015. Group lobbying

When lobbying of a parliamentary representative is done by a collective group of that representative's constituents, the act becomes a form of nonviolent action. Group lobbying differs from deputations in that it is generally directed towards elected governmental officials. Also see the similar method, 015.

Showing 126-146 of 146 results

African Americans march for civil rights in St. Augustine, Florida, 1963-64

Country
United States
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Human Rights
Total points
7 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Erica Janko, 02/02/2015

As the nationwide struggle for civil rights in the United States, led by
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,  continued into 1964, tension between civil
rights activists and the city government was rising in St. Augustine,
Florida. Public institutions remained segregated, and Klu Klux Klan
violence against African Americans increased, despite activists’
protests and pleas to the government.

Gambian Workers win general strike January 24-28 1961

Country
Gambia
Time period
24 January, 1961 to 28 January, 1961
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Erica Janko, 02/08/2015
ME Jallow founded the Gambia Workers’ Union (GWU) in 1956, and held the position of General Secretary until the mid 1980s. GWU’s base consisted of unskilled laborers, especially the growing number of workers in Bathurst. The union first began by supporting industrial workers who were taking action to protest low pay. In February 1960, the colonial government, pressured by an upcoming election, responded positively to a strike in Bathurst led by daily paid workers. Government officials formed a commission on wage rates and increased the minimum wage by 25 percent.

Students sit-in, win victory for civil rights, Miami Beach, Florida, March 1960

Country
United States
Time period
March, 1960 to August, 1960
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Human Rights
Total points
7 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Erica Janko 20/3/2015
In March 1960, a national wave of sit-in campaigns to desegregate lunch counters and public accommodations  reached Miami. Miami was one of 11 Florida cities where activists organized sit-ins over the months of February and March 1960. On 4 March 1960, students from Florida Memorial College led a sit-in in  in Miami, Florida. Participants included adult ministers. 

NYU Graduate students unionize and win improved healthcare and wages, 2013-15

Country
United States
Time period
4 October, 2014 to 11 March, 2015
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Stephen O'Hanlon, 29/03/2015
After 8 years of negotiation and organizing, the New York University (NYU) Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC) won voluntary recognition from NYU on 26 November 2013, partially in response to a letter signed by 1300 graduate student employees in support of unionization. The NYU administration withheld formal recognition until after 98.4 percent of graduate students voted in favor of the union on 11 December. This made NYU the first private university in the United States to recognize a graduate student union. 

Tibetan "Unchain the Truth" campaign for prisoner release, 2013-2014

Country
China
Japan
Brazil
Austria
United Kingdom
United States
Switzerland
Bulgaria
India
Costa Rica
Germany
Time period
October 25th, 2013 to June 5th, 2014
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Jasmine Rashid 04/17/15
In August of 2008, Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen was premiering his new documentary, “Leaving Fear Behind”, to a group of journalists in a Beijing hotel when Chinese police interrupted and forcibly shut down the screening.

Greek campaign to stop construction of coal plants 2008-2010

Country
Greece
Time period
January, 2008 to January, 2010
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Rebecca Griest 04/10/2015

In July 2007, the Ministry of the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works published the “General Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development Framework” with  no plans for new coal plants in Greece. A month later, the Ministry of Development published the “1st report on the long-term energy planning of Greece, 2008-2020,” stating that 5.6 to 21 percent of Greece’s energy would come from coal in the years 2008 to 2020.

University of Hawaii Students, Faculty and Staff Successfully Campaign for Fossil Fuel Divestment, (2013-2015)

Country
United States
Time period
September, 2013 to 21 May, 2015
Classification
Change
Cluster
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
9.5 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Lewis Fitzgerald-Holland, 1/11/2015

In the fall of 2013, University of Hawaii graduate student and oceanography major Michelle Tigchelaar launched a fossil fuel divestment campaign after witnessing the devastation that climate change was bring to Hawaii’s famed coral reefs. Initially, the campaign was organized by members of the University’s Graduate Student Organization. The campaign launched in September 2013 with a movie screening 350.org’s movie Do the Math. The campaign lost traction in its first year after several members of the Graduate Student Organization graduated in the at the end of the fall semester.

Campaign Successfully Stops Liquefied Natural Gas Pipeline and Export Terminal Oregon, 2005-2012

Country
United States
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Lewis Fitzgerald-Holland, 12/11/2015

On 8 August 2007, Columbia Riverkeeper, a group dedicated to the environmental restoration of the Columbia River, launched a protest against the proposed plant. Two hundred protesters picketed on the beach at the proposed site and sailed into the river in kayaks holding signs and banners.

Students press University of Glasgow to divest from fossil fuels, 2013-2014

Country
United Kingdom
Time period
30 September, 2013 to 7 October, 2014
Classification
Change
Cluster
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Rebecca Griest 12/02/2016

Approximately ninety-seven percent of publishing climate scientists agreed that climate change was occurring in 2013, and that the primary cause was human activities. If the planet was to remain within safe levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and maintain temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius of warming, four-fifths of the known fossil fuel reserves needed to stay in the ground and not be burned.

PETA pressures Avon to stop animal testing, United States, 1989

Country
United States
Time period
February, 1989 to June, 1989
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Rebecca Griest 03/12/2016

The animal rights movement of the 1980’s moved into the mainstream media as it was joined by professionals and academics. The new public attention increased demand from concerned consumers for products developed without animal testing, and companies began more widely using alternatives such as in vitro cell cultures and computer catalogs of known substances.

Turkish Activists Attempt to Save Historic Istanbul Cinema, (2010-2015)

Country
Turkey
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
3 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Lewis Fitzgerald-Holland 29/11/2015

On 31 March 2010, a group hoping to stop the demolition and preserve the cinema launched a petition and started a Facebook group in an effort to attract international media and elite attention. Over the coming months, the Facebook page attracted over 10,000 members, and they gathered 6,850 signatures from prominent international filmmakers, directors and actors. Campaigners held a series of three smaller peaceful rallies over the following year.

Environmentalist groups stop construction of oil export terminal in Philadelphia, 2016

Country
United States
Time period
9 March, 2016 to 22 November, 2016
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Yin Xiao, 09/02/2017

Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) is a private oil and gas manufacturer that owns the largest oil unloading and refining facility on the East Coast of the United States. Labelled by the Environmental Protection Agency as a high priority violator since April 2012, the PES has long been criticized by environmentalist groups for releasing air and water pollutants and failing to  comply with the Clean Air Act.

City of Seattle severs financial ties with Wells Fargo to protest funding of Dakota Access Pipeline, 2016-2017

Country
United States
Time period
December, 2016 to February, 2017
Classification
Change
Cluster
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Seimi Park, 15/03/2017

In August of 2016, construction began for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), a $3.78 billion project that aimed to transport crude oil over 1,172 miles, from North Dakota to Illinois. The pipeline not only threatened climate stability, but also invaded the sacred lands of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and put their water supply, which came from the Missouri River, at severe risk.

Philadelphia taxi drivers win fair competition with ridesharing services, 2015-2016

Country
United States
Time period
16 December, 2015 to 28 March, 2016
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
7 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Yin Xiao, 12/04/2017

The Taxi Drivers Alliance of Philadelphia (TDAP) and the Philadelphia Limousine Association (PLA), major labor unions in Pennsylvania, United States, represented the majority of taxi and limo drivers in the city of Philadelphia and its surrounding areas. With the rise of ride-sharing services such as UberX and Lyft since 2012, the taxi and limo industry in Philadelphia felt increasingly threatened, as more and more people opted for their cheaper counterparts.

Black Pensacola residents win relocation from Escambia Wood Federal Superfund site 1992-1996

Country
United States
Time period
March, 1992 to 3 October, 1996
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Shayla Smith 12/04/2017

From 1943 to 1982, Escambia Treating Company (ETC) operated in Pensacola, Florida. Located in an industrial/residential zone, the location of a wood treatment facility threatened the health of Escambia County residents, who were primarily Black. Until the mid-1950s, ETC dumped creosote and pentachlorophenol (PCP) into an uncovered pit. In March 1992, community members founded Citizens Against Toxic Exposure (CATE) and launched a five-year campaign for relocation of the 358 households closest to the Escambia plant.

Times Beach residents win fight for relocation from contaminated dioxin sites

Country
United States
Time period
29 January, 1983 to 11 December, 1995
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Shayla Smith 02/05/2017

Between 1970 and 1976, Russell Bliss used a toxic mixture of motor oil and dioxin to spray the unpaved roads in Times Beach, MO. The community hired Bliss, a career waste disposer, to reduce its dust problem. Unbeknownst to residents of the small town, Independent Petrochemical Corporation (IPC) paid Bliss for the disposal of its hazardous dioxin waste. Under the auspices of Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Company (NEPACCO), IPC generated dioxin through its production of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

Newark residents and students campaign to stop the building of 279 MW power plant (2013-2014)

Country
United States
Time period
June, 2013 to July, 2014
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Zach Lytle, 10/5/2019

The Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) campus, a satellite campus of the University of Delaware (UD) is located just half a mile from the primary campus in Newark, Delaware. During the efforts to fully develop the STAR campus, UD offered to lease 43 acres of the campus to The Data Center (TDC) to build a 900,000 square foot data center with an attached 279 megawatt natural gas power plant, an amount five times the energy demand of the city of Newark.

American Labor Activists rally to build support for the Employee Free Choice Act, 2003

Country
United States
Time period
02 December, 2003 to 10 December, 2003
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Zach Lytle, 28/05/19

The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States, moved to counteract the shrinking union strength and the ever growing corporate power via legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act. Andy Levin and Stewart Acuff, two veteran union organizers, spearheaded the effort. In the summer of 2003, Acuff and Levin agreed on what the act would entail.

Pennsylvanians Block Natural Gas Facility, 2014-2015

Country
United States
Time period
March 21, 2014 to February 6, 2015
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
6 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
AV Lee-A-Yong, 29/05/2019

South Heidelberg is a rural Pennsylvania community in Berks County with natural gas reserves. On 3 March  2014, the South Heidelberg planning commission gave preliminary approval to a Canadian corporation, EmberClear,to construct a gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility in the town. The facility would primarily harvest natural gas resources from the town.

British Ramblers campaign for greater access to right of ways and the right to roam (1985-2000)

Country
United Kingdom
Time period
Fall, 1985 to 30 November, 2000
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Democracy
Environment
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Zach Lytle, 16/05/19

The enclosure system involved fencing off plots of arable land. The land would then be deeded to an individual or group of owners who could use it as they saw fit. Despite slowly losing access to the commons, commoners preserved their access to rights of ways (the right to pass through someone else’s or public property on a specific path), even those now enclosed on private land, through the countryside. Foot paths, roads, carriageways, and trails were considered highways to which all individuals had the right of way.