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Tactics, strategy, and field notes for confronting power. Get Subvrt by email.

A smarter way to organise

A smarter way to organise

Meet the coordinated do-ocracy: a model for taking decisions, managing your work, and ensuring your activist projects kick ass.

The ultimate campaigner

The ultimate campaigner

If you could build a Terminator to strike fear into the halls of power, what skills would it have?

Spiders and ideas

Spiders and ideas

To make people more open to radical proposals, focus on addressing their fears. Make the unknown known.

How to hack the media’s biases

How to hack the media’s biases

Biases are inherent to the production of journalism. Use them to get coverage for your cause.

Leave it to the experts?

Leave it to the experts?

The under-reported role of ideological bias, and how to push back against it.

Persuasion and summer

Persuasion and summer

Notes on persuasion, a summary of what’s published here so far, reflections on where we’re at… and some summer imagery before the break.

Media activism: A Greek crisis story

Media activism: A Greek crisis story

A look inside two grassroots media campaigns, working on the frontline of a financial war.

A cheat sheet for working with media

A cheat sheet for working with media

A rough guide to getting coverage for your cause — the smart way.

Revolution through... meditation?

Revolution through... meditation?

Meditation can give your activism the edge. (It sounds nuts, I know. Bear with me.)

Cheap talk, measurable action

Cheap talk, measurable action

If you want to hit power where it hurts, pay attention to what it does as well as says. And work to close measurable gaps, rather than abstract ones.

Controversy and deviance

Controversy and deviance

Two COVID revelations show how yesterday’s batshit crazy ideas could be tomorrow’s consensus.

Online public shaming, deconstructed

Online public shaming, deconstructed

The recent surge of social justice activity can help us run better campaigns – if you see it from a practical standpoint.

Should you make it official?

Should you make it official?

The pros and cons of creating a legal entity for your grassroots activism.

Photography can teach us a few things about having impact

Photography can teach us a few things about having impact

The surprising parallels between photography and activism.

How to build a team of activists in a pandemic

How to build a team of activists in a pandemic

A proven method for turning strangers into collaborators for a cause.


I’m Mehran Khalili, a political consultant and photographer based in Athens. Get Subvrt — strategy and tactics for movements.