direct action

The use of immediately effective acts, such as strikes, demonstrations, or sabotage, to achieve a political or social end.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

direct action

(Industrial Relations & HR Terms) action such as strikes or civil disobedience, employed by organized labour or other groups to obtain demands from an employer, government, etc

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

direct′ ac′tion

any action seeking an immediate result, esp. an action against an established authority, as a boycott.

[1835–45]

direct action

Short-duration strikes and other small-scale offensive actions conducted as a special operation in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments and which employ specialized military capabilities to seize, destroy, capture, exploit, recover, or damage designated targets. Direct action differs from conventional offensive actions in the level of physical and political risk, operational techniques, and the degree of discriminate and precise use of force to achieve specific objectives. Also called DA. See also special operations; special operations forces.

Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. US Department of Defense 2005.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

direct action - a protest action by labor or minority groups to obtain their demands

protest, dissent, objection - the act of protesting; a public (often organized) manifestation of dissent

civil disobedience - a group's refusal to obey a law because they believe the law is immoral (as in protest against discrimination); "Thoreau wrote a famous essay justifying civil disobedience"

job action - a temporary action by workers to protest management decision or to make demands

nonviolence, nonviolent resistance, passive resistance - peaceful resistance to a government by fasting or refusing to cooperate

recusancy - refusal to submit to established authority; originally the refusal of Roman Catholics to attend services of the Church of England

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

To judge how much, in the case of any variation, we should attribute to the direct action of heat, moisture, light, food, &c., is most difficult: my impression is, that with animals such agencies have produced very little direct effect, though apparently more in the case of plants.

Nevertheless, as our varieties certainly do occasionally revert in some of their characters to ancestral forms, it seems to me not improbable, that if we could succeed in naturalising, or were to cultivate, during many generations, the several races, for instance, of the cabbage, in very poor soil (in which case, however, some effect would have to be attributed to the direct action of the poor soil), that they would to a large extent, or even wholly, revert to the wild aboriginal stock.

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"It's to show me," he thought, "what would happen to ME--" and a deathly sense of the superiority of implication and analogy over direct action, and of silence over rash words, closed in on him like the doors of the family vault.

View in context

But just as Schenck's star was rising in Washington, some Operation Rescue members decided to take their direct action to the next level, in 1998, while cooking dinner for his wife and four children, Barnett Slepian--an abortion doctor whose home had been the site of protests by Schenck and his followers years before--was shot to death through his kitchen window by James Kopp, a former student of Schaeffer's and a volunteer at Operation Rescues Binghamton, N.Y., office.

God's country: lobbying for a theocracy, one member of Congress at a time

This book is an attempt to theorize new forms of commitment and acting that we encounter in direct action across a series of countries and movements.

Contemporary Political Protest: Essays on Political Militancy

The author and four others comprised a group calling itself "Direct Action" that engaged in a series of politically motivated bombings in 1982.

Direct Action: Memoirs of an Urban Guerrilla. (Reviews/Comptes Rendus)

Once in place, SEALs conducted strategic reconnaissance, early warning patrols, hydrographic reconnaissance, direct action, mine hunting, and combat search and rescue.

The evolution of Naval Aviation and Naval Special Warfare

Filmmaker Pip Starr's 60-minute cocktail of blockade actions, interviews with participants and footage of the events and protests throughout Australia against Jabiluka is a powerful tribute to the effectiveness of community mobilisation, solidarity and non-violent direct action. Now, more than ever, this lesson is vital.

The reel story on Jabiluka. (campaign Trails)

Heather Appel, lead organizer for Bronx ACORN, said that the legal situation has "escalated thanks to the original suit." Appel acknowledged that ACORN's methods are a very important part of their "direct action" work.

Building owners say ACORN is nuts

Clr John Taylor (Con, Kirkburton), who joined in the direct action earlier in July, said: "It was news to everybody that the council had made an attempt to do anything with TfN about Flockton.

Road campaign told of cash 'knockback'

They also offer training in on-violent direct action through their website for individuals planning on taking part, including showing participants "how to de-escalate tense situation, what to do if you get arrested and much more".

Who are Extinction Rebellion?

Campaigners from the Brexit Protest and Direct Action Group UK carried out the protest on the roads of North Wales on Friday evening in anger over the way Brexit was being handled.

'EMBARRASSING AND POINTLESS'