The Direct Action Interest Group (DAIG) supports non-violent direct action as a catalyst for social change. The fundamental principles of direct action stem from the thinking that instead of having someone else act for you (e.g. a politician), you (individually or as a community) organize and act for yourself. The central feature of "direct action" is empowering people to make a change by their own efforts. "Direct action" is a term that is used fairly loosely to describe a range of political actions that can take on various shapes and forms, from rallies to civil disobedience to legislative action.

AMSA's members have shared in the rich history of direct action in our country. DAIG hopes to serve as a resource to assist AMSA members who are interested in discussing and creating meaningful social change.

GET INVOLVED

Creative medical students built this AMSA puppet and marched with it, alongside 1.15 million people from around the country, at the March for Women’s Lives, April 2004

Several hundred medical students rallied for access to life-saving AIDS medications for all nations, at a rally at the AMSA Northeast Regional Conference, November 2003

RESOURCES

AIDS Activism

• AMSA AIDS Advocacy Network
• Globaltreatmentaccess.org
• Health Global Access Project (GAP)
• ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) Philadelphia

Access to Essential Medicine

• Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
  UAEM currently works with student and faculty groups across the US, Europe and Canada to coordinate efforts to improve the research, licensing and patenting decisions of universities. We assemble teams of experts in matters of intellectual property, technology transfer, pharmaceutical R&D, and healthcare delivery in resource-poor settings, in order to construct creative new approaches to improving the development and delivery of public health goods. Check this website out! If your school doesn't have a UAEM committee, learn how to form one and get your university on board!
  
  
• Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
  Introduces students to the technicalities of TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and patent laws. Provides overview of campaign issues and resources.

Globalization

• International Forum on Globalization
• Public Citizen

• Action-Medical.net

HIV

• HIV in Prison Committee of California Prison Focus

Tobacco Companies

• Tobacco.org

BOOK LIST

• General (especially good if you're feeling burnt out)
  - Rules for Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky
  - You Can't Be Neutral On A Moving Train by Howard Zinn
  
  
• Our Government (and its role in controlling…just about everything)
  - Deterring Development by Noam Chomsky
  - Neoliberalism by Noam Chomsky
  
  
• The Media
  - Killing Hope by William Blum
  - Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky
  
  
• Globalization and The Big Guns (WTO, World Bank, IMF etc…)
  - INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT-The World Trade Organization: Global Government For The New Millennium? by Debi Barker and Jerry Mander
  - The Case Against the Global Economy-And a Turn Toward the Local Edited by Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith