Direct Action: 14 ways to improve your job

1. Workers run the world. Everything would stop without our 
labour. Withdrawing our labour is our weapon, and the right to 
run things is our demand.

2. At the same time, most work is a bore. As it is organized in 
our society, most labour kills the spirit and body of the worker, 
not to mention the mind. But to simply call for a four-hour day 
at eight hours pay is not enough. Who will benefit from the 
automation that could realize such a demand? Who should control 
technology's introduction and integration into the economy? 
Potentially, we can.

3. Collective action is the source of our strength as workers. 
Many of the direct actions described below can be done by 
individuals, but they are far more effective when done 
collectively. This should not be mistaken for unionism. If 
collective action and union activity are simultaneous, fine. But 
collective action is not limited to unionism.  Friendships and 
common grievances on the shop floor are enough to carry out most 
of the actions below.

4. Slow down. Your job is killing you anyway. When your boss 
tries to speed things up, drag your feet.

5. Work to rule. Follow every regulation and order down to the 
last detail, no matter how stupid they are. If you get absurd 
instructions, carry them out to the letter to demonstrate how 
absurd they are.

6. Ask questions. Pick apart your boss' instructions with 
questions about everything, even about the most mundane details. 
Plead your ignorance and make your boss show his or hers.

7. Strike through good work. If, as in a service-industry job, 
your strike would hurt other people more than your boss, strike 
by giving the public better or cheaper service, at your boss' 
expense naturally. Bus drivers can give cheap or free fares, 
restaurant workers can give heaping servings, hospital nurses and 
clerks can refuse to process billings or charge for services, 
etc.

8. Pass the buck. Ask your boss to make every decision and every 
judgement on the job. You can bury your boss under a load of 
petty decisions.

9. Don't forget the power of sit-down strikes and wildcat walk-
outs.  Well-timed collective action can win a demand or grievance 
in minutes.

10. Practice deliberate inefficiency (aka "sabotage"). If working 
conditions are unsafe or brutal, a single loose bolt or missing 
part might bring things quickly to a halt.

11. Report on poor working conditions and fradulent practice. 
Whistle-blowers, especially in consumer industries such as 
restaurants and hospitals, can be very effective. Call the fire 
brigade if there's a fire hazard. Call in the health and safety 
officiers.  Call the tax man on your boss's dodgey bookkeeping.

12. Everybody call in sick on the same day or days. The sick-in 
can cripple your workplace in a morning.

13. Take what is rightfully yours. If your boss refuses to give 
you breaks or longer lunches, get everybody on the job to take 
them anyway.

14. All of this is the day-to-day preparation for more dramatic 
forms of action such as a strike in one industry, the general 
strike of all workers in the economy, and the creation of organs 
of power and workers' self-emancipation (assemblies or councils) 
to run society. These forms of direct action, though far more 
organized, build from the simple direct actions described above.
 



