direct action
noun1
Communism, Government, Human sciences, Ideology, Philosophy, Politics, Sciences Euphemistic, Usually A form of political activism in which participants act illegally, ignoring established democratic procedures. It may take the form of strikes, workplace occupations, sabotage, sit-ins, squatting, revolutionary/guerrilla warfare, demonstrations, vandalism or graffiti.
- Or there are those who believe that in general the wisest way for people to get what they want is by the indirect method of voting into power some one who will make what they want legal; yet who all the same will occasionally under exceptional conditions advise a strike; and a strike, as I have said, is direct action.1912, Voltairine de Cleyre, Direct Action:
- It should be easy enough to see why anarchists have always been drawn to direct action.2009, David Graeber, Direct Action: An Ethnography, AK Press, →ISBN, page 203:
2
Government, Military, Politics, War Usually Small-scale raids, ambushes, sabotage, etc. carried out by the military.
- Related terms
- direct actionist, direct activist