"When slavery was the law of the South, slaves could not afford to sit patiently and wait for their White masters to decide to give them their freedom. Courts and legislatures and governments can write and interpret whatever laws they want, but if the law stands between a person and their freedom, then the law is wrong and needs to be broken. So slaves either broke out in open revolt or escaped and followed the underground railroad (which had to end in Canada, because for all the blather about “States Rights”, conservatives of that day did not want States to have the Right to protect fugitive slaves). This was direct action. When free speech was outlawed at the turn of the century in many cities (to stop labor organizers from soapboxing) the IWW didn’t urge everyone to write to their congressman. They got every unemployed wob to hop a train to Spokane or Fresno or wherever and start soapboxing. When the cops arrested that person for public speaking, another would take his place. And another. And another. The jails would be clogged, the public would get sick of paying taxes to support this garbage, and the anti-speech laws would be overturned. This was direct action. When it was illegal to discuss birth control in this country, people like Margaret Sanger and Ben Reitman held public lectures on family planning, and were thrown in jail for doing so. But like the free-speech fighters they kept doing it and doing it until the government had to back down. This was direct action. When segregation and discrimination were the law of the land, people didn’t constrain their fight to the (White) courts, (White) legislature, and editorial pages of (White) newspapers. Blacks blatantly broke the law (and took plenty of beatings as well as arrests) by sitting down at White lunch counters. Blacks and Whites organized the “freedom rides”. Over and over they broke laws against integration, because freedom and equality is more important than the law. This was direct action. Pretty much every “progressive” thing that government has ever done has been playing catch-up to the freedoms already taken by the people. That’s why its ridiculous to place your trust in government and political parties (be they Democrat, Republican, Green, or Liberterian) and hope that these jokers will ever really resolve any issue on the side of liberty. This is why I am proud to see what is going on in San Francisco these days. It isn’t legal for gays and lesbians to get married, but it should be. Just as it should have been legal for people to speak openly on the street in Spokane. Just as it should have been legal for women to learn about family planning and birth control. Just as it should have been legal for black and white folks to sit together in a restaurant. In all of those cases the law had to be broken for things to change. In all of those cases there were staunchly opposed conservatives who tried to skirt the issue just by talking about the fact that laws were being broken. In all of those cases there were conservatives who predicted slippery slopes and the end of civilization if these changes were made. In all of those cases well-meaning “allies” condemned the civil disobedience as “rocking the boat” and said the struggle must only happen in the chambers of Congress or the Supreme Court. So of course, we are seeing the same trends today.