Direct action tactics have been around for as long as conflicts have existed but it is not known when

the term first

appeared. The radical union the Industrial Workers of the Worldfirst mentioned the term "direct action" in a publication in
reference to a Chicago strike conducted in 1910. [2] Other noted historical practitioners of direct action include the US
Civil Rights Movement, the Global Justice Movement, the Suffragettes, revolutionary Che Guevara, and
certain environmental advocacy groups.
American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre wrote a famous essay called "Direct Action" in 1912 which is widely cited today.
In this essay, de Cleyre points to historical examples such as the Boston Tea Party and the American anti-slavery
movement, noting that "direct action has always been used, and has the historical sanction of the very people now
reprobating it."[3]
In his 1920 book, Direct Action, William Mellor placed direct action firmly in the struggle between worker and employer
for control "over the economic life of society." Mellor defined direct action "as the use of some form of
economic power for securing of ends desired by those who possess that power." Mellor considered direct action a tool
of both owners and workers and for this reason he included within his definition lockouts and cartels, as well as strikes
and sabotage. However, by this time the US anarchist and feministVoltairine de Cleyre had already given a strong
defense of direct action, linking it with struggles for civil rights:
...the Salvation Army, which was started by a gentleman named William Booth was vigorously practising direct action in
the maintenance of the freedom of its members to speak, assemble, and pray. Over and over they were arrested, fined,
and imprisoned ... till they finally compelled their persecutors to let them alone.
de Cleyre, undated

A protest against the newly built Berlin Wall during the Cold War in 1961. It would be torn down in 1989.

Martin Luther King felt that non-violent direct action's goal was to "create such a crisis and foster such a tension"
as to demand a response.[4] The rhetoric of Martin Luther King, James Bevel, and Mohandas
Gandhi promoted non-violent revolutionary direct action as a means to social change. Noteworthy, Gandhi and
Bevel had been strongly influenced by Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You, which is considered a
classic text that ideologically promotes passive resistance.[5]
By the middle of the 20th century, the sphere of direct action had undoubtedly expanded, though the meaning of
the term had perhaps contracted. Most campaigns for social changenotably those seeking suffrage, improved
working conditions, civil rights, abortion rights or an end to abortion, an end to gentrification, and environmental
protection claim to employ at least some types of violent or nonviolent direct action.
Some sections of the anti-nuclear movement used direct action, particularly during the 1980s. Groups opposing
the introduction of cruise missiles into the United Kingdom employed tactics such as breaking into and occupying
United States air bases, and blocking roads to prevent the movement of military convoys and disrupt military
projects. In the US, mass protests opposed nuclear energy, weapons, and military intervention throughout the
decade, resulting in thousands of arrests. Many groups also set up semi-permanent "peace camps" outside air
bases such as Molesworth and Greenham Common, and at the Nevada Test Site.
Environmental movement organizations such as Greenpeace have used direct action to pressure governments
and companies to change environmental policies for years. On April 28, 2009, Greenpeace activists, including Phil
Radford, scaled a crane across the street from the Department of State, calling on world leaders to address
climate change.[6] Soon thereafter, Greenpeace activists dropped a banner off of Mt. Rushmore, placing President
Obamas face next to other historic presidents, which read History Honors Leaders; Stop Global

Warming. [7] Overall, more than 2,600 people were arrested while protesting energy policy and associated health
issues under the Barack Obama Administration.[8]
In 2009, hundreds blocked the gates of the coal fired power plant that powers the US Congress building, following
the Power Shift conference in Washington, D.C. In attendance at the Capitol Climate Action were Bill McKibben,
Terry Tempest Williams, Phil Radford, Wendell Berry, Robert Kennedy Junior, Judy Bonds and many more
prominent figures of the climate justice movement were in attendance.
Anti-abortion groups in the United States, particularly Operation Rescue, often used non-violent sit-ins at the
entrances of abortion clinics as a form of direct action in the late 1980s and early 1990s.