Scholars developing a concept they call the ‘human rights enterprise’ suggest a theory of human rights guaranteed, in some cases, by social movements from below and often against the wishes of the state. This article draws on data from an ethnography conducted in a small Food Not Bombs collective to critically assess the radical potential and pitfalls of the claims made by scholars promoting the human rights enterprise and the social movement organizations using the language of ‘rights’ to frame their direct action-oriented praxis.