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Democracy Spring | |
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![]() Democracy Spring protesters at the United States Capitol building, April 2016 | |
Date | April 2016 - Summer 2019 [1] |
Location | Washington, D.C. |
Goals | Electoral reform |
Methods | Civil resistance |
Status | Dissolved [2] |
Casualties | |
Detained | 900–1,200 |
Democracy Spring was a progressive social movement organization based in the United States that used campaigns of escalating nonviolent civil disobedience to build active public support to "end the corruption of big money in politics and protect the right to vote for all Americans." [3]
The organization began as a coalition of "more than 100 progressive groups" [4] with a common interest in US federal legislation intended to reduce "the influence of money in politics" and "expand and protect voting rights." [5] A ten-day non-violent protest march was held in April 2016 from Philadelphia to Washington, DC. Its demands included the passage of several bills such as those to improve voter rights and empowerment and require fair elections. During the course of the protest, 900 [6] to 1,200 [7] individuals were arrested.
The group disbanded in 2019. [8]
A group of Democracy Spring participants began a ten-day march from Philadelphia to Washington, DC [9] on April 2, 2016. The initial events received widespread coverage on social media, and outlets like NPR and C-SPAN, while cable news networks devoted little time to the protests. [10]
The protest began with a rally and participants included progressive political commentator Cenk Uygur, actress Rosario Dawson, educator and activist Lawrence Lessig, author Frances Moore Lappé, [11] Chris Hedges, [12] filmmaker Annabel Park, Ben & Jerry's founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, [13] and "many attendees sporting Bernie Sanders clothing and signs." [4] [9] [14] [15] [16] Demonstrators slept in local churches and at a tent set up near Union Station with a permit. [17]
The first day of nonviolent protest during the April mobilization drew over 600 people to the United States Capitol building, where over 400 were peaceably arrested. [5] The group demanded a "Congress of conscience" pass laws related to voter representation that would encourage small political contributions, constrain large and undisclosed political contributions, end gerrymandering, and reinstate mechanisms from the Voting Rights Act. [4] The group also demanded a hearing for President Barack Obama's Merrick Garland Supreme Court nomination, which was postponed by the legislature. NPR found the event to be "cheery and peaceful" and a Capitol Police officer said that unless the protesters had outstanding warrants, they would "merely be processed, cited with a fine, and released." [4] [9]
Police arrested 85 activists on that second day, and organizers said it was the largest mass arrest at the Capitol building in history. [18] The second protest held hundreds of participants, many of whom were elderly. [18] More protests were planned daily throughout the week [4] and over 3,500 people across 33 states pledged to participate. [5] On the third day around 100 protesters were arrested. [19] A dozen protesters were arrested inside the Capitol building's rotunda and 130 arrested outside on the fourth day. [20] The dozen indoor protesters had zip tied themselves to scaffolding in an attempt to occupy the Capitol building. [21] By Saturday, over 900 activists had been arrested in total over the week. [6] The Independent Voter Project reported that by Monday over 1200 had been arrested in total. [7]
Democracy Awakening, which is closely aligned with Democracy Spring, followed up Democracy Spring's April protest with a protest of their own in a similar fashion at the U.S. Capitol. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, Ben and Jerry's co founders, were among approximately 300 people arrested as part of the "Democracy Awakening" protests. [22] [23]
In the lead up to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, the strategic leadership of Democracy Spring issued four demands to the Democratic National Committee. The demands were that the party commit, within the first 100 days of a new Congress and presidential administration, to reverse Citizens United v. FEC , ensure publicly funded elections, and restore the preclearance provisions Voting Rights Act, which were made effectively unenforceable by Shelby County v. Holder. [24] The fourth demand, reflecting that the first three looked forward to January 2017, was that the Democratic Party immediately abolish the superdelegate system as a show of good faith. Democracy Spring promised civil disobedience outside the convention if the demands were not met.
Democracy Spring activists were barred from entry to the DNC's Rules Committee meeting [25] where changes to the superdelegate system were being discussed. Activists claimed victory after the committee voted for a 2/3rds reduction in the role of superdelegates. [26]
The first day of sit-ins outside the Democratic National Convention resulted in more than 50 arrests. [27] On the third day of the convention, Democracy Spring staged another sit-in, this time inside the convention perimeter, by "diverting and distracting" police. [28] This second action resulted in dozens more arrests.
According to its website, [29] Democracy Spring has identified the following measures whose adoption would "restore the people's voice in government":
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The following individuals attended at least part of the April 2016 mobilization:
The following individuals did not attend the April 2016 mobilization but offered an endorsement:
Lester Lawrence Lessig III is an American legal scholar and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. He is the founder of Creative Commons and Equal Citizens. Lessig was a candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the United States in the 2016 US presidential election but withdrew before the primaries.
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, the company went from a single ice cream parlor to a multi-national brand over the course of a few decades. The company was sold in 2000 to the multinational conglomerate Unilever but operates as an independent subsidiary. Its present-day headquarters is in South Burlington, Vermont, with its factory in Waterbury, Vermont.
Bennett Cohen is an American businessman, activist and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of the ice cream company Ben & Jerry's.
Jerry Greenfield is an American businessman, philanthropist, and activist. He is a co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc.
Rosario Isabel Dawson is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama Kids. Her subsequent film roles include He Got Game (1998), Josie and the Pussycats (2001), Men in Black II (2002), The Rundown (2003), Rent (2005), Sin City (2005), Clerks II (2006), Death Proof (2007), Seven Pounds (2008), Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), Unstoppable (2010), Zookeeper (2011), Trance (2013), Top Five (2014), Zombieland: Double Tap (2019), and Clerks 3 (2022). Dawson has provided voice-over work for Disney/Marvel, Warner Bros./DC Comics, and ViacomCBS's Nickelodeon unit.
The Young Turks (TYT) is an American progressive news commentary show on YouTube that additionally appears on selected television channels. TYT serves as the flagship program of the TYT Network, a multi-channel network of associated web series focusing on news and current events. TYT covers politics, lifestyle, pop culture, science, sport and other social topics. The program was created by Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz and Dave Koller. Uygur is Turkish-American and named the program after the Young Turks movement of the 20th century. Currently co-hosted by Uygur and Ana Kasparian, it is also often accompanied by various other in-studio contributors. The Young Turks began as a radio program that premiered on February 14, 2002, on Sirius Satellite Radio before launching a web series component in 2005 on YouTube; it was later carried on Air America.
Cenk Kadir Uygur is a Turkish-born American politician, political commentator, and media host. He is the co-creator of The Young Turks, a left-wing, progressive, sociopolitical news and commentary program.
The April 6 Youth Movement is an Egyptian activist group established in Spring 2008 to support the workers in El-Mahalla El-Kubra, an industrial town, who were planning to strike on 6 April.
A mass arrest occurs when police apprehend large numbers of suspects at once. This sometimes occurs at protests. Some mass arrests are also used in an effort to combat gang activity. This is sometimes controversial, and lawsuits sometimes result. In police science, it is deemed to be good practice to plan for the identification of those arrested during mass arrests, since it is unlikely that the officers will remember everyone they arrested.
Save Ben & Jerry's was a grassroots stakeholder protest to keep Ben & Jerry's from being acquired by the multinational conglomerate, Unilever.
Wolf-PAC is an American nonpartisan political action committee formed in 2011 with the goal of adding an "amendment to the United States Constitution to ensure balance, integrity, and transparency to our national system of campaign finance".
Women played a variety of roles in the Arab Spring, but its impact on women and their rights is unclear. The Arab Spring was a series of demonstrations, protests, and civil wars against authoritarian regimes that started in Tunisia and spread to much of the Arab world. The leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen were overthrown; Bahrain has experienced sustained civil disorder, and the protests in Syria have become a civil war. Other Arab countries experienced protests as well.
Cornell William Brooks is an American lawyer and activist. He was chosen to be the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in May 2014. He previously served as president of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice in Newark, New Jersey, and as executive director of the Fair Housing Council of Greater Washington.
This is a list of endorsements for declared candidates for the Democratic primaries for the 2016 United States presidential election.
The 2016 presidential campaign of Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Harvard University and cofounder of Creative Commons, was formally announced on September 6, 2015, as Lessig confirmed his intentions to run for the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States in 2016. Lessig had promised to run if his exploratory committee raised $1 million by Labor Day, which it accomplished one day early. He described his candidacy as a referendum on campaign finance reform and electoral reform legislation.
Our Revolution is an American progressive political action organization spun out of Senator Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign to continue its work. The organization's mission is to educate voters about issues, get people involved in the political process, and work to organize and elect progressive candidates. Our Revolution is also the title of a book by Sanders released in November 2016.
A campaign finance reform amendment refers to any proposed amendment to the United States Constitution to authorize greater restrictions on spending related to political speech, and to overturn Supreme Court rulings which have narrowed such laws under the First Amendment. Several amendments have been filed since Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and the Occupy movement.
Justice Democrats (JD) is an American progressive political action committee and caucus founded on January 23, 2017, by two leaders of Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley, as well as political commentators Kyle Kulinski and Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks. The organization formed as a result of the 2016 United States presidential election and aspires "to elect a new type of Democratic majority in Congress" that will "create a thriving economy and democracy that works for the people, not big money interests". The group advocates for campaign finance reform and endorses only candidates who pledge to refuse donations from corporate PACs and lobbyists.
Douglas Hughes is an American former postal worker and political activist, known for landing a one-man ultralight gyrocopter on the lawn of the United States Capitol on April 15, 2015. Hughes was carrying 535 letters, one to each member of Congress, protesting what he referred to as bipartisan corruption and dysfunctional government. He surrendered peacefully after landing to the Capitol Police.
Women Disobey was a protest in Washington, D.C., on June 28, 2018. The protests against the Trump administration family separation policy were organized by Women's March. They took place in the streets around the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building and inside the Hart Senate Office Building. Following acts of mass civil disobedience, 575 people were arrested.
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