IGNORE THE MEDIA
You must ensure that the media broadcasts your interpretation of your action. To do this, they have to know what is happening and why. Media is under time pressures, so make their job as simple as possible. Have a press release prepared to give to the media before and after the action. The media can change the public’s perception of your actions. It may be the only way for the public to know that your perspective exists. Get as much media coverage as you can. Durable”household words” result from the frequency of press appearances.
RESTRICT PARTICIPATION IN YOUR ACTIONS
The press is the target of your action and they are most interested in large groups that are demanding change. The smaller the group, the less the coverage. So don’t exclude potential participants. Your success will be based upon assembling the largest, non-violent group possible. Theatrical events, such as die-ins, will attract some media attention, but they do not indicate the support of a mass movement.
FAIL TO PLAN YOUR PUBLIC ACTIONS
When actions are announced at the last minute they will fail to attract the largest possible crowd. They are emotional events, not strategic events.
GET BORING SPEAKERS AND FORGET ABOUT THE MUSIC
The aim of public actions is to draw the largest crowd possible. If the speakers are boring and the action is a silent affair with non-emotional speakers, the masses will not be interested. In these actions, it is the medium that counts the most, not the message.
CRITICIZE THE METHODS OF OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
Unique organizations are born for distinct techniques. Fights between organizations are exactly what the opposition wants. They want you to divert your energy from combating the common foe to fighting with similar organizations. We all need each other and need to be sufficiently open-minded to recognize the value of differing techniques At a book-signing in Charlottesville, Christian Picciolini, the former supremacist leader, expressed that a primary strategy of the supremacists is to splinter the activist organizations.
FAIL TO BROADCAST THE PURPOSE OF YOUR ACTIONS
Signs, banners, etc. must accompany any action. Whether it is a mini-march of 25 or a major rally of thousands, there must be an abundance of visible signage. This is true for any event. Even if you are doing voter registration training, there must be signs on the wall. If the media does attend, their photos will make your point much more strongly than a bunch of people standing around a table.
ENGAGE IN VIOLENT/DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR
This often is exactly what the opposition wants. It provides them the opportunity to cast themselves as the innocent victims. Violence allows deflection of attention from the real problem. The public will associate your movement with violence as opposed to the reasons for your protest.
RE-INVENT THE WHEEL
It is far more efficient to learn from the experiences and historically proven techniques of predecessors. Read the works of Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Howard Zinn, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, Stokely Carmichael and Mahatma Gandhi and others. Learn from their experiences and observations.
LIMIT YOUR COMMUNICATION TO SOCIAL MEDIA
Due to their oddity, traditional communication techniques can be very attention-getting. Lawn signs, flyers, posters — anything that attracts attention works.
Author: Richard Lord has been an activist since the Civil Rights Movement. He has continued to scream through until today. He was a student leader in the anti-war movement at Boston University, where he worked closely with Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky. Currently he is focusing upon fascism.