TACTICS MODES OF ACTION Specific forms of creative action, such as a flash mob or an occupation. “Tactics . lack a specific location, survive through improvi- sation, and use the advantages of the weak against the strong.” —Paul Lewis et al.1 Every discipline has its forms. Soldiers can choose to lay siege or launch a flanking maneuver. Writers can try their hand at biography or flash fiction. Likewise, creative activists have their own repertoire of forms. Some, like the sit-in and the general strike, are justly famous; others, like flash mobs and culture jamming, have a newfangled pop appeal; yet others — like debt strike, prefigurative intervention, eviction blockade — are mostly unknown but could soon make their appearance on the stage of history. If art truly is a hammer with which to shape the world, it’s time to gear up. 1 Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, and David J. Lewis, Situation normal— (Princeton Architectural Press, 1999). TACTIC: Advanced leaeting COMMON USES Leafleting is the bread-and- “If you’re doing To get important butter of many campaigns. It’s information into the also annoying and ineffective, standard leaeting, right hands. for the most part. How many times have you taken a leaf- you’re wasting PRACTITIONERS let just because you forgot to everybody’s pull your hand back in time, Center for Tactical Magic Institute for Applied only to throw it in the next time. What you Autonomy available trash can? Or you’re need is advanced WAG actually interested and stick it in your pocket, but then you leaeting.” FURTHER INSIGHT never get around to reading Institute for Applied Autonomy, it because it’s a block of tiny, indecipherable text? Well, if “Little Brother” http://www.appliedautonomy.com/lb.html that’s what a committed, world-caring person like you does, just imagine what happens to all the leaflets you give out to Center for Tactical Magic, “The Tactical Ice Cream Unit” harried career-jockeys as they rush to or from work. http://trb.la/y0mgjs In a word, if you’re doing standard leafleting, you’re wast- ing everybody’s time. What you need is advanced leafleting. CONTRIBUTED BY In advanced leafleting, we acknowledge that if you’re go- Steve Lambert ing to hand out leaflets like a robot, you might as well have a Andrew Boyd robot hand them out. Yes, an actual leafleting robot. In 1998, the Institute for Applied Autonomy built “Little Brother” a small, intentionally cute, 1950s-style metal robot to be a pamphleteer. In their tests, strangers avoided a human pam- phleteer, but would go out of their way to take literature from the robot. Make it fun. Make it unusual. Make it memorable. Don’t just hand out leaflets. Climb up on some guy’s shoulders and hand out leaflets from there, as one of the authors of this piece did as a student organizer. (He also tried the same tactic hitchhiking, with less stellar results.) The share- holder heading into a meeting is more likely to take, read and remember the custom message inside the fortune cook- ie you just handed her than a rectangle of paper packed with text. Using theater and costumes to leaflet can also be effective. In the 1980s, activists opposed to U.S. military intervention in Central America dressed up as waiters and carried maps of Central America on serving trays, with little green plastic 8 TACTIC: Advanced leaeting toy soldiers glued to the map. They would go up to people in Related: the street and say, “Excuse me, sir, did you order this war?” When the “no” response invariably followed, they would TACTICS present an itemized bill outlining the costs: “Well, you paid Creative petition delivery p. 22 Creative disruption p. 18 for it!” Even if the person they addressed didn’t take the Mass street action p. 68 leaflet, they’d get the message. Street theater web The point is, leafleting is not a bad tactic. It’s still a good Electoral guerilla theater p. 40 way to tell passersby what you’re marching for, why you’re Guerrilla newspaper web making so much noise on a street corner or why you’re set- ting police cars on fire. But people are more likely to take CASE STUDIES your leaflet, read it, and remember what it’s all about if you New York Times “Special Edition” web deliver it with flair. Or ice cream. KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS: ’Nuff said. Pissing people off won’t KEY PRINCIPLE do your cause any favors, so don’t piss people off. Disarm at work with charm, and maybe your audience will let their guard down long enough to hear what you have to say. OTHER PRINCIPLES AT WORK: Show, don’t tell p. 174 Consider your audience p. 118 Balance art and message p. 100 Stay on message p. 178 TACTIC: Advanced leaeting 9 TACTIC: Artistic vigil COMMON USES The word vigil comes from the Latin word for wakefulness, and To mourn the death of a refers to a practice of keeping watch through the night over the public hero; to link a natural dead or dying. Compared to the blustery pronouncements of a rally, a candlelight vigil offers a more soulful and symbolically disaster or public tragedy potent expression of dissent. to a political message; to Unfortunately, routine and self-righteousness can strip vigils protest the launch of a war. of their power. In the American peace movement of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, the “candlelight vigil” — all too often a handful PRACTITIONERS of dour people silently holding candles — became a standard, Artists’ Network of Refuse & Resist and fatally predictable, form of protest. Women In Black Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo An artistic vigil, on the other hand, brings a more artful touch. Suzanne Lacy This doesn’t necessarily mean costumes and face paint and pup- Arlington West pets (though it could). It means thoughtful symbolism, the right Bread and Puppet Theater tone and a distinct look and feel that clearly convey the meaning “I Dream Your Dream” of the vigil. An artistic vigil often draws upon ritual elements see PRINCIPLE: Use the power of ritual to both deepen the experience FURTHER INSIGHT of participants and demonstrate that experience to observers. Kelly, Je. “The Body Politics of Suzanne Lacy.” But Is It Art? Edited by Nina Felshin. Seattle: Bay Press, 1994. T.V. Reed. The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets of Seattle. University of MN, 2005. CONTRIBUTED BY Andrew Boyd “Our Grief is not a Cry for War” vigils organized by the Artists’ Network of Refuse & Resist in New York City in the wake of 9/11. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Exit Art’s “Reactions” Exhibition Collection [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USZ62-123456] 10 TACTIC: Artistic vigil Related: A good example is the series of “Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War” vigils organized by the Artists’ Network of Refuse & TACTICS Resist in New York City in the wake of 9/11. People were asked to Image theater p. 62 Distributed action p. 32 wear a dust mask (common in NYC after 9/11), dress all in black Advanced lea§eting p. 8 (common in NYC all the time), show up at Times Square at exactly 5 pm, and remain absolutely silent. Each participant THEORIES held a sign that read “Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War.” These Action logic p. 208 vigils were silent and solemn, but there was a precision to the Ethical spectacle p. 230 Hamoq & hamas p. 236 message that gave them a visceral potency in that emotionally Narrative power analysis p. 244 raw time, for participants and observers alike. The most famous vigils of the late twentieth century were probably those organized by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of Argentinian women whose children were disappeared by Argentina’s 70s-era military dictatorship. By gathering every Thursday for more than a decade in the plaza in front of the Presi- dential Palace, they not only kept vigil for their lost loved ones, but also kept pressure on the government to answer for its crimes. The “artistry” of a vigil can be exceedingly complex, or as simple as a few basic rituals. The simple fact of women wearing black and gathering in silence on Fridays gives shape and pres- ence to the Women in Black worldwide network of vigils. Begun by Israeli women during the First Intifada to protest the occu- pation of Palestine, it has since expanded across the globe and embraced broader anti-war and pro-justice themes, but none- theless maintains its distinctive character. At the other end of the spectrum, artist Suzanne Lacy has created complex works of art in which victims of sexual violence stand vigil amidst the art installations that tell their stories. USE THE POWER OF RITUAL: Compared to the average political event, a ritual is expected to have a certain gravitas, a high- KEY PRINCIPLE er level of emotional integrity, even a transcendent quality at work for participants. Like all rituals, a vigil should work at both the personal and political levels. It should offer a sacred OTHER PRINCIPLES AT WORK: experience for participants while effectively reaching out to Know your cultural terrain p. 142 nonparticipants. The more these two goals align, the more No one wants to watch a drum circle p. 156 powerful the experience is for the participants and the more Show, don’t tell p. 174 Simple rules can have grand results p.