Use When
Leadership imposes compelled political speech or loyalty oaths for employment or services.
Public employees are ordered to implement communications blackouts or network shutdowns beyond necessity and proportionality.
Public employees are pushed to falsify statistics or alter public records.
Instructions
- 1
Identify your whistleblower rights and consult legal counsel or your union for safety.
- 2
Create rules requiring written orders, warrants, or specific laws before performing any action.
- 3
Draft clear "refusal scripts" and memo templates to use when facing improper directives.
- 4
Maintain secure, timestamped logs and preserve original evidence of all questionable official requests.
- 5
Practice realistic scenarios with colleagues to ensure everyone knows how to escalate issues.
- 6
Calmly decline improper orders via email and suggest a legal, compliant alternative instead.
- 7
Work with trusted coworkers to ensure refusals are consistent across the entire department.
- 8
Brief oversight bodies on incidents and publish data to push for systemic changes.
Historic Parallels
- United States, 1973, justice officials refused unlawful firing orders, sparking new laws to protect independent investigations.
- United Kingdom, 2018, doctors blocked immigration data-sharing, forcing the government to strengthen legal patient confidentiality.
- Sudan, 2019, civil servants ignored junta orders, fueling mass strikes that forced a democratic power-sharing deal.
United States, 1973, justice officials refused unlawful firing orders, sparking new laws to protect independent investigations.Modern Examples
- An officer rejects no-bid contracts, issues a variance memo, and demands a legal alternative.
- A technician denies illegal data exports, requires a warrant, and updates the transparency log.
- A liaison rejects illegal gag orders, providing factual notices and legal justifications instead.
Participants
Individual
Yes
6–15 core insiders—legal liaison, ethics officer, records custodian, procurement or data lead, security lead, and communications—plus union and auditor contacts for escalation.
Helpful Materials
- Lawful-process SOP
- Request-logging forms
- Refusal scripts
- Tamper-evident envelops
- De-escalation and documentation cue cards
References
- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, United Nations Convention against Corruption, 2003
- Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development, Managing Conflict of Interest in the Public Service, 2003
- Council of Europe, Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)7 on the Protection of Whistleblowers, 2014
- Transparency International, International Principles for Whistleblower Legislation, 2013
- United Nations, Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors, 1990
- Government Accountability Project, The Whistleblower’s Survival Guide, 2011
Use of Action Playbook educational materials must adhere with Unruled Masses’ Terms of Service.
Stay Nonviolent. Coordinate Strategically. Take Back Your Power.