Tents camped outside building at Harvard University with a US flag hanging from building. There is also a Palestinian flag and banners. One of the banners reads 'From the River to the Sea Palestine will be free.' There is a chainlink fence in front of the tents with a sign that reads 'Viva Viva Palestina'.
Harvard University Free Palestine Camp 2024. Credit: Dariusz Jemielniak ("Pundit"), CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Protest Camps: Tips for Set Up & Strategy

By

Introduction

Protest camps, occupations, student encampments and blockades can be powerful tactics.

Many movements have used protest camps at different times to apply pressure on powerholders, escalate campaigns, reclaim space and be an uncompromising presence.

Recent student encampments (in support of a free Palestine and targeting university complicity in genocide) have shone a spotlight on this campaign tactic. Other examples include: the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Greenham Common women’s peace camp, anti-apartheid shanty towns built on US campuses in the 1980s, environmental blockade camps, Tahrir Square, Occupy Wall Street and Occupy camps around the world. See Protest Camps: Case Studies for many examples. 

Protest camps may be known by different terms: student encampments, peace camps, occupations and environmental blockades. We use the term protest camps as a term inclusive of all these different forms. In this we follow the lead of a key book, Protest Camps (details of this book and other research are included below). They are a compelling means to draw attention to injustice and in some cases directly obstruct or disrupt destructive and anti-social activities.

Protest camps are resource intensive tactics that are often targeted by opponents and police. They require planning and support. It’s important to make sure protest camps are strategic, including clear demands and plans for how to end the camp.

Below is a list of resources collated by the Commons librarians. Thanks to Professor Anna Feigenbaum for assistance in sharing research. We welcome the addition of more resources on this topic and are also open to publishing interviews with protest camp organisers sharing their insights and lessons.

What are Protest Camps?

Protest camps are a highly visible feature of social movements’ activism across the world. They are spaces where people come together to imagine alternative worlds and articulate contentious politics, often in confrontation with the state. – Anna Feigenbaum, Fabian Frenzel, Patrick McCurdy, Protest Camps

Protest camps are set up by activists as temporary homes to facilitate action for specific political ends and often also to prefigure alternative ways of life. – Catherine Eschle, Femininism in Protest Camps: Toward a 21st Century Feminist Democracy

A collection of tents and citizens protesting in a public square for an extended period of time. Camps typically include health care/medical facilities, food supplies, and in modern times, internet access. – Emily Stacey, Networked Protests: A Review of Social Movement Literature and the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement

(A blockade) is a temporary camp site set up generally near the site of a proposed project or activity that people are trying to highlight, or an area people are aiming to protect. – Nicola Paris, A Beginners Guide to a Blockade Camp

A group of tents set up by pro-Palestine protesters in Kambri (Union Court) on the lawn of the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. Some of the tents have the Palestinian flag. There is a row of little Palestinian flags along the front wall. There is a large banner in the background that reads 'Gaza Solidarity' and some other text that is hidden by a tree.

An encampment of pro-Palestine protesters in Kambri (Union Court) on the campus of the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, April 2024. Credit: Mairremena, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Resources

Planning a Protest Camp

Protest Camps, like other campaign tactics, benefit from group discussion and strategic frameworks. The Tactic Star tool prompts consideration of:

  • Strategy: How will the tactic move us toward achieving our goal?
  • Message: What will the tactic communicate? What will it mean to others? How will it carry a persuasive story?
  • Tone: Will the action be solemn, jubilant, angry or calm? Will the energy attract or repel the people we want to engage?
  • Timing: Can we leverage unfolding events and new developments as opportunities? Does the political moment hold potential for us, or vulnerability for our opponents?
  • Audience: Who do we want to reach with our tactic? What response do we want our action to inspire in them?
  • Allies: How will the tactic affect our allies or potential allies? How will they receive it? Will it strengthen the relationship or jeopardize it?
  • Resources: Is the action worth our limited time, energy and money? Can we get more out of it than we put in? Do we have the capacity to pull it off effectively?
  • Target: What message will the tactic send to the people who have the power to meet our demands? Will it pressure them to capitulate, or enable them to dismiss us or retaliate?

Applying the Tactic Star tool to a potential protest camp can help a group decide whether to proceed or not. It can also prompt discussion and decisions which increase the strategic impact and viability of a protest camp.

See the full Tactic Star tool for further tips and the Campaign Strategy Planning template for additional tools and considerations.

an illustration of a bright yellow sun

This tactic star names some key factors that change agents should consider when determining their tactics. The same tool can be used to evaluate actions after they have been carried out. – Beyond the Choir

Your group may come up with other key criteria and considerations, such as:

  • Participants: Who will camp overnight? Who will participate in the camp in other ways? What strengths or constraints will impact participation?
  • Duration: How long can you sustain a camp? What duration fits with the political opportunity timeline and the capacity of participants?
  • Location: Is a potential site visible, accessible, protected from the elements, and able to be defended?
  • Roles: Such as Police and security liaison, Corporate/Government/Campus liaison, Media liaison and spokesperson, Social media, Photographer and videographer, Conflict resolution, Welcome crew, Night watch, Quick decision making team and more
  • Activities: Such as protests, educational sessions, caucuses, cultural expression, and morale building activities

Practicalities of Camp Set Up

CounterAct have developed helpful guides for people preparing and attending blockade camps. The context is environmental blockades in regional areas but many of the lessons apply in other contexts:

A group of smiling protestors under a tarp shelter. A banner reads 'Coal Out, Renewables In'.

The book Protest Camps outlines different forms of ‘infrastructure’, ‘the organised services and facilities protest campers build for daily living’, that the authors observed in protest camps around the world.

Book cover - Title reads 'Protest Camps' with 'Anna Feigenbaum, Fabian Frenzel, Patrick McCurdy.' Title is in large capital letters across whole book cover with red filtered photo of tents.

They name four kinds of infrastructure:

  • Media & communication infrastructures and practices (media strategies, distribution networks, production techniques);
  • Action infrastructures and practices (direct action tactics, police negotiations, legal aid, medical support, transportation networks);
  • Governance infrastructures and practices (formal and informal decision-making processes); and
  • Re-creation infrastructures and practices (food supply, shelter, sanitation, maintenance of communal and private space).

If you are setting up a protest camp make sure you have intentional discussions and decision making about the infrastructure that will support the functioning of the camp. The longer you intend to hold a camp, and the more people involved, the more infrastructure will be required.

Past blockades and occupations have put together manuals and handbooks to guide their participants, which may provide helpful tips. See for example:

Walmadan Booklet Cover featuring shells, turtles, james price point

  • Camp Walmadan Booklet from the 2013 blockade at James Price Point in Western Australia. This outlines key information to consider for camp set up and to share with potential participants. Sections include cultural protocol, maps, camp guidelines, how to help out around camp, decision making, health and safety, nonviolent direct action, conflict resolution, security culture and legal basics.
  • Road Raging: Top Tips for Wrecking Roadbuilding from the 1990s UK anti-roads movement includes practical tips around defining the function of a camp (such as whether it is a form of obstruction or accommodation), deciding on its location, setting up sleeping quarters and the value of a ‘welcome centre’ for visitors to the camp. It also has a chapter which discusses living communally while maintaining physical and mental health.

You can also learn from past protest camps through case studies, articles and books, including The Long History of Protest Camps and Organizing Occupy Wall Street.

A Note on Location

When you are considering where to hold a protest camp make sure you know who owns the land, the laws or policies that apply to it, and how it is secured or policed. For example, a protest camp may be treated differently if it is on land owned by the government, a corporation, a university, or a supporter of the movement. Some land that is perceived as public, such as a park in the city, may actually be privately owned.

A protest camp can be an occupation, with the location having symbolic value or relevance to pressuring a target. Some environmental blockades and climate camps take a different approach, setting up a base camp on land owned by a supporter of the movement. This gives campers a secure place to stay which is in proximity to an environmental site they wish to protect (such as a forest) or a destructive project they wish to protest (such as a coal fired power station).

Safety and Legal Support 

Planning and running protest camps requires engagement with safety and security practices and legal support. Check out the following resources for guidance:

Report Cover - Title reads Get in Formation A Community Safety Toolkit. Title overlays image of a circle of Black and Brown hands with palms facing up.

As Vision Change Win note: ‘Since violence often looks different in different geographic locations and communities, the resources in this toolkit are intended to be adapted to your specific conditions.’ Seek out collectives and organisations who focus on these issues in your region for more tailored support.

As protest camps can be targeted with violent repression the backfire effect can be a valuable framework for responding. There are ways that social movements and organisers can use those moments to highlight repressive agendas and elevate their own moral standing. See Backfire Manual: Tactics Against Injustice by Brian Martin and Violence and the Backfire Effect by the Horizons Project.

policeman in riot gear grabbing the neck of an older man

To be prepared, you need to understand the tactics likely to be used by your opponent, for example covering up the action and trying to discredit you and your group. The Backfire Manual… is a practical handbook for being more effective whenever you face a powerful, dangerous opponent. – Brian Martin

Working Together Effectively

People living and working together at protest camps can experience significant stress and pressure, both from external forces and due to internal tensions. It’s crucial to foster the skills of collaborating, communicating, making decisions, and managing conflict.

One way to manage the scale of protest camps is for people to organise via smaller units such as affinity groups, neighbourhoods, working groups, and/or committees. Spokescouncil and other meetings can gather people representing these units to share information and plan. See Affinity Groups for Non-Violent Direct Action from CounterAct and Checklist for Affinity Groups by Skills for Action for tips. 

One of the most important functions of an affinity group is to support each other. This could be particularly important when it comes to participating in your first arrestable action. – Nicola Paris, Affinity Groups for NVDA

Facilitation at protest camps can be an ‘extreme sport’ but also an incredible training ground for facilitators and participants. The scale and complexity of spokescouncils and general assemblies can require a multi-person team.

See Facilitation at the Frontlines for notes about logistics, comfort of participants, timing, internal organisation within the facilitation team, holding the space, and being transparent about role and power dynamics. Facilitation at Occupy Melbourne shares insights about facilitation from the very challenging General Assembly process at Occupy Melbourne, one of the many camps around the world that was inspired by Occupy Wall Street.

Many protest camps prioritise direct democracy and use some form of consensus or near-consensus decision making. Consensus Decision Making provides an introduction, process flow chart, and links to several manuals on the topic. The Loomio decision making tool was developed by activists involved in the Occupy movement in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Through consensus, we are not only working to achieve better solutions, but also to promote the growth of trust and respect within the group. – Pt’chang

See Working in Groups: Start Here for many more guides.

Remember: Be Strategic and Stay Flexible

Protest camps are one tactic among many. For inspiration see Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action and use the Tactic Star tool to assess which tactic fits your current context and goals.

Protest camps can be compelling and emotive, especially when people have time to deepen a connection to a place and a community. It can feel hard to let go of the experience. However, continuing a camp for too long can result in activist burnout, public disinterest (as something that was fresh and interesting becomes stale and familiar), and a drain on resources which could be put towards greater impact.

In Campaign Tactics (an excerpt from Climate Resistance Handbook Or, I was Part of a Climate Action. Now What?) Daniel Hunter shares reflections from Yotam Marom, a former leader in the Occupy movement:

“A big part of what made Occupy Wall Street work was the occupation. It created a way to capture our anger and vision, brought people together, and gave people a reason to learn about organizing. It pointed a finger at our opponent, and broke the rules of business as usual. And it was spreadable — so anyone could become part of the movement, at least in theory. But it was part of our undoing as well.

Lots of colourful tents and a large group of people standing before a building with columns, St Pauls Cathedral in London. On one of the tents in the foreground reads a cardboard sign 'Real Global Democracy Now'.

Occupy London – Tents in front of St Pauls, London Sunday 16th October 2011. Credit: Neil Cummings, CC BY-SA 2.0

We were wed to a single tactic, and that made us less flexible. The tactic was hard to maintain, it took enormous energy, and it didn’t always match local contexts. Our occupation a few blocks away from the bull on Wall street tells a particular story, but what does an occupation of a parking lot outside a grocery store in Indiana tell?

Because we had relied on it too strongly, we hadn’t developed any other effective ways to recruit and organize people. In other words, the tactic became the movement. It lost its meaning to the public, and it also gave our enemy a clear way to take us apart. If the tactic becomes the movement, all you have to do is kill the tactic and the movement goes with it.”

If you’re involved in a protest camp make sure you maintain your connection with wider movements, including people with different theories of change and tactics. Allow for plans to shift with the changing context as well as the needs of campers.

When you decide it’s time to wrap up the camp make the time to debrief together and share the stories of success and struggle. Of course, many times activists don’t get to decide when a camp ends, as police move in and evict them. If that occurs the need for debriefing and shared sense-making is even more important.

Research about Protest Camps

Book cover - Title reads 'Protest Camps in International Context Spaces, Infrastructures and Media of Resistance'. Photo of a building with banners and dome tents set up on asphalt in the foreground.

Explore Further

Share Resource

Share on LinkedIn

Topics:

Tags:

Format:


image Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA

Contact a Commons librarian if you would like to connect with the author

Topics