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Actions: Planning and Preparing

Top Tips

  • Have a clear idea of how your action helps you to meet the aims and objectives of your campaign;
  • Write a list of tasks and divide them up;
  • Don’t bite off more than you can chew!
Students simulate sickness in front of Abbott HQ

Abbott makes us sick!

Image © Charlie Harvey

Case Study

In May 2007, P&P wanted to influence the UK Government’s position on Thailand’s right to use TRIPs flexibilities to produce generic HIV/AIDS drugs, which the pharmaceutical company Abbott was trying to stop.

A perfect one-off action opportunity came up and we joined a Global Day of Action to demand that Abbott Laboratories stop its bullying behaviour and to ask the UK to speak out for Thailand’s rights.

A clear slogan ‘Abbott makes us sick’, with an action (being sick into buckets using orange juice!), banners and T-shirts to go with it got across P&P’s message to the Government resulting in a shift in their position.

With a little thought, a good idea can be made into a great action. The key thing is that you think it through carefully. Other useful skills for planning actions include using the media, and lobbying.

Planning

Aim

  • Is this a one-off action or part of an ongoing campaign? The first needs to be focused with a very clear message aimed at a very clear audience. The second needs to be strategic and you have more time to get your message across.

  • What is the demand of the campaign that this action is part of? Go back to your campaign strategy each time you are planning an action.

  • What are your other strategic aims as a group? For instance, are you trying to recruit new members?

  • Therefore — what is the overall aim of this action? It might be to influence decision makers, engage students, to get media attention, or to stop something bad from happening.

Message

During any action you are trying to get a message across to a particular audience in order to create some change.

  • What is the message you want to get out? What is the injustice and what do you want to change? This will be the key factor in designing your action. If you’re not clear on it, your message won’t be. Keep it simple and direct.

  • Who do you want to hear it? Are you lobbying your MP, or your Vice Chancellor, or are you asking your fellow students to do something? Are you aiming at corporate recruiters or those they might recruit? Do you want to seem reasonable to the people who meet you, or is the press coverage more important? Are you trying to get a photo in the press? Your message and method may well be different depending on the choices you make here: protesting at a Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest careers presentation will annoy the company and get you media coverage, but leafleting and intelligent questions might be better if you want to influence students’ career choices.

Tactics

  • Assess your time and resources. There’s no point planning an event or action that you don’t have the money, time, people, or energy for. That said, a small group can have an enormous impact with a bit of planning and creativity.

  • When is the best time to do this action? Is it a breaking news story? Is there a relevant local meeting or event?

Brainstorm lots of ideas for tactics, you could use some of the ideas we’ve come up with. Then keeping in mind your aim, message and resources, choose the best one for your group.


Taking Action

List all the tasks involved in the action, create a timeline for when they need doing and the time they will take. Then divide them up. Make sure you use the delegation skills mentioned in the exhilarating meeting pages to divide up tasks.

Things to think about

  • Coordination - you could appoint an overall action coordinator to make sure it all happens!
  • Props and banners - how can you make your action as creative and noticeable as possible, when will you make them?
  • The law - do you need police permission? What about university regulations? Make sure at least one person has followed this up - know where you stand with the police or university authorities if they are called.
  • Research - get some handy facts and figures to be used in news releases, leaflets and briefings.
  • Leaflet - you’ll probably need to find or write one.
  • Media - send news releases, make sure there’s a good photo opportunity, maybe appoint a media spokesperson. With the right visual image you can almost guarantee a photo in your campus newspaper and increase the impact of your action.
  • Publicity - make sure people who might be interested in your action know the what, when and where.
  • Briefing - ensure that people on the action know what it’s about. You could arrange a speaker meeting the week before, send a briefing by email, or meet beforehand to talk over it.
  • Review the action afterwards - what went well and what could have been improved?