The idea, in a nutshell, is to make sure that we aren’t ever spending time on fights we are not yet strong enough to win. By choosing fights carefully, we can focus our energy somewhere we can have a bigger impact. It is, after all, results that people most want to see.

Once the fight is underway, SeaSol uses two basic principles to plan the campaign: escalation and sustainability.

First, we brainstorm what tactics might be effective in the campaign, and we rate them from least to most powerful. We do this because we want to escalate as the fight goes on. “Its not the memory of what we did to them yesterday that will make the bosses give in,” explains a SeaSol organizer, “but the fear of what we will do to them tomorrow.”

The process of mapping out a fight in this way is helpful not only because it allows us see just how much support we will have to mobilize – its helpful also because it allows us to see if our initial plans are sustainable.