Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

Direct action can be applied to sway the opinion of a whole nation, but it can also be addressed to a small, specific group that can more easily be infiuenced: street graffiti may not be taken seriously by middle-class adults, but some of their children experience it as a revelation. Direct action can be for the benefit of isolated individuals, rather than "the" mainstream: a wheatpasted poster reading Pity Concrete Doesn't Burn may not be widely appreciated, but it will help others who share this sentiment to feel that they are not entirely alone and insane, and it might inspire them to turn their silent rancor into expressive projects of their own.

Direct action can give visibility to a group or perspective not otherwise represented, or emphasize the possibility of a viewpoint those in power would deny: a newspaper wrap spreads the news the corporate media won't share, just as broken corporate windows prove that, whatever the pundits say, not everyone is happy under capitalism. Direct action can demonstrate that social facts and physical conditions that seem inevitable are actually subject to change: an unpermitted street party that transforms a shopping district into a free, festive space shows that the fiinction of any space is up for grabs. Direct action can make life less predictable, more magical and exciting or at least humorous, for chance spectators as well as participants. When business as usual is oppressive and depressing, simply interrupting it is a service to all. ?

Popular or not, direct action can keep important issues in the news and in private conversations: sabotaging an environmentally destructive dam can bring up its ecological effects, whether or not people approve of the sabotage itself Direct action can give a r group political and social leverage: in the 1980s, Dutch squatters facing threat of evic-

i6 tion demonstrated their power with a directed campaign of harassment and vandalism

that lost Amsterdam its bid to host the Olympic Games, and thus gained an advantage for bargaimng with the city for their homes. Direct action can provide a deterrent" after the demonstrations during the meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle no nation but Qatar would host the next WTO summit. People who would not otherwise oppose their government's going to war may do so if they know war will trigger massive demonstrations that will cripple business and interfere with daily life.

Direct action can hinder corporate wrongdoing by inflicting financial losses: animal rights activists have driven several fur corporations out of business by means of vandalism, obstruction, and picketing. Direct action can discredit or disable nefarious organizations by connecting them in the public mind to violence and trouble: if every time a racist party tries to hold a meeting it ends in street riots, no city is likely to permit them to meet openly and few converts will join their ranks. Direct action can polarize opponents: when one cannot persuade or at least coexist with adversaries, a campaign of provocation and interference can drive them to a paranoid extremism that wiU alienate them from everyone else.

Direct action can set an atmosphere for an event: if banners have been dropping and pirate radio stations broadcasting aU week, everyone will expect the weekend's corporate trade conference and anarchist counter-demonstration to be historic?and that expectation will help itself come true. Direct action can demonstrate tactics that others can appropnate and use themselves; for years, these tactics may only be relevant to a small minority, until in a time of crisis they are suddenly indispensable to everyone When the cnsis hits, it will be to the advantage of all that some have already been practicing and perfecting these skiUs, and that everyone else has at least heard of them.

Direct action can save lives and give those who engage in it back their dignity by enabling them to confront injustice directly, as in animal liberation raids It can be the best form of therapy, helping those who act to cure feelings of boredom, hopelessness 'f'"

and impotence. When one is doing nothing, everything seems impossible; once one has begun doing something, it is easier to imagine what else is possible and recognize opportunities as they arise.