005 declarations of indictment and intention
"Certain written statements of grievance or future intentions to produce a new situation, or a combination of both, are seen to be of such a quality or to meet such a response that the document itself becomes influential in influencing people’s loyalties and behavior. The American Declaration of Independence is one such document; it was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. Another is the South African “Freedom Charter” adopted at the Congress of the People at Kliptown, Johannesburg, South Africa, on June 25-26, 1955. Dr. Albert Luthuli, leader of the South African National Congress, has written that “nothing in the history of the Liberatory movement in South Africa quite caught the popular imagination as this did, not even the Defiance Campaign.” 22 During this period the anti-Apartheid movement was committed to nonviolent means. After a moving list of the social and political objectives of these opponents of Apartheid, the document concluded: “These freedoms we will fight for, side by side, throughout our lives, until we have won our liberty.” 23"...
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High scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
Irish republican prisoners campaign for special status, 1976—1981
Hunger strikes have a long history in Ireland dating back to the medieval periods when Cealachan, a method of gaining justice for some perceived offense through starvation, was codified in the civil code called the Senchus Mor. This starvation tactic...
Czechoslovakians campaign for democracy (Velvet Revolution), 1989
By the end of World War II, the Soviet Union had invaded and taken over much of Czechoslovakia. The Communist Party officially came to power in February 1948, and under its rule dissidents faced persecution by secret police, censorship was enforced, ...
Germans reclaim Heligoland from the United Kingdom, 1951
Heligoland (also spelled Helgoland) is an archipelago 46 kilometers off the German coastline in the North Sea. The two small islands are less than 2 square kilometers in total, but the British, Danish and Germans have hotly contested the land over th...
Garfield High School teachers in Seattle, Washington boycott Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test, 2012-2013
Standardized testing in the United States dates back to the early 1900s, when the military issued standardized tests of intelligence to potential candidates for the armed services. In the 1970s, public school students began taking “high stakes” tests...
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...
Students press Chico State University to divest from fossil fuels, 2013-2014
In 2013, about ninety-seven percent of the publishing climate scientists agreed that climate change was occurring, and it was due to human activities. If people continued at the same rate of carbon dioxide emission, they risked permanently changing t...
Estonians campaign for independence (The Singing Revolution), 1987-1991
Estonians have long held a tradition of singing. Beginning in 1869, Estonians have held a song festival every five years called the Laulupidu during which thousands of Estonians gather to sing together. During the 1940s, the Soviet Union invaded and ...
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...
Syracuse University students win fossil fuel divestment, 2012-2014
Divest SU – a group of concerned students at Syracuse University (SU) joined by activists at the nearby State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) – started the SU Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign to fight fo...
Syracuse University workers strike for pay equity and job security, 1998
On 30 June 1998, the contract between Service Employees International Union Local 200A (SEIU) and Syracuse University (SU) expired. Preceded by two months of negotiation, SU made a final offer for a new contract before the 30 June deadline.\n\nSEIU r...
Low scoring campaigns using this method
Historical cases from the Nonviolent Action Database that used this method
Los Angeles Netflix employees protest mishandling of transphobic comedy special, 2021
On 5 October 2021, the comedian Dave Chappelle, who had been long known for the reactionary and transphobic beliefs he openly presented in his comedy, released his most incendiary and openly queerphobic comedy special yet, The Closer , on the streami...
Oregonians protest and occupy Trojan nuclear power plant, United States, 1977-1978
When Oregonians received notice in 1968 that the Portland General Electric Company (PGE) planned to install a nuclear power plant in Rainier Oregon, concerned citizens began to work within the political structure to prevent the plant from entering th...
Hong Kong citizens demand democratic safeguards for upcoming election (Umbrella Movement), 2014
Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has spent the last several centuries under the control of alternating powers. In 1942, Britain began its occupation of Hong Kong, following the First Opium War and the Treaty of Nanking. Japan occu...
Austrian communist workers general strike for better wages, 1950
Following the conclusion of World War Two, Austria was separated from Germany and zones were created, each of which was controlled by one of the four allies (United States, United Kingdom, France, Soviet Union). Austria had a crippled economy because...
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...
Kansas women protest anti-abortion advocate Governor Sam Brownback, 2012
In January 2011, Governor Sam Brownback took office in the U.S. state of Kansas. In rapid succession, strict new anti-abortion legislation passed through both houses of the state legislature.\n\nBrownback signed into law new restrictions on insurance...
Jamaican workers protest sale of Air Jamaica to Caribbean Airlines, 2010
In January 2010, it became clear that the Jamaican government sought to sell Air Jamaica to a foreign company. The government and the owners of Air Jamaica saw the company as losing a lot of money and, due to heavy subsidizing, the government had a g...
Saint Lucia Prison Officers campaign against re-appointment of former Director of Prisons, 2009
Over a period of two months in 2009, Saint Lucia prison officers organized a petition and a sick-in to protest the return of a former Director of Prisons. Hillary Herman had voluntarily left his position as Director of Prisons in 2008 (after a 7-year...
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...
Notre Dame University students fight for campus workers' rights, 2005-2008
Students at University of Notre Dame started a living wage campaign at their school in September 2005 after learning about similar campaigns happening at Harvard University and Georgetown University. A living wage was defined as a family of four bein...