Iain McIntyre’s book How to Make Trouble and Influence People reveals Australia’s radical past through tales of Indigenous resistance, convict revolts and escapes, picket line hi-jinks, student occupations, creative direct action, media pranks, urban interventions, squatting, blockades, banner drops, street theatre and billboard liberation.
The How to Make Trouble collection on the Commons includes book reviews and two excerpts from the book (BUGA-UP and Kevin Buzzacott). Besides posts directly related to the book there is a selection of other activist history resources from Iain McIntyre.
Exploring social movement history yields strategic insight, a menu of creative tactics, and much inspiration.
An interview with a member of the Western Australia-based Grevillea about how the group applied a dynamic and creative perspective to approaching issues such as militarism, pollution and international solidarity during the 1980s and 1990s.
Interview with Dave Burgess who graffitied No War onto the Sydney Opera House to show opposition to the war in Iraq in 2003.
Creative tactics for social change: A number of examples of fun, empowering and engaging actions incorporating a creative approach.
Creative tactics for social change: Different ways of spreading messages and information in a creative way… memes, posters, postcards, stencils, etc.
Creative tactics for social change: Different ways of spreading messages and information in a creative way, including placards, plaques, projections and craftivism.
Creative troublemaking! What is creative activism? Why do we use creative tactics? What are the advantages of using cheek, shock and surprise?
Information about How to Make Trouble and Influence People, including reviews of the two editions. The book offers an alternative history of Australia, chronicling how it “has progressed by a series of little rebellions”.
Formed in 1979, Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions (BUGA-UP) made its mark on hoardings around the nation. By revising advertising slogans and disrupting tobacco-sponsored events, the group revealed the true cost of tobacco and alcohol company deception.
Kevin Buzzacott is a key figure in the opposition to the South Australian Olympic Dam mine and the nuclear industry in general. In this interview he outlines a number of the creative actions he has taken part in as part of a series of campaigns addressing the issues of dispossession and Aboriginal sovereignty.
From 1979 to the 1990s Australia, Canadian and American activists took part in a series of environmental blockades to defend old growth forests, rivers and other biodiverse places. Join Iain McIntyre for a series of conversations with the blockaders who took part in these campaigns.
In 1991 over 1000 protesters blockaded the National Exhibition Centre in Canberra with the goal of shutting down the Australia International Defence Exhibition. This book includes a detailed account of the blockade, the context of the growth of the Australian arms industry, and the words of the protesters themselves.
A Walking Tour of Unemployed Resistance in Brunswick, 1929-35. This walking tour visits the sites of some of Melbourne’s fiercest unemployed battles in the northern suburb of Brunswick, including pickets, occupations and protests.
The economic depression of the 1930s saw thousands of Australians thrown out of their homes and into the streets. These actions however did not go unopposed. Across Australia pickets, occupations and protests were organised to disrupt and prevent evictions and auctions.
Iain McIntyre talks with Ian Milliss about his involvement with Sydney’s Victoria St squats. During the early 1970s this street in Kings Cross became the focus of a long running anti-development struggle that brought together long term residents, unionists and squatters in a campaign which reignited squatting across the city.