Changing the world via shock and beauty: Visual Artworks
Creative tactics for social change: Different ways of spreading messages and information in a creative way, including placards, plaques, projections and craftivism.
Topic
Tactics
Tactics are the exciting part of any campaign – the actions that involve people, put pressure on powerholders, and make a splash in the media. This topic includes activities to choose your tactics from a wealth of options, case studies that showcase different tactics, and the nitty gritty of organising particular actions.
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.
Climate Resistance Handbook: Or, I was part of a climate action. Now what?
If you’re wondering how to build a powerful movement that can make big wins for climate action, then this is your guide – the Climate Resistance Handbook by Daniel Hunter from 350.org
Ducks For Detainees: Interview about artivism
An interview with Maggie Cowling from Ducks for Detainees which is a group that holds art events to maintain awareness of the plight of offshore detainees.
30 years of Creative Resistance
’30 years of Creative Resistance’ is a compilation of writing and art celebrating the work of Friends of the Earth Australia over the last thirty years.
Tools Roundup: Canvassing and door knocking
How-to guide on networked coalitions/campaigns. Harness the power of networks to develop more agile, dynamic and distributed campaigning coalitions.
How to: Volunteer-led phone banking
Volunteer-led phone banking How to Guide from Blueprints for Change. Learn all the ins and outs of phone banking – theoretical and practical.
How to: Texting Campaigns
How to guide from Blueprints for Change about how use peer to peer texting (P2P) to deliver calls of action – includes best practice and case studies.
TED talk: Activism needs introverts
Sarah Corbett introduces us to “craftivism,” a quieter form of activism that uses handicrafts as a way to get people to slow down and think deeply.
TED talk: How to recover from activism burnout
When you’re feeling burned out as an activist, what’s the best way to bounce back? TED talk about creative actions – “playtivism”.
198 Methods of Nonviolent Action
Stuck in a rut when it comes to campaign tactics? Explore Gene Sharp’s 198 methods of nonviolent action which are classified into three categories: nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation (social, economic, and political), and nonviolent intervention.
Tactics analysis
A process guide to be used in training workshops and planning sessions to develop campaign strategy. Activists often love our tactics! We can even be wedded to our favourite tactics. Here’s a tool to help move from tactics to a larger strategy conversation by analysing tactics.
BUGA-UP
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.
Interview with Kevin Buzzacott
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.
Treesits, Lock-ons and Barricades: Environmental Blockading in the 1980s
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.
Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life: The AIDEX ’91 Story
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.
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 Freedom Ride
The Freedom Ride through western New South Wales towns in February 1965 drew attention to the racism in these towns. Aboriginal student Charles Perkins was, by the end of the journey, a national figure in the fight for Aboriginal rights.
Camp Walmadan Booklet
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.
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.