Occupation (protest)
venting their employers from replacing them with strike-
Protests in Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
As an act of protest, occupation is a strategy often used
by social movements and other forms of collective so-
cial action in order to take and hold public and symbolic
spaces, buildings, critical infrastructure such as entrances
to train stations, shopping centers, university buildings,
squares, and parks.[1][2] Opposed to a military occupation
which attempts to subdue a conquered country, a protest
occupation is a means to resist the status quo and advo-
cate a change in public policy.[3][4] Occupation attempts
to use space as an instrument in order to achieve political
and economic change, and to construct counter-spaces in
which protesters express their desire to participate in the
production and re-imagination of urban space.[5][6] Of-
ten, this is connected to the right to the city, which is the
right to inhabit and be in the city as well as to redene
the city in ways that challenge the demands of capitalist
accumulation.[7] That is to make public spaces more valu-
able to the citizens in contrast to favoring the interests of
corporate and nancial capital.[8]
Unlike other forms of protest like demonstrations,
marches and rallies, occupation is dened by an extended
temporality and is usually located in specic places.[9] In
many cases local governments declare occupations ille-
gal because protesters seek to control space over a pro-
longed time. Thus occupations are often in conict with
political authorities and forces of established order, espe-
cially the police.[10][11] These confrontations in particular
attract media attention.[12][13]
Occupation, as a means of achieving change, emerged
from worker struggles that sought everything from higher
wages to the abolition of capitalism. Often called a sit-
down strike, it is a form of civil disobedience in which an
organized group of workers, usually employed at a factory
or other centralized location, take possession of the work-
place by sitting down at their stations, eectively pre-
1
breakers or, in some cases, moving production to other
locations.
The recovered factories in Argentina is an example of
workplace occupations moving beyond addressing work-
place grievances, to demanding a change in ownership of
the means of production.
The Industrial Workers of the World were the rst Ameri-
can union to use it, while the United Auto Workers staged
successful sit-down strikes in the 1930s, most famously in
the Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936-1937. Sit-down strikes
were declared illegal by the US supreme court, but are still
used by unions such as the UMWA in the Pittston strike,
and the workers at the Republic Windows and Doors fac-
tory in Chicago.
The Occupy Wall Street movement, inspired amongst
others by the Arab Spring and the Indignados movement
of Spain, started a global movement in which the oc-
cupation of public spaces is a key tactic. During these
protests in 2011, the tactic of occupation was used in a
new way as protesters wanted to remain indenitely until
they were heard, resisting police and government ocials
who wanted to evict them. In contrast to earlier protest
encampments these occupations mobilized more people
during a longer time period in more cities. This gained
them worldwide attention.[14]
1 Notable protest occupations
2015 Occupy LSE,[15] a six-week occupation against
the neoliberalisation of LSE and the UK Higher Ed-
ucation system.
2015 University of Amsterdam Bungehuis and
Maagdenhuis Occupations, a protest against budget
cuts and for more democracy in the University.
2014 Hong Kong protests, an occupation protest for
universal surage in Hong Kong in 2014
The occupation of the Legislative Yuan of Republic
of China (Taiwan) in 2014 as part of the Sunower
Student Movement.
The several massive occupations of improductive
land in Brazil by the largest mass movement of
the world, the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais
Sem Terra, from 1973 up to now.[16]
The 20112012 Spanish protests
2 3
The occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol in
Madison, Wisconsin in February 2011 as part of the
2011 Wisconsin protests over labor rights, a precur-
sor to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Occupy Wall Street, which helped spawn the world-
wide Occupy movement that is still ongoing
Tahrir Square during the 2011 Egyptian revolution
The occupation of some university buildings in the
UK in November 2010 and early 2011 in response
to cuts by the coalition Conservative-Liberal Demo-
crat government including those to public services,
welfare handouts and all levels of education (notably
the increase of tuition fees in combination to fund-
ing cuts).[17][18][19][20]
The tent city known as Democracy Village erected
in Parliament Square in London, in 2010.
The wave of Student Occupations at universities in
the UK in early 2009.[21][22]
The occupations of university buildings during the
2009 California college tuition hike protests.
The ux of student occupations at universities in
New York City over the 2008-9 year, including
NYU and The New School.
The February 2008 occupation of Symphony Way
by the Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers after the
largest home invasion in South Africas history. Res-
idents occupied the main thoroughfare for 1 year and
9 months.
The occupation of Oaxaca City for 150 days during
the 2006 Oaxaca protests.
The Cedar Revolution
The Wild Lily student movement
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
The Greenham Common Womens Peace Camp in
England which began protesting the placement of
nuclear-armed cruise missiles in 1981.
The American Indian Movement occupation at
Wounded Knee, South Dakota (1973)
The 1969 occupation of Alcatraz by American In-
dians.
The 1969 occupation of City College by a group
consisting largely of Black and Puerto Rican stu-
dents that demanded and won open admissions at
CUNY.
The 1968 Columbia Student Strike.
REFERENCES
The 1968 Poor Peoples Campaign organized by
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference occupation of the National
Mall.
1968 May 13 - Sorbonne Occupation Committee at
the Sorbonne University in Paris
1968 March 22 - Movement of 22 March Occupa-
tion of Nanterre University
The 1936-37 GM Sit-Down Strike, in Flint,
Michigan.
The 1932 Bonus Army occupation camp of World
War I veterans and their families in Washington,
D.C.
2 Tactics
Peace camps conducted on disputed territory such
as at Camp Humphreys
Sit-down strikes
Sit-ins
3 References
[1] Halvorsen, Sam (2012). Beyond the Network? Occupy
London and the Global Movement.. Social Movement
Studies. 11(3-4): 427433.
[2] Vasudevan, Alexander (2015). The Autonomous City:
Towards a Critical Geography of Occupation. Progress
in Human Geography. 39(3): 316337.
[3] Hammond, John L. (2013). The Signicance of Space
in Occupy Wall Street (PDF). Interface. 5(2): 499524.
[4] Pickerill, Jenny; Krinsky, John (2012). Why Does Oc-
cupy Matter?". Social Movement Studies. 11(3-4): 279
287.
[5] Hammond, John L. (2013). The Signicance of Space
in Occupy Wall Street (PDF). Interface. 5(2): 499524.
[6] Vasudevan, Alexander (2015). The Autonomous City:
Towards a Critical Geography of Occupation. Progress
in Human Geography. 39(3): 316337.
[7] Vasudevan, Alexander (2015). The Autonomous City:
Towards a Critical Geography of Occupation. Progress
in Human Geography. 39(3): 316337.
[8] Purcell, Mark (2003). Citizenship and the Right to the
Global City: Reimagining the Capitalist World Order
(PDF). International Journal of Urban and Regional Re-
search. 27(3): 564590.
[9] Moore, Sheehan (2013). Taking Up Space: Anthropol-
ogy and Embodied Protest (PDF). Radical Anthropology.
7: 616.
 3

[10] Hammond, John L. (2013). The Signicance of Space

in Occupy Wall Street (PDF). Interface. 5(2): 499524.

[11] Zhelnina, Anna (2014). ""Hanging Out, Creativity, and

the Right to the City: Urban Public Space in Russia before
and after the Protest Wave of 2011-2012. Stasis. 2(1):
228259.

[12] Gillham, Patrick F.; Edwards, Bob; Noakes, John A.

(2013). Strategic Incapacitation and the Policing of Oc-
cupy Wall Street Protests in New York City, 2011. Polic-
ing and Society. 23(1): 81102.

[13] Castaeda, Ernesto (2012). The Indignados of Spain: A

Precedent to Occupy Wall Street. Social Movement Stud-
ies. 11(3-4): 309319.

[14] Hammond, John L. (2013). The Signicance of Space

in Occupy Wall Street (PDF). Interface. 5(2): 499524.

[15] Occupy LSE - Free University of London.

[16] MST. Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra.

[17] Student tuition fees protests across the UK. BBC News.

[18] http://www.defendeducation.co.uk/

[19] http://anticuts.com/2010/11/24/
list-of-occupied-universities/

[20] the Free Hetherington. the Free Hetherington.

[21] Occupations.

[22] Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)".

4 External links
Media related to Occupations (protests) at Wikimedia
Commons
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