Direct Action: Memoirs of an Urban Guerrilla

Ann Hansen
Between the Lines (2001)
Reviewed by Sarat Colling

This is a novelized true story by Ann Hansen describing vividly the rise and eventual downfall of the Canadian urban guerrilla group Direct Action. The book is engaging from the start, opening with the dramatic police ambush on January 20, 1983 of Direct Action on their way to a weekly shooting practice in the mountains near Squamish, BC (from which they earned the label “The Squamish Five”). What follows is a nearly 500 page recollection of the guerrilla campaign preluding this, and the motivations behind it.

During increased concern over environmental destruction, nuclear war and human rights violations, Direct Action went underground and instigated a series of politically motivated bombings in 1982. Hansen was joined by Brent Taylor, Doug Stewart, Gerry Hannah and Julie Belmas, eco-feminist anarchists from the punk and militant counterculture. They wanted to bring forward a more radical political philosophy and action in the social justice movement. Through their varied actions the group interconnected concerns of environmental destruction, militarism, and sexism.

They carried out three major actions which were explained in well-reasoned, self-reflective communiques, from which I have excerpted below.

May 31, 1982. Cheekeye-Dunsmuir Bombing: Action against a hydro-electric power sub-station on Vancouver Island. In the last two hundred years industrial civilization has been raping and mutilating the earth and exterminating other species at an ever increasing rate. Already in this province, half the forest has been logged and many rivers dammed… (Direct Action Communique, 475).

October 14, 1982. The Litton Bombing:  Action against the Litton Systems plant in Toronto where components for Cruise Missiles were being made. There is every reason imaginable to tear down the systems and makers of nuclear war: for the survival of all life on Earth, for people’s hopes and visions, for the possibilities of a liveable future. (Direct Action Communique, 481). 

November 22, 1982. Red Hot Video Store Bombings. Actions against three video outlets on the mainland of BC.  Red Hot Video sells tapes that show wimmin and children being tortured, raped and humiliated…Although these tapes violate the Criminal Code of Canada and the B.C. guidelines on pornography, all lawful attempts to shut down Red Hot Video have failed because the justice system was created and is controlled, by rich men to protect their profits and property. (Wimmins Fire Brigade Communique, 487).

The group planned armed robberies, obtained fake IDs, stole cars, and did pretty much everything you might expect from an urban guerrilla operation. Hansen discusses how, fitting to their middle class upbringing, they used university experience, books, and libraries as resources to learn how to become “criminals.” While committed to the lifestyle, they suffered from isolation and frustration comparing themselves to guerrillas in other countries with thousands of supporters.

Direct Action’s political message is still one to be heeded in the 21^stcentury. In explaining the motivations for their actions, Hansen discusses the unethical operations of corporations and state. She also reflects on the importance of respecting a diversity of tactics in a social justice movement. Today, more radical groups face the same challenges that Hansen raises: highly militarized policing of dissent, oppressive social structures, and making radical change in a largely reformist climate. Direct action brings an element of resistance not so easily controlled by the state. Hansen mainly advises it for causes of which the public will be sympathetic and after legal means have failed. A perfect example is the Wimmins Brigade campaign against the Red Hot Video franchise; after the actions gained widespread support, not wanting to be upstaged by the revolutionaries the police finally took legal measures against the video chain.

As a document of radical Canadian history and source for well thought out political philosophy, Direct Action will appeal to scholars and activists of leftist social justice movements. Fans of Emma Goldman’s Living My Life or Bill Ayer’s Fugitive Days will enjoy this book. And those interested in revolutionary action won’t be disappointed. Read Direct Action for the history, politics, and a fascinating story of underground militants that will be difficult to set down.