Have a group of friends and wants some action ideas?

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Slavery and apartheid did not end because states decided to abolish them. Mass mobilisations left political leaders no other choice.
Desmund Tutu

It’s great to meet you

We are aiming to have at least one action a month during 2016. So we’re asking groups to commit to as many actions as they can over the course of the year.

If you’ve not been involved in civil disobedience before, we’re particularly excited that you’ve got this far. We’re going to do everything we can to make it as easy as possible to get started. All you need is a group of at least three people who are up for taking action together. Then we can help in a couple of ways:

• We can supply pre-planned actions in your region, or in areas of particular political interest to you. Perfect for those who want to build their confidence gradually or save time on action planning.
• We can provide training and support for direct action. The trainings we can offer include: Know Your Rights; Introduction to direct action: Introduction to action planning; Basic blockading techniques; Media practise; Ways of dealing with tricky group dynamics; Advanced lock on building; The use of tripods.

Here’s how it works next

1. Someone from your group signs you up to be part of Groundswell by ringing or emailing us. Depending on the sort of action you’d like to get involved in, you may want to do this from a phone or email you don’t usually use (see notes on security here).
2. We’ll team you up with someone who can guide you through arranging support in person. Including organising trainings if you’d like them.
3. Your support person will deliver your group a suggested target in your area. You can of course choose your own if you wish.
4. We can suggest actions but in the end you will decide what type of action and when you will take it.
5. Once you have completed your mission you post it on our Groundswell website (launching in early 2016) to inspire others. You’re encouraged to review what you’ve done together and post that up too. If you like you can ask for feedback and suggestions from other groups in Groundswell too. We will be using techniques developed by the Climate Games project to help anonomise these posts so you can choose if you want to put your names to them or not.
6. You’ll then be sent your next target.

Don’t worry if you’ve come to this later in 2016. And don’t be daunted. Not all of them need to be epic or involve a lot of preparation. Some just involve picking a date and getting round to that idea that you’ve had for a while but just needed someone to suggest an external deadline on.

Contact us now to get involved ?