For several years, there has been a rise in the number of Direct Action campaigns, organisations both open and clandestine, and results that have severely hampered the rise of the right and the fascist creep in the United Kingdom. This year it seems to have culminated in victories for many Palestine Action direct actionists, the Filton 25, in court not long after the second anniversary of such an action.

I want to analyse this trend, which has been growing in tandem with the wave of revanchism that has swept the UK, but has been widely ignored by the media, or brushed off as isolated incidents in the inevitable tide toward techno-fascism instead of being treated as a serious, concerted resistance to its rise.

What is Direct Action?

It is an anarchist strategy of political action. According to social theorist and activist Rudolf Rocker, this strategy includes “every method by the workers against their economic and political oppressors.” These methods include: strikes, boycotts, industrial sabotage, distributing antimilitarist propaganda and in the most dire and most necessary times, “armed resistance of the people for the protection of life and liberty”.

Voltairine de Cleyre, a feminist activist, put it in even more emphatic terms in 1912 saying “every person who ever had a plan to do anything and went and did it, or who laid a plan before others, and won their co-operation to do it with him, without going to external authorities to please do the thing for them, was a direct actionist.”

Even if we ignored its self-described politics, according to the definitions given by the anarchists above, the proscribed organisation Palestine Action is a direct action group. As are People Against Genocide (PAG), DISMANTLE, DISARM Bristol, the legion Anti-raids networks.

And these are only the direct action groups that have decided to work under a name or banner. They have realised, like many activists have, that this method of political action is the most effective means of destabilising the imperial war machine that gears up against popular will and morality.

Anarchists have engaged in methods of direct action for centuries, with the term being coined in the English-language in the late 19th century. But it is not only used by anarchists. Abolitionists in the era of chattel slavery in the United States were direct actionists. Harriet Tubman was a direct actionist. Nat Turner was a direct actionist. Toussaint L’Ouverture was a direct actionist. John Brown was a direct actionist. Sylvia Pankhurst was a direct actionist. The combination of the theoretical distinction of “unity of means and ends”, and the use of the political strategy of “direct action” and the social strategy of “mutual-aid”, ultimately culminate in the end goal of anarchists, the social revolution.

UK direct action over the last decade: Anti-raids

Anti-raids networks have been growing in popularity as the right-wing demonisation of immigrants has been building, so for ten years, that has been an undercurrent of a direct action movement bubbling in Britain as the State becomes increasingly more draconian against those it considers expendable. There are now more than 40 anti-raids group, with presumably scores more acting more clandestinely all over the country.

The genocide in Gaza and the UK’s complicity meant a continuation of similar tactics and networks, but repurposed to sabotage and disrupt a war machine as opposed to outflanking anti-immigration officers. If you paid attention only to right-wing media, you would believe that the country is united in its disdain for migrants, but the levels of anti-raids work was so significant that in 2015, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) declared “antiraids networks” a key factor in the uptick of “incidents of disruption” for them to carry out their State-sponsored terror.

Even a decade ago, as it has always been with direct action campaigns, the strategy was non-hierarchical, bottom-up, grassroots-led actions. One of the findings of the Police Chiefs’ (NPCC) “intelligence assessment,” referred to in the ICIBI report, is: “The majority of incidents were not coordinated by a group or activist, but involved members of the local community, unaffiliated to any groups.”

The Anti-Raids Network certainly played a part. It wasn’t just a coincidence that “incidents of disruption” jumped soon after this network got active in certain areas of South and East London. But that doesn’t mean people active in that network were involved in more than a handful of “incidents”. Much of the resistance to immigration raids has spread informally, without any coordinating organisation. It spread “virally”, as thousands of people passed on stories, made or read posters, shared YouTube videos or Twitter alerts. And then acted in their own ways.

It also took a very specific especifist blend of anarchist praxis, especially the formal Anti-Raids Network by cleverly using the idea of social insertion, to gain mass support from their community or society, as well as showing the viability and effectiveness of concerted, formal or informal direct action campaigns.

People Against Genocide and the Filton 25

I’ve been covering direct action here and at other places on the internet and since January 21st 2026, The Aftershock has been sending myself and other journalists interested in direct action communiques from PAG.

These communiques have been filled with actions taken against Elbit Systems, its subsidiary UAV Systems, and several affiliated businesses, both upstream all the way to insurers and downstream to parts manufacturers subcontracted by Elbit. They seem to be building momentum even when the ceasefire was announced and British involvement in genocide was claimed to be settled. PAG have scores of successful actions under their belts and they show no intentions of slowing down, with an action against Keysight’s Telford Factory as early as the morning of September 8th.

A broader global trend

This activity is at the height of a wave, a decades-long trend that includes the Yellow Vests in France, fascist Tesla Factories being sabotaged in Germany, Sudan’s radical charters and Emergency Response Rooms, and the Gen Z movements that have swept the world in Nepal, Indonesia, Morocco, Madagascar and elsewhere, as well as the uprising in Bangladesh.

In the face of a burgeoning fascist resurgence and no concrete response from the traditional mainstream left, a more radical resistance has sprung up all over the world – not aided by vanguard parties, NGOs or State entities, but spontaneously, anonymously and collectively.

I would like to see it help build sustainable dual power and organising systems that explicitly reject the State capitalist model. A direct action that not only reacts, is on the defensive, and working from a negative space, but one that acts from a positive space, one that builds new systems of community and engagement and is actively seeking solutions away from the State and capitalism.

This, quite obviously, terrifies the powers that be. If we learn that we can do things, some as small as stealing food to distribute in a mutual aid network, to those as large as smashing up the factories of and stealing information from open war-mongers, you quickly learn that there are all sorts of actions that you are able to take without the aid – or permission – of the State. It is both effective, things get done, and instructive, because we learn we can do things with the help of each other and not some external authority. It calls the whole rationale of the State into question. They say they exist to keep people safe and to ensure the smooth running of society, but we can do that ourselves and they still exist. So what are they actually useful for?

Direct Action Gets The Job Done

But direct actionists are giant-killers. The victories against Elbit Systems, main provider of drone technology to Israel, have been strong. Since Palestine Action formed, several Elbit factories have closed down in Britain. HSBC have dropped Elbit as their client and several of Elbit’s subsidiaries have seen major disruption across its production pipeline.

People are signing up to learn direct action tactics in their thousands, both from organisations connected to Palestine Action and organisations connected to anti-immigration raids. Individuals, communities and the more formal antiraids networks have put Immigration Enforcement squads on the back foot.

This does not stop in London. Demonstrations, campaigns, and de-arrests have taken place in Aberdeen, Brighton, Bristol, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and have included people from all backgrounds present in Britain.

Not only that, these campaigns and actions are met with a wave of public support when it comes to dismantling the Israeli war machine’s British arm and local support when it comes to the anti-immigration marches by fascists in streets in London, which have been met with self – and community – defence of the only kind they understand. And the more formal groups only act as the visible part of the iceberg to a larger, informal direct action network of ordinary people spread across diverse communities.

Sometimes, you don’t need to wait for someone to make a change in your conditions. Sometimes, you just need to do it.