Climate Action Monash – Putting Knowledge into Action!
Climate Action Monash is an open on-campus climate action group designed to inspire students and staff to put knowledge into action!What is Direct Action?
Non-violent direct action is the process of obstructing, raising-awareness and promoting social change through direct intervention. Examples of direct action include waging strikes, sit-ins, occupations, lock-ons, obstructions, disengaging equipment, trespassing etc. Generally speaking non-violent direct action involves any form of intervention in a process that is deemed unjust using non-violent techniques.
The history of non-violent resistance is probably as long as civilisation itself, however, many social movements in modern times have drawn particular inspiration from the actions of Jesus (and some other religious pacifists), Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the actions of feminists, unionists, socialists, anti-racist, anti-war, environmental and gay activists. Organisations that promote direct action are Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace, Ploughshares and Friends of the Earth, just to name a couple.
Civil disobedience is generally linked to direct action, but not always. In this sense, direct actions can technically speaking be both illegal and legal. As many direct actions are illegal, due to fact that the State and its military and police force defend the rich and corrupt, most successful direct action organisations support their political prisoners through legal solidarity campaigns. Supporting those involved in legal battles against the state or corporations is thus as important as directly participating in direct action itself.
There are quite a few recent examples of activists who have managed to be found not guilty for intervening in situations in which a greater crime was being committed. In 2007 six UK Greenpeace activists climbed to the top of the Kings North Coal stack and then abseiled down the stack with the intention of writing “Gordon Bin it”. They successfully wrote ‘Gordon’ before a court injunction was filed against them. They were later acquitted for the action by a jury. The video below is an inspiring documentary on the action, which testifies to the success of direct action as a form of political engagement and to the ordinariness of activists, who are often portrayed by the media and vested interests as either violent, ill-considered or a danger to society.
