A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to move unless their demands are met. The often clearly visible demonstrations are intended to spread awareness among the public, or disrupt the goings-on of the protested organization. Lunch counter sit-ins were a nonviolent form of protest used to oppose segregation during the civil rights movement, and often provoked heckling and violence from those opposed to their message.
Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. In addition to education, student groups often play central roles in democratization and winning civil rights.
A sit-down strike is a labour strike and a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at factories or other centralized locations, take unauthorized or illegal possession of the workplace by "sitting down" at their stations. By taking control of their workplaces, workers engaged in a sit-down demonstrate their power, build solidarity among themselves, prevent the deployment of strikebreakers or removal of industrial equipment, and cause cascading effects on the chain of production within and between factories. However, sit-down strikes are illegal in the vast majority of countries, complicating their use.
The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, which were predominantly characterized by the rise of left-wing politics, anti-war sentiment, civil rights urgency, youth counterculture within the silent and baby boomer generations, and popular rebellions against state militaries and bureaucracies.
Occupation of factories is a method of the workers' movement used to prevent lock outs. They may sometimes lead to "recovered factories", in which the workers self-manage the factories.
The anti-austerity movement refers to the mobilisation of street protests and grassroots campaigns that has happened across various countries, especially in Europe, since the onset of the worldwide Great Recession.
¡Democracia Real YA!, also known as Plataforma Democracia Real Ya!, is a Spanish grassroots organization that started in March 2011 in Madrid, Spain. It sparked the political movement of May 15, 2011 (15M) whose protests gained worldwide attention. The protests been compared to the May 1968 social movement in France.
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a left-wing populist movement against economic inequality, corporate greed, big finance, and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial District, and lasted for fifty-nine days—from September 17 to November 15, 2011.
The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of real democracy around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and economic justice and different forms of democracy. The movement has had many different scopes, since local groups often had different focuses, but its prime concerns included how large corporations and the global financial system control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a minority, undermines democracy and causes instability.
The 15 October 2011 global protests were part of a series of protests inspired by the Arab Spring, the Icelandic protests, the Portuguese "Geração à Rasca", the Spanish "Indignants", the Greek protests, and the Occupy movement. The protests were launched under the slogan "United for #GlobalChange", to which the slogan "United for Global Democracy" was added by many people's assemblies. The protest was first called for by the Spanish Plataforma ¡Democracia Real YA! in May 2011 and endorsed by people's assemblies across the world. Reasons were varied but mainly targeted growing economic inequality, corporate influence over government and international institutions, and the lack of truly democratic institutions allowing direct public participation at all levels, local to global. Global demonstrations were held on 15 October in more than 950 cities in 82 countries. The date was chosen to coincide with the 5-month anniversary of the first protest in Spain. General assemblies, the social network n-1, mailing lists, Mumble voice chat, open pads such as Pirate Pad and Titan Pad, and Facebook were used to coordinate the events. Some protests were only a few hundred in number, whereas others numbered in the hundreds of thousands, with the largest in Madrid numbering half a million and the second largest city Barcelona with 400,000.
Occupy Melbourne was a social movement which took place from late 2011 to mid 2012 in Melbourne, Australia as part of the global Occupy movement Participants expressed grievances concerning economic inequality, social injustice, corruption in the financial sector, corporate greed and the influence of companies and lobbyists on government. Protests began on 15 October 2011 in City Square with a 6-day-long protest encampment, from which people were forcibly evicted by Victoria Police at the request of the City of Melbourne CEO on 21 October 2011. From 2 November 2011, Occupy set up camp in Treasury Gardens before being moved on from that location in December. A significantly diminished number of protesters set up camp at Father Bob's church at his invitation until his retirement in January 2012. Physical manifestations of the movement had largely dissipated by mid-2012 though it adopted a strategy of decentralisation and became influential in the creation of new community networks, affinity groups and collectives.
Occupy Cal included a series of demonstrations that began on November 9, 2011, on the University of California, Berkeley campus in Berkeley, California. It was allied with the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City, San Francisco Bay Area Occupy groups such as Occupy Oakland, Occupy Berkeley, and Occupy San Francisco, and other public California universities. "Cal" in the name "Occupy Cal" is the nickname of the Berkeley campus and generally refers specifically to UC Berkeley.
Occupy Texas State is a student activist group formed at Texas State University - San Marcos. It is distinguished from the off-campus but allied Occupy San Marcos.
Occupy South Africa was a South African initiative primarily aimed at protesting and inciting mass action against the racial, economic and social inequality in South Africa. It is part of the globally Occupy Wall Street movement. It consists of a loose informal affiliation of on the ground groups and individuals across South Africa as well as internet based groups. Groups such as Taking Back South Africa!, Occupy South Africa are involved in South Africa and online. The movement is also involved with the Marikana miners' strike.
Occupy Vanderbilt was a collaboration that included demonstrations and an occupation located at Alumni Circle Lawn at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Occupy Vanderbilt engaged in organized meetings, events and actions through March 2012. The occupation was in solidarity with the global occupy movement and Occupy Nashville, and is notable as the first protest encampment at Vanderbilt, the spread of which in countries like Argentina, Greece and Spain originally inspired the Occupy movement.
Occupy Harvard was a student demonstration at Harvard University identifying itself with the global Occupy Movement. It sought to create a forum for discussing economic inequality at Harvard, in the United States, and throughout the world. It criticized Harvard's influence on global economic policy and its involvement with the American financial sector. It also supported wage campaigns by Harvard workers and a divestment demand initiated by Hotel Workers Rising.
The anti-austerity movement in Spain, also referred to as the 15-M Movement, and the Indignados Movement, was a series of protests, demonstrations, and occupations against austerity policies in Spain that began around the local and regional elections of 2011 and 2012. Beginning on 15 May 2011, many of the subsequent demonstrations spread through various social networks such as Real Democracy NOW and Youth Without a Future.
Nuit debout is a French social movement that began on 31 March 2016, arising out of protests against proposed labor reforms known as the El Khomri law or Loi travail. The movement was organized around a broad aim of "overthrowing the El Khomri bill and the world it represents". It has been compared to the Occupy movement in the United States and to Spain's anti-austerity 15-M or Indignados movement.
From 2018 to 2023, the UK university sector faced an industrial dispute between staff, represented most often by the University and College Union (UCU), and their employers, represented by Universities UK (UUK) and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). The dispute was initially over proposed changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), a pension scheme. The changes would have seen a significant drop in worker compensation, and in response the sector experienced industrial action on a scale not before seen. Pay equality, workload, casualisation, and pay levels were added to the dispute in 2019. Action was curtailed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, but resumed in 2021. By March 2023 a resolution had been reached on the USS, which returned to 2017 terms in a victory for the UCU. The UCU was however not successful on The Four Fights, as a November 2023 ballot for extending action failed on turnout. Many universities faced mass redundancies in 2024 amid declining funding.
