138 sitdown
"The sitdown is an act of noncooperation in which the participants actually sit down on the street, road, ground, or floor and refuse to leave voluntarily, for either a limited or an indefinite period of time. The sitdown may be a spontaneous act, or a reaction decided on in advance, as a response to orders for a march or other demonstration to disperse. Or it may be combined with civil disobedience to some regulatory law as a serious type of symbolic resistance. The sitdown may also be used to halt ordinary traffic or tanks, or to prevent workers or officials from carrying out their work."...
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High scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
Activists prevent World Trade Organization conference in Seattle, 1999
Formed in 1995, the WTO serves as an organization that facilitates trade amongst 123 nations. The first major protest against the WTO occurred in 1999 in Seattle, Washington. United States citizens were protesting the WTO’s ministerial conference bec...
African American residents of Chester, PA, demonstrate to end de facto segregation in public schools, 1963-1966
In November 1963, African American parents in the small city of Chester, PA organized and demanded better conditions at their local elementary school, Franklin School. They picketed the school and blocked its doors, successfully shutting it down for ...
Australian citizens force end to nation’s military participation in Vietnam War through Vietnam Moratorium Campaign 1970-1971
Australian citizens offered little opposition to their country’s early involvement in the Vietnam War. Opposition came from groups like Youth Campaign Against Conscription (YCAC), founded in 1964, and Save our Sons (SOS) , founded in 1965. Other earl...
British citizens protest apartheid South African sports tours (Stop the Seventy Tour), 1969-1970
The world voiced its opposition to the National Party’s apartheid government ruling in South Africa in a new way in 1964. International sports tours and matches had become a focal point of cultural identity for whites in South Africa. Victories, to t...
Activists defeat proposal to build new immigration detention center near Chicago, 2012
The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is a private company that receives government funding to run prison and detention centers for-profit. The CCA’s immigrant detention centers are notorious for particularly bad living conditions. In the summ...
University of North Carolina students win divestment from apartheid South Africa, 1986-1987
In 1983, the UNC-Chapel Hill Endowment Board agreed to stop investing with firms that rejected the Sullivan Principles, a code of business practices of foreign companies that wished to treat South African workers fairly which was developed by the Rev...
African American citizens campaign for integration in Durham, N.C., 1963
The mass demonstrations of 1963 in Durham were the culmination of a local black freedom movement that had slowly gained momentum over the preceding years. Durham had been the site of a thwarted sit-in at the Royal Ice Cream Parlor in 1957, limited de...
Maori New Zealanders occupy Raglan Golf Course, win back land rights, 1975-1983
During World War I, the New Zealand government seized burial grounds and traditionally valuable land from the Tainui Awhiro people to build an air base and bunker. Ten years after the end of the war, in 1928, the Public Works Act codified the governm...
U.S. AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) demands access to drugs, 1987-89
In 1987, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was still localized to urban centers, most notably gay men in New York City (NYC). Despite thousands of sufferers within NYC, little city public health or housing funding was devoted to the population. Nonprofits that s...
University of Oregon Students win divestment from fossil fuels, 2013-2016
In December of 2013 at The University of Oregon, a group of students founded Divest UO, to persuade the University of Oregon Foundation (the Board of Trustees) to divest from the fossil fuel industry. Over the next two and a half years, Divest UO emp...
Low scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
Toronto hippies campaign for street closure, Canada, 1967
In 1967 Yorkville Village, Toronto was a neighborhood inhabited by many aspiring artists, hippies, greasers, bikers, youth, and others looking to embrace the counter culture lifestyle. This lifestyle attracted many youth who travelled from all across...
Cypriot potato farmers block airport for compensation, 2002
In Cyprus, farmers are often sustained by government subsidies during crop overproduction or blight. Since the mid-1990's, potato blight has become more and more common, leading to struggles between potato farmers and the government about the extent ...
Pakistan's Azadi March to Overthrow Prime Minister, 2014
The government of Pakistan under Nawaz Sharif was widely mistrusted by its people. Prior to the parliamentary election in May of 2013, Sharif had already declared himself Prime Minister of Pakistan before citizens had even voted. In 2014, former nati...
Canadians sit-down for nuclear disarmament of the United States Bomarc Missile in La Macaza, Quebec, 1964
In fall 1958, Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker agreed to house 56 American Bomarc missiles in North Bay, Ontario and La Macaza, Quebec, in keeping with the terms of the NORAD agreement. The American manufacturers designed the Bomarc missiles ...
Colombians protest Free Trade Agreement with United States, 2006
The United States proposed the enactment of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia in 2004. The United States said that, by lowering the tariffs in a few markets and by making the majority of the other markets entirely duty-free, it could become ...
Hawaiians strike against Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company Limited, 1938
Hawaiian workers attempting to organize unions in the 1920s and 1930s faced enormous difficulties. They met stern opposition from an alliance of plantation owners and large companies, including the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company. Hawaiian work...
Maori resistance to British land seizure at Parihaka, New Zealand, 1879-81
The Taranaki region of present day New Zealand spreads from the central plateau of the North Island to the western coast. The Maori people, indigenous to the region, once inhabited it and the surrounding areas. By 1860, New Zealand had been a colony ...
Pastors and students lead campaign to desegregate Danville, VA, 1963
The Civil Rights Movement in the United States gained momentum in the 1960’s with campaigns and demonstrations taking place throughout the country. Following the success of the 1963 campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, and the strong leadership of that s...
U.S. immigrants drive bus across country to support rights, 2012
In July 2012, the Ruckus Society trained and organized several immigration rights activists, who began an action bus tour supporting migrant rights. The bus left Phoenix, Arizona, an immigration rights hot spot, in July with the intention of reaching...
Pakistanis in Sindhi struggle for democracy, 1981-1984
In July 1977 Z.A Bhutto, the democratically elected president of Pakistan, was removed from power by the Pakistani military, which was at that point under the control of General Muhammad Zia-ul Haq. General Zia promised to hold an election within nin...