003. Declarations by organizations and institutions

Swarthmore College, a small liberal arts institution located 30 minutes from Philadelphia, PA, is renowned for its academic rigor and commitment to cultural inclusivity. During the College’s 2013 "Spring of Discontent" (a term coined by the College’s President, Rebecca Chopp) , the college faced student protest against systemic administrative failures. Multiple student campaigns brought to light issues such as a lack of diversity among students and faculty, fossil fuel divestment, and, most notably, the need for Title IX reform.

In early 2018, the United States experienced a series of educators' strikes in several states, during which 485,200 workers participated in stoppages, marking the highest participation since 1986, when 533,000 workers went on strike. The state government’s budget cuts to public schools after the Great Recession of 2008 and growing class sizes since the 1990s worsened the working conditions of public school teachers, leading to massive strikes.

Between 1860 and 1861, the Confederate States of America, formed by 11 Southern states, engaged in the Civil War to defend the national legality of slavery. One of the flags associated with the Confederacy was the “battle flag,” which remains visible in many public spaces as a symbol of Southern pride and historical heritage. For example, in 1964, the South Carolina State Legislature raised the flag over the State Capitol dome to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Civil War.

The Powder River Basin, a 20,000 square mile region stretching across Eastern Montana and Wyoming, was long the coal mining hub of North America. In 2022, the region produced over 250 million tons of coal, almost half of the total coal production in the United States that year. The five largest coal mines in the country are in the basin, and in 2009, Arch Coal introduced plans to build the largest coal mine in North America.

In January 2015, Alex Friedman, who suffered from muscular dystrophy, uploaded a picture of himself in his wheelchair with the caption “disabled, not half a person” to his Facebook account. The post called for Israel’s government to raise the monthly disability stipend for citizens from its value at the time which was 2,342 NIS ($660), which was roughly half of the monthly minimum wage in Israel at the time.

In October 1969, a German company known as Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik (BASF) made plans to invest in building a petrochemical plant on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The Lowcountry region, where Hilton Head Island is located, was already experiencing a public health crisis, predominantly in its black and low-income communities. Some residents perceived BASF’s announcement as a huge opportunity as it would provide jobs. Other residents resisted the petrochemical project.

On 26 March, 2015, U.S. Republican Governor Mike Pence signed Bill 101 into state law after the State Senate approved it by a vote of 40-10. The law, officially titled the “Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (RFRA), was set to take effect on 1 July, 2015. Bill 101 protects individuals or businesses from government actions that substantially burden their religious beliefs, unless the government demonstrates a “compelling interest” and uses the least restrictive means to enforce the law against those beliefs.

Taiwanese independence has been an important issue in East Asia since the country was established in 1949. Cross-strait tensions between China and Taiwan created tension within Taiwan. The two major political parties in Taiwan, the Kuomintang (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), hold opposite positions on how the country should handle their relationship with China. The Kuomintang are a conservative, Chinese nationalist party that ruled in China for 20 years before leaving for Taiwan.

The Great Recession of 2008 adversely affected the U.S. economy, causing struggles across multiple industries and leading to the bankruptcy of major enterprises. Due to declining automobile sales and the scarce availability of credit, one of the "Big Three" automotive manufacturers, General Motors (GM), went bankrupt.

On 6 September 2017, the Catalan parliament voted in favor of holding a referendum on Catalan independence. Fifty two (out of a total of 135) members of Catalan parliament walked out in protest of the vote. Spanish government officials warned that the decision to hold a referendum was a violation of the Spanish constitution. The deputy prime minister of Spain declared the Spanish government’s intention to “defend freedom, democracy and coexistence.” “Let no one doubt that we know what we have to do and that we will do it,” she added.

Arizona, a southwestern U.S. state known for its diverse geography and iconic landmarks, had approximately 48,510 teachers in its public schools in 2018. For three decades, under state budget and education fund cuts, teachers' salaries were between $8,000 and $9,000 lower than teachers' salaries had been in 1990. According to the state's auditor general, Arizona teachers' wages averaged $48,372 per year in 2018, ranked among some of the lowest in the nation.

When the Interactive Media Agreement expired at the end of 2014, labor union SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) sought to negotiate a new term agreement for the video game industry. This contract develops the labor relationship between employers and workers about working conditions, resolves labor conflict, and ensures fair payment in the industry, for workers developing video games, computer games, virtual reality games, and some apps with user interaction.

Santa Cruz, California, situated in the northern part of Monterey Bay, is home to the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).

Alexander Lukashenko first assumed office as the president of Belarus in 1994. In the years to follow, he consolidated his power through increasingly authoritarian rule. Although the government held presidential elections to re-appoint Lukashenko for each subsequent term, according to third-party analysts and the international community, the process was fraudulent and provided no genuine opportunity for opposition. It was not until the August 2020 presidential election that Belarusians voiced opposition on a massive, organized scale.

In March 2011, civilian protests against the ruling Assad regime resulted in violent government suppression and a Syrian civil war. Primarily, civilians suffered the fallout of conflict between the government and armed resistance groups, many of whom formed rivalries with one another.

In February of 2019, a hashtag reading “We Want to Live” (WWL) in Arabic began circulating on Gazan social media pages. Those posting the hashtag were protesting the deteriorating economic conditions, the high cost of living, and the recent tax increases imposed by Hamas (the ruling authority in Gaza) on the residents of the Gaza strip. On 10 March 2019, thirteen activists met in the home of one of the organizers to plan a public demonstration.

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.

After the Indo-Chinese border conflict ended in 1963, access to the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, a region encompassing eight different districts in the Himalayas, was greatly expanded.  The money for this expansion, including highway building, generally came from logging companies that wanted access to the vast timber forests in this area of the country.  Poor forest management led to increased erosion, depleted water resources, lower agricultural yields and greater flooding.

 
Uganda in East Africa has a large rainforest area, the Mabira Forest, that has been protected since 1932. In 2007 Ugandan President Yoweli Kaguta Museveni announced a plan to hand over one-third of the Mabira rainforest to the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited (SCOUL).  The plan was to turn the forest into land for growing sugarcane.

In the early 1960’s, student-led sit-ins were a prominent scene in the United States Civil Rights Movement. The success of a sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina (see “Greensboro, NC, students sit-in for U.S. Civil Rights, 1960”) began a wave of action in college campuses throughout the South. One of the many areas inspired by the Greensboro sit-ins was Atlanta, Georgia.

The anti-sweatshop movement was the largest student activism movement in the United States since the South African divestment movement over ten years before. Students all around the country pressured college and university administrators to adopt strict labor codes that guaranteed that merchandise bearing the college’s logo was not made by people working under unacceptable, “sweatshop-like” conditions.

In 1913, sixteen to eighteen percent of all women over fourteen in and around Barcelona worked in textile factories and related industries. Spinning and weaving workshops usually employed fewer than 40 women and these women worked eleven to twelve hour days. In contrast, male workers usually worked only ten-hour days. Male wages varied between 3 and 3.75 pesetas while female wages were between 1.75 and 2.50 pesetas, with few women earning over 2. Some women worked from the home, manufacturing corsets, paper boxes, shoes, and garments for employers who provided them with piecework.

Belize formally became an independent nation in 1981 and quickly established itself as a parliamentary democracy with a high degree of electoral participation and a Constitution that guaranteed basic rights and freedoms to all citizens. In 1998, the People's United Party won a landslide victory and party leader Said Musa was sworn in as Prime Minister - a position he held until 2008.

The mass demonstrations of 1963 in Durham were the culmination of a local black freedom movement that had slowly gained momentum over the preceding years. Durham had been the site of a thwarted sit-in at the Royal Ice Cream Parlor in 1957, limited desegregation of schools, and the long-standing lunch-counter sit-ins in 1960 (see “Durham students sit-in for U.S. Civil Rights, 1960”). Throughout the next few years, civil rights activists continued to attack segregation in theaters, schools, motels, and restaurants as well as demand increased employment opportunities for blacks.

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.