Facilitating for Gender Balance
Men frequently participate more than women in meetings, forums and other events. This article outlines practical steps facilitators and participants can take to ensure women are heard.
Format
Articles
Five Principles for Building Powerful Coalitions
Not all coalitions are made equal. While alliances between unions and community organizations are an important and useful strategy for social change, their power and success varies greatly depending on the strategic choices of those involved.
Introduction to Community Mapping
Community organisers need to continually analyse their communities. What’s going on that has implications for our issue and campaign? Which groups do we need to be connecting with? How is power being exercised?
Three Approaches to Organising
This article outlines three frameworks of organising. They are broad based organising; social movement organising; and community development informed organising.
Sustaining Ourselves as Activists
Activist wisdom has been gathered from a survey of nearly 200 about how to sustain ourselves as activists. A great list from those who have been there.
The Little Book of Power
The goal of this book is to help become more aware of your own relationship with power. Despite the many negative associations and memories we have about power (mostly it’s misuse), power isn’t good or bad, and it is necessary.
Becoming Allies: Reaching across the Divide
Allies work is key to building strong and diverse groups and social movements. An ally is someone outside an oppressed group or identity, who commits to standing alongside those people.
A Resource for Activists Working Through Trauma
We need to talk about how we both prepare ourselves for, and support each other through our responses to stress and trauma, whether it be from police brutality, another institutional force, or from conflict within our own communities.
Community Organising Aims to Win Back Civil Society’s Rightful Place
Community organising is a way of working that trains and builds citizen leaders inside community-based organisations. We need to build strong and vibrant civil society organisations that act for the common good.
Union and Community Coalitions: Stronger Together
This article outlines some of the key elements of successful coalitions. Coalitions can vary, from ad hoc relationships to deeper, long-term, formal coalitions. Coalitions differ according to their common concern, structure, organisational commitment, capacity and culture.
Levels of Commitment from Community to Core
Rick Warren focuses on five ‘circles of commitment’ – community, crowd, congregation, committed and core, and argue that it’s important to recognise where your supporters fall in these categories, and develop processes to move them from the outside in. An excerpt from Purpose Driven Campaigning.
Time to Move the Rock: Activating Social Values to Bring About Change
Learn about Daniel Hunter’s metaphor of moving the rock to bring about social change through activating people’s social values.
Training as Organising
Tips for training or other events which connect people to a campaign and help individuals overcome their barriers to action. As organisers we can use the momentum of the group to leverage people to action – like a turbo-charged persuasive conversation.
Green Bans
In the 1970s Sydney builders labourers refused to work on projects that were environmentally or socially undesirable. This green bans movement, as it became known, was the first of its type in the world.
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established in 1972 when the Coalition Government failed to recognise the land rights of Indigenous people. From its inception, the Embassy has been interwoven into Canberra’s physical and political landscape, blending black politics, symbolism and theatre that opponents have found difficult to counter.
The Vietnam War
Case study of the Australian campaign against involvement in the Vietnam War. The emergence of popular protest in Australia during the 1960s presented a fundamental challenge to government decisions and the way those decisions are made. By taking to the streets people challenged the policy positions of government and, in some cases, the very legitimacy and authority of the state itself.
The Mau Movement for Samoan Independence
Case study of the long struggle for Samaon independence which was ultimately successful in 1962. The Mau movement had its origins, in 1908, in a dispute between the German colonial administration and the Maloa o Samoa, or Samoan Council of Chiefs, over the establishment of a copra business owned and controlled by native Samoans.
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.
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.
The Basics of Crowdfunding and how to use Pozible
Rick Chen, cofounder of Pozible, came along to a Melbourne Campaigner’s Network session to introduce the basics of crowd-funding and how to use the Pozible platform. Read on for some tips on how to get your crowd-funder up and running!