Toolbox:

An interconnected web of the key strategies and tactics that have inspired people-powered victories & upended the status quo. Start anywhere and explore…

Story

Miniskirt March

Miniskirt March

After a video circulated in 2014 showing the public abuse and harassment of a woman in Harare, Zimbabwe, women organized a miniskirt march to protest widespread street harassment and to push for safe spaces.

Story

Taxi drivers strike against taxation

Taxi drivers strike against taxation

To protest continued harassment and exorbitant illegal charges by tax collectors, taxi drivers and conductors throughout Kampala parked their vehicles and stopped working.

Story

Dhawili (turn on the lights)

Dhawili (turn on the lights)

In 2012, Tunisian anti-corruption campaigners used blogs, flash mobs and lobbying of National Constituent Assembly deputies to enshrine the right to freedom of information in the post-revolution constitution.

Theory

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism, today’s dominant ideology, reduces the state to a handmaiden of transnational capital. In pursuing the relentless privatization of the commons, its policies inevitably spark popular discontent.

Story

Black Monday movement

Black Monday movement

A campaign against theft of taxpayer money that engaged Ugandan citizens to fight corruption by exposing and ostracizing government thieves. Members wore black on Mondays.

Methodology

Baraza

Baraza

A large community gathering to discuss important matters, share information, & hold leaders to account.

Theory

New Pan-Afrikanism

New Pan-Afrikanism

A continuation of the historic Pan-African struggle for freedom, justice, and dignity across the continent, renewed to tackle the particular challenges Africa faces today.

Story

Disrupting Obama’s town hall in Myanmar

Disrupting Obama’s town hall in Myanmar

In 2014, young activists at Yangon University, Myanmar, creatively disrupted a town hall meeting with President Obama to expose the flaws in the military-dominated government’s political reform process.

Theory

Poverty

Poverty

A focus on “poverty” relies on a charity framework that can never bring justice. To counter the process of impoverishment requires political action against those who cause and benefit from impoverishment.

Story

#​This​Flag

#​This​Flag

One individual’s outcry for a better future inspired the citizens of Zimbabwe to find their courage and overthrow a ruthless dictator.

Story

Fees Must Fall

Fees Must Fall

The 2015 tuition hikes sparked a national student movement in South Africa that demanded comprehensive reform and questioned the political, social, and economic status quo of the “rainbow nation.”

Theory

Hamoq and hamas

Hamoq and hamas

Turning anger into action is necessary, but that anger is most effective when it is disciplined and intelligently focused (hamas). Uncontrolled, stupid anger (hamoq) mostly undermines your own cause.

Story

Burmese Students’ Long March

Burmese Students’ Long March

In 2014, hundreds of students embarked on a 580 kilometre-long march across Myanmar to protest the military-controlled Parliament’s attempt to outlaw student unions.

Story

Manich Msamah

Manich Msamah

After the revolution, Tunisian youth combined their wit and passion to demand “no reconciliation without accountability!” and prevent the corrupt business elite from escaping justice.

Story

Stripping Power in Uganda

Stripping Power in Uganda

Female elders in northern Uganda invoked powerful cultural taboos by removing their clothes in front of two government ministers who were attempting to grab their land, successfully chasing them away.

Theory

Al faza’a (a surge of solidarity)

Al faza’a (a surge of solidarity)

A key segment of your supporters will only join at peak moments of your campaign — usually in response to an external event — and then disappear again. To win, you must be ready to make the most of this surge.

Story

Who Would Accept?

Who Would Accept?

After Egypt’s 2013 coup, when the only safe way to criticize the regime was to focus on poor economic conditions, ten Egyptian women held up banners with messages like, “Who would accept… such high gas bills?”