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Hello again,

Thanks for raising such important and interesting issues, and thanks for your reply to my last comment.

I think that we should understand "mass action" mainly in contrast to various forms of "substitutionist" strategies.

First, I agree with both of you (Nick and Boyd) that "mass action" refers to a strategy, more than to a phenomenon. (The expression, "mass movement," is different in that respect.) Dozens of people don't constitute "masses" of people, but they can be pursuing a mass action strategy. Conversely, thousands and thousands of people do constitute masses of people, but they can be pursuing a non-mass-action strategy. (Think of the mass rallies addressed by Barack Obama during his election campaign.)

Second, a mass action strategy is one that proposes to use popular mobilization and 'self-activity' (as Marx would say) to bring political pressure and social power to bear on recalcitrant institutions (like governments and corporations) that tend to be responsive to incentives/pressure but not to arguments and reason-giving.

To speak of a strategy of action as having a "mass"-orientation means that it involves trying to reach out to wider circles of the community to be mobilized (the working class, say, or women, etc.), rather than trying to mobilize only a small sub-group, like a 'vanguard' or an elite of politicians, which can take action "on behalf of" that wider group. An action strategy is a "mass" action strategy if it rejects the project of seeking a small, but perhaps highly motivated or well-positioned group to stand in for the wider group on whose behalf change is sought, and instead endeavors to draw in as wide a circle of participants from the mobilizing community as can be made to be consistent with developing a winning strategy (i.e., not purchasing mass participation by repudiating altogether tactics that are effective but sometimes controversial).

"Substitutionist" strategies seek to find alternatives to the self-mobilization of workers (against their exploitation) or women (against sexism) or people of colour (against racism), and so on. Instead of self-mobilization by masses of people, the substitutionist might seek to find a small band of highly motivated people to take forms of militant and confrontational action that most people would find unacceptable ("propaganda of the deed"). Or the substitutionist might seek to substitute an elite of some kind, like politicians or union officials or 'professional revolutionaries,' to substitute for masses that are thought to be ineffective or apathetic or brainwashed or 'bought off.' It is, I think, in contrast to these ways of seeking to substitute small-group action for the self-activity of the masses that we should understand the notion of a "mass action" strategy.

So, I would say that "mass action" means pursuing a non-substitutionist direct action strategy. (Although there are some anarchists who use the term "direct action" only to refer to sustitutionist tactics, I'm just using "direct action" to mean participating in grassroots self-activity, as opposed to voting or sending money to support the political activity of others.)

In solidarity,
Steve.

(PS, my references to "vanguards" and "professional revolutionaries" are not intended as criticisms of Lenin or Leninism, as such, although some people who identify with Leninism do repudiate mass action in favor of substitutionist strategies. But substitutionism is no more common among Leninists than among anarchists or social-democrats, and it may well be less common among them.)