Welcome to the world of Activism!

Unleash the power of the pyramid

Activism is action. It needs to show up, to reveal itself in activities in our home, in school, in our neighbourhood, to come to light and to have a domino effect on the whole world. In all communities there are excellent “thinkers”, but “thinking” alone is not enough. Theory needs to be put into practice! But, what makes us act?

Let’s say, for example, that we are participating in a campaign to protect the environment. What is it that makes us organise ourselves, find other people, get out of our homes, or leave our daily routines to volunteer for actions, some of them demanding in terms of time and resources? What is it that drives us to act?

First of all, it is what we know, the knowledge we have about, for example, environmental degradation and climate change. We may have acquired this knowledge in various ways. At school, we have learned quite a lot about how human activity affects the environment. On the radio, we heard the news about the official warning of scientists to governments. On the internet, we found several articles, and – after the fake news checking – we shared them with peers who sent us some more. We may have recently learned about environmental actions in our city and got more information about what can be done locally.

Regardless of the type of knowledge and its origin, knowledge makes us feel something about the environment and climate change. We may feel anxious, insecure, and fearful about the future. We may feel anger and rage at those responsible for the degradation of the environment. We may feel that there is injustice because a number of human rights are not respected. We may also feel joy and hope because there are collectives fighting to protect it. We definitely feel love for the natural environment, its animals and plants.

Our feelings are as important as the knowledge we have about a topic. We should not ignore them. On the contrary, we have to recognise them, protect them and find – responsible and acceptable – ways to express them. This is especially important for our mental health. We should not feel guilty or embarrassed about our feelings. Τhere are no good and bad feelings. Fear is as important as hope, sadness as important as happiness. Αll kinds of emotions are equally important for our inner balance and have helped us get to where we are today.

When we recognise our feelings then it is very easy to understand what our attitude towards the environment and climate change is. We can understand why we have a positive and supportive attitude towards those who protect the natural environment and try to stop climate change. We can also understand why we have a negative or hostile attitude towards those who continue to pollute the air and water, destroy forests, and consume more than they can. People always seek to act according to their attitude.

By combining the knowledge we have about protecting the environment and our feelings about its various aspects, we can interpret (and take) action. Different knowledge and feelings can provoke different actions.

“This campaign has made me think about the future and about the need to take care of the land we live on“.
Ugne from Lithuania

Action, knowledge and feelings interact with each other. When one changes, the others change too.

In short, new information about speeding up climate change can affect us emotionally. It can increase the fear we feel about the future, our anger at someone who continues to pollute the environment. Τhe change of our feelings will trigger a new impulse for action. We may feel the need to take action right now, by calling our peers or directly participating in an action to protect the environment.

The same happens when we act. During our participation in the campaign for environmental protection, we get familiar with new situations, information, people, our knowledge changes and our feelings are affected accordingly.

Action therefore creates new knowledge, new feelings and reproduces or multiplies actions. But what kind of action? Let’s have a closer look at our possibilities.

Four ways of activism

There are mainly four ways of changing something. Under these four ways we can summon all the concrete possibilities of actions.

Changing minds – create awareness!
We can make a change if we are changing minds. As you already learned, the knowledge we have about something will influence our feelings and also our behavior. Garyfallenia from Greece talked with her family and friends about the freedom of sexual orientation. And Sofiia from Ukraine influenced many people in Germany by talking at peace protests (listen to her story in Fruits for Thought). We can start with our direct surroundings in our everyday life and create awareness about the topic that concerns us. Have you ever tried to convince your friend about your topic?
Change something concrete – do it yourself!
From small to big – everything counts. Do you think it makes no difference if you use a soap shampoo to avoid plastic or a regular one? Then let’s do a thought experiment: How many times do you normally buy a shampoo per year? Ten times? How many people can you convince to do the same? 20? Then in only one year you can spare the world 200 plastic shampoo packages! That’s something! There is a lot we can do. “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly” (Anna Marie Bonneau, zerowastechef.com). Surely, many of your everyday actions are helping the world to be a better place. What can you maybe do more?
Ask for a change – make them do the change!
There are also things we cannot do by ourselves because we need decision makers, like politicians, for some changes. You can start to convince them to change something regarding your topic. No matter what it is: If you think that there should be extra money for your school or better public transport, you can approach politicians. If you write them directly it’s good to know that in our European democracies you have a right to get an answer! No matter if you contact your mayor or the European Union, they are obliged to answer to you. Of course it’s helpful to find supporters also in politics and be as loud and present as possible. You can start (social) media campaigns, organize protests, start petitions and a lot more. Gilberto from Italy discussed with the politicians in his community about solutions for families ejected from their home (listen to his story in Fruits for Thought).
Have you ever tried to change something in your family or in your school for example? Then you already know what we are talking about!
Start a lawsuit – claim your right!
There is a law that you can claim? Perfect! Then you can claim your right! Honestly this is not so easy and of course for this case professional help is needed: But do you know that there are advocates who are doing work pro bono for a good course? And by the way: 2021 in Germany Fridays for Future won a lawsuit against the German government about the climate protection strategy with the help of Greenpeace and other NGOs. After the decision of the court the German government had to improve their strategy for climate protection. In this case the claim was based on the human rights that are part of the constitutional law: The right for life and the right for future.
Maybe you haven’t started a lawsuit yet. But have you stood up for justice when an aggressive teacher bullied a classmate of yours? Then you already protected Human Rights (right to be treated equally).

Let’s summarize and reflect our possibilities on how we can create a change with a practical example: If you want to become active for sustainability you can talk with your family and friends about what they buy at the supermarket: Maybe you can convince them to reduce plastic or the consumption of meat? (1. way) You can reduce your own meat consumption, use shampoo soap and reusable coffee to go cups (2. way). Ask the principal of your school about reducing plastic at the kiosk. Or try to convince politicians to forbid the use of plastic if there are more sustainable options (3. way) because if it’s law, you can claim for it (4. way).

Whatever you do – always start with yourself! Your conviction has the power to convince others and your actions create an impact!

Keep this basic knowledge about the triangle of activism and the four ways of activism in your mind when you find your own way of activism. It will help you – we promise! ?
Now we want to introduce to you the six most important aspects of activism we found during our work: six categories of activism.

The six categories of activism

The Guide to Activism is like an electrical circuit. It needs all its elements to work properly. And in activism, you are the engineer! You decide where to start depending on what is most important to you right now.

Group
With partners in crime you will be stronger, have a greater impact and much more fun! Do you wonder how to find or motivate a group? Here is the secret recipe!

Knowledge
It is what you get and what you share with others. Acquiring new knowledge affects your emotions, feelings, and attitudes about an issue, and motivates you to take action.

Motivation
You are already motivated. But do you know why? To spark motivation in others and to stay motivated over a longer period of time, it’s important to understand how motivation works.

Soft Skills
Soft skills are very important for successful (inter)action. If you don’t feel ready yet, here you will find what you can focus on. Don’t be afraid. It is learning by doing

Take Action
You have a great team, high motivation and a topic you want to fight for? Then you can start planning your action. Everything you should consider in these regards, you’ll find in this chapter.

Topic
Do you already know exactly what you want to work on? Or do you just have a very general idea? This page will help you figure out what precisely you need to work on.