From Industrial Workers of the World and the use of slow-downs, to Black Panthers distribution of free breakfast to children, to the early years of Earth First! unrolling a plastic "crack" down the Glen Canyon dam, Direct Action has a rich history. Often, our institutions perpetuate oppression and exploitation and global corporatism erodes any respect for the sacred quality of life. Our society has proven that "traditional channels" of redress are wholly incapable of delivering anything remotely close to justice, fairness, or equality. Other methods are needed in order to assert our humanity, our deeply held values, and an affirmation of the worth of all life.

What is direct action? This training goes over the basics of how to use direct action effectively and strategically. Skills covered include: forming affinity groups, de-escalation and conflict management, consensus, legal, strategic action planning. This training will provide an introduction to pulling off direct actions, explores what makes an action effective, how to work as a group in a direct action context, action preparation and roles, and features many interactive role plays based on real life scenarios.

This training can be adapted according to the needs and experience of the group.

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If we are ever going to elevate human rights above that of criminal corporate or investor interests we need a way to gauge our effectiveness, especially with movement-building work. Although social change has anything but a linear direction to it, we can still develop way-points to orient the direction of our efforts. Grand Strategy highlights a set of principles and theoretical framework which can be utilized for evaluating the effectiveness of our actions and tactics. Topics explored include conceptual frameworks for understanding conflict, building power, the role of social movements in relation to political reform, and creating a sympathetic identity for ones cause through principles-based communications.

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Mouse-click activism wont grab the headlines or truly inspire others to join the fight, we need meaningful actions. All the fun creative tactics are of little use to our campaigns unless we've planned for all the aspects of our actions. If we start with a giant flash mob we might have difficulty attracting media when we next hold a 2 person banner.

This training is about putting it all together. When is the best time to plan actions? What tactical knowledge is important to consider? How and why do you leave room for strategic escalation? Who will you need on your team? This training will explore these questions as well as equipping you with the tools needed to create a plan that strategically accomplishes your goals.

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Nowhere else is the saying "knowledge is power" more applicable than when dealing with the legal system and the men in blue who enforce it. Despite corporate capital interests having a strong presence even on the bench of the U.S. Supreme Court, the legal system still affords us useful guarantees. Knowing the tools available to you, the traps you could get hung-up in, and having a basic familiarity with the process will help you act as level-headed as possible when tension and emotions are running high at an action.

This training covers all of the basic legal information for interactions with police. The training teaches you what your basic rights are when you are questioned, searched, detained, and/or arrested, and what methods the police use to manipulate these rights on the spot. The training also takes you through the step by step process from the first interaction with the police, through detainment, arrest, and the court systems. Other topics discussed: tips on jail solidarity, current federal and state legislation threatening your rights, and what to take with you and leave home during an action.

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Projection as protest is a fun and easy tactic to master. It's relatively cheap and potentially super effective. Sometimes also called a "Bat Signal" the use of easily procured theater lights and metal stencils (GOBOs) to amplify your message is one of our favorite tactics among our allies.

Your imagination is the only real limitation. Projection as protest can be used to project on a target exposing their criminal and unjust behavior like HSBC laundering hundreds of millions of dollars of drug money, as a way to raise awareness of a lesser known issue like for-profit-prisons, build solidarity and cohesion among your group, or recruit new allies because it's so fun. After-all, who doesn't want their picture taken holding a "light canon" projecting a message like "Sucks!" on a Bank Of America headquarters building. Even better, it's a very low-risk action, ever heard of someone being charged with trespassing with light? If you've got a message and advanced notice we can guide you through an action out in the field.

Interesting action of projection combined with audio:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47bwEXo7LVI

Growing collection of photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/72157631838489020/

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Want to light up your movement or campaign? Think an injustice needs to illuminated? If you have some friends who are itching to raise the visibility of an issue and desiring to take a stand then you can play activist scrabble as an Overpass Light Brigade. Backbone Campaign has built a library of LED light panels and we are eager to help others do the same or utilize our set for an action. The legal issues are the same as overpass bannering when used in that context, but this tactic is infinitely adaptable. We can imagine a helium balloon assisted LED light message floating in the sky... ;-) We can also guide you through building your own library.

Overpass Light Brigade, or OLB is a tactic developed by activists in Wisconson, see http://overpasslightbrigade.org/

Some photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/backbone_campaign/sets/72157632229581080/

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Blockades have played a pivotal role in the escalation of non violent campaigns. Blockades have been implemented by Earth First'ers rapidly mobilizing to stop the decimation of groves of old-growth redwoods. Blockades have enabled the occupation of representative and corporate offices so that they feel the pressure of accountability to our people-powered movements. Blockades have grabbed newspaper headlines by shutting down entire cities where the meetings of trans-national trade agreements were taking place.

This training discusses the use of hard and soft blockades as an action tactic. Learn strategy and techniques used to stop people and vehicles from accessing areas in the wilderness or an urban landscape, blocking roads, taking over an intersection, or just trying to get out of the authorities’ reaches. This introduction presents a foundation for the use of blockades in actions, the necessary preparations before implementation, the roles of participants during a successful blockade action, and includes an opportunity to practice a blockade scenario. This training is hands on, and will include how to work with the materials such as Ulocks, black bears, and straight boxes, as well as methods of soft blockades using your body. This training can be adapted to include a thorough training of building and using Tripods, which adds an additional hour to the training.

Hide Description of Intro to Blockades

Blockades have played a pivotal role in the escalation of non violent campaigns. Blockades have been implemented by Earth First'ers rapidly mobilizing to stop the decimation of groves of old-growth redwoods. Blockades have enabled the occupation of representative and corporate offices so that they feel the pressure of accountability and our people-powered movements. Blockades have grabbed newspaper headlines by shutting down entire cities where the meetings of trans-national trade agreements were taking place.

This advanced blockade training covers the use of hard blockade equipment like lock-boxes and tripods. This training is geared towards participants who are already familiar with blockades or have participated in our Intro to Blockades training.

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Some people wonder if the state of the world needs to get worse to motivate more people to make it better. More likely, we need to organize more effectively. An endless montage of creative tactics wont win us the world we want. Our campaigns are much more likely to succeed if we cultivate the skills needed to alleviate our nearsightedness and develop a long-term vision. Also, we can hardly be effective agents of change without some degree of personal care to make our engagement sustainable.

Looking at the big picture - strategy, targets, setting goals/objectives, choosing tactics etc. This workshop goes over the basics of how to build the campaign you need to create change. It will cover: planning campaigns to be more cohesive, effective and strategic steps needed to implement an effective campaign, identifying your targets, building a network of strategic alliances, and how to coherently evaluate what’s working and not working in existing campaigns. The workshop also explores the concept of burn out in the activist movement, and how to avoid it within your group.

From bird-dogging, to song and dance flash-mobs at your local Target store, to occupying coal plants, staging tree-sits, and beyond, successful action mobilization requires time and energy taken to scout out the location of the action. This training will give an overview of a step-by-step process to ensure you wont miss any details and help you minimize the unknowns and surprises you'll have to contend with during the day of action. You'll develop skills for assessing entrance and exits to the site, staging of imagery and placement of photographers so you get those awesome visuals, coming-up with contingency plans, ways to keep participants safe, and more.

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The first four letters in "M-o-v-e-ments" are a call to action to animate our values, and what better way than with music. Isn't it way easier to mobilize people into the streets and keep some skip in their step if they have some rhythm guiding them? Trade in those overused chants for some lively percussion! Through a Drumming For Demonstrations training everyone can get in on the fun, regardless of musical background. As an added plus, as much fun as you and the group may be having, the phenomenon of a horde of people banging on pots and pans while marching to the steps of your target's office can be a little intimidating to them. If your issue or cause is so sympathetic or your beat so contagious that you can mobilize moms, their baby strollers, and their children's rattles, then your target will really be sweating!

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The first step in recognizing security risks in a community is working towards creating a security culture. Just because we're non-violent doesn't meant that the police don't see us as a threat. It also doesn't mean that we will not be charged with violent crimes if arrested. Maintaining a tight security culture is essential for creating a cohesive, safe, and effective movement based on the principals of trust and solidarity. As our direct action movement becomes more effective, government harassment will only increase. Violations of security culture include behavior that is inappropriate because it intensifies government harassment, jeopardizes the freedom of other activists, and destroys the trust within the movement. This workshop explores how to stay two steps ahead of the government, versus two steps behind in paranoia. Covers the basics of creating and implementing security within your group, and throughout the rest of your life; office, home, personal life, and on your computers.

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