Abstract
This chapter outlines the understanding of direct action on which the rest of the book builds. It begins with two vignettes of notable anti-militarist direct actions, before setting out some formal definitions of direct action. It then outlines a brief history of anti-militarist direct action in the UK, showing how the tactic developed through the two world wars and the anti-nuclear movements of the 1950s and 80s. The second half of the chapter introduces four concepts through which we can read the politics of direct action. These concepts – (anti-)representation, prefiguration, (anti-)strategy and empowerment – and the debates that surround them, help to situate direct action not only as a particular practice or tactic, but as generative of particular kinds of subjects, movements, and approaches to social transformation.
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