Narratives of NVDA

OK a month into this blog, and whereas I’ve pontificated about digital activism a fair bit, and ideas as to how to value real world activism, I’ve not really mused much about NVDA (non violent direct action) as a subject close to my heart.

The question is how to describe such activities, without incriminating myself, as often as not I’m in the thick of it. So without sounding too pompous I’d like to introduce you to my new guest narrator George. Over to George.

So here’s a little video I found:



About a small group of volunteers who got up very early in the morning to go down to the Treasury to hang a banner, well within the SOCPA zone and opposite a small police station. Nothing quite like an easy target.

However with a bit of speed, the ladder team wrangled a 3 part beast up against the wall, as the climb team shot up, and the action was done and the blocking team left the scene, as the first two policemen watched on. After dissembling the ladder, while many more police arrived, the ladder team split up and faded into the night, with nary a word spoken. A very clean piece of work.

So hours later the climbers were arrested – top tip if you’re worried about such things, don’t climb, and one wonders why this was worth doing? They were later released without charge.

To the initiated this was a very precise direct comms (communication) event, taking a message to a decision maker – George Osborne, about promises he’d made and was likely not to keep.

As his staff arrived at work, one must expect them to have noticed the big banner on their office, alongside the dangling climbers. In parliament the Chancellor quips that it’s the first time he’s seen someone protest in favour of a bank, and clearly the message has got through.

So how does one measure the value of such an action? And the cost not just in terms of money and time, but also the risks involved – mainly to one’s criminal record, but to an extent to limbs if not life?

Clearly as a set piece direct comms, this had somewhat more impact than a strongly worded letter, a meeting with a senior civil servant, or even Osborne himself – if such a thing was possible. As an action it chips away at the Chancellors resolve, but is unlikely to change his position – whereas the threat of the loss of 10,000 votes in key marginal at the next election may well do.

But such comparisons are tortuous. To achieve change one try’s every tool and tactic available, and after the strongly worded letter, or even 10,000 such letters and the Chancellor still refuses to meet then and only then does one:

Speak out in acts; the time for words has passed, and only deeds will suffice.
Alfred North Whitehead

I'm certains George will be telling us more about such activities over the coming months.

Seven Deadly Arts of Campaigning

Several years ago I wanted a mechanism to introduce a brainstorm to Friends of the Earth staff, to try and coax out some new ideas about how to influence MPs as part of the campaign to get a UK climate change law.

The premise was based on what was/is conventional wisdom, that the crux of any campaign is identifying the key decision maker, bringing as much pressure to bear on that decision maker, until they make the decision you need to advance your campaign goals.

The corollary is a more holistic approach where I believe you make as much noise around the issue, where you aim to use that noise to engage as many people as possible, to change the Zeitgeist of the campaign consciousness, that the change happens organically. I’m not unconvinced, but have yet to be convinced.

So to spark the brainstorm I constructed the five deadly arts of campaigning.

1. The generation of 100’s (ideally 1000’s) of communications to the decision maker. Campaign postcards (e.g. constituents to MPs), lots of emails (clicktivism), signatures on a petition, facebook notes on the wall, personalised letters, tweets and whatever the next generation of tools might be.
2. 1to1 high quality communications, the face to face lobby, presenting, arguing, negotiating with the decision maker to do the right thing. Often the territory of think tanks and corporate lobbyists but done better, and more honestly, by ‘ordinary’ and 'extraordinary' folk.
3. Via the media, organising a stunt aiming to get the decision makers picture in the paper tied to the issue or at least his/her name. Never underestimating the power of local media, and the letters page, when the decision makers neighbours might comment.
4. Using public events, filling a room full of people and asking the decision maker to talk to them about the issue. Old school political hustings, public meetings, film nights anything where a decision maker is forced to make a stand, and to state and defend a position.
5. The power of the system, using the structures that exist (e.g. Judicial Reviews, or via the local planning system), and the rules of the game (often set by the same decision maker) to force them to make a decision in line with those rules.

Since the brainstorm I’ve pondered a few more, which are as yet unformed and 7 deadly arts would sound more mythic than 5, so

6) Indirect lobbying, mobilising celebrities, scientists and advocates to deliver that 1to1 high quality communication / face to face lobby on your behalf. Turning an esoteric campaign ask into a conversation in the pub the decision maker drinks at, or a topic of debate at his/her local golf club. Presenting the issue to the local scholl, where the decision makers children might happen to listen.

7) Non Violent Direct Action. Now originally I had included the idea as a sub set of public events, and to extent that is still true, but is tenuous enough that I’ve stretched it to the 7^th art.

Then the philosophy of NVDA varies, and of the categories that Greenpeace ideology uses, i.e.

• Direct Communications – where the objective is to communicate with the decision maker, often to deliver the evidence of the environmental problem to their door e.g. the delivery of a dead dolphin
• Direct Actions – to stop or start something happening, e.g. shutting down a coal power station
• Photo Ops – to generate the image, that the media will then transform reaching not only the decision maker but also the Zeitgeist, often yet another banner drop
• Protests – as an expression of popular approval, involving the coalition of the willing, the expression of frustration and the empowerment of the many. Classically the big march through the London, which still have their uses.

Finally perhaps direct comms can be folded into the 2^nd art, that of high quality (resource intensive) communications. Photo ops seamlessly fit into the 3^rd art, protests as a subset of the 4^th (especially if you can convince the decision maker to come), leaving only the ‘purist’ form of NVDA as the 7^th deadly art of campaigning.

These are not the spies you are looking for

This is a bit of a retrospective of one of the first actions I was involved in, the occupation of the home office building site and a cautionary tale of police surveillance and bad directions.

The case was simple, the plywood used in the hoardings of a building site came from the Indonesian rainforest, was illegally felled, illegally exported and then landed at Tilbury, became legal once more? And bought by Government contractors contrary to a great deal of Government policy.

As an action it was a near disaster, the police were waiting, knew everything and clearly had an infilitrator on the team. Somehow in the face of 100+ police coming our way, the climbers sprang over the fence and up the crane without a snag. The rest of us found ourselves dogged at every turn by big burly offices of the Met.

Hypothetically I might have done some fly posting, but this seemed suicidal cheeky and so instead a somewhat more sedate role leafleting government buildings – in this case MI5, some considerable walk away.

Well a considerable walk later, and some leafleting outside a charismatic building in Vauxhall, a nice security chap asked us to move on, as we were drawing attention to their secret HQ. Seemed a bit odd, as the building was in a bond movie, but he did nicely clarify that we were outside the wrong building and MI5 was back the way we’d come. So much for my direction sense.