There are few things in life that are more dangerous than challenging oppressive and non-consensual forms of control. Depending on location, activists risk arrest, having possessions seized, jail time, being banned from certain countries and professions, injury, death, and threats and attacks on friends and family. Nevertheless, people choose to do this without pay and often without seeing any results of their labours in their lifetime.
Without activists, we risk having no rights or freedoms whatsoever. Wherever there are regimes that aren’t demonstrably acting with the consent and the best interests of the population, there will be brave people trying to go in the other direction. When there is a struggle, there is a risk. Activists across the world are being jailed and killed, and that trend is set to continue. The Rebel Warrior Movement insists on being an influence that promotes safer campaign practices. We are more useful intact and outside the penitentiary.
The Rebel Warrior Movement cannot eliminate the risks of campaigning. It can, however, significantly reduce them. The Rebel Warrior Movement commits to being an influence that improves and promotes safety and social responsibility in campaigning.
The movement is not a hierarchical organization with members. People (besides management) don’t work ‘for’ the movement, and are not ‘in’ or ‘out’. By definition, the movement cannot take individual responsibility or liability for people’s actions. However, the Rebel Warrior Movement can have a significant influence over the probability that somebody chooses to campaign in either a relatively safe and responsible way, or a reckless and destructive way. The movement, therefore, chooses to promote campaign methods that are as safe, responsible and effective as possible.
Effective by being safe and responsible (the ‘have your cake and eat it’ principle)
The backbone of the Rebel Warrior Strategy is to put the majority of energy into actively improving societal issues, rather than demanding that a regime change how it runs. These actions are unlikely (in most cases) to attract significant aggression from law enforcement, armed forces, conflicting campaigns or the general public. In many cases, it will actually garner support or at least sympathy.
The solving (or at least improving) of societal issues