You are hereWhat is Direct Action?
What is Direct Action?
Direct Action and Affinity Groups
When was the last time you felt you really made a difference at the ballot box? So many people are feeling disenfranchised, feeling let down by our so-called 'democracy'. We watch politicians take us to war. We watch them approve the privatisation of precious natural resources, or send a green light to genetic engineering, or protect the biggest greenhouses gases emitters. NVDA (non-violent direct action) gives you the chance to challenge and change that.
Yes, it might mean breaking the law. But the law says war is fine. The law says that making all natural resources a market commodity, is fine, that GM crops are fine, or that mining more coal and increasing our climate changing emissions is fine. And the same law says peaceful protest is no longer a democratic right. If you're waiting for a legal solution to the world's problems, you better be able to hold your breath for a very, very long time. Do we have that long? We live in a world that assumes we need leaders and laws to keep us in check; that we're incapable of making hard decisions and implementing them without being told how. Direct action is direct democracy. It's one way of challenging this myth and collectively re-asserting control over our destinies.There's nothing else like taking back control of your life and standing up for what you believe in, in a simple but powerful way. Non-violent direct action (NVDA) is the single most empowering campaigning tool at your disposal. Don't take our word for it, try it and see for yourself.
What is an Affinity Group?
An affinity group is a small group of 5 to 20 people who work autonomously together on direct action or other projects. You can form an affinity group with your friends, people from your community, workplace, or organisation. Affinity groups challenge top-down decision-making and organising, and empower those involved to take creative direct action. Affinity groups allow people to "be" the action they want to see by giving complete freedom and decision-making power to the collective. Affinity groups by nature are decentralised and non-hierarchical, two important principles of autonomous organising and action. The affinity group model was first used by anarchists in Spain in the late 19th and early 20th century, and was re-introduced to radical direct action by anti-nuclear activists during the 1970s, who used decentralised non-violent direct action to blockade roads, occupy spaces and disrupt "business as usual" for the nuclear proponents and war makers of the US. Affinity groups have a long and interesting past, owing much to the anarchists and workers of Spain. Today there is a diversity of groups working for environmental and social change who use affinity groups, non-hierarchical structures, and consensus decision making to both organise and act in creative and empowering ways.
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