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

Anti-oppression

Anti-oppression practice provides a framework for constructively addressing and transforming oppressive dynamics as they play out in our organizing.

Methodology

Battle of the story

Harness the power of stories to expose oppressive beliefs and show how another reality is possible.

Story

Boxing Gender Oppression

After Kenya’s post-election violence in 2008, when many young women were sexually abused and traumatized, Boxgirls Kenya used boxing to fight the shaming, stigma, and fear they experienced.

Principle

Breakfast is persuasive

Providing a direct service that benefits your community can speak louder than any rhetorical argument. Living out the values of self-reliance can empower the community to engage in deeper organizing.

Methodology

Building resilience

Activities and practices for building individual, small-group, and community resilience, so we can create sustainable, impactful, and thriving groups capable of changing the world for the better.

Principle

Burn brightly, but don’t burn out

Taking care of ourselves and having fun in our work for social change are essential to building stronger, more effective, healthier movements.

Story

Countering Homophobic Policing

A series of bold and creative direct action protests, from police station invasions to “wink-ins,” succeeded in pushing back against police persecution of gay men for consensual acts in the UK in the 1980s.

Principle

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.

Principle

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.

Methodology

Hardship to grievance

Organizers can help people shift their understanding of the difficulties they are experiencing from isolated hardships to shared grievances, then carry out successful campaigns to address those grievances.

Tactic

Jail solidarity

Putting pressure on authorities after activists are arrested can create a strong community of resistance, and help deter state violence and the persecution of activists.

Principle

Joy is a revolutionary force

Our journey towards a better world can—and often should—be a nurturing and joyful experience! Find pleasure in the process, as adrienne maree brown said: “Feeling good is not frivolous, It is freedom.”

Tactic

Lamentation

Public mourning as protest.

Methodology

The Movement Cycle

A framework that can help organizers identify what they need to be doing right now, by understanding, and thinking strategically about, the life cycle that social movements tend to follow.

Theory

The people’s shock

Crises such as coups, wars, natural disasters, recessions, and pandemics are not just opportunities for the powers that be to impose their will, but for people power to win great victories.

Theory

Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will

The glass is half full and half empty. We need hard-headed realism and full-hearted idealism to change the world.

Principle

Practice digital self-defence

To protect against digital surveillance and online attacks, activists should get comfortable with digital security tools and protocols.

Theory

Prefigurative politics

By creating in the now — via visionary direct action and living our values — the future world we wish to see, we can experience for ourselves how a better world is not only necessary but possible.

Story

Round Dance Revolution

In 2012, a movement combining flash mob tactics and traditional Indigenous round dances rose up to defeat a bill that would have eroded Indigenous sovereignty and environmental protections across Canada.

Story

Schools of Struggle

Students occupied over 200 schools in São Paulo to protest the governor’s plan to close schools, forcing him to reverse course, and igniting a wave of student resistance across the country.

Principle

Seek safety in support networks

When activists are threatened, it’s important to harness national or international networks that can provide support and deter violence.

Theory

The shock doctrine

Neoliberalism treats crises such as wars, natural disasters, and recessions as opportunities to impose privatization, deregulation, and cuts to social services. Social movements must contest these moments.

Theory

The social cure

The actions of our peers are more likely to motivate us to act than either information or an appeal to fear. The social cure shows us how to harness this power of social groups for social change.

Principle

Solidarity, not aid

Grassroots leaders around the world must support each other to set local and global guidelines for NGO intervention in order to guarantee sustainable community empowerment and leadership.

Principle

Take risks, but take care

Direct action is inherently risky. The point is to minimize the risk, not needlessly (or unilaterally) endanger your safety or that of the people around you by trying to prove that you are “hardcore.”

Principle

Use the law, don’t be afraid of it

So you’ve received a threatening letter from a corporate lawyer. Congratulations!

Principle

Use the power of ritual

Rituals like weddings, vigils, and pilgrimages are powerful experiences for participants, and familiar narratives for observers. You can use their symbolic power to give actions greater depth and resonance.

Tactic

V-formation

Inspired by migratory birds, this is a technique for sustaining activism for the long haul. Rotate roles to share burdens, and allow members to step back from frontline roles without guilt, and you’ll go far.