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Planning a Campaign
For the Planet &
Its Animals
A campaign requires a great deal of commit-
ment, planning, and organization. While it's
possible to do this alone, the support of
others is very desirable. In either case, it's
important to establish an identity as a group.
Once you get going, others will join you. You,
however, must expect to lead the way.
Your first step is to thoroughly research your opponents. Make a list of their strengths and weaknesses. Where are they most vulnerable? What arguments will they use to defend their position? A research project may already be jeopardized due to inadequate funding or inability to produce results. Your exposure of their problems could be enough to tip the scales.
Think about the information you gather. What do you hope to achieve? Decide exactly what your demands are: What do you want your target to do? Know what the alternatives are (to the research your target is doing, or to the way a factory is polluting the area, etc.).
What is the minimum you'll accept? Are your goals realistic? If your case is too weak, it's better to face that fact now.
If you've got a good target, start developing your strategy. Begin by designing a timetable for your campaign. Then establish short-range goals.
For example, if your long-range goal would be to close down a pet shop, first get a letter to the editor on the subject printed in a local newspaper. Your next goal might be to get another community group, such as a local humane society, to support your cause.
Short-range goals keep momentum going and bring you closer to your target.
Prepare for countercharges. What claims will your opponents make to defend their actions? How will you refute them?
Decide whose support you really need to win; don't just say "the public." Which part of the public? Which groups or individuals in particular? Consider how to reach them. Whose support can you count on from the beginning? How will you work with those people? And analyze how you will win over or neutralize supporters of the opposition.
CHOOSING YOUR STRATEGY
You may be able to accomplish your goals with a low-level effort, such as a letter-writing campaign or a series of leafletting and tabling activities - not all campaigns are require demonstrations or rallies. If you start out with a bang, you must be able to sustain it.
Take the time to consider what's going to make your campaign a success. The more planning time you give yourself, the better chance you have of winning your cause.
Here are some general strategies to follow:
Try to communicate with your opponent. Write to the head of the company or organization, politely state your grievance and ask for action.
Give them time to respond, but set a deadline so they don't keep you dangling forever. It's always possible that your opponent is unaware of abuses, and there may be room to negotiate a change. Regardless, if you don't go to the source first, your credibility will be impaired.
Document your communications. Keep copies of letters and a written record of telephone calls.
Before you go public, try to get some expert opinions to back you up. Such statements lend credibility to your campaign and make it easier to convince both the public and government officials. Approach scientists, veterinarians, doctors, or anyone else who has the experience and credentials to be considered an expert on the issue. Inform them of the situation and ask them to give you a written statement criticizing your target and recommending alternatives.
Produce some basic campaign literature first: a factsheet, a background/history sheet, an alternatives sheet, a page of expert opinions, and a short leaflet that lists your demands and tells people what they can do to help. These provide essential factual information for the public and the media.
Arrange a meeting with the mayor's office and/or the specific regulatory office related to the issue. Clarify the facts about the issue and the changes you are proposing and try to get their support.
Write letters to local government officials, congressional representatives, and the head of the organization you are targeting. State the problem, your demands or alternatives, and specify what you want the official to do.
Arrange to meet personally with as many elected officials as possible. Try to enlist their support.
Write to news editors of local papers and to related trade journals to try to interest them in doing a story on the issue.
Educate your community. Set up tables and hand out leaflets to publicize the issue. Write letters to the editor. Run an advertisement in the newspaper if your budget allows.
Try to get support from other national and local groups. Contact civic associations, the League of Women Voters, Rotary Clubs, and political clubs and ask for their support.
Develop an "emergency response" telephone tree early in the campaign and keep it up to date. It should be separate from your regular telephone tree and should include only those people who can demonstrate or take other action on a day's notice.
Give your opponent a second chance to negotiate with you. This may also be the time to issue an ultimatum if negotiations are unsuccessful.
When you escalate to a new level, don't abandon your original activities. Public education should be a constant effort, complementing all your other tactics.
Escalation means finding ways to exert more pressure, such as picketing, holding a candlelight vigil outside an official's home, or doing street theater at the company headquarters. To increase the pressure, you could organize a boycott, hold a march or rally, or even progress to a work stoppage or other civil disobedience action. Obviously, it is vital to try to get media coverage for every action.
STAGING A DEMONSTRATION, RALLY, OR PICKET
To plan it, you need to answer these questions:
-What do you want your opponent or target to do? What are your demands?
-What do you want the public to do or learn?
-Will it be silent, noisy?
-Will you need a permit from the police or city hall?
-What type of visual aids (posters, banners, or costumes) will you use?
-What type of leaflets will you hand out?
Make sure your leaflet lists your demands and what the public can do to help.
Chances are better for media coverage if you can stage the event during work hours on weekdays.
During the weekend you may get a better turnout of demonstrators, but news coverage is less predictable. Although a demonstration is almost always worthwhile, you'll be less in the public eye without media coverage. Don't overlook holidays. They're generally light news days and a nice public interest story may be appealing to the media. Pick your time carefully so you don't conflict with a major sporting or community event, unless you're responding to an emergency situation that gives you little choice.
Allow a few weeks to secure any permits you might need, but don't hesitate to organize a demonstration on a day's notice if you have to. You usually don't need a permit to hold a picket line on a public sidewalk, as long as you don't block traffic on the sidewalk or go into the street. Permits are usually needed weeks in advance for street marches.
A demonstration must be visual - more than just a picket line and signs. Consider eye-catching costumes, cages, or street theater.
Prepare leaflets that explain the issue. Mail some out ahead of time and use the rest to hand out the day of your rally. Make some posters to display, and prepare a short handout that gives the background of your group.
Before you hold the demonstration, get your group together for a sign-making party - it will inspire the group and ensure that you're all on the right track. Use pictures and slogans that illustrate the issue simply and dramatically. Stay away from offensive language that will turn people off. Use stencils (but fill in those gaps) so the lettering looks neat.
Decide ahead of time who will be the spokesperson for your group, but make sure each person has a short statement prepared for the press or a bystander's question. Keep in mind that you may be photographed by the press. Make sure your group dresses neatly and conservatively (unless you decide to wear costumes). If you wear a costume you should not be the spokesperson - the audience will want to hear from an authority figure, not someone dressed like a clown. Prepare short and easy-to-understand chants ahead of time, and when appropriate (not during silent vigils) keep the chants going throughout the demo. Chants make more people take notice and want to know what is going on, in addition to making good background noise for the media. Remind people not to smile or laugh if they're protesting a serious abuse. And never argue or make derogatory comments to bystanders.
Notify the media - radio, TV, and newspapers - with a telephone call and news release at least one day before you hold the demonstration, and be on site at least one-half hour before starting time. Be sure to have visited the site beforehand so you have an idea of how to set things up. Keep your group together, and remind them (quietly) to hold their signs so they can be clearly seen and photographed.
Write down the names and telephone numbers of the people who attended the demonstration, so you can contact them for future actions. If you got media coverage, assign one person to tape each television station that was present at your event so you may begin a library of media coverage. Don't forget to pick up the newspaper the next day for print media coverage.
WHEN TO USE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
If all else fails, you may want to consider civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the open, deliberate, and nonviolent violation of the law for political or social reasons. It can be either direct or symbolic action or noncooperation and usually leads to an arrest. It is one of the most powerful statements any citizen can make.
Try not to be afraid of it. The powers that be depend on the fear of arrest and jail to maintain the status quo. Civil disobedience breaks that power and creates a sense of fearlessness in people trying to make a change.
History's greatest campaigners for social change, from Gandhi to Thoreau to Martin Luther King Jr., have endorsed civil disobedience. It is often an inevitable and necessary part of any great social movement.
Civil disobedience is usually considered as a last resort to escalate an ongoing campaign, used only after you have tried to negotiate legally and cooperatively with your opponent. Don't expect the public (especially the employees of the target group) to be sympathetic unless you have educated them about the issue beforehand.
Civil disobedience can be used to dramatize an issue, to confront or shut down an abusive organization, to get publicity on an issue, or simply to energize a movement. You need to make sure your actions have a clear connection to the issue and won't turn off the public because of undue inconvenience.
The three basic types of civil disobedience are sit-ins, blockades, and occupations.
Sit-ins are usually unannounced and planned in secret. Publicity is essential when leaving (either voluntarily or under arrest) the sit-in. Blockades include blocking doorways, roads, or movement in general. Small blockades are usually planned in secret, while a large blockade may have to be announced in advance. Occupations are essentially mass sit-ins which are most effective when planned in secret.
HOW TO PLAN FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
Here are some factors to consider:
How will you deal with police confrontations or citizen interactions? To make sure everyone in the group will react the same way, work out various scenarios that could occur and how you'll handle each one. (If you want to get arrested, what actions are you willing to take? If you don't want to get arrested, how should your group proceed?)
When will you hold the action and how long will you sustain it? Weekdays are best. Will you leave at a set time, even if you haven't been arrested? Do you have the people and resources to continue for several days?
Is this a one-time event, or do you anticipate further civil disobedience actions?
What would make you decide to postpone or stop the demonstration? What will you define as a victory?
How will you publicize the action?
Who will be the spokesperson for the group?
Who will be in charge of support people? Support people do not get arrested and are responsible for taking care of things like media, transportation, supplies, bail, legal problems, and caring for the children or animals of those in jail.
It's best to work out a timetable with a list of all the jobs you need to get done beforehand. Delegate work to volunteers but keep track of what they're doing.
If possible, one person should be assigned to do media work and nothing else. There's little point in getting arrested if no one hears about it.
It's also helpful to hold a training session for your group. The sessions could include a brief history of civil disobedience and provide some guidelines on demonstrators' legal rights. Make sure everyone understands the agenda and knows what's expected of them. Role-playing also helps people deal with hostile bystanders, the police, and the media. Give everyone a chance to share their feelings about the event. Contact anti-nuclear or anti-war groups in your area for help with training sessions.
All the demonstrators should be told what the potential charges, bail, and penalties are. Possible charges are trespassing, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, or failure to obey an order of a police officer. Depending on where the action is, you may be breaking municipal, state, or federal laws. Generally, demonstrators get a suspended sentence, fines of $10 to $500, or jail sentences of a few days to a month. It is rare for first-time offenders to get a jail sentence, and often the charges are dropped altogether. The penalties vary widely depending on the action, the political climate, and the demonstrator's past record. Talk to other political groups in your area to find out what their experience has been with the local police and courts.
Have a lawyer present to represent demonstrators who are arrested. If you are a tax-exempt organization, make it clear to demonstrators that you will not be able to pay their fines.
Legal follow-up and support is part of the action. If the legal consequences are handled responsibly by the organizers, you will find that your members will gain strength and political understanding; if they are handled poorly, you will lose the trust of your members and may find it difficult to continue your campaign.
Designate a nearby house as your communications center. Each person in your group should have the telephone number of the center. If it's a large group, you might consider renting a hotel room instead. It's best if you can have a lawyer present during the event. If that's not possible, arrange to have a lawyer on standby and be sure several people have his or her number.
Some support people should be designated to watch and video tape the arrests, if possible, for documentation purposes in case this is needed later. Being alert for any violations of rights, they should count the number of people arrested, write down their names, and write down where the arrestees will be taken for processing. They must make sure that the number of people bailed out equals the number arrested.
Be sure people do not bring alcohol or anything that could be construed as a weapon. Prescription drugs should be clearly marked. Everyone should bring identification, preferably a driver's license or something that has their photograph and address. They should also have money for telephone calls and either have enough money for bail or make arrangements with the support people. Anyone getting arrested should not bring address books, telephone lists, or anything else that the police should not have access to.
These are some of your basic legal rights:
Disobeying a lawful order is a misdemeanor that can result in arrest. Orders such as "Empty your pockets" or "Let me see what's in that bag" are not necessarily lawful demands; however, going limp, struggling, or forcibly resisting an officer may result in a valid arrest, in which case a search can properly be made.
A judicial officer determines bail (the conditions for release from jail before the trial) by considering such factors as the arrestee's ties to the community (family, job) and whether the arrestee has shown up for any previous court appearances.
If questioned, provide only your name and address. DO NOT ANSWER QUESTIONS, AND DO NOT TALK WITH THE POLICE. Anything you say, however innocuous, could be used against you in court later or could even result in your being subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. If you are asked further questions, say, "I wish to exercise my right to remain silent," or, "I wish to speak with my attorney." You may need to give certain information, such as how long you have lived at your address, in order to get bail. Discuss this with your legal advisor before the action and give only this information.
A police officer can't legally arrest you or search you or your property without reasonable cause. If this happens, do not resist. Your lawyer can consider filing civil suit against the officer.
A misdemeanor is a "lesser" offense. Examples include posting fliers (defacing property) or interrupting a fur show (disturbing the peace or disorderly conduct).
You are entitled to one telephone call after your arrest. That call should be to your lawyer or to the head support person, depending on what arrangements were made in advance.
A more serious crime - such as damaging a laboratory building or liberating animals - would be a felony in most jurisdictions. A felony is an offense which is punishable by a year or more in prison. If you are charged with a misdemeanor or felony and earn no more than the maximum income established for your area, the state must appoint a lawyer to defend you.
Regardless of your political ideology, an invaluable resource for anyone doing community organizing, running a campaign, or planning civil disobedience is the War Resisters League Organizer's Manual. It is available for $11 from the War Resisters League, 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012, or call 212-228-0450.
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