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The Village in Oakland

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The Strong and Successful History of Non-Violent Direct Action

December 4, 2016 by The Village

By Joyous De Asis

Non-Violent Direct Action (D.A.) is when a person or a group of people break a law peacefuly to be heard and seen, and to call out what is wrong in their community or with the government.

Non-Violent Direct Action is a tactic used in a broader and longer struggle for justice. It is a tactic used when every other tactic has failed. It is a peopl’es last attempt to get justice for there community. People do D.A. when there govermrnt stops listening. 

D.A. almost always works when it is planned out and used in a bigger fight. For example. 

Black Lives Matter, used D.A to draw attention to police terror.  Cesar Chavez used D.A. to organize farmworkers to be treated right and get better working conditions and pay. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr used D.A. to fight for people’s civil and human rights and peace. The American Indian Movement used D.A. to take back sacred land that the government was no longer using. There are a lot more ways when D.A. was successfully used, but these are just some.

Feed The People and Asians For Black Lives are coming together to do a D.A. because the city keeps gentrifying our community. The politicians will not stop making Oakland a place we can not longer live. Because of gentrifcation there are thousands of people unhoused living on Oakland’s streets. Many of us are a “paycheck away” from being homeless ourselves. The politicians will not listen to the people. They will not stop hurting our community. So the people will do D.A. to try to stop gentrification and to try to stop homelessness that gentrification makes.

Filed Under: Word on the Curb

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