5 million Indian women just made a 385-mile human chain for gender equality
The wall was a statement of gender equality, and a call to end violent protests against women trying to enter Kerala’s Sabarimala temple, a pilgrimage site for Hindus.
Activism & Protests
This archive gathers 56 stories about activism and protests that produced real, documented results — policy shifts, legal wins, corporate accountability, and community organizing breakthroughs. From grassroots campaigns to large-scale movements, these articles highlight what collective action has actually achieved. Read them to understand how people pushed for change and what happened next.
Nearly 2 million people sign petition to sue France over climate inaction
More than 1.8 million people worldwide have signed a petition from environmental groups to sue the French government for failing to take sufficient action on the matter.
U.S. Supreme Court lets youths’ case demanding climate action proceed
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to halt the trial in a lawsuit brought by 21 young people seeking to force the federal government to take action to address climate change.
Tens of thousands march across France to demand climate action
Tens of thousands of people marched in Paris and other major cities across France on Saturday to call for greater action on climate change.
Chinese citizens are using blockchain to warn each other of unsafe vaccines
By using the blockchain in this new way, Chinese citizens may have finally found a way to express themselves that’s beyond the government’s reach.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions presses ahead with nationwide protest over ‘poverty-level’ minimum wage
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) will go ahead with its planned nationwide mass mobilisation of workers to protest against the proposed “poverty-level” national minimum wage of R20 an hour and amendments to labour laws
Millions of Venezuelans join the Mother of All Marches
The Mother of All Marches, also known as the Mother of All Protests, was a day of protests held on April 19, 2017 in Venezuela against the Chavista government of president Nicolás Maduro.
Iran’s Green Movement rises in historic post-election protests
Iran’s Green Movement brought millions into the streets in the summer of 2009, after a disputed presidential election handed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide victory that opposition supporters rejected as fraudulent. On June 15, a crowd estimated in the hundreds of thousands to three million gathered around Tehran’s Azadi Tower — the largest demonstration in the Islamic Republic’s history to that point.
Czechoslovakia’s Communist Party surrenders power after 11 days of protests
The Velvet Revolution swept through Czechoslovakia in November 1989, ending 41 years of Communist rule in just 11 days without a shot fired. After riot police beat student marchers in Prague on November 17, crowds swelled to half a million within days. Playwright Václav Havel was president by year’s end.
East Germans breach the Berlin Wall after decades of division
The Berlin Wall began to open on November 9, 1989, when a muddled government announcement sent East Germans streaming toward checkpoints guards no longer tried to hold. What followed was stranger and more human than any single night: teachers, border officers, and ordinary citizens quietly negotiating a new reality, day by day, for weeks.