Politics has never set anyone free. It's time for direct action.
By: Shane Radliff
July 18th, 2016
Preface
Many individuals throughout the alternative media, who advocate for the use of particular techniques by the American people in order to secure their liberty, have shown that there is a market selection of libertarian resistance to statism. Unfortunately, there haven’t been any comprehensive lists of such methods that are presented in the form of a value-free directory. The Freedom Umbrella of Direct Action (FUDA) was originally codified in 2015 to be that very directory.
Albert Jay Nock wrote in his seminal work, Our Enemy, the State, that there are the political means and the economics means of making money; the political means are known more commonly as reformism (that is, the uncompensated appropriation of wealth produced by others), and the economic means are better recognized as direct action (that is, the production and exchange of wealth). Begging those who falsely imagine themselves to be our rulers for scraps from the King’s table is the foundational basis for reformist strategy, and this sharply contrasts with exercising your freedom without asking permission from Leviathan.
The FUDA lists only “what counts” as direct action. Please keep in mind that there are no value judgments being made here, particularly with regard to the efficacy of the tactics and strategies listed, for such decisions are to be made by each individual’s personal judgment in examining and testing those methods that appeal to their own subjective preferences. Our intention was to provide a literary resource that can be used to not only help individuals begin their journey towards self-liberation, but also as something that can be returned to as a “home base” of sorts, by which they explore some other approach that appeals to their own sense of purposeful behavior.
The Direct Action List
- Philosophy (“Winning Hearts & Minds”)
- Strategic Withdrawal
- Vacate the State
- Cancelling voter registration
- Expatriation
- Withdrawal from public school attendance
- Conscientious objection
- Selling government bonds
- Unbanking (closing your bank account)
- Quitting government employment
- Homeschooling
- Trivium
- Un-schooling (self-directed education/learner-driven education)
- Extracurriculars (Boy Scouts, 4H, Habitat for Humanity, etc.)
- Apprenticeship
- Debunking fallacies/myth busting
- Psychology & Interpersonal Relationships
- Spirituality (meditation, yoga, visualization, lucid dreaming, digital drugs/binaural beats)
- Peaceful parenting
- Free-range parenting
- Free love (unmarriage, polyamory)
- Non-violent communication (NVC)
- Journaling (daily and/or dream)
- Ostracism (deFOO-ing)
- Stoicism
- Vonu (Book/Audiobook)
- Security culture
- Perpetual traveler
- Legal opportunism (legal interstices)
- Paper-tripping
- Alternative housing (tiny home, travel-trailer homesteading, van-dwelling, fulltiming (RV’ing), urban/stealth camping,AirBnB, shared housing)
- Financially independent early retirement
- Survivalism (see below)
- Culture Jamming
- Simon jestering (posters, DVDs, stickers, freedom holidays, waving Gadsden/black flags, mentalism, escapology)
- Alternative/independent media (meme hacks, advertised blogging, livestreaming call-in podcasting, monetized videos,independent digital publishing, indie comics)
- Whistle-blowing (conferences, lectures, the Sam Adams award, grey hat hacker leaks of classified information)
- Entrepreneurship
- Financial independence (unjobbing, intensive saving, residual income, selling a business, multiple incomes, early retirement, venture capitalism, rainy day fund/nest egg)
- Freelancing (contract/part-time work, reselling, indie game development, etc.)
- Permanent Portfolio
- Passive income (“lifestyle business,” rental properties, house flipping, selling products/services online, etc.)
- Small business ownership (cooperatives, firearm instruction schools, etc.)
- Counter-economics (raw milk, lemonade stands, cannabis, underground railroads, street racing, gambling, fight clubs,ghost gunning, urban exploration, guerrilla gardening, etc.)
- Survivalism
- Physical fitness (bodybuilding, paleolithic diet, nootropics)
- Self-defense (martial arts & sparring)
- Bug out bags
- Bunkering in water & food storage
- Firearms battery (marksmanship)
- Safe house network
- Multiple supply caches
- Retreat groups
- Off-grid homesteading
- Urban homesteading (permaculture, aquaponics, home-brewing, edible gardening, backyard livestock)
- Wilderness homesteading (off-grid power, free-range livestock, hunting, fishing)
- Financial Autonomy
- Strategic relocation/voting with your feet (freedom communities, homesteading, expatriation)
- Voting with your wallet (comparison shopping, boycotts, shareholder activism, localvore)
- Free banking (cryptocurrencies, precious metal stacking, LETSystem, nano-economy)
- Tax resistance (tax avoidance, CAFRs, freeganism, dumpster diving, minimalism)
- Technology
- Cryptography (PGP, OTR, ZRTP, cryptograms)
- 3D printing (firearms, cars, houses, etc.)
- Cyptocurrencies (Bitcoins, Litecoin, Freicoin, Darkcoin, Dogecoin, etc.)
- Ride-sharing (Uber, Sidecar, Lyft)
- Free software (free and open source computing, Linux distros, smartphone applications, etc.)
- Alternative energy (geothermal, electric car, hydro car, White-Juday warp-field interferometer, etc.)
- Souisveillance
- Liberty Networking
- Affinity groups (security teams, retreat groups, freedom cells, mutual aid)
- Freedom communities (Free Manchester, Liberate RVA, the “State of Jefferson,” the American Redoubt, Sea Steading Institute, Sealand, Liberland, Mars One)
- Freedom conferences/festivals (Porcupine Freedom Festival, Liberty Fest, Liberty Fest West, Jackalope Freedom Festival, Freedom Fest, Anar-con, Midwest Peace & Liberty Fest, Anarchapulco)
- Ostracism (scorn & ridicule of statist/reformist collaborators, right to refuse service to potential customers, blacklisting, exposing informants without doxing)
- Civil Disobedience → Libertarian Revolution
- Satyagraha (420 celebrations, victimless crime spree)
- Civil defiance (Lexington & Concord, the 2014 Bundy Affair, illegal gun rallies)
- Hacktivism (DDoS attack, doxxing & meme blacklisting)
- Agorism
- Committees of Safety (espionage network, militia units, early warning systems)
- Armed resistance (monkey-wrenching/sabotage, vigilantism, ambushes, raids, prison breaks, assassination markets,guerrilla warfare).
- Privatization of security & arbitration/adjudication services (private defense agencies, dispute resolution organizations)
Shane is the founder of Liberty Under Attack and host of LUA Radio, a live show that airs every Thursday and Sunday at 7pm CST on the Freedom Phalanx Radio Network. He is a free market anarchist committed to providing solutions to his listeners and readers, so that they can create the freedom they desire in their own lives, RIGHT NOW, despite the State.