Direct Action

DirectAction is contrasted with indirect actions such as electing a politician or union leader and hoping he or she will solve all one's problems. Examples of direct action in industry are:

• Work to rule
• Go slow
• Good work
• Open mouth
• Sick in
• Dual power occupations
• Occupations & Sit ins
• Sabotage
• 'Normal' strike
• Informal resistance

Open Mouth:

In the food industry the open mouth tactic is particularly effective. Its use will enlist broad public support. Workers, instead of striking, or when on strike, can expose the way food is prepared for sale. In restaurants, cooks can tell what kinds of food they are expected to cook, how stale foods are treated so they can be served. Dishwashers can expose how 'well' dishes are washed. Let construction workers make known the substitutions that are always made in construction materials, and the cheating on fire and safety regulations. Factory workers can tell of materials used in products that most people use. Workers on the railways and public transport systems can tell of faulty engines, brakes, and repairs. Those workers in the nuclear industry can open their mouths about radiation leaks that were covered up.

The persistent use of the 'open mouth', besides gaining demands, will do more to eliminate abuses than all the 'health and Safety' regulations that will ever be passed.

Good work:

The Lisbon Transport workers 1968 'Lisbon bus and train workers gave free rides to all passengers today. They were protesting because the British-owned Lisbon Tramways Company had not raised their wages. Today conductors and tram drivers arrived at work as usual, but the conductors did not pickup their money satchels. On the whole the public seems to be on the side of these take-no-fare strikers and schoolboys are having the time of their lives, Holidays have begun, and they are hopping rides to pass the time.' (The Times, July 2, 1968)

Dual Power:

IWW lumber workers in the Pacific Northwest of the USA used dual power to get the 8 hour day (they had been working 10 to 12 hours). A strike had been on since July 4th, and was not going too well due to government harassment of picket lines and closing of halls and offices when on September 7th the lumber workers voted to go back to work and simply take the 8 hour day themselves. This was decided in a series of meetings the strikers held in each district. As in all IWW strikes, the strikers made all the decisions in beginning, running, and ending the strike.

At each logging camp, workers would work 8 hours, then stop. Since all but a very few loggers were in the union, and since the strike had driven up the price and demand for lumber, this 'strike on the job' (as it was called at the time) was effective. Camp after camp gave in to the 8 hour day, and bosses seldom risked further disruption by trying to cut pay back, in areas where camp bosses tried firing "troublemakers", or even whole "troublemaking" crews, the fired workers were replaced by others just as determined to get the "troublesome" 8 hour day. Fired workers got jobs at other camps and continued to make "trouble" for the 8 hours. On May 1st the lumber bosses gave in, and the 8 hour day became the rule in the camps where it had not already been won.

http://www.cat.org.au/dwu/dam.htm has explanations and examples of the above

See AnarchismIdeology