Knowra Direct action Direct action Direct action is organized action that confronts an institution or authority without relying solely on intermediaries. It includes disruptive, persuasive, and constructive tactics.
Civil disobedience : The deliberate, public breach of a law or rule to challenge its legitimacy or demand change. It confronts authority through principled lawbreaking rather than relying only on formal appeals.
Montgomery bus boycott : A 1955–1956 protest against racial segregation on Montgomery, Alabama's public buses. A sustained boycott directly challenged the transit system and helped end bus segregation.
Henry David Thoreau : An American writer whose 1849 essay “Resistance to Civil Government” defended refusal to support unjust government. His argument helped shape later ideas about conscientious resistance and civil disobedience.
Electoral politics : Political activity organized around elections, candidates, parties, and the selection of public officials. Direct action applies pressure outside the electoral process, though movements may use both.
Nonviolent resistance : Collective action that opposes power without physical violence, using methods such as strikes, boycotts, and protest. It supplies a strategic repertoire for confronting institutions while limiting physical harm.
Salt March : Mahatma Gandhi's 1930 march to the Arabian Sea to protest British colonial control of salt production and sale. The march turned a widely understood economic grievance into public defiance of colonial law.
Mahatma Gandhi : An Indian political leader who organized campaigns against colonial rule using nonviolent resistance. His campaigns developed organized noncooperation into a strategy for confronting imperial authority.
Lobbying : Efforts to influence public officials' decisions through communication, expertise, or organized pressure. It seeks change by persuading decision-makers through intermediaries rather than confronting institutions directly.
General strike : A coordinated work stoppage across multiple industries or sectors, intended to exert broad economic and political pressure. It turns collective withdrawal of labor into direct pressure on employers and government.
Freedom Rides : 1961 journeys by interracial groups challenging segregation in interstate bus travel across the American South. Riders confronted segregation at the facilities where federal law was being defied.
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