Social, political, and economic discontent manifests itself in various ways outside of the jeering arenas of parliamentary politics, from trade union disputes, to public campaigns, to mass marches demanding their voices be heard by the political elites of Westminster.
While these can be effective strategies for pushing social change, in areas where few results have previously been achieved, political negligence is increasingly stirring the sleeping giant of mass-mobilised, citizen-led direct action, a giant which is already having real effects in British politics and will play an as-of-yet underestimated role in the 2024 general election.
What is direct action?
By direct action I refer to strategies employed by social and political movements directly to disrupt the activity and operation of harmful organisations, or civil society more broadly, using people power rather than mediated negotiation. These can include direct economic/infrastructural sabotage of guilty organisations, boycotts, labour strikes, and the targeting of political events.
While these strategies have been practiced historically across the globe, from the anti-colonial civil disobedience movement in India, to the South African anti-apartheid movement, notable examples from the UK include the suffragettes’ targeting of large scale public events (perhaps most famously the Epsom Derby), or the Bristol bus boycotts of the 1960s to combat discriminatory labour practices.
Ultimately, the history of decolonisation, human rights, and improvements in labour relations, is not one of peaceful concession from the political elites of the day, but rather the outcome of hard, enduring struggles by workers and marginalised groups fighting through direct, citizen-led action.
The strategic logic follows that if existing power structures are perpetuating injustice rather than serving the interests of the people, we may be required to circumvent the ‘proper channels’ and force positive, democratic change.
Environmental movements
This argument can be articulated clearly in reference to the environmental movement, which has long been forced into alternative, direct, action following decades of political compliance from states globally with the existentially threatening economic agendas of oil lobbyists and corporations seeking to exploit the planet for profit.
Whilst the history of direct action in the environmental movement is as fascinating as it is extensive, with many stories of activists sabotaging harmful enterprises, groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil are perhaps the most recognisable wielders of direct action in contemporary British politics. Both of them aim to apply political pressure through forms of civil disruption including road blockages, ‘locking on’ to complicit company buildings, and interrupting civil and political events.
Palestine Action
The British imperial role in the creation of Israel, and subsequent insistence on defending Israeli governments’ long history of atrocity, ethnic cleansing and occupation, has long provided a rallying call for anti-colonial, progressive movements in the UK.
As such, groups like Palestine Action and the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement have taken it into their own hands to demand an end to British complicity in the persecution of the Palestinian people, through boycotts and targeted actions against strategic corporate sites. Their resolve and actions have only strengthened since the Israeli military has reinvaded Gaza. The International Court of Justice has been exploring specific actions of the State of Israel, that it believes may constitute genocide.
Palestine Action sets its sights on companies in the UK that are complicit with the actions of the IDF, in particular Israeli arms company Elbit Systems which manufactures drones in the UK. These Elbit sites, and companies that make up their supply chain, have been subject to a long campaign of direct action involving covert sabotage actions as well as high-profile protests and lock-ons to block staff access. As outlined on the Palestine Action website: “The company formerly hosted 10 sites across Britain. As of 2023, with Elbit forced to close its Oldham factory and London headquarters, this has been reduced to 8 sites. Soon they’ll only have 7.”
Implications for 2024 general election
While a key aspect of direct action is that it transcends the agendas of electoral politics, the increase in direct action among environmental and pro-Palestinian groups will likely have large implications for the upcoming 2024 general elections, owing in large part to partial convergence of both major parties in these issues.
As Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak do their best to skirt around potentially controversial topics, campaign events will present huge targets for direct action, as has already been indicated by two recent Labour speaking engagements. Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who is reported to have received £32,550 in donations from pro-Israeli lobbyists since 2000, and Deputy Labour Leader Angela Rayner, have both recently been driven to leave party events early as their speeches were interrupted by several protestors.
Fear of such interventions throughout campaign events may well limit the ability of both major parties to hold public rallies and position themselves as popular candidates ‘of the people’.
Current actions are unlikely to affect manifestos currently being drawn up, but direct action will certainly be seen as a key means of highlighting and punishing weaknesses in the parties’ agendas. Labour’s confirmation that it plans to drop its £28bn green investment pledge will likely find repercussions in very public actions targeting such weak climate policy, as will the Conservative Party’s even worse commitments to continue issuing oil and gas licenses. Direct action may well provide a crucial source prompt for public scrutiny of issues that mainstream media may not highlight with the appropriate gravity.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the failures of an entire political system to respond to some of the gravest challenges faced by humankind in the modern age, have served to alienate many of those who simply wanted to vote for a party which clearly opposed genocidal human rights abuses, or which would tackle climate change with the required courage and scale. It is thus a simple law of cause and effect that rather than accept this political paradigm, people are driven more and more to disrupt the campaigns of guilty parties, or take it upon themselves to cut out the political middle-man and directly tackle the many challenges posed to society by corporations profiteering from the destruction of the environment and of human life.
Editor’s note: no endorsement is intended. Violent or threatening behaviour is of course to be condemned.
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