What do we mean by Direct Action

Wednesday March 19, 2003 16:22

by Joe

What follows is not a lecture in theory but rather a listing of some of the dozens of direct actions that are taking place across the globe against the war machine. There is much here that we can copy and some is stuff that has happened here that others can copy Full details at http://struggle.ws/stopthewar.html

Top Brazil port to boycott US, UK ships
Labor unions at Santos, the largest port in Brazil and Latin America, are planning a 24-hour strike for peace by boycotting ships and goods

Direct Action Against Armed Forces Recruiting Station in Edison, NJ
Specifically it was intended to increase the costs to pursue the invasion and to eliminate another piece of the American military-industrial complex

Thirty B52 Support Vehicles Disabled at RAF Fairford
Activists disabled the ground service vehicles needed for B52 bombers

Northwood blitz blockade
For the second day in a row, the main gate of Northwood PJHQ

Britains military HQ blocked
Activists blocked the gates to the planning headquarters for Britain's war with Iraq this morning at 8.50 am, as hundreds of staff attempted to enter the base

"RAF" Lakenheath runway blocked
This time with the novel idea of bringing bicycles through the fence and cycling them up and down
US Soldiers Storm UK Peace Camp at RAF Fairford
Dressed in boiler suits and armed with serrated combat knives, the men stripped banners off the 10ft steel fence at Gate 10.

Anti-war activist takes Tornado "Out of Action"
I took my hammer to the nose-cone, the cockpit, the fuselage, the wings, the tailplane and other parts of the plane which it was safe to damage
Fence breached and damage caused at Fairford
An entire row of landing lights somehow got totally obliterated, along with several other landing lights of various description and colour

Grannies Blockade Fairford
100 women, many of them grandmothers, blockaded the main entrance to Fairford airbase
Fairford inspected again

USAF Fairford got inspected again this afternoon by Oxford Students Stop the War, while more than 10 people got into the base.

Some military reservists will risk jail to resist Iraq duty
Alarcon said he'd rather risk going to jail than participate in a conflict he considers immoral.

To the next time [with pics]
A report at an attempt at a publically announced Direct Action (GNAW) protest at Shannon
US Military Jet disarmed at Shannon
Activists grounds jet with 500,000 worth of damage.

Peace Activists Close Trident Refit Factory
7 peace activists blockaded both gates of the Rolls Royce factory in Derby

Cardiff Anarchists invade arms factory
Eight members of the group easily scaled the 3m high fence with the help of a home-made rope ladder

War trains blocked in Italy
A blocade of trains carrying US men and equipment results in the army falling behind schedule

Gates torn down at RAF Fairford
Ten arrests as activists storm base

Greenpeace Stalls US Military Shipment to the Gulf
Police used water cannons against a Greenpeace blockade of a cargo ship loaded with U.S. military equipment bound for Iraq, and arrested 19 demonstrators

Runway blocked at RAF Brize Norton
Brize Norton is the RAF's main transport centre, 360 British troops were due to be flown out to join the UK contingent of the war effort

Plowshares disarmament action in the Netherlands
Dutch woman armed with a sledgehammer smashes three satellite dishes at a NATO airbase

Israeli Conscientious objectors to be court-martialed
In an obvious change of policy, the Israeli military is now starting to court-martial conscientious objectors.

One in three reservists try to get out of joining the call-up for war on Saddam
The figures are a blow to the MoD, which says 6,000 reservists are needed to support up to 35,000 regular troops committed to the Gulf

Greenpeace tank girls occupy war machine
For over a week we have tried to stop the supplies from loading and leaving the Uk and today 14 volunteers entered the military port occupying tanks and jeeps ready to roll on the ferry Stena Shipper bound for the Gulf

RAF Lakenheath Shut Down
RAF Lakenheath has been closed in an act of peaceful protest against war

Faith-based Disarmament Action at Shannon Airport
"The train tracks at Auschwitz brought people to their deaths, the runway at Shannon brings death to the people."

20 arrested attempting to inspect New Zealand US embassy
A group of around 150 protesters marched on the embassy and announced they wanted to enter the embassy to look for weapons of mass destruction

Three peace activists arrested attempting to break into RAF Menwith Hill
US Spy Base, and an essential part of Bush's plan for war on Iraq

Greenpeace set up Peace Camp on military supply ship
Greenpeace volunteers boarded and set up a peace camp on a military supply ship bound for the Gulf with a cargo of military hardware

British rail workers refuse to transport munitions to Iraq
Two Anti-war train drivers refuse to move arms freight, supported by their union ASLEF.

Pittsburgh - Marine recruitment office smashed during breakaway march
"The Marines recruitment center has no right to exist. That institution exists primarily for the purposes of recruiting politically marginalized people into the ranks of the Marines, who then enforce the policies of America's corporate state through murder and violence."

Rainbow Warrior blockades UK military port
The Rainbow Warrior, entered Marchwood Military port in Southampton and blocked the departure of UK military supply vessels UK government seizes Rainbow Warrior

2000 Anarchists take direct action in San Francisco
The high point of the demonstration was in attacks on the building that houses the Federal government's Immigration and Naturalization Service. Numerous windows were broken and a cement pylon and a newspaper box were thrown through the INS building's glass front doors

Fairford airbase invaded
Sun 26 Jan 30 people breached the compound fences in a direct action movement.MOD police ejected all of them through the hole in the fence they made but have now very violently arrested 3 people

Northwood Military HQ Blockaded
Sunday 19th January 2003 - Over 70 activists arrested blocking the entrances of the Military HQ

Protester arrested trying to blockade the gates of Portsmouth naval base
Les Gibbons, a former British marine attempted to blockade the gates to the base on the day the Ark Royal was due to leave for the Gulf

5 anti-war demonstrators were arrested inside the RAF Base at Feltwell
Feltwell is an electronic warfare and surveillance site and part of a network of "near-space tracking facilities"

15 protesters arrested on main runway of U.S. Airbase at Mildenhall
Mildenhall houses the U.S. Air Force's 100th Air RefuellingWing.

More minor stuff but still worth recording
Welsh assembly occupied (again!) in anti-war protest
Totnes Demo and Action
Whitehall blocked by students
Washington, DC: Anarchists storm World Bank
Anti-War Billboard
Manchester's Princess Parkway blocked by anti-war activists
Protester confronts Blair near Parliament
Demonstrators form human blockades at Lansing gas station
E$$O and army recruitment office in hereford targeted by peace activist
Cambridge protestors moon defence minister and block his car
Dumping shite on new Labour
Two Anti-War activists were arrested in Plymouth
Greenpeace protest closes Esso pumps across Britain
Seattle: Anti-War Protestors Erect Tripod on Highway
Anarchists and allied anti-war protesters disrupt Scottish parliament
Protesters get into BBC
30 LSE students occupy EXXON headquarter in London
Batavia, Illinois: Sit-In Against Speaker of the House
Chicago - blocking the entrances at the Federal Building
Cincinnati billboards hit with anti-war messages
Direct Action at the Holland Tunne
SF Feb 15 Breakaway March