26-581: The John Sinclair Freedom Rally was a protest and concert in response to the imprisonment of John Sinclair for possession of marijuana held on December 10, 1971, in the Crisler Arena at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor , Michigan. The event was filmed and released as Ten For Two . The reason behind the concert was the sentencing of Sinclair, who was given ten years in prison for
52-524: A banner from Mount Rushmore , placing President Obama's face next to other historic presidents. The banner read: "History honors leaders. Stop global warming." Human rights activists have used direct action in the campaign to close the School of the Americas (SOA). 245 SOA Watch protestors have collectively spent almost 100 years in prison, and more than 50 people have served probation sentences. In
78-470: A form of direct action. Examples of direct action pranks include the use of stink , critter, and paint bombs. Protestors may pie their targets. The Yes Men practice nonviolent direct action through pranks. Some direct action groups form legal teams, addressing interactions with the law enforcement, judges, and courts. Definitions of what constitutes violent or nonviolent direct action vary. Sociologist Dieter Rucht states that determining if an act
104-643: A militant variant of anarchist ideology, primarily deals with direct action against governments. Insurrectionist anarchists see countries as inherently controlled by the upper classes, and thereby impossible to reform . While the vast majority of anarchists are not militant and do not engage in militant actions, insurrectionists take violent action against the state and other targets. Most insurrectionary anarchists largely reject mass grassroots organizations created by other anarchists, instead calling for coordinated militant action to be taken by decentralized cell networks . Fascism emphasizes direct action, including
130-818: A percent for every paragraph printed about the event. Direct action Direct action is a term for economic and political behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a government's laws or actions) or to solve perceived problems (such as social inequality). Direct action may include activities, often nonviolent but possibly violent, targeting people, groups, institutions, actions, or property that its participants deem objectionable. Nonviolent direct action may include civil disobedience , sit-ins , strikes , and counter-economics . Violent direct action may include political violence , assault , arson , sabotage , and property destruction . It
156-590: A protest as a way of publicly making their opinions heard in an attempt to influence public opinion or government policy, or they may undertake direct action in an attempt to enact desired changes themselves. When protests are part of a systematic and peaceful nonviolent campaign to achieve a particular objective, and involve the use of pressure as well as persuasion, they go beyond mere protest and may be better described as civil resistance or nonviolent resistance . Various forms of self-expression and protest are sometimes restricted by governmental policy (such as
182-464: A protest could make them an easier target for government surveillance . A study of 342 US protests covered by The New York Times newspaper from 1962 to 1990 showed that such public activities usually affected the company's publicly traded stock price. The most intriguing aspect of the study's findings revealed that the amount of media coverage the event received was of the most importance to this study. Stock prices fell an average of one-tenth of
208-661: A refusal to work within hierarchical bureaucratic institutions . Direct action protestors may perform activities such as: Some protestors dress in black bloc , wearing black clothing and face coverings to obscure their identities. Ende Gelände protestors wear matching white suits. One of Greenpeace's tactics is to install banners in trees or at symbolic places like offices, statues, nuclear power plants. Direct action protestors may also destroy property through actions such as vandalism , theft , breaking and entering , sabotage , tree spiking , arson , bombing , ecotage , or eco-terrorism . Pranks may also be considered
234-704: A tool of both owners and workers, and for this reason he included lockouts and cartels , as well as strikes and sabotage . Canadian anarchist Ann Hansen , one of the Squamish Five , wrote in her book Direct Action that "the essence of direct action [...] is people fighting for themselves, rejecting those who claim to represent their true interests, whether they be revolutionaries or government officials". Activist trainer and author Daniel Hunter states 'Nonviolent direct action are techniques outside of institutionalized behavior for waging conflict using methods of protest, noncooperation, and intervention without
260-505: A way of protesting. Any protest could be civil disobedience if a "ruling authority" says so, but the following are usually civil disobedience demonstrations: Blogging and social networking have become effective tools to register protest and grievances. Protests can express views or news, and use viral networking to reach out to thousands of people. With protests on the rise from the U.S. election season of 2016 going into 2017, protesters became aware that using their social media during
286-587: Is harm directed toward living things. American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. , who used direct action tactics such as boycotts and sit-ins , felt that the goal of nonviolent direct action was to "create such a crisis and foster such a tension" as to demand a response. Mahatma Gandhi 's methods, which he called satyagraha , did not involve confrontation and could be described as "removal of support" without breaking laws besides those explicitly targeted. Examples of targeted laws include
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#1732801279515312-440: Is influenced by individuals' ties within social networks . Social connections can affect both the spread of factual information about a protest and social pressures on participants. Willing to participate will also vary depending on the type of protest. Likelihood that someone will respond to a protest is also affected by group identification, and by the types of tactics involved. The Dynamics of Collective Action project and
338-499: Is not known when the term direct action first appeared. Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset wrote that the term and concept of direct action originated in fin de siècle France. The Industrial Workers of the World union first mentioned the term "direct action" in a publication about the 1910 Chicago strike . American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre wrote the essay "Direct Action" in 1912, offering historical examples such as
364-481: Is violent falls along a spectrum or gradient—lesser property damage is not violence, injuries to humans are violent, and acts in between could be labelled either way depending on the circumstances. Rucht states that definitions of "violence" vary widely, and cultural perspectives can also color such labels. American political scientist Gene Sharp defined nonviolent direct action as "those methods of protest, resistance, and intervention without physical violence in which
390-605: The Boston Tea Party and the American anti-slavery movement , and writing that "direct action has always been used, and has the historical sanction of the very people now reprobating it." In his 1920 book Direct Action , William Mellor categorized direct action with the struggle between worker and employer for economic control. Mellor defined it "as the use of some form of economic power for securing of ends desired by those who possess that power." He considered it
416-501: The Global Nonviolent Action Database are two of the leading data collection efforts attempting to capture information about protest events. The Dynamics of Collective Action project considers the repertoire of protest tactics (and their definitions) to include: The Global Nonviolent Action Database uses Gene Sharp's classification of 198 methods of nonviolent action. There is considerable overlap with
442-604: The civil rights movement in the United States tended to produce favorable media coverage and changes in public opinion focusing on the issues organizers were raising, but violent protests tended to generate unfavorable media coverage that generated public desire to restore law and order. Unaddressed protests may grow and widen into civil resistance , dissent, activism, riots, insurgency , revolts, and political or social revolution. Some examples of protests include: A protest can take many forms. Willingness to participate
468-669: The salt tax and the Asiatic Registration Act . His preferred actions were largely symbolic and peaceful, and included "withdrawing membership, participation or attendance in government-operated [...] agencies." Gandhi and American civil rights leader James Bevel were strongly influenced by Leo Tolstoy 's 1894 book The Kingdom of God Is Within You , which promotes passive resistance . Other terms for nonviolent direct action include civil resistance , people power , and positive action . Insurrectionary anarchism ,
494-680: The Dynamics of Collective Action repertoire, although the GNA repertoire includes more specific tactics. Together, the two projects help define tactics available to protesters and document instances of their use. Thomas Ratliff and Lori Hall have devised a typology of six broad activity categories of the protest activities described in the Dynamics of Collective Action project. Some forms of direct action listed in this article are also public demonstrations or rallies. Written evidence of political or economic power, or democratic justification may also be
520-547: The United States, direct action is increasingly used to oppose the fossil fuel industry, oil drilling , pipelines, and gas power plant projects. Direct action was taken at arms factories in the United States and the United Kingdom that supplied arms to Israel during the Israel–Hamas war . Anarchists organize almost exclusively through direct action, which they use due to a rejection of party politics and
546-562: The legitimization of political violence , as a core part of its politics. While radical activism has been effective as part of the civil rights movement , forceful or violent environmental sabotage (FVES) can have a "negative impact on voter attitudes toward all environmental organizations", though that effect is contingent on the organizations' prior record. In polls conducted in the United Kingdom , two thirds of respondents supported non-violent environmental direct action, while
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#1732801279515572-428: The members of the nonviolent group do, or refuse to do, certain things." American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre wrote that violent direct action utilizes physical, injurious force against people or, occasionally, property. Some activist groups, such as Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front , use property destruction, arson, and sabotage and claim their acts are nonviolent as they believe that violence
598-557: The possession of two marijuana cigarettes. Shortly after the event, Sinclair was released. Protest A protest (also called a demonstration , remonstration , or remonstrance ) is a public act of objection, disapproval or dissent against political advantage. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooperation in which numerous people cooperate by attending, and share the potential costs and risks of doing so. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass political demonstrations . Protesters may organize
624-475: The requirement of protest permits ), economic circumstances, religious orthodoxy, social structures, or media monopoly. One state reaction to protests is the use of riot police . Observers have noted an increased militarization of protest policing in many countries, with police deploying armored vehicles and snipers against protesters. When such restrictions occur, protests may assume the form of open civil disobedience , more subtle forms of resistance against
650-410: The restrictions, or may spill over into other areas such as culture and emigration. A protest itself may at times be the subject of a counter-protest . In such cases, counter-protesters demonstrate their support for the person, policy, action, etc. that is the subject of the original protest. Protesters and counter-protesters can sometimes violently clash. One study found that nonviolent activism during
676-564: The use or threat of injurious force. Anti-globalization activists forced the Seattle WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 to end early via direct action tactics and prefigurative politics . On April 28, 2009, Greenpeace activists, including Phil Radford , scaled a crane across the street from the Department of State , calling on world leaders to address climate change. Soon thereafter, they dropped
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