Comms for your action (internal)

When planning an action, you need to think about:

How to mobilise your group and supporters to participate in the action (that's what this page is about)
How to get the message out to the public, or whoever your audience is (see this page)

If you want people to turn up to your action, you need to win them over. That's a combination of selling the vision, reassuring people, and communicating the practical details. You need to thnk about the Action Identity (the design, branding, visuals, etc) - more on that in Vibe and Creative Elements.

There is loads of advice on how to run really good 'internal comms' here. You can also put out information about the action on your social media channels.

Mobilisation Messaging

So far in planning this action you have thought about the action's message - this is the message you want the action to send to the intended audience. But now have a think about the "mobilisation" message...this is the message you want to send to your members and supporters in advance of the action, to convince them to get involved.

Think about the narrative behind the action - what will get people excited and wanting to take part? And think about how they will sign up, stay connected, and receive all the key info. You need a simple, compelling message - including a clear call to action (a way to sign up or commit). This is particularly important for mass participation actions.

Comms Channels

This call to action can be communicated through appropriate channels:

Sending an email
Sharing on messaging apps like Signal
Sharing on broadcast channels, like Signal or Telegram
A recruitment roles fayre to get people excited and thinking about what role they might take.
A Facebook event
Talking to your regional group about it so other local groups in your area are aware of it

For closed (secure) elements, you're likely to want a Signal chat for the organising team. It’s best to separate those who are at higher risk of arrest from those who are not, to protect them. (See Comms Security section below.)

For public two-way channels, appoint at least three admins and keep on top of messages, replying to questions and keeping the vibe going.

If you are setting up a broadcast channel with UK-wide appeal, liaise with the XRUK Broadcast team to make sure the content plan works alongside and with existing XRUK broadcasts.

Recruiting new members

An action can also be a great opportunity to recruit new members into your group. It is an immediate, exciting thing to get involved in. Ten committed new people joining your next action is worth so much more than hundreds sitting dormant on a mailing list!

Always make it to be as quick and easy as possible for new people to join us at actions. What pathways are you offering to bring people into roles, further info/training or involvement?

Open Calls

XRUK M&M can offer technical and organisational guidance on how to hold an effective open call, with updates also being made to the Rebel Toolkit for info. Contact Mov.Comms@extinctionrebellion.uk

Comms Security

Security and inclusion can become two ends of a scale. To make an action more secure often means making it less inclusive. There are ways to try to lessen this affect.

If you have a spicy element to your action, you need to take extra care to balance the info given to them so they can commit and feel bought into the action, without having more info than they need. Get a legal briefing from one of our legal reps and share this so they can weigh up the risks and potential consequences.

The key thing here is to give information on a need to know basis. Encourage everyone to be super vigilant with this rule. Stagger giving spicy info like this - Eg. We’ve got this kind of action in late May, would you be interested? If yes, then give the date, are they available? If yes, then give the types of roles you are recruiting. If yes, then give the final details you are prepared to share.

When setting up the group chat make sure you follow these rules to keep it as secure as possible

Ideally only add people that you know well or are verified by others (trusted rebels)
Make sure only admins can add new members to the chat. Remember that descriptions in the headers of Signal chats are visible to anyone, even if they are not a member of the chat.
Make sure admins are anonymous and make sure people use pseudonyms and burner phones if possible, and that those are added to the correct chats (with their normal names and numbers removed).
Use air-gapping (see below)
Make sure you set disappearing messages. If actions are happening soon, make sure you set disappearing messages to a day or a week. Otherwise 4 weeks should be fine (Only Signal can do this automatically however Admins in Mattermost, WhatsApp and Telegram can delete others' messages.)
Make sure you keep group join links turned off
Remember that many chat platforms attach media and files and links separately, so admins should regularly check that old media files and links are deleted
After the chat is done, and everyone has agreed that the group chat is done with, leave the group and delete the chat off your phone
Some members may not do this, so once the chat is done with, admins can remove members individually and then delete the chat off phones by deleting the group chat altogether - in this way people are not on lots of different chats that have ended which may cause security issues should someone’s phone be seized.
Use the XR Cloud or CryptPad instead of Google Docs. See Document Management

Air-gapping

The best thing to do to protect ourselves and XR is to use a process called 'Air-gapping' and is broadly used in government agencies, military and corporate sectors.

Air-gapping simply means we communicate any action planning and organising using one app (Mattermost is good for this) on a private channel or direct messages and then send specific details such as car registrations, credit card numbers and addresses using a different app that is end-to-end encrypted and self-deleting messages (Signal is best). This creates a gap between the planning and those specific details and ensures that if an adversary manages to get their hands on one account, they don't have all the pieces of the puzzle to sabotage an action, nor pair up individuals with a particular action plan, nor put faces to words with intent to commit crime (etc).

Comms to do list

Is the name of the event clear and engaging? Does the name already exist (and mean something else?! google it)
Be consistent and clear with the content and style of your messages. There's lots of advice on this in Style Guide for Messaging Apps
Get people to register via Action Network (this is helpful in that new people will be added to your mailing list)
As details come together, send them out on the mailing list - AND keep your automated welcome email up to date, so that new joiners don't miss out on anything
Add the event to the Movement Calendar (which will automatically put it on Event Map). This should include specific meeting point details, a way to contact you for further details, and a link to sign up. Test that your action displays correctly on the map and that the signup links work.
Create a chat where people can ask questions and/or receive updates. Include details for joining this chat in the automated welcome email.
Try to phone rebels signing up for the action in advance, explain the plan and ask what they’d need to come, e.g. info on legal rights, risk, toilets, access etc. The likelihood of somebody attending increases significantly if they get a call from you
Use the same image(s) for the campaign and repeat it in every message a post, to make your action catch. You can make images using the Aktivisda generator, more details here
Create a Facebook event for the action