Tactics are like the fireworks of your campaign, they can be fun, attract a lot of attention and if you are lucky they may make a sizeable bang. The idea that you may have to defeat your opponent by a death of a thousand cuts is a recurring theme in activism. So you may find it useful to deploy multiple tactics simultaneously. I call this ‘lighting spot fires under your opponent”. I call these tactics spot fires because on their own they may not be all that useful in achieving your main goal, but as a strategic tool for exhausting your opponent they can be very effective. I am not suggesting any dishonesty either, these tactics such as activating complaint procedures are usually genuine tactics for seeking greater accountability, and should be based on bona fide concerns, it’s just that you may otherwise have discarded them as unlikely to yield positive results, but when you realise that they have a substantive value as well as a distraction value, they take on a whole new value. The message here, is to be very resourceful in taking stock of what tactics are available to you, and do not be too quick to discard possible options.

Download the pdf (1.8mb) for use by your local action group. Please credit Aidan Ricketts for his original content and advise the audience to purchase The Activists’ Handbook at https://aidanricketts.com

A new and powerful tactic for CSG is the idea of creating gasfield-free areas enforced by community action.

Download the pdf (1.1mb) for use by your local action group. Please credit Aidan Ricketts for his original content and […]

This presentation is intended to help local action groups that are part of the wider CSG campaign plan their campaigns and campaign strategies.

Have you ever dreamed of moving house, having a child, studying for a degree or getting a new job, and later found yourself there? Envisioning social change works the same way, it starts with a dream, is informed by practicality and given life by living it. Envisioning is far more sustaining and positive than focussing upon what you oppose.

Recently I was providing a community activism consultancy for a group of residents threatened by sea level rise on Australia’s east coast. Whilst I was helping them with their campaign mapping processes one of the residents also took time to ask me, “What is your interest in coming here and helping us, why are you doing this?” almost as if he was suspicious that I must have another motive.

Created for the Huon Valley Environment Centre, this presentation looks at the life cycle of social movements.