Aims and Principles of the Direct Action Movement

By Direct Action Movement

Published in 1983

Topics: IWA, UK, statements of principles

The Direct Action Movement is a working class organisation.

Our aim is the creation of a free and classless society.

We are fighting to abolish the state, capitalism, and wage slavery in all their forms and replace them by self-managed production for need, not profit.

In order to bring about the new social order, the workers must take over the means of production and distribution. We are the sworn enemies of those who would take over on behalf of the workers.

We believe that the only way for the working class to achieve this is for independent organisation in the workplace and community and federation with others in the same industry and locality, independent of, and opposed to, all political parties and trade union bureaucracies. All such workers’ organisations must be controlled by workers themselves and must unite rather than divide the workers’ movement. Any and all delegates and representatives of such workers’ organisations must be subject to immediate recall by the workers.

We are opposed to all States and State institutions. The working class has no country. The class struggle is worldwide and recognises no artificial boundaries. The armies and police of all States do not exist to protect the workers of those States, they exist only as the repressive arm of the ruling class.

We oppose racism, sexism, militarism, and all attitudes and institutions that stand in the way of equality and the right of all people everywhere to control their own lives and the environment.

Additional Information

This statement of aims and principles was taken from DAM's 1983 pamphlet, Anarcho-Syndicalism: History and Action. DAM was formed in 1979, so it's likely that these existed in some form - if not the exact form here - at that time, though we're unsure.