FACILITATOR TRAINING ------------------------- For over a decade we have used trained facilitators (also known as peacekeepers or crowd marshals) to increase the safety and effectiveness of our organized actions at rallies and at clinic defenses. We also train facilitators to respond to emergency situations - some of the techniques below we haven't needed to use for several years, but we think that if you know how to handle the extreme situations you'll feel that much more confident in the calmer situations you're actually likely to encounter. Facilitators play the following roles: - Ensuring the safety of participants and defuse provocative situations. - Being visible representatives of the action organizers who can act as sources of information and provide guidance in a crisis - Make participants feel welcome and included - Ensure the action runs smoothly, help with logistics. - Be someone the action organizers know they can turn to for support. - At clinic defenses, be able to act as clinic escorts and/or clinic barrier defenders. - Act as team leaders for teams of facilitators. * Policy While acting as a facilitator, you wear an armband to identify your role. Wearing the armband indicates that you are trained, and that you agree to follow the lead of the rally organizers (the 'coordinators'). If you find at some point that you can't agree to follow the day's strategy or that you can't, for instance, keep your temper in the face of antis, then just take the armband off, let your team leader know, and go back to being an independent rally participant. Our policy is that we air strategy disagreements after an action, not during it. During the action we trust that the coordinators have the bigger picture and avoid second-guessing them. Likewise, the coordinators rely on the facilitators to keep them up to date on the evolving situation. During an action, the coordinators decide strategy (policy) and the facilitators implement tactics. Outside an action, the whole membership is involved in debating strategy and policy for future actions, and decides who will be coordinators. * Preparation Dress in layers, wear sturdy shoes (in case antis try and step on your toes!). Avoid loose clothing like scarves, purses etc. - make sure you will have both hands free. Avoid dangling earrings or other stuff that could be grabbed at by an anti in the unlikely event of a physical confrontation. Make sure you know the other facilitators present and that you are familiar with the plan for the day (there will usually be an orientation the day before a major action and there will always be one before the beginning of an action, so make sure you show early) and with the political context of the action. Every action will have one or more coordinators, make sure you can recognize them. At large actions facilitators will be grouped into teams with experienced facilitators as team leaders. * Alertness It is your responsibility to be continually alert. Be aware of what is going on around you. Look out for right-wingers that you recognize, or other potential sources of trouble. Be aware of the presence of media. At a clinic defense, also look out for patients and clinic personnel. Use your judgement in passing information up to the coordinators. If you need to take a break (bathroom, too stressed out, too cold, etc.) please let a team leader or coordinator know. We try and stagger breaks so that we don't lose everyone at once and we know where you are. Don't just off and disappear without letting us know. * Dealing with hecklers Sometimes right-wing hecklers will show up at a rally; at a clinic defense the opposition is always there and will sometimes attempt to provoke individuals on our side. Our goal is to avoid violence, and usually the best way to do this is to encourage people to just ignore the hecklers. Try and get between the hecklers and our side, face our side and encourage them to ignore the antis - if it's a march, tell them to just keep moving. While a facilitator, don't engage in philosophical arguments with hecklers and antis - if you're doing that, you're not paying attention to the situation around you (see Alertness). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Big Stance" - in separating groups of people, take up as much space as you can. Stand with legs apart and arms stretched out, as a visual barrier. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Dealing with trouble on our side Sometimes participants will decide to engage an anti in a confrontational argument, looking for a fight, and you can't dissuade them. That's their right, but we don't want other people on our side to get dragged in accidentally. If you judge that the tone is potentially violent, get activists to make a linked-arm circle or barrier around the argument, facing away from it, to isolate the argument and protect everyone else. This is also the best way to deal with one or more anti hecklers who manage to get inside the crowd of our participants. Again, the goal is to avoid danger to participants; the method is first to advise avoidance and then to physically isolate the situation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Link Arms" - Stand with legs apart and arms linked with the people next to you at the elbow. Make sure your hands are placed so you won't accidentally punch someone in front of the link - they could accuse you of assault. Make sure you have good balance in case people push into you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Dealing with hecklers on our side Unfortunately, it's not always the right wing who try and disrupt actions. Sometimes left-wing groups with a different agenda will try and co-opt an action, disrupting it or trying to lead it in a different direction. Particularly dangerous is when an organized group is trying to persuade the rally to turn violent, or to break the law when civil disobedience is not part of the original plan. As always, participants have the right to follow who they want, but if they've come to a rally based on one of our flyers they probably want to know what our rally organizers are trying to do. That's where we as identifiable representatives of the organizers can come in and make the situation clear - and isolate troublemakers from those of our participants who don't want to get dragged in to something more than they bargained for. * Police We should aim not to get arrested. At some point, in some movements, civil disobedience becomes necessary. When that happens, you need to plan in advance and make sure that all the necessary practical and legal backup is in place. However, getting thrown in jail on the spur of the moment is a bad idea. Nevertheless, it is an unfortunate fact that the police are not big fans of radical demonstrators. This is especially true at the clinics, but even when they are present at rallies for which we have permits, they are not always very helpful and frequently attempt to exert control by issuing orders they don't actually have the right to make. We have found it helpful to designate a single person, usually one of the event coordinators, to be the police liason and centralize communications with the police. If a police officer asks you for information or asks the crowd to do something, you should inform the coordinators or tell the officer to go and see the liasing coordinator. Avoid negotiating with the police yourself. * Legal Observers At some actions we have legal observers present. These are trained lawyers or law students who stand aside from the main action and observe. The idea is that if anyone should get arrested or if anything gets out of hand, they can provide legal support. If you are qualified or know someone who is and would like to help, please let us know. * Bodyguards At a rally where 'big-name' speakers are present, facilitators may act as bodyguards, making sure no-one we don't recognize gets too close to the VIPs. This is particularly important in the case of abortion providers who may be under death threat. Check media badges of journalists; be on the lookout for sudden movements and trust your instincts - if you feel someone is spooky or might be carrying a weapon, alert others. Be polite, asking people to step aside or clear space where necessary, and don't prevent the VIPs from greeting or meeting participants - just stick close to them and stay alert. During a march, VIPs are usually at the front behind a banner, and we will have two 'prongs' of facilitators going forward on either side to make a safe space in front of the banner. * Morale An important part of the facilitator's job is to help build the movement. You may be asked to hand out flyers, maps, etc. at the beginning of the action, this makes people identify you as part of the action's organization. Make sure to introduce yourself to people you don't recognize and make them feel welcome. If it seems appropriate, ask them if they want to help out with tasks such as setting things up, to get them involved. Keep everyone informed about what's going on. You may be asked to lead chants and songs. * Logistics Please be prepared to help with event logistics - unloading signs, setting up podium and audio systems, clearing things up at the end. It's important we leave things tidy behind us if we want to retain community support. * Making a barrier Sometimes we need to protect access to an area. For instance, at a rally we need to protect a clear space around the podium to ensure that no-one rushes the speakers and that no-one steals the audio equipment. As the crowd gets big, there's a tendency for it to push closer to the podium than we are comfortable with, so you'll need to politely tell people to step back and keep their distance. It's much easier to enforce that with a physical barrier of people. At a clinic defense, we may need to protect an area around the door. We make a barrier with facilitators. Don't permit anyone to pass through the barrier except another facilitator or someone who you know is meant to get through, like a patient at a clinic or a speaker at a rally (an overenthusiastic facilitator tried to stop the rally organizer getting to the podium at one point - not a good idea!). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Barrier": Make a "Link Arms" chain around the area in question. Then, if there is no immediate threat, unlink your arms ("Relax") but remain at the same distance apart. Remain alert and ready to relink if there is need or if the lead facilitator for the barrier shouts for people to "Link". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes there is a serious enough threat that an organized group will try and break the barrier - e.g. at a clinic blockade - that we make a double barrier. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Double Barrier": Make two barriers, one behind the other, with arms linked. The second barrier is offset by half a person from the first, you place your feet behind the gaps between the legs of the person in front of you, to stop someone crawling between their legs (Yes, this was a regular tactic of the antis at blockades, so don't freak out if it happens). If a group of antis lean on the front barrier, the rear barrier can support them. Sometimes people on our side (e.g. escort circles) will need to get through the barriers using an "Open/Close" (see below). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Corridor": Two barriers (if possible, two double barriers), facing each other with a gap between them. Used at clinic defense to provide a corridor to the door. The outside end of the corridor is sometimes closed off, the two barriers joining up. An "Open/Close" is used to let patients in but keep antis out. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Even in a case where the corridor has an open mouth, it may not be possible for the escort team to get there and the sides of the corridor may need to open momentarily. The corridor members must therefore stay alert and keep track of what is going on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Open/Close": A valve movement. When someone on our side needs to get through the barrier, we need to open a breach in the barrier for the shortest possible time and at only one point. If you are one of the pair of corridor members at that point, release your arm link on one side, and pivot outwards (i.e. towards the 'enemy' side of the barrier). As the incoming person or team passes them, pivot back in again to relink with your partner, bearing in mind that an anti may be following an inch behind them. (extra points for choreographic elegance in this maneuver). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Escorting - normal situation In a 'normal' escorting situation, we face a small number of antis who are harassing patients. Escorting techniques are discussed in a separate handout. * Escorting - escalated situation If the situation is really crazy, e.g. at a blockade or when there are lots of antis giving the patient a hard time, we may use an escort circle or 'bubble' surrounding the patient and her friends. We don't like to do this, because it can be somewhat alarming for the patient, although not as alarming as being blockaded. So use this sparingly. We can also use the bubble to protect speakers or VIPs if someone tries to heckle or disrupt a rally, or to surround a heckler and force them to move in a direction of our choosing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Bubble": Facilitators surround the patient and link hands, with the elbows bent and the hands held at eye level. The facilitators face outwards with the hands angled inwards to avoid the risk of accidentally hitting someone. The high hands make it harder for antis to thrust their arms or faces into the circle. One escort, the 'companion' faces inwards, or remains entirely inside the bubble, and talks reassuringly to the patient. Another escort (or the same one) directs the motion of the bubble, pushing through any anti barrier to try and get to the door (or human corridor). We get pushed but the patient is isolated in the bubble. Witches may wish to consider this maneuver as casting a circle of protection around the patient, keeping all the craziness outside. Once the bubble reaches its destination (clinic door, corridor mouth, place of safety) the bubble opens to let the patient out together with the 'companion'. The remaining escorts stay linked to form a barrier around the door (or corridor mouth) until the patient is safely away, and the bubble then dissolves, with the escorts returning to their stations. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * A sample march and rally Here I give possible team assignments for a march and rally. The idea is to lay out the kinds of things that need to be taken care of, rather than specify exactly how a particular event should be run. The hypothetical event consists of an assembly phase, a march phase, and a rally phase. Each team should have at least 5 members. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assembly Team 1: Front Team. Stay with organizers and VIPs, in bodyguard mode. Team 2: Lineup Team. Organize people to line up for the march, gather stragglers. Provide general security during assembly phase. Team 3 and 4: Greeting Team. Ask people to sign in, hand out flyers, make people welcome. Team 5: Visibility Team. Provide visibility. Hold signs etc. in prominent place (on side of street, etc) to let passers by know about rally. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March Team 1: Front Team. At head of march, with VIPs. Navigate. Flank VIPs with vanguard on either side, handle media. Team 2: Rear Team. Link arms at rear of march, make a definite rear end to the march, if people want to join they have to go around you. Team 3: Left Team. Spread out along the length of the march, lead chants, keep participants out of traffic, isolate hecklers, steer people at corners, communicate with each other and front and rear. Team 4: Right Team. Same duties as Left Team. Team 5: Floating Team. Clear up assembly site, then go to rally site and prepare there. If extra people, send them to points where the march has to turn and needs people to point them in the right direction. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rally Team 1: Protect stage/podium area. Protect audio equipment, organizers and speakers. Form barrier around stage. Team 2: Protect perimeter of rally area. Look out for antis, troublemakers, etc. If in a building, handle access and security at the door. Team 3 and 4: Off duty, but be prepared to help in an emergency. Team 5: Remain at rear of audience, on the lookout for hecklers. Be prepared to 'bubble' and escort hecklers from the room.