what do we mean by direct action? / 'come for the community, stay for the climate'

my opinion is that the most important element of our aim of 'direct action' is the 'action' part. Actually most of things we do aren't direct but indirect, ie they don't directly stop or attempt to stop greenhouse emissions (the drax coal train is one recent example of a genuine attempt to stop emissions directly) These are incredibly important as there are very few other groups taking genuine direct action (e.g. even greenpeace do maybe one or 2 genuine direct climate actions a year - climbing the kingsnorth chimney and actually shutting down the power station more than a year ago perhaps being the last?)
however, the phrase 'direct action' is one with baggage and means different things to different people, to me having 'direct action' as an aim implies that we are the opposite of indirect action as the kind of thing the campaigning NGOs do - lobbying or asking governments nicely. I would perhaps prefer it if our aim simply said 'action' so it contrasted with those that don't do anything, but including a mixture of direct and indirect action - a wording could be something like:

'we take action on climate change rather than just talking or worrying, especially DIRECT action to actually prevent the emissions that are causing climate change'

The truth is that most of our action is indirect while still being really important. Even most of the things we refer to as 'actions' are also indirect, aimed at embarassing e.on, challenging BAA getting our messages in the media etc. But there is even more important indirect action outside of these. even a routine meeting, sticker mob, pub discussion, outreach stall is a hugely important action because it builds a community of people who support all of the other stuff and can do more than other organisations because of that sense of community.

The point of this is really in thinking about our movement building activity - i think that we could turn around our outreach and put the opportunity to join a vibrant, exciting community in which you can learn, make friends, express yourself, take responsibility, have fun AND contribute to the most important issue humanity has ever faced is what we've really got to offer. once involved people will soon respond to the knowledge, commitment and ideas of those already here, and begin to go on a number of journeys - from lack of knowledge about climate change to loads, from doubts about illegal direct action to locking on to a bulldozer, from scepticism about consensus decision making to handwaving with the best of 'em.

to sum up, our new outreach slogan could be - 'come for the community, stay for the climate'