consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct, or intervene in social, political, economic, or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society. Forms of activism range from mandate building in the community (including writing letters to newspapers), petitioning elected officials, running or contributing to a political campaign, preferential patronage (or boycott) of businesses, and demonstrative forms of activism like rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, or hunger strikes.
Activism may be performed on a day-to-day basis in a wide variety of ways, including through the creation of art (artivism), computer hacking (hacktivism), or simply in how one chooses to spend their money (economic activism). For example, the refusal to buy clothes or other merchandise from a company as a protest against the exploitation of workers by that company could be considered an expression of activism. However, the most highly visible and impactful activism often comes in the form of collective action, in which numerous individuals coordinate an act of protest together in order to make a bigger impact. Collective action that is purposeful, organized, and sustained over a period of time becomes known as a social movement.
Historically, activists have used literature, including pamphlets, tracts, and books to disseminate or propagate their messages and attempt to persuade their readers of the justice of their cause. Research has now begun to explore how contemporary activist groups use social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action combining politics with technology. (Wikipedia)
Chronological History of Events Involving Activism
26-year-old Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz, who also co-wrote RSS (while 13 & 14 years old) and was an Internet activist (who helped save the internet), reportedly hanged himself in his apartment. He was either driven to suicide by a couple of corrupt overzealous attorneys that constantly harassed him or suicided. Propaganda was put out that he had battled depression and he was also facing jail time ...
Jeremy Hammond is a hacktivist who was sentenced to spend a decade in prison for hacking the private intelligence firm Stratfor and releasing the leaks through the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. He was attracted to computers early on and won a high school competition for his coding. Opposition to the Iraq War motivated Jeremy to get involved in activism — on the day of the invasion, he ...
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) (also known as the E-PARASITE Act, House Bill 3261, or H.R. 3261) was a bill that was being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives that was demanded by the wealthy corporations as well as the music and film industry. If passed, this bill would impose a number of controversial measures for dealing with online piracy including the distribution of copyrighted material via ...
Labor unions, communists, “community organizers,” socialists, and anti-capitalist agitators all joined together to “Occupy Wall Street” and protest against “greed,” corporations, and bankers. But despite efforts to portray the movement as “leaderless” or “grassroots,” it is obvious that there was much more going on behind the scenes than initially meets the eye. Billionaire financier George Soros’ fingerprints, for example, were all over the anti-Wall Street campaign ...
After twenty-plus years of Fluoridation, the Fluoride spigots were finally turned off in Calgary On January 26, 2011, City Council Members of the SPC-U&E Committee heard both sides of the fluoridation debate and made a motion after more than 9 hours of grueling testimony to recommend Council stop fluoridation. The SPC-U&E Committee recommended that Calgary stop fluoridation and the motion was sent forward to a full ...
(India) - The mysterious death of a true patriot, Rajiv Dixit, was followed by no investigation or postmortem report. Cardiac arrest or slow poisoning? The questions remain. Rajiv Dixit was a social activist and an Indian Nationalist who passed away at the age of 43. He spoke on matters such as the evils of globalization, liberalization and privatization and equated them to modern-day colonialism. He was a leader ...
On February 5, 1978, a little northern Minnesota newspaper called the Mesabi Daily News broke a story that had somehow managed to go unreported for more than half a year. The previous summer, the city council of Kinney, Minnesota, had sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance declaring that the village was seceding from the Union. The tiny Iron Range community had tried ...
Christopher H. Pyle (born 1939), a journalist and Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts testified to Congress about the use of military intelligence against civilians, worked for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, as well as the Senate Committee on Government Oversight. He is the author of several books and Congressional reports on military intelligence and constitutional rights, and has ...
Ruby Bridges (born September 8, 1954) was six when she became the first African-American child to integrate a white Southern elementary school on November 14, 1960, escorted to class by her mother and U.S. marshals due to violent mobs. Bridges' bravery paved the way for continued Civil Rights action, and she's shared her story with future generations in educational forums. Ruby Bridges grew up on the ...
Four North Carolina black college students staged the first Greensboro sit-in at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest segregation on Feb. 1, 1960. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCAT) students Ezell Blair Jr. (later Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil and David Richmond conducted the protest at an eating area within Woolworth’s general merchandise store, according to Britannica. Black people could be in ...
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