Interrupting the spin

Legal Advice for Canadians

Some excellent legal advice from activist lawyer Davin Charney.

Starhawk on Strategic Nonviolent Direct Action

"Just as we call for accountability and transparency, we ourselves must be accountable and transparent. Some tactics are incompatible with those goals, even if in other situations they might be useful, honorable or appropriate. We can’t be transparent behind masks. We can’t be accountable for actions we run away from. We can’t maintain the security culture necessary for planning and carrying out attacks on property and also maintain the openness that can continue to invite in a true diversity of new people. We can’t make alliances with groups from impacted communities, such as immigrants, if we can’t make agreements about what tactics we will employ in any given action.

The framework that might best serve the Occupy movement is one of strategic nonviolent direct action. Within that framework, Occupy groups would make clear agreements about which tactics to use for a given action. This frame is strategic.

It makes no moral judgments about whether or not violence is ever appropriate. It does not demand we commit ourselves to a lifetime of Gandhian pacifism, but it says, “This is how we agree to act together at this time.” It is active, not passive. It seeks to create a dilemma for the opposition, and to dramatize the difference between our values and theirs."

READ the complete article here: http://www.satyagrahafoundation.org/nonviolent-direct-action-the-best-map-for-the-movement/