Nine steps to your activism strategy

Raffaela had written a long guide to animal rights activism. Shortly before VeggieWorld at the end of March, the document was deleted.

What did get finished in time for the fair was a worksheet, twenty pages. On the Saturday she gave a talk about it, "Kreativer Aktivismus". A few days after the fair, the whole thing went up as a wizard on wie-aktiv.

The mood after the talk

Some of the audience came straight over to our stand afterwards. They wanted to talk and to get information. They wanted to take the worksheet with them and try the wizard right away.

That was the clearest response we got the whole weekend.

What it is for

Anyone who wants to do something usually knows what bothers them. The harder question is what should follow from it.

People who are shy picture themselves at a stand in a pedestrian zone and drop the idea. Our newsletter before the fair put it like this: getting active does not mean storming the nearest burger chain with a megaphone.

Nine steps

The wizard starts by asking what bothers you about the way animals are treated, what you are good at and what interests you. Out of that it builds your niche. Then come the lever you want to use, a life project for the next few years, monthly goals and habits for the week. At the end there is a feasibility check and the question of how you will measure your progress.

The open fields come with suggestions you can click. Your answers are saved as you go, so you can stop halfway through and pick it up later.

The scales

One image from the worksheet stayed with us above all: a pair of scales. On one side sit the barriers that keep people from living vegan, habit, taste, price, social pressure. On the other sits the guilty conscience, the contradiction between "I think abusing animals is wrong" and what you then do.

You can work on either side. One approach is to help and make the first steps easier. The other is to confront people and show them what happens to animals. Which of the two is the right one has been argued over in the movement for years. The wizard lets you choose, and lets you mix.

What I noticed when I filled it in

I'm Tobi, and I filled the wizard in myself. Some of the barriers that came out of it are ones I put up myself.

The idea of what activism is and who is cut out for it often comes from outside. From what you see on social media. From conversations that ought to open things up. Some of it narrows them instead. You back off because you assume you cannot do it anyway.

Going through the wizard showed me that. I had not expected it to.

Step eight

Step eight is the feasibility check. Six boxes to tick: too complicated, too demanding, too time-consuming, too uncomfortable, too expensive, beyond my skills. Below that the wizard asks what you could simplify.

I think this is the most important of the nine steps.

You sign at the end

The last sheet pulls everything together and can be printed. Below it there is a commitment for six months, with a field to sign in, using a finger or the mouse. Legally it means nothing. We like it anyway.

Where to find it

The wizard is on wie-aktiv and needs no account. Raffaela's talk is embedded on the same page. The worksheet for printing sits next to it as a PDF.

And if it turns out that street activism is something for you after all: our upcoming dates are online.