# Direct Action Network > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Direct_Action_Network > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Direct_Action_Network.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Action_Network > Source revision: 1255759896 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) For the UK disability activists, see [Disabled People's Direct Action Network](/source/Disabled_People's_Direct_Action_Network). Part of a series on Anarchism Definition Glossary Outline Schools of thought Black Collectivist Communist Egoist Feminist Green Individualist Insurrectionary Market Mutualist Pacifist Philosophical Primitivist Queer Religious Christian Jewish Social Syndicalist Synthesis Without adjectives Theory and practice Anarchy Anarchist Black Cross Anarchist criminology Anarchist Internationalism Anationalism Anti-authoritarianism Anti-capitalism Anti-imperialism Anti-militarism Affinity group Autonomous social center Black bloc Classless society Class struggle Community organizing Consensus decision-making Conscientious objector Critique of work Decentralization Deep ecology Direct action Free association Free love Freethought Galleanism Horizontalidad Individualism Intentional community Mutual aid Permanent autonomous zone Popular education Prefigurative politics Propaganda of the deed Refusal of work Revolution Rewilding Sabotage Security culture Self-ownership Social ecology Sociocracy Somatherapy Spontaneous order Squatting Temporary autonomous zone Union of egoists Voluntary association Workerism Workers' council People Alston Armand Ba Bakunin Berkman Bonanno Bookchin Bourdin Chomsky Cleyre Day Déjacque Durruti Ellul Ervin Fanelli Faure Ferrer Feyerabend Giovanni Godwin Goldman González Prada Graeber Guillaume He-Yin Kanno Kōtoku Kropotkin Landauer Liu Magón Makhno Maksimov Malatesta Mett Michel Most Parsons Pi i Margall Pouget Proudhon Raichō Reclus Rocker Santillán Schürmann Spooner Stirner Thoreau Tolstoy Tucker Volin Ward Warren Yarchuk Zerzan Issues Animal rights Arts Capitalism Education Law Love and sex Nationalism Religion Violence History French Revolution Revolutions of 1848 Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA Paris Commune Hague Congress Cantonal rebellion Haymarket affair Trial of the Thirty International Conference of Rome Ferrer movement Strandzha Commune Congress of Amsterdam Tragic Week High Treason Incident Manifesto of the Sixteen German Revolution of 1918–1919 Bavarian Soviet Republic 1919 United States bombings Biennio Rosso Kronstadt rebellion Makhnovshchina Amakasu Incident Alt Llobregat insurrection Anarchist insurrection of January 1933 Anarchist insurrection of December 1933 Spanish Revolution of 1936 Barcelona May Days Contemporary anarchism Red inverted triangle Labadie Collection Provo May 1968 Kate Sharpley Library Carnival Against Capital 1999 Seattle WTO protests Really Really Free Market Occupy movement Culture A las Barricadas Anarchist bookfair Anarcho-punk Anarchy in the U.K. Architecture Circle-A DIY ethic Escuela Moderna Films Freeganism Infoshop Independent Media Center The Internationale May Day Popular education Radical cheerleading Radical environmentalism Self-managed social center Symbolism Economics Communization Cooperative Cost the limit of price Decentralized planned economy Free association General strike Gift economy Give-away shop Labor voucher Local exchange trading system Market socialism Mutual bank Mutual credit Social ownership Wage slavery Workers' self-management By region Africa Algeria Egypt Morocco Nigeria South Africa Tunisia Asia Armenia Azerbaijan Bangladesh China Hong Kong Egypt Georgia India Indonesia Iran Israel Japan Korea Malaysia Mongolia Philippines Russia Singapore Soviet Union Syria Taiwan Timor-Leste Turkey Vietnam Europe Albania Andorra Austria Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Monaco Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Serbia Spain Soviet Union Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom North America Canada Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic El Salvador Guatemala Mexico Nicaragua Panama United States Individualist anarchism Puerto Rico Oceania Australia New Zealand South America Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Ecuador French Guiana Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela Lists Anarcho-punk bands Books Fictional characters Films Jewish anarchists Musicians Periodicals Related topics Anarcho-capitalism Anti-corporatism Anti-consumerism Anti-fascism Anti-globalization Anti-statism Anti-war movement Autarchism Autonomist marxism Communism Council communism IWA Labour movement Left communism Left-libertarianism Libertarian socialism Marxism National-anarchism Relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche and Max Stirner Situationist International Socialism Spontaneous order Anarchism portal Politics portal v t e **Direct Action Network** (**DAN**) was a North American [confederation](/source/Confederation) of [anti-corporate](/source/Anti-corporate), [anti-authoritarian](/source/Anti-authoritarian) and [anarchist](/source/Anarchist) affinity groups, collectives, and organizations. It grew out of the Seattle chapter which had been formed to coordinate the nonviolent civil disobedience portion of the [anti-WTO mobilization](/source/WTO_Ministerial_Conference_of_1999_protest_activity) in [Seattle](/source/Seattle%2C_Washington) in 1999.[1] ## History Seattle DAN was formed in response to the call for direct action against the WTO conference by [People's Global Action](/source/Peoples_Global_Action). Members of the Art and Revolution Collective, based in San Francisco, sought funding for their WTO actions from a coalition of [NGOs](/source/NGOs) led by [Public Citizen](/source/Public_Citizen) and [Global Exchange](/source/Global_Exchange). Simultaneously, local activists in Seattle began meeting to plan disruptive protest. The Seattle group envisioned a "decentralized network of people who would organize autonomous actions," while the San Francisco group envisioned "a coherent organization...that would come together around a fixed day action." According to San Francisco organizer David Solnit, the two groups merged "somewhat awkwardly," with differences over property destruction being a particular source of tension.[2] Soon after the Seattle mobilization, several DAN chapters formed a **Continental Direct Action Network** (CDAN), which rapidly expanded into branches in 12 cities in the [United States](/source/United_States) and [Canada](/source/Canada). CDAN, as well as many of the local chapters, adopted principles of unity based on those of [Peoples' Global Action](/source/Peoples'_Global_Action). Regional DANs were formed of autonomous [affinity groups](/source/Affinity_group) which coordinated actions via [spokescouncils](/source/Spokescouncil) using [delegation](/source/Delegation) and [consensus decision-making](/source/Consensus_decision-making). According to former NYC DAN organizer [David Graeber](/source/David_Graeber): Chapters operating in different cities soon came to be classified into two broad tendencies: anti-corporate, or anti-capitalist. The former tended to be more reformist in orientation, more oriented towards the [nonviolence] tradition and suspicious of more militant styles of direct action, more interested in appealing to the middle classes around concepts like fair trade and green consumerism. The latter were more explicitly anarchist and revolutionary. The most prominent examples of the former tendency were Seattle DAN and LA DAN, both of which continued to be dominated by NGO activists...The vast majority of groups that were within the DAN network, however, including NYC DAN, the Philadelphia Direct Action Group (PDAG), San Francisco and Humboldt County DAN, Chicago DAN, and many others, were plainly anti-capitalist. They had little NGO participation, but were made up instead mainly of independent activists and members of local anarchist collectives...[3] Other than Seattle, DAN played a key role in organizing the following protests/mobilizations: - [International Monetary Fund](/source/International_Monetary_Fund)/[World Bank](/source/World_Bank) protests, April 8–17, 2000 - [Republican National Convention](/source/Republican_National_Convention) protests, Philadelphia, July 29, 2000 - [Democratic National Convention](/source/Democratic_National_Convention) protests, Los Angeles, August 11, 2000 - [George W. Bush](/source/George_W._Bush) Inauguration, Washington, DC, January 20, 2001 - [World Economic Forum](/source/World_Economic_Forum) protests, New York City, NY, February 2, 2002 ## Decline After the [September 11 attacks](/source/September_11_attacks) in 2001, DAN began to fall apart.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] DAN's last major mobilization was in [New York City](/source/New_York_City) in February 2002, where remnants of the local chapter was responsible for organizing actions against the World Economic Forum attended by between 15,000 and 20,000 individuals. NYCDAN was later eclipsed by the Another World is Possible Coalition (AWIP), a local NYC network which was originally formed by DAN members. Since DANs evaporation, many former activists have gone on to play pivotal roles in regional and national mobilizations and groups, including anti-war organizing, NY Peoples' Global Action, [NYC Social Forum](/source/World_social_forum), New York Metro Alliance of Anarchists and other organizational work. The websites for both Continental Direct Action Network and Direct Action Network are no longer maintained. ## Hand signals in consensus process A feature of DAN's consensus process was the use of [hand signals](/source/Consensus_decision-making#Hand_signals). These included [twinkling](/source/Occupy_hand_signals) to indicate agreement with a proposal, as well as other signals now widely used in consensus culture.[4] ## See also - [Indymedia](/source/Indymedia) - [Anti-globalization](/source/Anti-globalization) ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** David Graeber, *[Direct Action: An Ethnography](/source/Direct_Action%3A_An_Ethnography)* (AK Press, 2009) p. 290-294 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["WTO History Project, University of Washington "David Solnit interview with Jeremy Simer""](http://depts.washington.edu/wtohist/interviews/Solnit.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20140613005713/http://depts.washington.edu/wtohist/interviews/Solnit.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 2014-06-13. Retrieved 2013-11-25. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** David Graeber, [Direct Action: An Ethnography](/source/Direct_Action%3A_An_Ethnography) (AK Press, 2009) p. 294 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Polletta, Francesca (May 2004). [*Francesca Polletta, Freedom Is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social Movements, University of Chicago Press, 2002*](https://books.google.com/books?id=snugO8KeC2EC&dq=twinkling&pg=PA190). University of Chicago Press. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780226674490](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780226674490). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20201006145018/https://books.google.com/books?id=snugO8KeC2EC&pg=PA190&dq=consensus+%22hand+signals%22+twinkles&hl=en&ei=jfa-TvKBKsr20gH2m-TvDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=twinkling&f=false) from the original on 2020-10-06. Retrieved 2016-11-02. ## External links - ["What is DAN?" Discussion Notes](https://web.archive.org/web/20050116180417/http://www.greens.org/colorado/list_archives/discuss-dan/msg00143.html) ## Archives - [World Trade Organization 1999 Seattle Ministerial Conference Protest Collection](http://digital.lib.washington.edu/findingaids/view?docId=WTO1999SeattleProtest5177.xml) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20130927053218/http://digital.lib.washington.edu/findingaids/view?docId=WTO1999SeattleProtest5177.xml) 2013-09-27 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) 1993-2000. 43.63 cubic feet. At the [Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections](http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/laws). --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Direct Action Network](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Action_Network) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Action_Network?action=history)). 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