Magazine Issue 8 - Spring 1999
I'm campaigning for free dinners for everyone, so I'm going to bang my head against a brick wall until it happens. Easy to laugh at, but substitute "free dinners" for whatever it is you want to achieve, and "bang my head..." for "giving out leaflets", "obstructing the highway", "sending postcards to MPs" etc., and the joke's on you.
Campaign strategy is about deciding how you can use your time most effectively to achieve your long-term goals. It is about recognising that you are powerful enough to CHANGE things (and not just make a noise about them), and working out how to do it. Have a look at the chart opposite, and fill it in for your particular campaign. Work with your group on this; it's all too easy to make assumptions about what will happen (remember we're trying to predict the future here!), and running your ideas past your friends and colleagues will help highlight any gaps in your logic.
It is important to break down your aims into ACHIEVABLE chunks, so that you can assess the progress of your campaign, and actually celebrate each victory along the way. If all your aim is simply the downfall of industrial capitalism, you're unlikely to see positive results.
Since it is difficult to predict the outcome of a chain of events, each goal should be valuable in itself, as well as contributing to your long-term visions. For example, you might think that reversing the roads programme was a good one - fewer roads built would mean fewer ecosystems destroyed, and less pollution, while at the same time weakening the development of transport infrastructure on which long-distance trade depends. Alternatively, given your own psychological need for morale-boosting successes, you might decide that stopping road-building was too ambitious to be achieved in a reasonable time-scale; in this case, you might decide to focus on one particular key road.
As well as the RESULTS you will achieve, you should think about the PROCESS - will your group come out of the campaign stronger than when it went in? Even if you fail in this particular campaign, will you be better placed afterwards to win your next one? For example, will the members of your group feel empowered to get involved in another campaign, will they have acquired useful skills and knowledge from this campaign, will you have found new group members or allies? You might politicise otherwise apathetic people, or show disempowered people that they can contribute usefully to changing the world.
You must think about who your TARGETS are, what are their values, how do they think. Such considerations will inform your tactics. Your target may have sympathy for ethical arguments. Or if your target is guided only by the bottom line, how can you most effectively impact on it? For example, the campaign against logging of British Columbia rainforests has recognised that persuading purchasers such as timber yards to cancel their contracts can have ten times as much economic impact on the loggers as blockading roads in the forest. Think about whether non-violent direct action is actually financially significant, or does the company just factor in extra security costs?
Companies attach value to presence in a market as well as the value of the actual sales. Third World First's campaign to persuade Pepsi to disinvest from Burma through a student boycott was effective because the youth market is crucial to Pepsi. A similar campaign would not have worked with toilet paper, for example. Another important point about that campaign was that escalation of the campaign was threatened, with student organisations abroad also pledging to boycott (even if they didn't really have the resources or motivation to actually do it, the threat was powerful enough to persuade Pepsi).
By forming alliances with other groups, you can greatly magnify your effectiveness. For example, if you're campaigning against a superstore development, try working with local businesses, with environmental or traffic campaigners, and with architecture interest groups. If you're campaigning against genetic modification of food, try small and organic farmers, consumer protection groups, and retailers. For each, think about what they can do to help the campaign. A good example is the insurance
industry with climate change; the industry has a clear self-interest because it has to pay out for claims from weather damage, and what it can DO is to disinvest from fossil fuel companies, and invest in renewable energies.
It may be worth thinking about who will be concerned, interested or inspired before choosing your issue. For example, Greenpeace UK's campaign to halt new oil exploration focused on the Atlantic Frontier, an area of great wildlife value (in particular whales and dolphins), and thus mobilised support from people who might be less interested in climate change or energy economics.
On TACTICS, creativity is important. Don't just produce leaflets or go on actions because you can't think of anything else to do. What are you trying to achieve? A diversity of tactics is good - if one fails, another might succeed. Beware of the argument "if everyone did this [e.g. a boycott], it would change things". The question is, can you persuade everyone to do it? Also, think about possible outcomes of your campaign other than the one you want. Will a series of AGM (annual general meeting) shareholder actions result in greater corporate responsibility, or in new legislation barring small shareholders from AGMs? Although bear in mind that such corporate or legislative backlashes may be effective in mobilising people against increasing corporate power and exclusion.
Communication is essential - any change you achieve will not last unless people understand why the change has happened. You don't want a backlash to reverse everything you've achieved. But it's not enough JUST to tell everyone what you think, or even to get everyone to agree with you. Too many campaigners don't get beyond the 'strategy' of "shout loud, and some people will shout with you, and when there's enough shouting, something will change". A combination is needed of both communication and effective concrete action. Giving some thought to the principles here can greatly enhance your effectiveness.
You can change the World!