The Direct Action Movement (DAM) was an anarcho-syndicalist group that formed from the remnants of the Syndicalist Workers Federation and other worker-orientated anarchist groups in 1979.
HN20 ‘Tony Williams’ reported on the organisation’s formation in 1978-1979 and HN85 Roger Pearce (‘Roger Thorley’) attended DAM conferences in 1982 and 1983. The Direct Action Movement was also part of Anti-Fascist Action and so reported on by HN82 ‘Nicholas Green’.
In November 1978, discussions began that led to the formation of a new anarcho-syndicalist organisation in Britain. HN20 ‘Tony Williams’ reported on this conference and on a handful of DAM events. However, Williams’ main target was the London Workers Group which, although involved in the founding conference in 1978, went its own way soon afterwards.
The founding conference prioritised workplace issues and class struggle. Attendees included activists from the London Workers Group (LWG), Sheffield Claimants Union and notably the Manchester Syndicalist Federation, which would become the organisational hub of the new movement.
The outcome of the conference was the establishment in 1979 of the Direct Action Movement (DAM).
The DAM had several branches, including in south London, where prominent anarchist Albert Meltzer was a member. Elsewhere in the country, DAM was active in supporting strikes, notably the 1984 miners’ strike. Dave Douglass, a prominent NUM figure at the time, was a DAM member.
Following several splits in the late 1980s, the remnants of the DAM reorganised into the Solidarity Federation in 1994.
Sources:
Libcom. London Workers Group. Bulletin No.5 1978/79.
Albert Meltzer. I couldn't paint Golden Angels: Sixty Years of Commonplace Life and Anarchist Agitation.