159 the fast fast of moral pressure hunger strike satyagrahic fast
"The fast is often used as a method of psychological intervention. Abstention from certain or all foods may be undertaken for a number of reasons, including health, religion, penance, self-purification, and desire to achieve social and political objectives. The latter reason is most relevant here, although fasts undertaken for reasons of religion, penance and self-purification may under certain circumstances also constitute intervention. In addition, fasts may serve simply as a form of moral protest. Three types of the fast will be distinguished in this context: the fast of moral pressure, the hunger strike, and the satyagrahic fast as applied on some occasions by Gandhi."...
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High scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
Ahmedabad textile laborers win strike for economic justice, 1918
A heavy monsoon season had destroyed agricultural crops and led to a plague epidemic claiming nearly 10 percent of the population of Ahmedabad in 1917. During the period of intense plague outbreak from August 1917 to January 1918, the workers of the ...
Bolivians win democratic control of the country's gas reserves, 2003-2005
Bolivia contains significant natural resources, but also has a long history of exploitation by foreign powers. One of these resources is natural gas. Just like the precious metals from Potosí, however, the gas was mostly exported (partially due to lo...
Texans defend Sierra Blanca community against nuclear waste disposal, 1996-1998
In 1991, the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority (TLLRWDA) began searching for a disposal site for dangerous toxic waste in the Hudspeth County area. According to the 1983 La Paz agreement, Hudspeth County falls in a no-contamination...
Costa Ricans protest open pit gold mining, 2010
In 2008, former President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias authorized the removal of over 600 acres of yellow almond trees in order to build a gold mine in Las Crucitas, a small town in Northern Costa Rica. Costa Rican law prohibits the cutting down of the...
Columbia University students win divestment from apartheid South Africa, United States, 1985
On April 4, 1985, seven students at Columbia University, members of the Coalition for a Free South Africa (CFSA), chained closed the doors to Columbia’s administrative building, Hamilton Hall, and sat on the steps, blockading the entrance. They were ...
Taiwanese citizens demonstrate to end construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and amend the Referendum Act, 1988-2017
Nuclear power in Taiwan enjoyed a high level of support among academics throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s, when the government and the state-owned energy provider widely disseminated propaganda about its benefits. During this period, the Taiwa...
Imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh wins freedom of travel for her daughter, 2012
In September 2010, Iranian authorities sentenced prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh to 11 years in prison on charges of acting against national security and propaganda against the Iranian regime. She was also originally barred from practic...
South Korean environmentalists protect Gyeyang Mountain against golf course development, Incheon, 2006-2011.
Incheon is a dense city of 3 million in the northern part of South Korea. One significant destination in the area is Gyeyang Mountain, which lies adjacent to the city and attracts 10,000 tourists daily. Gyeyang is largely undeveloped and is home to o...
Cambodians win release of prisoners taken during nonviolent invasion to defend neighborhood, 2012
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is situated on the confluence of four rivers: the Upper and Lower Mekong rivers, the Bassac River and the Tonle Sap river. The surrounding area is flat and low-lying, subject to annual flooding. Natural lakes formed as the river...
Ukrainian students hunger strike and protest against government, 1990
Dissatisfied with lack of democracy and the Soviet Union’s influence on their country, Ukrainian university students in L'viv established the Student Brotherhood in March of 1989. In December students in the capital city of Kiev formed the Ukrainian ...
Low scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
Bolivian President stages hunger strike for economic reform, 1984
After a two year stalemate following the 1979 and 1980 elections, the Bolivian parliament elected the winner of the 1980 popular vote, Hernán Siles Zuazo, president on 10 October, 1982. The Siles administration was composed of a broad coalition of le...
Manx prisoners hunger strike against smoking ban, 2008
The Isle of Man (also known as Mann) is an island British Crown Dependency, located between Great Britain and Ireland. On March 30, 2008, a ban on smoking in public places came into effect. This ban also included smoking inside the Victoria Road Pris...
Tajik women hunger strike against market demolition, 2009
Tajikistan is a small country in Asia that borders Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and China with a population of approximately 8 million. Once a republic under the Soviet Union, the country experienced a civil war that lasted from 1992 to 1997, which damag...
Russians protest against election fraud (Snow Revolution), 2011-2012
Russian politics have long consisted of a close relationship between the state and United Russia, the dominant political party in Russian politics since 2000. United Russia is a centrist party that political elites created to support their favored ca...
Bulgarian prisoner goes on a hunger strike for education rights, 2013
On 28 December 2007, Australian Jock Palfreeman was in downtown Sofia, Bulgaria, with some friends when he witnessed a young man being attacked by what he believed were football hooligans. Palfreeman chose to help the man, and suddenly found himself ...
California inmates hunger strike to improve prison conditions, 2013
In 2011, over 12,000 prisoners of California’s corrections system participated in a hunger strike to protest their inhumane conditions of confinement. The protesters had five core demands: 1) Eliminate group punishments and administrative abuse, 2) A...
Indian villagers protest Tehri Dam construction, 2001-2002
In 1990, the Indian government and Tehri Hydro Power Corporation began planning to dam the Bhagirati River at the Himalayan foothill town of Tehri in Uttar Pradesh. Plans indicated that it would be the fourth largest dam in the world. Damming the riv...
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...
Burmese (Myanmar) monks campaign for democracy (Saffron Revolution), 2007
In 1988 Burmese students led mass demonstrations against the oppressive military junta of Burma (the country now referred to as Myanmar). The result was 3,000 civilians dead after a governmental crackdown and a prevailing junta. Shortly after, as the...
University of Vermont students campaign for a higher living wage, 2006-2008
Beginning in late 2005, students at the University of Vermont (UVM) were involved in a movement to increase the wages of school employees such that workers could be given a "living wage." Primarily focused on food-service employees contracted by Sode...