Browse Cases

Showing 26-41 of 41 results

Liverpool, England, dockers win strike with major international support, 1995-1998

Country
United Kingdom
International
Time period
28 September, 1995 to 27 January, 1998
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
John Pontillo, 16/02/2013

On 28 September 1995 the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company fired 329 port workers in Liverpool, England, for joining a picket line in solidarity with fellow port workers in Torside. The Torside workers were fired for protesting against the “free-market” style of labor, in which there was no job security, no wage security, and a constant change of working hours. In this format, workers could be phoned at any time and asked to come in to work.

Greenpeace defends Amazon rainforest against McDonald's, others, 2006

Country
United Kingdom
Time period
6 April, 2006 to 26 July, 2006
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Aileen Eisenberg, 10/02/2013

On 6 April 2006, a group of people dressed as large chickens entered McDonald’s fast food restaurants in seven cities around the United Kingdom. These chickens were a part of Greenpeace’s campaign against McDonald’s use of soya, a soybean plant, to feed its chickens.

Scots and peace activists protest US Navy Base at Holy Loch, Scotland, 1960-61

Country
United Kingdom
Scotland
Time period
December, 1960 to September, 1961
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Peace
Total points
3 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Susana Medeiros, 16/12/2012

In November of 1960, the United States and British governments reached an agreement on the use of the Holy Loch in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland as an overseas base for the US Navy. The governments believed the U.S. military required an overseas nuclear base for refit and crew overturn for its new Polaris missile submarines, built to serve as a deterrent to Soviet military might. 

International groups boycott Nestle products to end indiscriminate advertising, 1977-1984

Country
Canada
New Zealand
United Kingdom
Sweden
Germany
France
Australia
United States
Finland
Norway
International
Time period
4 July, 1977 to 4 October, 1984
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Soul Han, 23/09/2012

Artificial baby milks—so called “infant formula”—became widespread commercial product during the early decades of the twentieth century. Among many companies involved, Nestlé’s was the biggest promoter, controlling more than 40% of the estimated $1.72 billion market. Nestle aggressively pursued the interest from infant formula with indiscriminate marketing. The marketing that evoked popular indictment was their promotion of infant formula in the Third World.

British printers strike for their jobs, unions (Wapping Dispute), 1986-1987

Country
United Kingdom
England
Time period
January, 1986 to February, 1987
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
3 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Kate Aronoff, 04/12/2011

By 1986, Australian Rupert Murdoch was already well on his way to becoming the head of what would be the world’s largest news conglomerate, News International. His meteoric rise to the top, however, clashed with a centuries-old printing tradition in the United Kingdom, where he owned four of the company’s largest papers. The Fleet Street area of London, England had served as the iconic home to the nation’s printmaking industry since as far back as the 15th century. As Murdoch saw it, however, this history represented a method of printmaking that had long since passed its peak.

Manchester workers campaign for economic equality and political representation (Peterloo Massacre), 1817-1820

Country
United Kingdom
Time period
March, 1817 to Spring, 1820
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
Total points
3 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Nicholas V. Dirago, 04/11//2011

The economic plight of the people of Manchester in the early eighteenth century was rooted in three major historical developments: the Industrial Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the Corn Laws of 1804. The first solidified an enormous and conspicuous gap between rich and poor, leaving Manchester’s lower classes—mostly spinners and weavers of cotton—to grapple with unemployment, poverty, hunger, and heavy reliance on social welfare. It also contributed to an unprecedented boom in population (Manchester’s quintupled in four decades).

Greenpeace stops Kimberly-Clark's destruction of the Boreal forest in Canada (Kleercut), 2004-2009

Country
Canada
United States
Germany
United Kingdom
Italy
Time period
November, 2004 to August, 2009
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Hannah Lehmann, 21/09/2011, Pauline Blount, 25/04/2013

Kimberley-Clark Corporation is the largest tissue-product manufacturer in the world, producer of well-known brands including Kleenex, Scott, and Cottonelle. It is no surprise that Kimberly-Clark is also arguably the leading consumer of wood-fiber.  However, before 2009, Kimberley-Clark continued to take 90% this wood-fiber from unsustainably managed forests, most notably the ancient Boreal Forest in Canada.

Indians force Coca-Cola bottling facility in Plachimada to shut down, 2001-2006

Country
India
United States
United Kingdom
Time period
September, 2001 to September, 2006
Classification
Change
Cluster
Environment
Total points
7 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Nathalie Schils, 11/07/2011

In 1998, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of the multinational beverage company, was granted a license to operate a bottling plant in Plachimada, a small village in the state of Kerala in southern India.  Within two years of the plant's opening in 2000, indigenous people living near the plant, known as the Adivasi people, began protesting the bottling plant's presence in their community.  The local population complained that Coca-Cola was lowering the water table and polluting surface and groundwater within the plant site and in the local community.

British workers strike for better wages and political reform (“The Plug Plot Riots”), 1842

Country
United Kingdom
Time period
July 18, 1842 to September, 1842
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Democracy
Total points
6 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
William Lawrence, 24/09/2010

The Industrial Revolution brought prosperity to Britain’s upper classes and in the process created a new industrial working class.  To this class belonged, in 1842, 350,000 textile workers, 120,000 coal miners, and 400,000 metal workers.   Most of these laborers lived in the coal-rich counties of Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire and Staffordshire in western Britain.  Far from sharing in the newfound industrial wealth of their employers, however, workers endured abysmal working conditions, unpredictable wages, and no job security.  The constant advancement of technolo

British citizens protest apartheid South African sports tours (Stop the Seventy Tour), 1969-1970

Country
United Kingdom
Time period
1969 to 1970
Classification
Defense
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Human Rights
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Anthony Phalen, 09/09/2009, and Alexa Ross, 19/09/2010

The world voiced its opposition to the National Party’s apartheid government ruling in South Africa in a new way in 1964. International sports tours and matches had become a focal point of cultural identity for whites in South Africa. Victories, to them, demonstrated a kind of symbolic power of white South Africa. White elite South Africa was considered “sports mad.” Once this became apparent to other countries in objection to the political state of South Africa, they found a way to use the situation to send a message.

British workers general strike to support mine workers, 1926

Country
United Kingdom
Time period
May 1, 1926 to May 12, 1926
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Human Rights
Total points
2 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Matthew Heck, 26/09/2010

The general strike of 1926 in Britain was one of the largest strikes Britain has ever experienced and, simultaneously, perhaps the least successful.  Previous strikes in the wake of World War I (such as 1919, 1920, and 1921) were precursors to the strike of 1926 and suggest the extreme volatility of the British economy in the post-World War I time period.  Although this strike was a general strike comprised of almost every industry in Britain, the mineworkers’ standard of living was the sole concern of the strike.

Prison officers strike in England and Wales, 2007

Country
England
Wales
United Kingdom
Time period
August 16, 2007 to August 30, 2007
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Human Rights
Total points
3 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Julio Alicea, 05/12/2010

In 1996, there were 204 reported attacks on prison staff in English prisons. Ten years later, the number of attacks soared to 1,050 attacks. After a 400% increase in attacks, prison officers were more than outraged with their apparently dangerous working conditions.

Scottish anti-nuclear power campaign in Torness, 1977

Country
Scotland
United Kingdom
Time period
May, 1978 to May, 1979
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
4 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Adriana Popa, 03/10/2010

In 1976, Pete Roche and a few other activists founded the Scottish Campaign to Resist the Atomic Menace (SCRAM). Aimed at protesting the construction of the Torness nuclear power station in the South-East of Scotland, as well as opposing nuclear power in general, SCRAM organized some of the largest anti-nuclear power demonstrations in the UK in the 1970s and 80s. The organization was composed of eight full time volunteer workers, plus vacillating numbers of members. The decision-making process was mainly represented by consensus reached during public meetings.

Irish republican prisoners campaign for special status, 1976—1981

Country
Northern Ireland
United Kingdom
Time period
September, 1976 to October, 1981
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Samia Abbass, 05/12/2010

Hunger strikes have a long history in Ireland dating back to the medieval periods when Cealachan, a method of gaining justice for some perceived offense through starvation, was codified in the civil code called the Senchus Mor. This starvation tactic, whereby the victim fasted on the doorstep of their wrongdoer, could be used to settle or recover a debt, or address an injustice – the threat lay in that if the complainant was allowed to die on the defendant’s doorstep, that person would be held responsible for the death and the victim’s family.

UK students campaign against tuition raises, 2010

Country
United Kingdom
Time period
10 November, 2010 to 9 December, 2010
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
4 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Ashley Banks, 29/04/2011

In May of 2010, the United Kingdom held its general elections. The Conservative Party formed the new government by making an alliance with a smaller party, the Liberal Democrats. 

British citizens campaign for the abolition of the slave trade, 1787-1807

Country
United Kingdom
Time period
(1787), 1700 to 1807
Classification
Change
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Hannah Jones, 14/02/2010

During the 1700’s, Great Britain was a strong colonial power with extensive land holdings in the West Indies, India, and Africa. A key aspect of this colonial empire was the shipment of slaves from Africa to the sugar plantations in the West Indies.