Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power to directly reach certain goals of interest by, for example, revealing an existing problem, using physical force, highlighting an alternative, or demonstrating a possible solution. Both
direct action and actions appealing to others can include
nonviolent and violent activities which target
persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the action participants.
Nonviolent direct action may include sit-ins, strikes, street blockades,
sabotage, and counter-economics.
Nonviolent direct action has historically been an assertive regular feature of the tactics employed
… Read more by social movements, including
Mahatma Gandhi's Indian Independence Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. Anarchists
organize almost exclusively through
direct action, this manifests as a varied set of actions,
non-violent or violent.
Direct action is used by anarchists due to a rejection of party politics, and refusal to work within hierarchical bureaucratic institutions.
Big Brother is a fictional character and symbol in
George Orwell's dystopian 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is ostensibly the leader of Oceania, a totalitarian state wherein the ruling party, Ingsoc, wields total power "for its own sake" over the inhabitants. In the
society that Orwell describes, every citizen is under constant surveillance by the authorities, mainly by telescreens (with the exception of the Proles).
The people are constantly reminded of this by the slogan "
Big Brother is watching you": a maxim that is ubiquitously on display. In modern culture, the term "
Big Brother" has entered the lexicon as a synonym for abuse of
government power, particularly in respect to
… Read more civil liberties, often specifically related to mass surveillance.
A
police state describes a state where its
government institutions exercise an extreme level of control over civil
society and liberties characterized by the overbearing presence of civil authorities. A
police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and authoritarian regimes. The best-known literary treatment of the
police state is
George Orwell's novel
1984, which describes Britain under a totalitarian régime that continuously invokes (and feeds) a perpetual
war as a pretext for subjecting
the people to mass surveillance, policing, and modification of language and the way people
think in order to make dissent not only swiftly punished, but also grammatically and logically
… Read more impossible to conceive and express. The state destroys not only the literal
freedom after action and thought meant by expressions like "
freedom of thought", but also literal
freedom of thought.
A
black bloc is a tactic used by anti-capitalist protesters who wear black clothing, ski masks, scarves, sunglasses, motorcycle helmets with padding, or other face-concealing and face-protecting items. The clothing is used to conceal wearers' identities and hinder criminal prosecution by making it difficult to distinguish between participants. It is also used to protect their faces and eyes from pepper spray, which is used by police during protests or civil unrest. The tactic allows the group to appear as one large unified mass.
Black bloc participants are often associated with
anarchism,
anarcho-communism,
communism, libertarian
socialism, antifascism, or the anti-
globalization movement.
…
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The tactic was developed in the 1980s in the European autonomist movement's protests against squatter evictions,
nuclear power, and restrictions on abortion, as well as other influences. Black blocs gained broader media attention outside
Europe during the 1999 Seattle WTO protests when a
black bloc damaged property of various
multinationals.
Diversity of tactics is a phenomenon wherein a social movement makes periodic use of force for disruptive or defensive purposes, stepping beyond the limits of
nonviolence, but also stopping short of total militarization. It also refers to the theory which asserts this to be the most effective strategy of
civil disobedience for social change.
Diversity of tactics may promote
nonviolent tactics, or armed
resistance, or a range of methods in between, depending on the level of
repression the political movement is facing.
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