Strategic direct action – new guide
Tools for Change have uploaded a new Ruckus Society guide to strategic direct action. An initial glance says it looks promising – accessible, well formatted and coherent with case studies to boot.
Activism
Take the flour back….
The campaign against a resurgence of GM crop trials in the UK is gathering pace. If you missed out on the action the first time around, now’s your chance. So dust off your gardening gloves and take a look at the Take the flour back website for details of the action.
Spokescouncils – learning from Stop New Nukes: Part 2
I was back at Hinkley power station this weekend for the Fukushima anniversary action. Actions at Hinkley have a new poignancy – the site for the new and much bigger Hinkley C reactor has now been cleared, despite valiant efforts to hinder it (a tree-sit and occupation of some farm buildings), and G4S security guards […]
Hearing voices: activists engaging communities
Yesterday I was facilitating at the regular meeting of the Building Activist Networks Forum. The theme of the session was supporting activists in engaging with their communities. To be precise, I was co-facilitating – with Naveed from Oxfam UK. Right from the start we identified that all we could do in the time that we […]
Strategy: Hold the front page!
I had the pleasure of working with trainers from Belgian Peace network Vredesactie recently, as part of the work I do for Turning The Tide. Steve, my TTT co-facilitator, and I travelled to Ghent to support a group in delivering strategy workshops to activist groups. We were quite clear from the start that it was […]
The perfect group? A dangerous fantasy?
The MindTools website is a useful source of all kinds of resources, articles and ideas. I’ve just read the latest e-newsletter on beating self-sabotage which has a great article on perfectionism in it. Read the article and then translate it from the business world to grassroots groups. Recognise any situations? Here’s a few of the […]
Empowered communities
A month ago I started watching this on Casper ter Kuile’s blog. I soon realised it was a powerful video, but have only just found time to finish it. We don’t hear enough about community organising in the UK activist scene. Much of the activist movement is about mobilising people who, in the grand scheme […]
The 99% Spring
100,000 Americans trained in nonviolent direct action? It’s not a fantasy. It’s planned for 9-15th April. Thinking that we need the same thing here in the UK? You’re not alone, and the conversation is in a fairly advanced stage. What it lacks at the moment is funds. So, in all seriousness, if you have a […]
This is where the battle to stop a new generation of nuclear power stations will be won or lost
The campaign against the building of Hinkley C nuclear power station is hotting up. Campaigners have occupied land that’s due to be cleared for the new site. The campaign is about far more than the building of one new generation nuclear power station. To quote the short video below “This is where the battle to […]
Counterpower – an interview with Tim Gee
Last year saw the publication of Tim Gee’s book Counterpower: Making Change Happen. We asked him to share his thoughts on the blog and here they are: Why write the book now? Does the timing reflect your observations about the state of the social movements right now? I began researching the book a few days […]