This is the beginning of the next phase of the followthethings.com project. In 2020, we started to analyse the data we’ve compiled on over 100 examples of trade justice activism on followthethings.com. We’ve been trying to better understand the relationships between its intentions, tactics, responses and impacts. It design has been inspired by the short connected ‘pattern language’ approach taken in the Beautiful… activism books (Boyd 2012, Mitchell et al 2017, Williams et al 2025). While these books set out examples of activism, activists’ intentions, and the tactics and theories they can use, they don’t talk about audiences’ responses to, and the impacts of, this work. We’re trying to work out how trade justice activism works, and what it can do. We want to pass on what we have learned to those who are studying and making new trade justice activism. We have concentrated on films and videos to beging with and can only provide a taste of teh Handbook at the moment. But we’d love to hear your thoughts. See our contact page. Please check back.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
EXAMPLES
Bananas!*
Beautiful clothes, ugly reality
Big boys gone bananas!*
Blood, sweat & takeaways
Dream crazy
Employee visualisation appendage
Ghosts
Girl model
Handprint
Ilha das Flores
Jamelia – whose hair is it anyway?
Life of a bullet
Maquilapolis
Mangetout
Primark â on the rack
Tackle the shackles
The ginger trail
The messenger band
The true cost
UDITA
INTENTIONS
What do trade justice activists want their work to do?
Change consumer behaviour
Change corporate behaviour
Change government behaviour
Cross cultures
Educate workers
End violence & exploitation
Improve pay & conditions
Pop the bubble
Reach new audiences
Show capitalist evils
Show whatâs possible
Teach economic geography
Tell the truth
TACTICS
What actions and strategies do they use to bring their intentions to life?
Add mood music
Blame, shame & guilt
Bring managers into view
Choose an audience
Create a character
Embody exploitation
Encourage a boycott
Encourage curiosity
Encourage detective work
Encourage empathy
Encourage feminist solidarities
Find & give inspiration
Find a character
Find the unions
Flip the script
Follow the people
Follow the thing
Give workers the mic!
Have a theory of change
Hold âem accountable
Humanise workers
Include emotion
Include suffering kids
Include the digital
Involve consumers
Join with others
Join the dots
Juxtapose extremes
Lie to tell the truth
Make a website
Make it familiar
Make it funny
Make it incomplete
Make Music
Make the familiar strange
Place things carefully
Put your bodies in the way
Show both sides
Show the violence
Silence your critics
Spend some time
Stage a Q&A
Start somewhere different
Suggest concrete action
Target the right brand
Tell a story
Workers take the mic
RESPONSES
How do audiences respond to this work, the stories it tells, the suggestions it makes?
Attack your critics
Capitalism is sh*t
Creeperific
Guilty as charged
I get what itâs like
I gotta do something
I just cried
I know how they feel
I laughed my ass off
I want to find out more
I wonât buy it
Iâm humming that music
Iâm so angry
Itâs so badly made
Liar! Fraud!
LOL capitalism
My hero!
Oh shut up
Silence your critics
That’s racist
There is no alternative
These consumers are insane
These people are inspiring
They aren’t experts!
This gives me hope
This is disgusting
This is so sad
Who to believe?
Whoâs responsible?
Wow đĽ WTF?
IMPACTS
What changes does trade justice activism encourage in the world?
Activism is inspired
Activism is publicised
Activists are recruited
Audiences are empowered
Canât tell
Corporations are punished
Corporations change
Debts are paid off
Governments intervene
I shop differently now
Now I know
Now we’re talking
Workers suffer
Workersâ pay & conditions improve
ADVICE TO FILMMAKERS
How students have used this handbook to criticaly anaylse trade justice activism
‘Get people to reflect, not recoil’
‘Choose the emotion that wonât let go â then hit ârecord’
‘You can’t Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V resistance’
‘Yes, itâs small. But thatâs the point’
‘Just showing up â again and again â can be the start of something’
‘Itâs funny how you can be so angry at someone who is just doing their job’