An Arrow pointing up features a person by themselves and as the arrow moves up the person gathers more and more people and at the end there is a group of people holding barbells up in the air representing there is strength and power in numbers.

Replace Endless Actions with Campaigns

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Introduction

Keep doing the same actions and not getting anywhere? Learn about replacing endless actions with campaigns and have a bigger impact. This article has been sourced from Daniel Hunter’s book published by 350.org called The Climate Resistance Handbook. Read below or see pgs 22 -25 of the book.

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I was part of a group trying to stop the US war in Iraq. We were able to organise a march of 2,000 people in my city. That’s a big turnout. And we got good press coverage. So we did it again.

This time we got 10,000 people in the streets. I was one of the emcees for the rally and couldn’t see to the end of the march. At that time, it was the largest march I had ever been part of organising. Te feeling was amazing. So what did we do next? We didn’t vary our tactics. We did it again.

This time, we only got 1,500 people marching. And less press coverage. Then how did we feel? Pretty bad. And what did we do next? Another march.

Just a few hundred came this time — and virtually no press. The problem was that we didn’t really have a plan. We just had a tactic. So we kept using the tactic because that’s what we knew. We were doing endless actions.

An graphic with heading 'Endless Actions'. A man is holding a sign, then it shows him holding the sign lower, and lower looking deflated and then sitting down. There is an infinity symbol in the background.

Imagine you’re a politician, and you’re the target of a campaign. People are outside your offices urging you to do something. You had to sneak in the back door so you wouldn’t have to face them. You are feeling the pressure.

But will they be around the next day? Will they keep the pressure on? If you can wait until the pressure is over, then you are unlikely to make the change.

Government officials (and most targets) regularly just wait until people do their big action. If the activists are lucky, the official gets some bad press for a few days. But the pressure does not stay. They wait until the heat blows over. Then they keep doing the bad thing.

Campaigns vary up the actions. They recruit new people to support them. They sometimes use mass actions — where lots of people are involved. And other times, they pick very risky actions that only a smaller number of people will take part in. Each steps heads towards their target and winning their goal. They keep the pressure on.

Campaigns assess: Is our capacity growing? That doesn’t just mean more people, but also stronger people — people with more skill, stronger relationships, more willingness to do riskier things — and more people.

With an issue like climate change — where to start? There are so many solutions needed — it’s not just one.

By forcing powerful players to do the right thing, we win over new allies and gain power for our movement for bigger and bigger wins. We have to build capacity to make change as quickly as we can.

Examples of other campaigns:

  • New Zealand campaigners pressured their prime minister (the target) to stop all new of-shore oil drilling (the goal).
  • 350 Georgia has run campaigns at the city level. Their first win came when the mayor of Kutaisi (the target) pledged to make their city 100% renewable by 2050 (the goal).
  • In Kenya, a group of students found out about a 1,050 megawatt coal project on the coast and have organised to stop it (the goal) by pressuring the president, cabinet secretary and Ministry of Education (the targets).
  • Mothers Out Front in the US wanted a “livable planet” for their kids but wondered how to turn this into a campaign. They decided on pressuring school districts (the target) to switch to electric school buses (the goal).

Campaigns make use of tactics. They may be a mix of small and big events, repeated or one-time actions. Unlike endless actions, campaigns have a goal and a target.

What’s great about a campaign is that it can start small — but be part of a bigger thing. Mothers Out Front is a pretty small group. They got a few buses turned to electric. But the way they are campaigning is explicitly about climate change, about the ill effects of diesel fuel. And they advocate both away from diesel and towards renewable energy.And small wins create momentum to keep people engaged, so you can move on to bigger wins.

In this sense, campaigns are more than the goal and target. They are people’s yearning for something better.

People get used to oppression and low expectations. Campaigns shake us out of it. When people fight for something, they begin to believe they really deserve it.

When we campaign, we start to dream bigger. We begin to see that we can have agency in our world. We begin to expect better behavior from those around us.

Even when we lose a campaign, this energy lasts. That’s part of why it’s such a powerful way to structure our organising. It’s easy to say, “Save the climate.” It’s harder to go to the Ministry of Education’s office and say, “You have to stop the Lamu coal plant, because it will kill my children.”

The focus of campaigns is practice for us, our friends and our colleagues to get used to asking for more change, faster change — and to make it a regular practice.

Whereas endless actions could have us feel good, campaigns help us feel good and make a bigger impact.

About Book

This article is from the Climate Resistance Handbook which brings together a wealth of learnings from the climate justice movement. It starts with breaking social myths about how social movements win. Then dives into campaign tools and frameworks you can use. It closes with how to grow your group and use creative, impactful actions and tactics. This book is full of stories of climate warriors from around the globe and historical movements. It’s filled with practical wisdom and inspiration to make you more effective, more active, and ready for what’s next.

Book Excerpts

The Commons Library has featured parts of the book as separate articles.

Other Languages

This article can be read in different languages. See pages 22-25 from the book links below. Please Note: With different translations these page numbers may vary slightly.

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