Advocacy, Organising and
Direct Action
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What is it?
How it works
Pros and Cons
Stories
Next Steps
What is it?
Advocacy- Allowing a person to express their needs confidently, and work with them to
realize their potential and to fulfil that with others.
 Direct Action- Immediate disruption if the institutions, actors or processes which oppress
working class people, by working class people.
 Small but growing method of combining Legal work, advocacy with protest and direct
action. Individual struggles and collective action.
 Can be incredibly effective- Welfare services in Toronto have it written into their policy to
respond favourably to OCAP complaints.
 Traditionally abides by 4 principles.
1. To combine legal work with disruptive action
2. Not to duplicate the work of advice agencies
3. To forward political goals but never compromise the interests of those you are working
with in the process.
4.To empower those you are working with, rather than simply provide a service.
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How it Works
DAC not just writing letters and disrupting offices but fundamentally about
making connections with people and providing support and building a community
of people who are struggling against injustices.
 Casework can be done in many ways, and seems to change from place to place
depending on circumstance.
 Casework team (LCAP model)
1.Person being supported
2.Advocate
3.Action organiser
 Support- Importance of the advocates supporting each other through the work.
 Keeping records- Should an advocate not be able to continue with a case,
detailed records means other advocates can pick it up later on.
 Meeting Up- First meeting, introductions, explaining situation
 Confidentiality Research- In order to figure out what tactics are likely to work, knowing relevant
law, entitlements is essential.
 Planning-Options? What do they want to do? What have they tried?
Letter in Support-Give authorities a chance to back down
 Before the Action- Person supporting happy with the plan, boundaries known, etc
 During the Action- Briefing before, 'welfare' role,
 After-Next steps
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Pros and Cons
PROS
 Opportunity to take collective action around the struggles of every day
life, often with those who you wouldn't normally see in a predominantly
activist group like ours.
 Being explicit about intentions of advocacy leading to meaningful
involvement in AAAP.
 Being specific on which casework we take action on can feed into broader
campaigns for political change.
CONS
 Can be slippery slope to NGO style advocacy- “radical social workers”
rather than comrades in struggle
 Prone to inundation with casework and organiser burnout
 Can lead to 'specialisation' of knowledge
 DA casework easier and more clear with tenancy and workplace struggles
Stories
Ruby and the Hackney Unemployed Workers
 Establishing 'Working Relationship'
 Jane and single mother benefit
 Un-unionised worker at gas station
 'Special Diet' and Raise the Rates campaign
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Next Steps?
Important for us to do the ground work on what
our advocacy looks like before we get started.
Purpose, language we use, goals, focus
 Pick something easier in the beginning-importance
of victories.
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