Direct action - wikipedia Direct action For usage in military contexts, see Direct action ( military ). For other uses, see Direct action ( disambiguation ). The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. ( December 2013 ) Mahatma Gandhi and supporters Salt March on March 12, 1930. This was an act of nonviolent direct action. Depiction of the Belgian general strike of 1893. A general strike is an example of confrontational direct action. Direct action originated as an anarchist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their ( e.g. economic or physical ) power to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to others ( e.g. authorities ) by, for instance, revealing an existing problem, highlighting an alternative, or demonstrating a possible solution. Both direct action and actions appealing to others can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the action participants. Examples of nonviolent direct action ( also known as nonviolence, nonviolent resistance, or civil resistance ) can include ( obstructing ) sit - ins, strikes, workplace occupations, blockades or hacktivism, while violent direct action may include political violence or assaults. Tactics such as sabotage and property destruction are sometimes considered violent. By contrast, electoral politics, diplomacy, negotiation, protests and arbitration are not usually described as direct action, as they are politically mediated. Non-violent actions are sometimes a form of civil disobedience, and may involve a degree of intentional law - breaking where persons place themselves in arrestable situations in order to make a political statement but other actions ( such as strikes ) may not violate criminal law. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct another political agent or political organization from performing some practice to which the activists object, or to solve perceived problems which traditional societal institutions ( governments, religious organizations or established trade unions ) are not addressing to the satisfaction of the direct action participants. Non-violent direct action has historically been an assertive regular feature of the tactics employed by social movements, including Mahatma Gandhi 's Indian Independence Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. Contents 1 History 2 Nonviolent 3 Violent 4 Controversy over destruction of property 5 United Kingdom 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links History Direct action tactics have been around for as long as conflicts have existed but it is not known when the term first appeared. The radical union the Industrial Workers of the World first mentioned the term `` direct action '' in a publication in reference to a Chicago strike conducted in 1910. Other noted historical practitioners of direct action include the American Civil Rights Movement, the Global Justice Movement, the Suffragettes, revolutionary Che Guevara, and certain environmental advocacy groups. American anarchist Voltairine de Cleyre wrote an essay called `` Direct Action '' in 1912 which is widely cited today. In this essay, de Cleyre points to historical examples such as the Boston Tea Party and the American anti-slavery movement, noting 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 placed direct action firmly in the struggle between worker and employer for control `` over the economic life of society. '' Mellor defined direct action `` as the use of some form of economic power for securing of ends desired by those who possess that power. '' Mellor considered direct action a tool of both owners and workers and for this reason, he included within his definition lockouts and cartels, as well as strikes and sabotage. However, by this time the US anarchist and feminist Voltairine de Cleyre had already given a strong defense of direct action, linking it with struggles for civil rights :... the Salvation Army, which was started by a gentleman named William Booth was vigorously practising direct action in the maintenance of the freedom of its members to speak, assemble, and pray. Over and over they were arrested, fined, and imprisoned... till they finally compelled their persecutors to let them alone. -- de Cleyre, undated A protest against the newly built Berlin Wall during the Cold War in 1961. It would be torn down in 1989. Martin Luther King felt that non-violent direct action 's goal was to `` create such a crisis and foster such a tension '' as to demand a response. The rhetoric of Martin Luther King, James Bevel, and Mohandas Gandhi promoted non-violent revolutionary direct action as a means to social change. Noteworthy, Gandhi and Bevel had been strongly influenced by Leo Tolstoy 's The Kingdom of God Is Within You, which is considered a classic text that ideologically promotes passive resistance. By the middle of the 20th century, the sphere of direct action had undoubtedly expanded, though the meaning of the term had perhaps contracted. Most campaigns for social change -- notably those seeking suffrage, improved working conditions, civil rights, abortion rights or an end to abortion, an end to gentrification, and environmental protection -- claim to employ at least some types of violent or nonviolent direct action. Some sections of the anti-nuclear movement used direct action, particularly during the 1980s. Groups opposing the introduction of cruise missiles into the United Kingdom employed tactics such as breaking into and occupying United States air bases, and blocking roads to prevent the movement of military convoys and disrupt military projects. In the US, mass protests opposed nuclear energy, weapons, and military intervention throughout the decade, resulting in thousands of arrests. Many groups also set up semi-permanent `` peace camps '' outside air bases such as Molesworth and Greenham Common, and at the Nevada Test Site. Environmental movement organizations such as Greenpeace have used direct action to pressure governments and companies to change environmental policies for years. 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, Greenpeace activists dropped a banner off of Mt. Rushmore, placing President Obama 's face next to other historic presidents, which read `` History Honors Leaders ; Stop Global Warming ''. Overall, more than 2,600 people were arrested while protesting energy policy and associated health issues under the Barack Obama Administration. In 2009, hundreds blocked the gates of the coal fired power plant that powers the US Congress building, following the Power Shift conference in Washington, D.C. In attendance at the Capitol Climate Action were Bill McKibben, Terry Tempest Williams, Phil Radford, Wendell Berry, Robert Kennedy Junior, Judy Bonds and many more prominent figures of the climate justice movement were in attendance. Anti-abortion groups in the United States, particularly Operation Rescue, often used non-violent sit - ins at the entrances of abortion clinics as a form of direct action in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Voluntarist activist Adam Kokesh being arrested after a nonviolent protest against the Iraq war in 2007 Anti-globalization activists made headlines around the world in 1999, when they forced the Seattle WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 to end early with direct action tactics. The goal that they had, shutting down the meetings, was directly accomplished by placing their bodies and other debris between the WTO delegates and the building they were meant to meet in. Activists also engaged in property destruction as a direct way of stating their opposition to corporate culture -- this can be viewed as a direct action if the goal was to shut down those stores for a period of time, or an indirect action if the goal was influencing corporate policy. One of the largest direct actions in recent years took place in San Francisco the day after the Iraq War began in 2003. Twenty - thousand people occupied the streets and over 2,000 people were arrested in affinity group actions throughout downtown San Francisco, home to military - related corporations such as Bechtel. ( See March 20, 2003 anti-war protest ). Direct action has also been used on a smaller scale. Refugee Salim Rambo was saved from being deported from the UK back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo when one person stood up on his flight and refused to sit down. After a two - hour delay the man was arrested, but the pilot refused to fly with Rambo on board. Salim Rambo was ultimately released from state custody and remains free today. Nonviolent Non-violent direct action ( NVDA ) is any form of direct action that does not rely on violent tactics, as opposed to principled nonviolence, which is a positive force in its own right and involves active concern for the well being of the opponent even while resisting the latter 's actions. Mohandas Gandhi 's teachings of Satyagraha ( or truth force ) have inspired many practitioners of nonviolent direct action, although the use of nonviolence does not always imply an ideological commitment to pacifism. In 1963, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. described the goal of NVDA in his Letter from Birmingham Jail : Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. In the United States, the term has largely come to signify civil disobedience, and protest in general. In the 1980s, a California direct action protest group called Livermore Action Group called its newspaper Direct Action. The paper ran for 25 issues, and covered hundreds of nonviolent actions around the world. The book Direct Action : An Historical Novel took its name from this paper, and records dozens of actions in the San Francisco Bay Area. Human rights activists have used direct action in the ongoing campaign to close the School of the Americas, renamed in 2001 the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. As a result, 245 SOA Watch human rights defenders have collectively spent almost 100 years in prison. More than 50 people have served probation sentences. `` Direct Action '' has also served as the moniker of at least two groups : the French Action Directe as well as the Canadian group more popularly known as the Squamish Five. Direct Action is also the name of the magazine of the Australian Wobblies. The UK 's Solidarity Federation currently publishes a magazine called Direct Action. Until 1990, Australia 's Socialist Workers Party published a party paper also named `` Direct Action '', in honour of the Wobblies ' history. One of the group 's descendants, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, has again started a publication of this name. Food Not Bombs is often described as direct action because individuals involved directly act to solve a social problem ; people are hungry and yet there is food available. Food Not Bombs is inherently dedicated to non-violence. A museum that chronicles the history of direct action and grassroots activism in the Lower East Side of New York City, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, opened in 2012. Destroying fences at the border by the AATW, 2007 `` The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor '' Violent See also : Propaganda of the deed Violent direct action is any direct action which utilizes physical injurious force against persons or, controversially ( see below ), property. Examples of violent direct action include : rioting, lynching, terrorism, political assassination, freeing political prisoners, interfering with police actions, armed insurrection, and arguably property destruction. Ann Hansen, one of the Squamish 5, also known as Vancouver 5, a Canadian anarchist and self - professed urban guerrilla fighter, 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. It is a far more subversive idea than civil disobedience because it is not meant to reform or influence state power but is meant to undermine it by showing it to be unnecessary and harmful. When people, themselves, resort to violence to protect their community from racist attacks or to protect their environment from ecological destruction, they are taking direct action. Controversy over destruction of property See also : Diversity of tactics One major debate is whether destruction of property should be included within the realm of violence or nonviolence. This debate can be illustrated by the response to groups like the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, which use property destruction and sabotage as direct action tactics. Although these types of actions are often prosecuted as violence, those groups justify their actions by claiming that violence is harm directed towards living things and not property. The issue of whether sabotage is a form of violence is difficult to resolve in purely philosophical terms, but the use of sabotage as a methodology can be contrasted with minor property damage that is a small but necessary part of a non-violent campaign methodology such as breaking locks and fences to gain entry to a site. Some theorists and activists believe that a doctrine of diversity of tactics can resolve the controversy. US and international law include acts against property in the definition of violence and state that even in a time of war, `` Destruction ( of property ) as an end in itself is a violation of international law ''. United Kingdom Main article : Environmental direct action in the United Kingdom The environmental direct action movement in the United Kingdom started in 1990 with the forming of the first UK Earth First ! group. The movement rapidly grew from the 1992 Twyford Down protests, culminating in 1997. There are now several organisations in the United Kingdom campaigning for action on climate change that use non-violent direct action, including Camp for Climate Action, Plane Stupid and Greenpeace. This has resulted in environmental campaigners being labelled as extremists by the Ministry of Justice. See also Anarchism portal Politics portal Social and political philosophy portal Sociology portal Active citizenship Activism Anarchism Citizen journalism Civil disobedience Civil resistance Critical animal studies Direct democracy Direct Action Day Dual power General strike Hacktivism Independent Media Center Insurrection List of anti-war organizations List of civil rights leaders List of peace activists Nonviolence Nonviolent resistance Political radicalism Rebellion Propaganda of the deed Revolution Sabotage and / or Ecotage Satyagraha Security culture Tax resistance Tree sitting Tree spiking Some groups which employ or employed direct action ADAPT Anarchists Against the Wall ( Israeli group ) Anonymous ( group ) Animal Liberation Front AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power ( ACT UP ) BAMN Camp for Climate Action Campus Antiwar Network Committee of 100 ( United Kingdom ) Code Pink Confederación Nacional del Trabajo Cop Block Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg Cypherpunk Direct Action Committee Direct Action Everywhere Direct Action to Stop the War Earth First ! Earth Liberation Front Euromaidan Food Not Bombs GetEQUAL Green Mountain Anarchist Collective Greenpeace Homes Not Jails Industrial Workers of the World Landless Workers ' Movement Lesbian Avengers MindFreedom International National Bolshevik Party National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam No Border network Occupy Wall Street Operation Save America PETA Plane Stupid Reclaim the Streets Rising Tide North America Sea Shepherd Conservation Society School of the Americas Watch ( SOA Watch ) Sons of Liberty Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) Squamish Five Students for a Democratic Society Take Back the Land Trident Ploughshares UkUncut WOMBLES War Resisters ' International Vetëvendosje ! - Movement for Self - determination in Kosova References Jump up ^ `` Archived copy ''. Archived from the original on 2011 - 10 - 03. Retrieved 2013 - 03 - 03. Jump up ^ The I.W.W. : Its First Seventy Years, 1905 - 1975, Fred W. Thompson and Patrick Murfin, 1976, page 46. Jump up ^ De Cleyre 2004, p. 50 ^ Jump up to : King, Martin Luther, Jr. ( 16 April 1963 ). `` Letter from Birmingham Jail ''. Jump up ^ Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre ( 2010 ). Christian Anarchism : A Political Commentary on the Gospel. Exeter : Imprint Academic. p. 19 Jump up ^ `` First Day on the Job ! ''. Grist.org. Retrieved 2013 - 08 - 09. Jump up ^ `` Greenpeace Scales Mt Rushmore -- issues challenge to Obama ''. Grist.org. Retrieved 2013 - 08 - 09. Jump up ^ Alyona Minkovsky, Kevin Zeese ( 24 May 2011 ). More activists arrested under Obama. RT.com ( The Alyona Show ). Jump up ^ Percy, John ( June 2008 ). `` Direct Action -- two earlier versions ''. Revolutionary Socialist Party. Retrieved 15 June 2009. Jump up ^ de Cleyre, Voltairine ( 1912 ). Direct Action. Wikisource. Jump up ^ Hansen, Ann. Direct Action : Memoirs of an Urban Guerrilla. Toronto : Between the Lines, 2001. ISBN 978 - 1902593487 Jump up ^ Dieter Rucht. Violence and New Social Movements. In : International Handbook of Violence Research, Volume I. Dordrecht : Kluwer, 2003, p. 369 - 382. Jump up ^ `` Hallmarks of People 's Global Action ( amended at the 3rd PGA conference at Cochamamba, 2001 ) ''. Jump up ^ Rowe, James K. ; Carroll, Myles ( 2014 - 04 - 03 ). `` Reform or Radicalism : Left Social Movements from the Battle of Seattle to Occupy Wall Street ''. New Political Science. 36 ( 2 ) : 149 -- 171. doi : 10.1080 / 07393148.2014. 894683. ISSN 0739 - 3148. Jump up ^ Orakhelashvili, Alexander. The Interpretation of Acts and Rules in Public International Law. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2008. Jump up ^ Taylor, Matthew ( 26 January 2010 ). `` Ministry of Justice lists eco-activists alongside terrorists ''. The Guardian. London. Retrieved 1 May 2010. Jump up ^ `` FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ''. Food Not Bombs. Retrieved 7 August 2012. Further reading Hauser, Luke ( 2003 ) Direct Action : An Historical Novel. Available at www.directaction.org. Lunori, G. ( 1999 ) Direct Action. Available at sniggle.net. Kauffman, L.A. ( 2017 ) `` Direct Action : Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism ''. New York, Verso, 2017. ISBN 9781784784096 Sparrow, R. ( undated ) Anarchist Politics and Direct Action. Available at Spunk Online Anarchist Library. A Communiqué on Tactics and Organization to the Black Bloc, from within the Black Bloc, by The Green Mountain Anarchist Collective ( NEFAC - VT ) & Columbus Anti-Racist Action, Black Clover Press, 2001. The Black Bloc Papers : An Anthology of Primary Texts From The North American Anarchist Black Bloc 1988 - 2005, by Xavier Massot & David Van Deusen of the Green Mountain Anarchist Collective ( NEFAC - VT ), Breaking Glass Press, 2010. Hansen, Ann. Direct Action : Memoirs of an Urban Guerrilla. Toronto : Between the Lines, 2001. ISBN 978 - 1902593487 Van Deusen On North American Black Blocs 1996 - 2001, by David Van Deusen, The Anarchist Library, 2017. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to : Direct action Wikimedia Commons has media related to Direct action. Wikisource has original text related to this article : Direct Action DA ! ( Direct Action ) Gallery. Direct Action in Londons Art scene. Ecodefense : A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching Direct Action News from Germany ACTivist Magazine Civil Disobedience Manual from ACT - UP / NY ReclaimingQuarterly.org features photo - coverage of contemporary nonviolent direct actions DirectAction.org offers online organizing resources Greenpeace encourages its activists to use Non-Violent Direct Action The Citizen 's Handbook Ruckus The Boston Direct Action Project IWW Organizing Department libcom.org/organise - organising direct action at work, in the community or anywhere else tips and guidelines War Resisters ' International The Scouring of the Shire : Fairies, Trolls and Pixies in Eco-Protest Culture by Andy Letcher ( 2001 ) Video clips of some direct action A bi-lingual database on all known direct action news in Greece since September 2007 www.direct-action.de.vu German Direct - Action - Site Anarchism Schools of thought Classical Individualist Egoist Mutualist Social / Left Collectivist Communist Magonist Post-classical Feminist Green Naturist Primitivist Vegan Pacifist Insurrectionary Religious Christian Buddhist Jewish Panarchism Without adjectives Contemporary Black Cryptographic Free - market Agorist Postcolonial Post-left Post-anarchist Queer Transhumanist Philosophical Existentialist Voluntaryism Theory and practice Types of federation Affinity group Anarcho - syndicalism Synthesis anarchism Platformism Anarchy Anarchist Black Cross Anationalism Anti-authoritarianism Anti-militarism Autonomous zone Permanent Temporary Black bloc Classless society Class struggle Commune Human community Model of government Community unionism Consensus democracy Conscientious objector Counter-economics Decentralization Deep ecology Direct action Direct democracy Dual power Especifismo Expropriative anarchism Free association Free love Free school Freethought Grassroots Horizontalidad Illegalism Individualism Individual reclamation Industrial unionism Isocracy Law Non-Aggression Principle Participism Parecon Parpolity Prefigurative politics Proletarian internationalism Propaganda of the deed Revolution Rewilding Social center Social ecology Somatherapy Spontaneous order Stateless society Squatting Union of egoists Issues Anarcho - capitalism Animal rights Arts Capitalism Education Criticisms Islam Marxism Nationalism Orthodox Judaism Religion Love and sex Violence People 17 - 18th c. Gerrard Winstanley Sylvain Maréchal Gracchus Babeuf 19th c. William Godwin Max Stirner Pierre - Joseph Proudhon Josiah Warren Henry David Thoreau Mikhail Bakunin Lysander Spooner Gustave Courbet Eugène Pottier Camille Pissarro Louise Michel Élisée Reclus Leo Tolstoy Ravachol Johann Most Giovanni Passannante Peter Kropotkin Francisco Ferrer Guardia Leon Czolgosz Voltairine de Cleyre Luigi Lucheni 20th c. Errico Malatesta Gustav Landauer Luigi Galleani Benjamin Tucker Ricardo Flores Magón Lucy Parsons Alexander Berkman Franz Kafka Emma Goldman Max Nettlau Erich Mühsam Sacco and Vanzetti Nestor Makhno Volin Rudolf Rocker Buenaventura Durruti Albert Camus Daniel Guérin Federica Montseny Jacques Ellul Salvador Puig Antich Abbie Hoffman Murray Bookchin Ivan Illich Kurt Vonnegut Howard Zinn Ursula Le Guin Noam Chomsky Gary Snyder Alfredo M. Bonanno John Zerzan Bob Black 21st c. Subcomandante Marcos David Graeber Peter Gelderloos History 19th c. Paris Commune Cantonal rebellion Hague Congress International Conference of Rome Trial of the Thirty Haymarket affair May Day 20th c. Anarchist Exclusion Act Congress of Amsterdam Tragic Week High Treason Incident Manifesto of the Sixteen 1919 United States bombings Biennio Rosso German Revolution of 1918 -- 19 Bavarian Soviet Republic Kronstadt rebellion Third Russian Revolution Free Territory Amakasu incident Escuela Moderna Individualist anarchism in Europe ( in France ) Spanish Revolution and Civil War Barcelona May Days Labadie Collection May 1968 Provo LIP Kate Sharpley Library Australian Anarchist Centenary Carnival Against Capital 1999 WTO Conference protest 21st c. Occupy movement Culture Films Anarchist Bookfair Anarcho - punk Culture jamming DIY culture Freeganism Independent Media Center Infoshop `` The Internationale '' Jewish anarchism `` Land and liberty '' Lifestylism `` No gods, no masters '' Popular education `` Property is theft ! '' Radical cheerleading Radical environmentalism Squatting Symbolism Glossary A las Barricadas Economics Communization Co-operatives Cost the limit of price Counter-economics Decentralized planning Economic democracy Economic secession Free store Gift economy Laissez - faire Market abolitionism Mass strike Mutual aid Participatory economics Really Really Free Market Social ownership Wage slavery Refusal of work Workers ' self - management By region Africa Argentina Australia Azerbaijan Brazil Canada China Cuba Ecuador Egypt France Germany Greece India Iceland Ireland Israel Italy Japan Korea Mexico Monaco New Zealand Poland Romania Russia South Africa Spain Sweden Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom United States Vietnam Lists Anarcho - punk bands Communities Fictional characters Jewish anarchists Love and sex Musicians Organizations Outline of anarchism Periodicals Poets Russian anarchists Related topics Anti-corporatism Anti-capitalism Anti-consumerism Anti-fascism Anti-globalization Anti-statism Anti-war Autarchism Autonomism International relations theory Classical liberalism Labour movement Left communism Libertarian socialism Libertarianism Neozapatismo Non-aggression principle Situationist International Spontaneous order Portal Civil rights movement Notable events ( timeline ) Prior to 1954 Lynching in the United States Murder of Harry and Harriette Moore 1954 -- 1959 Brown v. Board of Education Bolling v. Sharpe Briggs v. Elliott Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County Gebhart v. Belton White America, Inc. Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company Emmett Till Montgomery bus boycott Browder v. Gayle Tallahassee bus boycott Mansfield school desegregation 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom `` Give Us the Ballot '' Royal Ice Cream sit - in Little Rock Nine National Guard blockade Civil Rights Act of 1957 Kissing Case Biloxi wade - ins 1960 -- 1963 Greensboro sit - ins Nashville sit - ins Sit - in movement Civil Rights Act of 1960 Gomillion v. Lightfoot Boynton v. Virginia Rock Hill sit - ins Robert F. Kennedy 's Law Day Address Freedom Rides attacks Garner v. Louisiana Albany Movement University of Chicago sit - ins `` Second Emancipation Proclamation '' Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot `` Segregation now, segregation forever '' Stand in the Schoolhouse Door 1963 Birmingham campaign Letter from Birmingham Jail Children 's Crusade Birmingham riot 16th Street Baptist Church bombing John F. Kennedy 's Report to the American People on Civil Rights March on Washington `` I Have a Dream '' St. Augustine movement 1964 -- 1968 Twenty - fourth Amendment Bloody Tuesday Freedom Summer workers ' murders Civil Rights Act of 1964 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches `` How Long, Not Long '' Voting Rights Act of 1965 Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections March Against Fear White House Conference on Civil Rights Chicago Freedom Movement / Chicago open housing movement Memphis sanitation strike King assassination funeral riots Poor People 's Campaign Civil Rights Act of 1968 Green v. County School Board of New Kent County Activist groups Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights Atlanta Student Movement Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) Committee on Appeal for Human Rights Council for United Civil Rights Leadership Dallas County Voters League Deacons for Defense and Justice Georgia Council on Human Relations Highlander Folk School Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Montgomery Improvement Association Nashville Student Movement NAACP Youth Council Northern Student Movement National Council of Negro Women National Urban League Operation Breadbasket Regional Council of Negro Leadership Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) Southern Regional Council Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ) The Freedom Singers Wednesdays in Mississippi Women 's Political Council Activists Ralph Abernathy Victoria Gray Adams Zev Aelony Mathew Ahmann William G. Anderson Gwendolyn Armstrong Arnold Aronson Ella Baker Marion Barry Daisy Bates Harry Belafonte James Bevel Claude Black Gloria Blackwell Randolph Blackwell Unita Blackwell Ezell Blair Jr. Joanne Bland Julian Bond Joseph E. Boone William Holmes Borders Amelia Boynton Raylawni Branch Ruby Bridges Aurelia Browder H. Rap Brown Guy Carawan Stokely Carmichael Johnnie Carr James Chaney J.L. Chestnut Colia Lafayette Clark Ramsey Clark Septima Clark Xernona Clayton Eldridge Cleaver Kathleen Cleaver Charles E. Cobb Jr. Annie Lee Cooper Dorothy Cotton Claudette Colvin Vernon Dahmer Jonathan Daniels Joseph DeLaine Dave Dennis Annie Devine Patricia Stephens Due Joseph Ellwanger Charles Evers Medgar Evers Myrlie Evers - Williams Chuck Fager James Farmer Walter Fauntroy James Forman Marie Foster Golden Frinks Andrew Goodman Fred Gray Jack Greenberg Dick Gregory Lawrence Guyot Prathia Hall Fannie Lou Hamer William E. Harbour Vincent Harding Dorothy Height Lola Hendricks Aaron Henry Oliver Hill Donald L. Hollowell James Hood Myles Horton Zilphia Horton T.R.M. Howard Ruby Hurley Jesse Jackson Jimmie Lee Jackson Richie Jean Jackson T.J. Jemison Esau Jenkins Barbara Rose Johns Vernon Johns Frank Minis Johnson Clarence Jones J. Charles Jones Matthew Jones Vernon Jordan Tom Kahn Clyde Kennard A.D. King C.B. King Coretta Scott King Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Sr. Bernard Lafayette James Lawson Bernard Lee Sanford R. Leigh Jim Letherer Stanley Levison John Lewis Viola Liuzzo Z. Alexander Looby Joseph Lowery Clara Luper Malcolm X Mae Mallory Vivian Malone Thurgood Marshall Benjamin Mays Franklin McCain Charles McDew Ralph McGill Floyd McKissick Joseph McNeil James Meredith William Ming Jack Minnis Amzie Moore Douglas E. Moore Harriette Moore Harry T. Moore William Lewis Moore Irene Morgan Bob Moses William Moyer Elijah Muhammad Diane Nash Charles Neblett Edgar Nixon Jack O'Dell James Orange Rosa Parks James Peck Charles Person Homer Plessy Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Fay Bellamy Powell Al Raby Lincoln Ragsdale A. Philip Randolph George Raymond Jr. Bernice Johnson Reagon Cordell Reagon James Reeb Frederick D. Reese Gloria Richardson David Richmond Bernice Robinson Jo Ann Robinson Bayard Rustin Bernie Sanders Michael Schwerner Cleveland Sellers Charles Sherrod Alexander D. Shimkin Fred Shuttlesworth Modjeska Monteith Simkins Glenn E. Smiley A. Maceo Smith Kelly Miller Smith Mary Louise Smith Maxine Smith Ruby Doris Smith - Robinson Charles Kenzie Steele Hank Thomas Dorothy Tillman A.P. Tureaud Hartman Turnbow Albert Turner C.T. Vivian Wyatt Tee Walker Hollis Watkins Walter Francis White Roy Wilkins Hosea Williams Kale Williams Robert F. Williams Andrew Young Whitney Young Sammy Younge Jr. James Zwerg Influences Nonviolence Padayatra Sermon on the Mount Mahatma Gandhi Ahimsa Satyagraha The Kingdom of God Is Within You Frederick Douglass W.E.B. Du Bois Mary McLeod Bethune Related Jim Crow laws Plessy v. Ferguson Separate but equal Buchanan v. Warley Hocutt v. Wilson Sweatt v. Painter Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States Katzenbach v. McClung Loving v. Virginia Fifth Circuit Four Brown Chapel Holt Street Baptist Church Edmund Pettus Bridge March on Washington Movement African - American churches attacked Journey of Reconciliation Freedom Songs `` Kumbaya '' `` Keep Your Eyes on the Prize '' `` Oh, Freedom '' `` This Little Light of Mine '' `` We Shall Not Be Moved '' `` We Shall Overcome '' Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam `` Beyond Vietnam : A Time to Break Silence '' Watts riots Voter Education Project 1960s counterculture In popular culture King Memorial Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument Freedom Riders National Monument Civil Rights Memorial The New Jim Crow ( 2010 ) Noted historians Taylor Branch Clayborne Carson John Dittmer Michael Eric Dyson Chuck Fager Adam Fairclough David Garrow David Halberstam Vincent Harding Steven F. Lawson Doug McAdam Diane McWhorter Charles M. Payne Timothy Tyson Akinyele Umoja Movement photographers Tax resistance Topics Conscientious objection to military taxation List of historical acts of tax resistance List of tax resisters Methods Barter Gift economy Local currency Rebellion Self - sufficiency Simple living Tax avoidance Tax evasion Unreported employment Organizations Addiopizzo Aide - toi, le ciel t'aidera All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation Anti-Poll Tax Unions Association of Real Estate Taxpayers Catalunya Diu Prou Committee for Non-Violent Action Δεν Πληρώνω Fasci Siciliani Irish National Land League National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee Northern California War Tax Resistance Pagal Panthis Peace churches Peacemakers Planka.nu Women 's Tax Resistance League Zuism Media An Act of Conscience Civil Disobedience Clericis laicos The Cold War and the Income Tax : A Protest Vyborg Manifesto Campaigns 1300s Tuchin Revolt Harelle Peasants ' Revolt 1400s Cornish Rebellion of 1497 1500s Croquant rebellions Rappenkrieg Revolt of the Pitauds 1600s Angelets Revolt of the papier timbré Revolt of the va - nu - pieds Salt Tax Revolt in Spain Salt Riot in Moscow 1700s Boston Tea Party Fries 's Rebellion Gaspee Affair No taxation without representation Philadelphia Tea Party Revolt of the Comuneros ( New Granada ) War of the Regulation Whiskey Rebellion White Lotus Rebellion 1800s Dog Tax War Hut Tax War of 1898 Mejba Revolt Rebecca Riots Saminism Movement Tancament de Caixes Tithe War Wallachian uprising 1900s Agbekoya Bambatha Rebellion Bardoli Satyagraha Beit Sahour Bondelswarts affair Champaran Satyagraha Kheda Satyagraha Johnson cult Mau movement Poll Tax Riots Poplar Rates Rebellion Turra Coo Salt March Vedaranyam March Women 's War 2000s Anti-austerity movement in Greece Anti-Bin Tax Campaign Bonnets Rouges Campaign Against Home and Water Taxes Movimento Passe Livre Related topics Income tax threshold Render unto Caesar Tax noncompliance Tax protester Tax riot Taxation as slavery Taxation as theft Peace movement / Anti-war movement Peace advocates Anti-nuclear organizations Anti-war movement Anti-war organizations Bed - In Central Park be-ins Conscientious objectors Counterculture Culture of peace Draft evasion Human Be-In List of peace activists Peace and conflict studies Peace camp Peace churches Peace commission Peace education Peace movement Peace walk Teach - in War resisters War tax resisters Ideologies Ahimsa Anarchism Anarcho - pacifism Anarcho - punks Christian anarchism Anti-imperialism Anti-nuclear movement Antimilitarism Appeasement Direct action Finvenkismo Hippie Isolationism Non-interventionism Nonkilling Nonviolence Pacificism Pacifism Peace Satyagraha Simple living Socialism Soviet influence on the peace movement Media and cultural Art Books Films International Day of Non-Violence International Day of Peace Dialogue Among Civilizations List of places named Peace `` Make love, not war '' Monuments and memorials Museums Peace journalism Peace News Plays Promoting Enduring Peace Songs Symbols World Game Opposition to specific wars or their aspects Afghan War American Civil War Iraq War Landmines Military action in Iran Military intervention in Libya Military taxation Nuclear armament Second Boer War Sri Lankan Civil War Vietnam War War of 1812 War on Terror World War I World War II Countries Canada Germany Israel Netherlands Spain United Kingdom United States GND : 4150122 - 6 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Direct_action&oldid=854515730 '' Categories : Activism by type Direct action Far - left politics Industrial Workers of the World Protest tactics Hidden categories : Articles with limited geographic scope from December 2013 Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikiquote Català Čeština Deutsch Eesti Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français 한국어 Hrvatski Íslenska עברית Lietuvių Magyar Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Română Русский Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Українська اردو 中文 20 more Edit links This page was last edited on 11 August 2018, at 22 : 55 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: example of direct action politics in the united states
Answer: non-violent sit-ins at the entrances of abortion clinics