone, and can be used
during the day to check that all the worries and fears (and
hopes!) have been addressed
Describe, and if necessary clarify, the order of events for
the die-in. Make it clear that there will also be non-arrestable
roles on the day
Give people a legal briefing (see below). Let them read through
it, and ask any questions
Role-plays: Set up a role play. Make sure there is at least
one facilitator. Divide the group into police, vigilers, those
playing dead and include some observers, who observe the whole
role-play. Give them time in their various groups to decide
their course and manner of action, and then enact. Do not
be rough physically. At the end of the role-play, facilitators
check that everyone is "out of role" (tell everyone to have
a good shake); if anyone has been upset, then make sure they
have the support they need (eg just role-playing being carried/dragged
away by the police can be upsetting). Go round the room and
get everyone to give pertinent feed- back: the police, the
dead, the vigilers, the observers, the facilitators. Repeat
the exercise at least once, with people changing roles and
trying out different forms of behaviour.
In the police station: clarify that people know the procedure,
and what information they have to give. If necessary, set
up another role-play. Bear in mind that people can be held
in cells for several hours. Explore what it means to be offered
a caution, to be charged, or to be released without charge.
Court procedure: Briefly inform people of the court process.
But best set up specific court preparation workshop at a later
date.
Implications of having a criminal record: clarify these as
best you can - in terms of job, employment prospects, impact
on family etc. One of the things about a nonviolence training
is that people get to make an informed choice about whether
or not they really want to risk arrest. If at the end of the
day, several people have decided that they want to take on
non-arrestable roles instead, then this is absolutely fine
- the nonviolence training has still worked!
Any further questions
Clarify agreements made
Have a go-round where everyone says how the training has gone
for them
Finish in a warm manner - possibly with a minute's silence.
Don't forget to provide hot drinks and loo breaks and information
stalls
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Recipe
for fake blood
If you're going to use fake blood make sure that you're aware
of the law on criminal damage (see Activists
Legal Project).
The basics are water, cornflour, and red food dye (lots of
it - the powder sort that comes in big containers from Asian
food stores is by far the best. The liquid sort in tiny bottles
is more or less useless unless you only want to make a thimbleful).
Basically, boil the water, make the cornflour into a paste
with cold water, add slowly to the hot water, stirring all
the time (or it'll turn to one big lump). When it's about
the consistency of very thin custard, stop adding cornflour,
take off the heat, and add the dye. You need to use a lot
more than you might think, until it looks almost black in
the pan. Test it by dropping a bit on a piece of white paper
to check it's really dark and bloody, otherwise it'll look
like strawberry sauce, not blood). Bear in mind that it'll
thicken more as it cools and you might need to add some more
water later. |
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