Skip to content

Civil Disobedience

Economic Disobedience: What Is It And How Does It Work?

May 17, 2022 Jacqui Germain, Teen Vogue. , , ,
As the COVID-19 pandemic brought the global economy to a standstill in March 2020, a peculiar trend popped up in multiple cities: People started hanging white sheets out of their windows. With April rent coming due alongside record unemployment numbers, the white flags became a protest symbol for struggling tenants on the verge of a rent strike. The symbol spread online and eventually showed up in Chicago, Brooklyn, and New Orleans, according to reporting from CNN. The rent crisis also led to a rise in tenant unions, with tenants-turned-housing-activists in Oakland and San Francisco successfully organizing multi-month rent strikes that resulted in impressive wins. Despite the threat of eviction and potential economic and legal fallout, ordinary people, acting out of necessity, engaged in a collective act of defiance.

St. Louis Inmates Take Over Units After Weeks Of Complaints

February 7, 2021 Doyle Murphy, River Front Times. , , ,
More than 100 inmates at the St. Louis City Justice Center took over two units of the jail early this morning, shattering fourth-floor windows and setting small fires as they called out jubilantly to a crowd of supporters who gathered on the street below. The uprising began around 2:30 a.m., and detainees held control of the units for more than six hours before teams of city sheriff's deputies and police regained custody. For weeks, tensions have been high at the downtown jail. Inmates staged two protests in late December and early January to complain about COVID-19 protocols and other conditions in the facility, where the majority of the city's detainees are now housed.

Extinction Rebellion Protesters Tie Themselves To Gigantic Oil Rig In Marlborough Sounds

March 4, 2020 Staff, Newshub.co.nz , ,
Extinction Rebellion protesters have tied themselves to a huge oil rig in the Marlborough Sounds to protest deep-sea oil drilling. Two members of the climate activism group boarded the 100-metre high OMV rig at 10:30am on Tuesday and fastened themselves to the side of the vessel. The rig was travelling through the Marlborough Sounds on its way to Taranaki when the protesters commandeered it and clambered on board.

Former UN Climate Chief Calls For Civil Disobedience

March 3, 2020 Jeff McMahon, Forbes.com , ,
In a book out tomorrow, the woman who led the negotiations for the Paris Agreement calls for civil disobedience to force institutions to respond to the climate crisis. “It’s time to participate in non-violent political movements wherever possible,” Christiana Figueres writes in “The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis,” which will be released tomorrow by Knopf.

Can Civil Disobedience Be Seen As ‘Good Behavior’ In A Time Of Climate Crisis?

February 27, 2020 By Arnie Alpert, Wagingnonviolence.org ,
Dozens of climate activists filled the second floor lobby of the Concord, New Hampshire District Court on Feb. 14 — only they weren’t there to protest. Instead, spreading out into a circle, they listened to their attorney, Kira Kelley, as she prepared them for a pre-trial hearing.

West Virginia Legislation Would Make Civil Disobedience Against Gas Pipelines A Felony

February 11, 2020 Staff , Morgancountyusa.org , , , ,
Industry drafted legislation (HB 4615) that would make civil disobedience against a pipeline or other fossil fuel projects a felony is moving through the West Virginia legislature. The House of Delegates Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the legislation February 10, 2020 at 8:30 am.

Scientists Endorse Mass Civil Disobedience To Force Climate Action

October 14, 2019 Matthew Green, Reuters.com , ,
LONDON (Reuters) - Almost 400 scientists have endorsed a civil disobedience campaign aimed at forcing governments to take rapid action to tackle climate change, warning that failure could inflict “incalculable human suffering.” In a joint declaration, climate scientists, physicists, biologists, engineers and others from at least 20 countries broke with the caution traditionally associated with academia to side with peaceful protesters courting arrest from Amsterdam to Melbourne. Wearing white laboratory coats to symbolize their research credentials...

Climate Crisis Being Used As A Defense To Civil Disobedience

September 25, 2019 By Nicole Rogers, Nationofchange.org , ,
So what is reasonable conduct in the face of the mounting climate crisis? The importance of asking this question cannot be overstated. The phrase “climate emergency” became part of the political lexicon this year. Governments at all levels made declarations of a climate emergency, as did various organisations such as the Australian Medical Association. Even the Pope joined in. But what has this meant in practical terms? Very little so far, given the continuing rise in global greenhouse gas emissions.

‘Despair Ends And Tactics Begin’: Extinction Rebellion Aims To Shut Down Brisbane With Mass Civil Disobedience

August 6, 2019 By Jake Johnson, Commondreams.org , ,
On the heels of the hottest month in recorded history, activists with the global Extinction Rebellion movement are planning to grind the city of Brisbane, Australia to a halt Tuesday to pressure political leaders to act on the climate crisis. "The climate crisis is already affecting lives and destroying ecosystems," Extinction Rebellion said in a statement ahead of the city-wide demonstrations, which are set to kick off at 7am local time Tuesday morning (5pm ET Monday).

Last Weekend, I Was Part Of ‘The Largest Act Of Civil Disobedience In British History’

May 6, 2019 Darragh Murphy, Irishtimes.com , , ,
At 6am on Good Friday morning I went to sleep in the crypt of St John’s Church in Waterloo with the rest of the night shift of Extinction Rebellion as the sun began to rise. Extinction Rebellion – or XR – is a non-violent socio-political movement founded in London in 2018 to protest and demand action against climate breakdown. It has had several days of action in London including an 11-day protest that ended on April 26th and saw the arrest of more than 1,100 protestors.

Extinction Rebellion

February 26, 2019 By Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com , ,
There is one desperate chance left to thwart the impending ecocide and extinction of the human species. We must, in wave after wave, carry out nonviolent acts of civil disobedience to shut down the capitals of the major industrial countries, crippling commerce and transportation, until the ruling elites are forced to publicly state the truth about climate catastrophe, implement radical measures to halt carbon emissions by 2025 and empower an independent citizens committee to oversee the termination of our 150-year binge on fossil fuels. If we do not do this, we will face mass death.

Protesters Closed The Road To Kaapelinkulma Gold Mine By Using Civil Disobedience

January 7, 2019 Staff, Hyokyaalto.net , ,
In Valkeakoski, Finland, protesters closed the access to the mine by locking themselves on the road on early morning January 2nd 2019. The aim was to stop the preparatory works at the mine. The nonviolent civil disobedience action was organised by Pelastetaan Kaapelinkulma (Save Kaapelinkulma) movement and supported by Hyökyaalto network. The protest demanded authorities to halt operations of Dragon Mining in the area until future effects of the mine to groundwater and waterways have been properly investigated. The area is not covered by the municipal water system and thus, the residents are dependent on clean groundwater.

Why Hondurans See Migration As An Act Of Civil Disobedience

December 27, 2018 Crystal Vance Guerra, Yesmagazine.org , ,
A singular image is said to have sparked this latest migrant caravan. Set against a bold, red background, it features a figure, arms outstretched like a cross, with a backpack flying the Honduran flag. Contained in the message across the top: “We aren’t leaving because we want to; violence and poverty expel us.” The image expresses the generalized frustration regarding the current social, political, and economic state of Honduras and proposes migration as a challenge to that reality. The typical Honduran sees the caravan movement for what is: an outright act of civil disobedience. People are walking out of their own countries, the subconscious protest of a frustrated people.

Extinction Rebellion: Direct Action Is Our Last Chance To Phase-Out Carbon

November 4, 2018 By Husna Rizvi, The New Internationalist ,
A new climate breakdown resistance movement is forming in Britain. On Wednesday 31 October in Westminster, ‘Extinction Rebellion’ – a nascent mass direct-action group, in the style of Occupy – came together to launch a rolling protest against the UK government’s failure to act to prevent climate change. In London’s Parliament Square, in front of Gandhi’s statue no less, thousands of people made a declaration of non-violent rebellion in an attempt to force concessions from the government. Their demands include: an immediate reversal of climate-toxic policies, net-zero emissions by 2025 and the establishment of a citizen’s assembly to oversee the radical changes necessary to halt global warming.

‘We Have A Duty To Act’: Hundreds Ready To Go To Jail Over Climate Crisis

October 30, 2018 By Matthew Taylor, Theguardian.com , ,
A new group of “concerned citizens” is planning a campaign of mass civil disobedience starting next month and promises it has hundreds of people – from teenagers to pensioners – ready to get arrested in an effort to draw attention to the unfolding climate emergency. The group, called Extinction Rebellion, is today backed by almost 100 senior academics from across the UK, including the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. In a letter published in the Guardian they say the failure of politicians to tackle climate breakdown and the growing extinction crisis means “the ‘social contract’ has been broken … [and] it is therefore not only our right, but our moral duty to bypass the government’s inaction and flagrant dereliction of duty, and to rebel to defend life itself.”
«1234567»

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.