Nonviolence Training: A Brief History
A brief history of nonviolence training around the world, Australia and in the Pacific by a group called Pt’Chang.
Collection
CounterAct
CounterAct: Building People Powered Action is a not-for-profit organisation that supports communities across Australia to protect the natural environment and work for social justice and human rights. This is done by providing training, educational resources and capacity building to support communities and activists.
The CounterAct collection on the Commons includes case studies, articles and practical checklists. Many of these resources have been written by Nicola Paris from CounterAct but the collection also includes resources from allied projects and campaigns focused on civil resistance, non-violence, direct action skills, campaigning and grassroots organising.
Climate Justice and Feminism Resource Collection
A comprehensive list of resources about climate justice (including First Nations, gender, disability and other resources) collated by the Womens Climate Justice Collective (WCJC) and CounterAct.
Crowdfunding for civil disobedience
Crowdfunding to cover the cost of fines for civil disobedience shares the cost among many supporters and reduces financial pressure on organisations or small grassroots groups. Here’s some tips from CounterAct on effective fundraising in this context.
Grassroots guide to creating quality online content
Tips from CounterAct for small grassroots groups on creating quality online content, making sure it is reaches the right audience and lands as well as it could.
Pranks, performances and protestivals: Public Events
Creative tactics for social change: A number of examples of fun, empowering and engaging actions incorporating a creative approach.
Items of Mass Instruction Posters, Stickers, Memes and More
Creative tactics for social change: Different ways of spreading messages and information in a creative way… memes, posters, postcards, stencils, etc.
Creative activism 101: An antidote for despair
Creative troublemaking! What is creative activism? Why do we use creative tactics? What are the advantages of using cheek, shock and surprise?
Family friendly organising
Here is a list of crowdsourced ideas on how to make meetings and activism more welcoming and inclusive for parents/carers and their families.
Media Checklist for Actions
A thorough checklist to help you prepare for traditional and social media in the lead up to an action, including some considerations for non-violent direct actions. Download as a handy printable pdf from the box at the bottom of this page.
Nonviolence Trainer’s Resource Manual
Nonviolence training manual to support the work of people working to increase the power and effectiveness of grassroots social movements.
Camp Walmadan Booklet, James Price Point, Western Australia: A Guide to Country, Community and Culture
The struggle to protect James Price Point was a multi-faceted, organic campaign, fuelled by creativity, ingenuity and a fierce sense of independence and justice. The Camp Walmadan booklet gives an insight into a recent successful community campaign. It also provides a great overview of the kinds of issues to consider when organising a large scale direct action convergence.
A Beginners Guide to a Blockade Camp
Many successful campaigns have based their direct action from blockade camps and include the wins against the damming of the Franklin river, stopping the Jabiluka uranium mine, and the proposed gas hub at Walmadan/James Price Point. It can be a scary thing, heading to a blockade camp for the first time. Here are some tips to get you started.
Live tweeting at rallies and marches
Twitter is a very useful way to share your story outside traditional networks. Increasingly Twitter quotes and photos are used to embed in traditional media, and with a small amount of effort you can get your event trending. This will alert politicians and media to your issue.
Affinity Groups for Non-Violent Direct Action
Affinity groups are a feature of many large scale non-violent actions. An affinity group is a small group of people (eg: 5-15) who have something in common who take action together. Groups could focus on a specific theme eg street medics or legal observers or more commonly it is a group of people that take action as a team.
Occupy Reflects
A collection of reflections on Occupy Melbourne. The global Occupy movement was one of the most important political events of recent history. Beginning with Occupy Wall Street in New York, the movement triggered an unprecedented wave of uprisings. Melbourne became the largest occupation in the southern hemisphere.
Jabiluka Fight for Country
In 2005 the Mirarr succeeded in halting the development of the proposed Jabiluka mine. It was the culmination of an extraordinary decade-long campaign which saw people across Australia and the world stand up and support Mirarr in their opposition to uranium mining on their land.
Stop Jabiluka Mine Handbook
Stop Jabiluka Mine handbook gives a fascinating insight into an important part of Australian social movement history as well as an overview of the kinds of issues to consider when organising a large scale direct action convergence. Over 500 people were arrested in the course of an eight-month blockade at Jabiluka in 1998.
Facilitation at the Frontlines
This article includes reflections and tips for ‘extreme sport’ facilitation at blockades and action camps. Includes notes about logistics, comfort of participants, timing, internal organisation within the facilitation team, holding the space, and being transparent about role and power dynamics.
7 tips for Facebook Risk Management
Facebook is a vital organising and networking tool but presents risks for activists. Digital security can seem overwhelming but we can all get better at it. There are organisations who have done a great job of breaking the information down and giving you support to improve your practices. Start with these 7 tips.
Tools for More Secure Activism
CounterAct encourages the progressive and radical movements on the Australian continent to get better at digital privacy and security. Security culture is simply a set of practices that limits the ability for government or opponents to find out more information about you and interfere with or monitor your group. We’ve given you some tools to minimise this.