Activism is pretty sweet but cupcakes can only help according to baketivists. Baketivism is the simple idea that baking can be a valuable form of activism. Not only can a bake sale advocate tasty vegan food but it can also raise money to help political causes, from keeping animal shelters open to supporting campaigns.

A direct action is any activity that strives for social, political or economic change outside of accepted political channels. It can be anything from a sit-in to a march, to graffiti. Non-violent direct action is one of the most effective forms of protests activists can use within an ongoing campaign. Actions with predetermined political contexts are often much more effective than unorganized gatherings. This guide includes:

Uses of direct action
Nonviolent vs violent
Resources

Uses
Direct actions are used as:

A form of alarm (a situation has changed or an injustice has been committed and the action alerts the general public)

This massive 94 page guide produced by WPRIG is an excellent primer for an activist group who has thought about using theatre as a form of popular education but wasn't sure how. The guide is based on the experiences of WPRIG's Enviromaniacs troupe who performed skits about topics like deforestation and food politics. Though it was produced in the early nineties the practical tips and workshops remain just as useful today.

Big banks are everywhere. The banking industry has designed ways to expand their services at a huge cost to local communities, taking money out of these communities to be used by large central banks located elsewhere. The bank's local branch may be community based but the shareholders and owners all are outside of local communities. Branches extract money and send it to the central headquarters where local money is invested in big international deals that don't affect the community.

ibanklocally is trying to stop this.

Occupying small towns isn't easy. The scale of the occupation and the issues activists want to highlight are often different from camps in larger cities. A successful occupation in rural Canada requires a few tweaks to standard organizing. Getting the message out might be the easy part - maintaining commitment and momentum with community support can be harder. But with the right approach, small towns can support all kinds of radical movements. This guide details how to

Get started

Adapt

Find resources

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The Organizer's Collaborative is a group that develops tech tools and training for social change. Realizing that there was no software available for small nonprofits and activist groups, the Collaborative made their own membership software free and downloadable in 2002. They named the program the Organizer's Database (ODB).

The good food box grew out of a desire to create sustainable options to get fresh vegetables and fruits to people who live in poverty. It was first started by the Toronto Food Share.

History

The group saw that food banks were problematic in many ways: people were ashamed about taking charity, the food given was typically over processed and unhealthy and understood that food banks are not a sustainable response to hunger. Instead, Food Share started to explore alternative self-help models for community building and continuous growth, like community gardens and collective kitchens.

The slow food movement tries to change public opinion about food sustainability. Its name is a cheeky homage to the proliferation of fast food throughout the late 1980s. The movement is often symbolized by a snail, a creature that eats and moves extremely slowly. Slow food activists argue that by taking the time to produce high quality food locally, it is healthier, better for the environment and more sustainable.