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anarchism: a beginner’s guide
argues, it describes an act intended to present ‘a partial or temporary
solution to a larger set of practices’. David Wieck offers this definition:
If a butcher weighs one’s meat with his thumb on the scale, one may
complain about it and tell him he is a bandit who robs the poor, and
if he persists and one does nothing else, this is mere talk; one may
call the Department of Weights and Measures, and this is indirect
action; or one may, talk failing, insist on weighing one’s own meat,
bring along a scale to check the butcher’s weight, take one’s business
somewhere else, help open a co-operative store, etc., and these are
direct actions. 60
Direct action is often associated with illegality and sometimes
criminality. Since the nineteenth century anarchists have been
known to support acts of simple theft – not only in the shape of
fare dodging, but in the guise of bank robbery and shoplifting – as a
legitimate part of anarchist campaigning. To the distress of
anarchists like Guérin, the Bonnot Gang (usually credited with
having thought of the idea of the getaway car before Bonnie and
Clyde) firmly linked French anarchism to banditry. In Australia, the
outlaw Ned Kelly achieved a similar feat, now often celebrated as a
progenitor of homegrown anarchism. Yet because direct action is
designed to solve a problem and because anarchists have difficulty
showing how mere criminality fits this bill, it usually has an overtly
‘political’ character, even if it is illegal.
Whilst direct actions are intended to move beyond symbolism,
they may have a symbolic element. To give an example: in the 1960s
anarchist anti-Francoists used small bomb attacks in their
campaigns. Their actions symbolized a desire to topple the regime,
but were intended to have a direct effect on would-be holiday-makers,
creating fear whilst avoiding harm, and on the tourist industry that
helped legitimize Franco’s rule. Squatting is probably the bestknown
and most widely practised form of direct action, and one that
anarchists are keen to encourage. Squatting can be used to further
experiments in community living and as a form of protest. In the
first sense, it is a form of practical anarchy, associated both with the
problem of homelessness and the creation of alternative forms of
community – co-operatives or, more recently, co-housing projects,
where groups of people living in private residences share kitchen,
laundry, workshop and child care facilities. As a form of protest
squatting has recently been used by eco-anarchists. One example