122 literature and speeches advocating resistance
"In many situations, the making of speeches and the publication and distribution of literature which call on people to undertake some form of nonviolent noncooperation or nonviolent intervention themselves become acts of defiance and resistance. This is especially so in those countries where any call for resistance, especially for illegal acts of resistance, is itself illegal or seditious."...
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High scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
Residents of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina protest petrochemical plant plans, 1969-1971
In October 1969, a German company known as Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik (BASF) made plans to invest in building a petrochemical plant on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The Lowcountry region, where Hilton Head Island is located, was already ex...
Black residents of Diamond win fight with Shell Chemical for relocation 1989-2002
In the early 1950s, Royal Dutch/Shell purchased land in the community of Diamond, Louisiana and built a chemical plant. Margie Richard, a Black resident of Diamond, founded Concerned Citizens of Norco (CCN) in 1989 after two large-scale accidents at ...
Pakistani students, workers, and peasants bring down a dictator, 1968-1969
During the fall of 1968, Ayub Khan celebrated his tenth year as president of Pakistan. In honor of this anniversary, he declared his reign as the “Decade of Development,” an action that sparked an outbreak of protests against the state.\n\nMuch of Pa...
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...
French citizens and soldiers nonviolently defend against Algerian putsch, 1961
At the beginning of April 1961, after nearly seven years of war in Algeria as France tried to maintain its control there, French President Charles de Gaulle announced that he would begin negotiations with the Algerian nationalists and soon relinquish...
Peace activists pledge resistance against U.S. military intervention in Central America, 1984-1990
In the early 1980s, it was no secret that United States president Ronald Reagan would use any means necessary to end or prevent the influence of Communism and the Soviet Union around the globe. The two countries had been engaged in a bitter ideologic...
Chi Ha Kim’s Declaration of Conscience Delegitimizes Korean Dictator Park, 1975
Chi Ha Kim was a poet and playwright who gained prominence through his anti-establishment literature. He inspired many dissidents by inculcating them with courage to stand up against the illegitimate regime and exposing the corrupted nature of the cu...
Hungarians campaign for independence from Austrian Empire, 1859-1867
In the 1840’s there were high tensions between Hungary and the Austrian Empire. Hungary, a part of the larger Austrian Empire, was characterized by nationalistic fervor and that feeling erupted in a violent insurgency in 1848. Franz Josef, the empero...
African Americans boycott buses for integration in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S., 1955-1956
The yearlong boycott of Montgomery, Alabama’s city buses by between 40,000 and 50,000 African American residents was in the works for years before it began in December 1955. At that time in Montgomery, as well as in many cities across the southern Un...
Egyptians bring down dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, 2011
Beginning in 1981, Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt for over twenty-nine years. Though he ran for presidential reelection several times, elections were marked by widespread fraud, and opposing politicians were legally prohibited from running against Mubarak...
Low scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
Montgomery, Alabama students sit-in for U.S. Civil Rights, 1960
The Montgomery, Alabama sit-ins took place during the era of Jim Crow laws in the southern United States. The first of the Supreme Court rulings against these laws – which are symbolized by the phrase “Separate but Equal” – took place in 1954, in the...
Americans blockade Washington, DC, to protest the Vietnam War, 1971
“If the government won’t stop the war, we’ll stop the government.” That was the central slogan of the Mayday campaign.\n\nThe Anti-Vietnam War movement included striking examples of nonviolent direct action. Many of the protests against the Vietnam W...
Anti-Roads campaign fights highway construction in England, 1991-1995
Twyford Down, a small area in southern England, was the site of the Department of Transport's (DoT) plans to extend the M3 highway from London to Southampton Port in 1990. The DoT had used economic analysis to determine that the time saved from this ...
South Africans protest Mondi Paper's multi-fuel boiler, 2001-2006
Although apartheid formally ended in 1994, repercussions from apartheid-era laws and policies have continued to impact the lives of South Africans, especially those in poor and industrial communities. An example of black Africans' plight is the commu...
US Students Campaign to Stop Dow Chemical Company From Manufacturing Napalm (1967-1969)
The United States first used Napalm as an incendiary device in Japan during WWII. It melted flesh and produced horrific wounds. Napalm once again took on a functional role for the US in Vietnam, and the government requested bids from chemical manufac...
Emelle residents protest Chemical Waste Management hazardous waste landfill 1978-1995
In 1978, Chemical Waste Management Inc. (CWM), a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc. (WMX), bought 300-acres of land near Emelle, Alabama for a hazardous waste landfill. Residents did not have the opportunity to protest the landfill prior to its cons...
Equatoguinean magazine editor's hunger strike for freedom, 2011
The Republic of Equatorial Guinea is a small country in Middle Africa that was a colony of Spain (Spanish Guinea) until 1968. Since a violent military coup in 1979, President Teodoro Obiang has ruled the country with the Democratic Party of Equatoria...
Icelanders protest Karahnjukar Hydropower Project, 2000-2006
In December of 2001, Iceland's Minister for the Environment Siv Fridleifsdottir overturned Iceland's National Planning Agency (NPA) decision to reject the Karahnjukar Hydropower Project on the grounds of major negative environmental impacts. The proj...
Palestinians wage nonviolent campaign during First Intifada, 1987-1988
EDITOR'S NOTE: Regarding the First Intifada as "nonviolent" is controversial because of the violence that accompanied the campaign. Aden Tedla's narrative does not try to hide the violent dimension. Three considerations lead us to include the case in...
White Rose Resistance to Hitler's Regime, 1942-1943
Amidst the omnipresence of violence during World War II, nonviolent protest is often overlooked or unheard of. However, there were several resistance campaigns that took place in Germany, led by its own citizens. One such campaign in the period of 19...