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Direct action is a term for Economic power and Political power behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a government's laws or actions) or to solve perceived problems (such as social inequality).
Direct action may include activities, often nonviolent but possibly violent, targeting people, groups, institutions, actions, or property that its participants deem objectionable. Nonviolent direct action may include civil disobedience, , strike action, and counter-economics. Violent direct action may include political violence, assault, arson, sabotage, and property destruction.
"When the reconstruction of the origins of our epoch is undertaken, it will be observed that the first notes of its special harmony were sounded in those groups of French syndicalists and realists of about 1900, inventors of the method and the name of 'direct action.'"
The Industrial Workers of the World union first mentioned the term "direct action" in a publication about the 1910 Chicago strike.The I.W.W.: Its First Seventy Years, 1905–1975, Fred W. Thompson and Patrick Murfin, 1976, p. 46. American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre wrote the essay "Direct Action" in 1912, offering historical examples such as the Boston Tea Party and the American anti-slavery movement, and writing that "direct action has always been used, and has the historical sanction of the very people now reprobating it."In his 1920 book Direct Action, William Mellor categorized direct action with the Class conflict between worker and employer for economic control. Mellor defined it "as the use of some form of economic power for securing of ends desired by those who possess that power." He considered it a tool of both owners and workers, and for this reason he included lockouts and , as well as Strike action and sabotage.
Canadian anarchist Ann Hansen, one of the Squamish Five, wrote in her book that "the essence of direct action ... is people fighting for themselves, rejecting those who claim to represent their true interests, whether they be revolutionaries or government officials".Hansen, Ann. Direct Action: Memoirs of an Urban Guerrilla. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2001. , p. 335
Activist trainer and author Daniel Hunter states 'Nonviolent direct action are techniques outside of institutionalized behavior for waging conflict using methods of protest, noncooperation, and intervention without the use or threat of injurious force.
On April 28, 2009, Greenpeace activists, including Phil Radford, scaled a crane across the street from the Department of State, calling on world leaders to address climate change. Soon thereafter, they dropped a banner from Mount Rushmore, placing President Obama's face next to other historic presidents. The banner read: "History honors leaders. Stop global warming."
Human rights activists have used direct action in the campaign to close the School of the Americas (SOA). (2025). 9780822333920, Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822333920 245 SOA Watch protestors have collectively spent almost 100 years in prison, and more than 50 people have served probation sentences.
In the United States, direct action is increasingly used to oppose the fossil fuel industry, Oil well, pipelines, and gas power plant projects.
Direct action was taken at Arms industry in the United States and the United Kingdom that supplied arms to Israel during the Gaza war.
Some protestors dress in black bloc, wearing black clothing and face coverings to obscure their identities. Ende Gelände protestors wear matching white suits.
One of Greenpeace's tactics is to install banners in trees or at symbolic places like offices, statues, nuclear power plants.
Direct action protestors may also destroy property through actions such as vandalism, theft, breaking and entering, sabotage, tree spiking, arson, bombing, ecotage, or eco-terrorism.
Pranks may also be considered a form of direct action. Examples of direct action pranks include the use of Stink bomb, critter, and paint bombs. Protestors may Pieing their targets. The Yes Men practice nonviolent direct action through pranks.
Some direct action groups form legal teams, addressing interactions with the law enforcement, judges, and courts.
American political scientist Gene Sharp defined nonviolent direct action as "those methods of protest, resistance, and intervention without physical violence in which the members of the nonviolent group do, or refuse to do, certain things." American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre wrote that violent direct action utilizes physical, injurious force against people or, occasionally, property.
Some activist groups, such as Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, use property destruction, arson, and sabotage and claim their acts are nonviolent as they believe that violence is harm directed toward living things.
Mahatma Gandhi's methods, which he called satyagraha, did not involve confrontation and could be described as "removal of support" without breaking laws besides those explicitly targeted. Examples of targeted laws include the salt tax and the Asiatic Registration Act.M.K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, Navajivan, Ahmedabad, 1111, pp. 94, 122, 123 etc.Gandhi, M. K. "Pre-requisites for Satyagraha" Young India 1 August 1925 His preferred actions were largely symbolic and peaceful, and included "withdrawing membership, participation or attendance in government-operated ... agencies." Gandhi and American civil rights leader James Bevel were strongly influenced by Leo Tolstoy's 1894 book The Kingdom of God Is Within You, which promotes passive resistance.Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre (2010). Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel. Exeter: Imprint Academic. p. 19
Other terms for nonviolent direct action include civil resistance, people power, and positive action.
Fascism emphasizes direct action, including the legitimization of political violence, as a core part of its politics.
In polls conducted in the United Kingdom, two thirds of respondents supported non-violent environmental direct action, while a similar percentage believed defacing art or public monuments should be criminalized.
The question of engaging in radical protest is known as the "activist's dilemma": "activists must choose between moderate actions that are largely ignored and more extreme actions that succeed in gaining attention, but may be counterproductive to their aims as they tend to make people think less of the protesters."
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