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2016
Chrysaleta

Big changes Favorite 

These are a few cases in which creative activist techniques have been part of achieving large societal changes. Can you think of others? Let us know!

  • 409 reads

Gallery Projects

Otpor Barrel Action
Practitioner
Otpor
Date
May 1 2000

The Milosevic regime ruled over Serbia and Yugoslavia for about 13 years. To maintain control, the Milosevic regime was infamous for arbitrary arrests, beatings, imprisonment and even murder of avid opponents.

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Daniel Defoe's "The Shortest Way with Dissenters"
Practitioner
Daniel Defoe
Date
Jan 1 1702

"The Shortest Way with the Dissenters;" Or, "Proposals for the Establishment of the Church" is a pamphlet by Daniel Defoe, first published in 1702. Defoe was prompted to write the pamphlet by the increased hostility towards Dissenters in the wake of the accession of Queen Anne to the throne.

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Gandhi's Salt March to the Sea
Practitioner
Mahatma Gandhi
Date
Mar 1 1930

In 1930, the Indian National Congress adopted satyagraha (essentially, nonviolent protest) as their main tactic in their campaign for independence. Mahatma Gandhi was appointed to develop a plan of action; he proposed marching to the sea to make salt in defiance of the Salt Act of 1882.

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Humor to overthrow Mubarak
Practitioner
Egyptian revolutionaries
Date
Feb 23 2011

from "Laugh, O Revolution: Humor in the Egyptian Uprising" by Anna Louie Sussman, in 2011.

Revolutions can be messy. They can be tragic. As long as the Internet is working, they can be tweeted. And, as Egyptians demonstrated during their 18 days of protest, they can also be funny.

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Freedom riders
Practitioner
Hundreds
Date
May 4 1961

The first legislative victory of the Civil Rights era was obtained by hundreds of people going where they weren't invited. In 1961, Black and white Freedom Riders, well trained by SNCC in nonviolent action, rode Greyhound buses from Washington DC southwards primarily in order to wait, together, in waiting rooms that were still unconstitutionally segregated.

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Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Practitioner
Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin, NAACP
Date
Dec 1 1955

In 1900, Montgomery, Alabama had passed a city ordinance to segregate bus passengers by race, and conductors were empowered to assign seats to achieve that goal. The first four rows of seats on each Montgomery bus were reserved for whites, and buses had "colored" sections for black people generally in the rear of the bus, although blacks composed more than 75% of the ridership.

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ACT UP protests
Practitioner
ACT UP
Date
Jan 15 1987

In 1987 with AIDS deaths in the thousands and government policy still criminally indifferent, activists formed ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) with the purpose of turning grief and fear into rage and action. 

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In Burma, dogs ridicule the regime
Practitioner
Burmese dissidents
Date
Sep 15 2007

Dogs featured in one ruse to ridicule the regime—pictures of dictator Than Shwe were hung around the necks of the stray dogs that roam the streets of Rangoon. The pictures, which rapidly found their way onto the Internet, are the work of an exiled Burmese satirist who goes by the name of Mr Creator. Downloaded copies of his pictures and cartoons are popular items among cyber dissidents.

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Russian Feminist Punk Rock
Practitioner
Pussy Riot
Date
Feb 8 2012

Anti-government protests in Russia are taking many different forms, from mass rallies and marches to defiant street art and music.

Just recently, members of a feminist punk group were arrested in Moscow's Red Square after they performed a song ridiculing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The group, which calls itself Pussy Riot, says it's planning more stunts before March's presidential elections.

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Lysistrata
Practitioner
Aristophanes
Date
Nov 30 0410

Lysistrata, by Aristophanes, was first performed in Athens in 411 BC. The play, while fictional, can be read as an early example of creative activism. It is about Lysistrata's quest to end the war between Athens and Sparta. She gathers the women of Athens and makes them swear an oath to deny their lovers and husband sex until they end the war.

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Dumping Tea into the Sea - the Boston Tea Party
Practitioner
The Boston Tea Party
Date
Dec 16 1773

Forget Sarah Palin. And take a history class and learn from the daring early settlers!

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Standing Man at Gezi Park
Practitioner
Erdem Gunduz
Date
Jun 17 2013

The 2013 protests in Turkey started on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at the violent eviction of a sit-in at the park protesting the plan.

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