021 delivering symbolic objects
"The delivery of an object which symbolizes a grievance or an objective to the official or office associated with the issue has been used in various ways to advance the views of the protesters. For example, in Chicago a few years ago when “The Woodlawn Organization” (T.W.O.)—a neighborhood organization in a black slum area—sought action from Mayor Daley to deal with bad conditions in their district, they piled rats on the steps of City Hall, Saul Alinsky reports.117 In protest against Soviet nuclear weapons tests, Committee of 100 supporters in London in October 1961 brought hundreds of bottles of milk, each labeled “DANGER—RADIOACTIVE” in red letters, and left them in front of the Soviet Embassy.118"...
High scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
Love Canal residents campaign for clean environment, New York, USA, 1978-1980
In 1894, William T. Love started construction on a power canal in an area outside of Niagara Falls in upstate New York. Although the canal was never completed, the neighborhood of Love Canal was born and soon became a locus of major chemical companie...
Bulgarians campaign for democratic reforms and multi-party rule, 1989-90
By 1989, Bulgaria’s Communist Party Leader Todor Zhivkov had ruled the country for 35 years through a constitutionally sanctioned single-party government. Zhivkov and the communist Politburo had always quickly repressed any opposition and independent...
Indonesians overthrow President Suharto, 1998
“I have decided to quit as president.”- Indonesian President Suharto, 21st May 1998\n\nThese words echoed across Indonesia, as students who had been occupying parliament for the past three days fell to their knees; while others cheered around televis...
Georgians overthrow a dictator (Rose Revolution), 2003
The Rose Revolution in Georgia sought to overthrow President Eduard Shevardnadze. Shevardnadze was elected as president in 1995. A hold-over from the communist period, Shevardnadze was often seen as a puppet for the Soviet Union. In 2003, his actions...
Georgetown University students campaign against sweatshops, 1997-1999
The first wave of anti-sweatshop movements developed in the 1980s and focused on U.S. economic policy in South America. It was not until 1996 that the anti-sweatshop movement gained national media attention with the revelation that the actress Kathie...
U.S. citizens prevent construction of nuclear power plant in Bodega Bay, California 1962-64
In 1954, Congress approved the Atomic Energy Act in an attempt to jumpstart nuclear energy in the United States. The Atomic Energy Commission was charged with creating a positive image of the peaceful applications of nuclear power as well as with reg...
Environmentalists achieve a ban on fracking in New York, United States - 2012-2014
Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” injects a mixture of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure into dense shale rock formations to crack the rock and release oil and/or natural gas. Oil companies began using the process around 1950, but only i...
English residents and environmentalists prevent Heathrow Airport expansion, 2002 – 2010
The London Heathrow Airport was of the busiest airports in the world when the English government began to contemplate expansion in 2002. Considered to be one of the premier airports in the world, the English government wanted to preserve the airport’...
Earth Quaker Action Team Campaigns Against PNC Bank for Financing Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining 2010-2015
The Earth Quaker Action Team’s first campaign, BLAM! (Bank Like Appalachia Matters!) began on 18 February 2010. Ingrid Lakey, Board Member of EQAT, sent a letter to PNC Vice President Jean Caulfield, which described the health and environmental dange...
UK community stages protest camp to build opposition to fracking - 2013-14
By 2013, pressure to use hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to release methane (natural gas) from shale rock formations in the UK began to grow. Prime Minister David Cameron endorsed pursuing this method of extracting natural gas. The government began i...
Low scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
Western Michigan University students campaign for a living wage, United States, 2006-2007
In 2004, Western Michigan University outsourced its custodial labor to a private company called Commercial Sanitation Management. The contract cut costs for the university by $1.1 million dollars a year and eliminated 58 positions. Commercial Sanitat...
Yale University students protest sweatshop labor, 2000
On 1 March 2000, 400 Yale University students rallied to demand that their administration withdraw from the Fair Labor Association (FLA) and join the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) instead. Both organizations focused on monitoring sweatshop labor an...
Lehigh University students pursue a Living Wage, increased appreciation for campus workers, 2005
Lehigh is a university of 5,000 students located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The University provides campus food services, maintenance of facilities and campus grounds through contracts with corporations Sodexho, One Source and Brickman respectively....
MIT students campaign for divestment from apartheid South Africa, 1985-1991
In reaction to the continuing apartheid in South Africa, many colleges and universities in the United States divested from South Africa, meaning that they removed the holdings they had from companies which operated there. Apartheid separated blacks a...
Norwegian farmers stage a bread blockade for higher government subsidies 2012
In late April and early May of 2012, the Norwegian government and the National Farmers Union were negotiating about governmental support for agriculture. The National Farmers Union asked for 2.2 billion kroner in subsidies and other support to farmer...
Ohio citizens campaign to stop incinerator in East Liverpool 1991-1993
The Waste Technologies Industry, Inc. first proposed to build an incinerator in the floodplain of the Ohio River in East Liverpool, Ohio in 1977. Throughout the 1980s, the company battled with the local government officials and other regulatory agenc...
Algonquins campaign against uranium mining, Ontario, Canada, 2007-2008
The Frontenac Ventures Development Corporation received from the Ontario government in Canada a permit to begin exploratory drilling for uranium on 30,000 acres of Canadian Crown land in its eastern region of Sharbot Lake. In June 2007, the company b...
Feminists sit-in at Ladies Home Journal to protest the magazine’s depiction of women, 1970
On 18 March 1970, a group of feminists staged a sit-in at the offices of the Ladies’ Home Journal (LHJ) to protest how the magazine’s mostly male editorial board depicted women. At the time, LHJ was the second largest women’s magazine in the United S...
Washington University students sit-in to end university ties with Peabody Coal, 2014
The Washington University in St. Louis student campaign to cut the university's ties with Peabody Coal came after months of community organizing in St. Louis against Peabody Energy, one the largest corporations in the city. During the spring of 2014,...
Activists in Swaziland campaign for democracy, 2000-2010
Swaziland borders South Africa and has a population of about one million. At the time of the campaign Swaziland had the world’s highest HIV infection rate and was both one of the poorest nations in the world and the home of Africa’s last absolute mon...