Action design and outline plan
So you have an idea for an action or have picked up an action design from the Design Ideas for Actions or the Action Themes. And hopefully you’ve got a few friends to start planning with. This section is a team exercise, you’ll want to agree these elements with your small initial team.
Firstly, let’s make sure the action design is fully formed. Once you’ve got this sorted you can start to recruit others to your team, because you can be clear about the fundamentals of your plan.
In its simplest form, non-violent direct action is a means of delivering a message to a specific audience to achieve an outcome.
The design of the action has four elements:
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The message - top line message likely to be threaded across banner messages +
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The audience(s) - who do you want to hear your message (note this may not be your target) X
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The delivery mechanism or basic plan - how are you going to make your message heard =
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The outcome - what do you want to happen as a result of your action
Outcome/Impact
Your whole action should be designed around the outcome or impact that you want to achieve. Be clear from the start what this is and check back as the plan evolves to make sure it is still on track.
The desired outcome is usually one of the following:
- Build public awareness and support, create public debate, shift the overton window
- To pressure an organisation/government to change
- A show of strength: empower people with knowledge, skills and connections, movement building, coalition building
Think about how you can make sure your action is going to bring about the change you want to see - this will help you to convince others to get on board.
Key message or demand
What is the message and who needs to hear it. Are you demanding something? Discuss and agree on what you are demanding and from whom. This is usually best when it is something it is in the target's power to do (eg a company probably can’t change Government policy)!
Sometimes we deal with complex issues which we only just about understand ourselves. Think about the messaging if you were to show it to your mum or a neighbour. Would they get it without you explaining?
From this you can start to boil down your key message in as few words as possible. For example “Stop Rosebank” or “Unite to Survive”.
This will help define messaging for press, social media, on banners and placards; and how it is reinforced visually (eg people with noose around their neck standing on a block of melting ice = pretty self explanatory)
You can refine this as you go and you may want help from comms people to make sure your messaging is going to land well. Speak to your Regional/National messaging team to find out about messaging training and resources, and spokesperson training.
Audience and target
Your audience may not be the same as your target. Think about Insulate Britain. They targeted the general public but their audience was the government. The campaign still helped to get insulation on the government agenda.
If your audience and target are different, think about whether the audience will understand your messaging.
Clearly define who your audience is: Is it employees of your target? Is it the government? Is it the public? It can be more than one and if so, you may need to deliver that message in different ways. For example you may have banner messaging for the public via social media but have flyers with more detail for staff.
How will your action reach their ears, or their screen? How do you adapt your action, outreach and overall language to that specific audience group(s)?
What background information do you have about your target to justify focusing on them? Have you, XR or other group already targeted them for similar reasons? If so, what was their behaviour, reaction, response to the action? Do you need to do more research on your target to support your messaging or demands?
When planning your messaging, also check out this advice from the Media & Messaging team on:
Tactics
This is how you are going to deliver the message in a way that reaches your audience and improves the change of achieving your goal.
E.g. Disrupt an oil terminal with a bunch of tripods at change of shift.
There are three main methods to achieving the outcome and often we use more than one:
- Disruption - to create disruption that gets attention
- Outreach - to tell the public the truth, and bring people together, at the protest, or through media.
- Media - actions that are focused on getting media attention, and spread through social media
Keeping it simple is usually the best policy.
Firm up the key details of your plan:
Location - double check the target location is suitable (you will want to recce the target) More info on location below.
Date - Check whether it clashes with other actions / big national things like a football final so you’re not competing for media coverage. Is the office open on that day? Is government on holibobs?
Start time - Consider your location and what type of action you’re are doing to choose the most appropriate time, eg. rush hour in the City of London. Earlier in the day is sometimes a good idea as actions happening 7-9am often catch that day’s press. Do you want to be there when staff get to work? When does it get light or dark (this affects photos especially)? More detail on timings below.
The physical how of it - will you jump on the tanker in the petrol station or wait until it’s pulled out onto the road? Do you need climbers to go in ahead of the main group and start climbing before people glue onto the doors? This will help determine roughly how many people you need and what skills you need for the next section.
Start thinking about inclusivity and access from the start.
Codename
Have fun making up a sassy codename so you don’t call your blockade of Santander HQ ‘the Santander action’ which can give the game away.
Open or closed organising
Closed organizing is a secure action that relies on the element of surprise. This usually means smaller numbers with a trusted closed team (eg climbing up an oil rig). This has the disadvantage of being less inclusive, because you will only be involving people that are known to the movement. See link to security.
Open organising is where you openly say what you’re doing and anyone can come and join the action (eg a big march, or occupying some landowner’s estate and inviting the whole world to join). This can also mean opening it up to other groups, NGOs & Movements like with the Big One. This has the advantage of being much more inclusive but the disadvantage of state intervention.
There is huge power in telling the government, the police and the media where you will be and when, and then doing it. This is an act of pure defiance. We are too many to be stopped. We are reclaiming our power. It is also respectful to give members of the public /city transport management due warning of disruption so they can choose to not drive their car/take another route. Recognize important routes where access needs to be clear for emergency vehicles. We aim to disrupt, but not to harm.
Some actions have elements of both open and closed organising - where something spicy is happening and a march with loads more people comes to the location (eg Lloyds of London blockade). If you are planning elements of both, be careful to ensure all rebels are treated with respect and if they want to avoid arrest you take measures to lower the risk.
Support from Back Office
- If there is any likelyhood of arrests happening during the action, then inform the Back Office team so that your rebels can be supported.
Numbers
Think about NUMBERS when planning:
- How many rebels are needed?
- How will you reach out to them?
- How many public do you expect to be there?
- How can more people be involved?
- What roles carry the risk of arrest?
- What can you achieve with the number of rebels you have?
- Has everyone done an NVDA (Nonviolent Direct Action) training and/or other trainings? Highly advised! Contact your local XR to find out when trainings are going on or direct people to online NVDA training.
Location and Timing
Think about LOCATION when planning:
- Always do a recce! Scout the location out thoroughly, preferably at the same time of day as when your action will take place. Recce advice here.
- How does your chosen location fit with your narrative?
- Does it gain publicity?
- Does it cause effective disruption if that is your aim? Who are you disrupting?
- Will disruption be to influential people more than public; is it an influential area?
- Which parts of the area / terrain are public, or private, or a highway?
- Are you blocking any emergency service access, e.g. near to a hospital or firestation? (Don’t!)
- What will police presence be like / are there private security there?
- What legal implications will the location incur? Is there a byelaw in place? What different criminal charges could there be depending on exactly where it happens?
- How will you publicize the location? Do you meet up at the location you are disrupting? Or meet in a publicized location and keep the area you want to disrupt secret?
- Have you considered all possible scenarios and how you might deal with them? E.g. heavier security for a building than you anticipated, dense public presence that is in the space you want to use, another event or blockage already occurring etc.