Toolbox:

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

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

Stolen Gas Campaign

Stolen Gas Campaign

Grassroots Jordanian activists mobilized popular opposition against a $15 billion deal with Israel to import natural gas, both before and after the deal was signed.

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?”

Story

Stop Prawer Plan

Stop Prawer Plan

In response to a draft Israeli bill that aimed to expel 70,000 Palestinian Bedouins from their ancestral land, Palestinians organized a massive campaign that led to the withdrawal of the proposed bill.

Story

Welcome to Palestine

Welcome to Palestine

Hundreds of international solidarity activists staged a “fly-in” at Ben Gurion airport demanding to visit Palestine in protest of Israel’s racist border policies and de facto siege of historic Palestine.

Story

Birthright Unplugged/Replugged

Birthright Unplugged/Replugged

The Birthright Unplugged/Replugged project used travel as a subversive act to expose Israel’s unjust restrictions of movement and violations of international law.

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.

Principle

Foster safer spaces

Foster safer spaces

Whether in our meetings or on our streets, we can advance our struggle for justice by creating safer spaces for everyone, and by challenging the norms and power dynamics that make spaces unsafe for some people.

Principle

Focus on basic needs

Focus on basic needs

In repressive regimes, directly criticizing the authorities can be dangerous. One lower-risk way to challenge the legitimacy of the regime is to focus attention on everyday economic struggles, e.g. high prices.

Theory

Baltajiah (thugs)

Baltajiah (thugs)

A common political formation shows up across the Arab World: an often marginalized grouping of individuals that the government can call on to momentarily disrupt movements seeking change.

Story

Stolen Beauty

Stolen Beauty

The Stolen Beauty boycott campaign targeted the Israeli cosmetics manufacturer Ahava, causing economic damage, a tarnished reputation, and ultimately, a promise to move the factory out of historic Palestine.

Story

#​You​Stink

#​You​Stink

In 2015, in Lebanon, more than 100,000 protesters took to the streets in response to a garbage crisis, triggering a resistance movement that told the corrupt government “You Stink.”

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

Dump Veolia Campaign

Dump Veolia Campaign

BDS activists around the world forced the French company Veolia to divest from the Israeli market after causing it to lose $20 billion worth of contracts for its complicity in Israel’s human rights violations.

Tactic

Subversive travel

Subversive travel

Subversive travel seeks to defy and subvert unjust travel restrictions. It can be used to facilitate freedom of movement, challenge militarized borders, break a siege, deliver aid, or attract media attention.

Story

Gezi Park iftar

Gezi Park iftar

When Turkish authorities tried to break the unity between secular and religious anti-capitalist protesters, Observant Muslims responded by inviting everyone to a public feast during the Ramadan Iftar.

Tactic

Phone banking

Phone banking

Mobilizing the public to call or text a government or corporate target to pressure them into taking an action. It can be a contagious tactic for lobbying decision makers.