Left politics and labor / Global Nonviolent Action Database
Global Nonviolent Action Database
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/
Labor actionactive
The archive's reading. none stated. The archive reads the case as the unit that carries a campaign's course in prose, which an event count does not; whether a case keeps a defeated tactic or a split inside the campaign is not shown in the saved pages.
| Kind | database of case studies of nonviolent action campaigns, browsable by case, tag, method and map |
|---|---|
| Operator | Swarthmore College, including the Peace and Conflict Studies Program, the Peace Collection, and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility |
| Unit of record | a case: a nonviolent action campaign (a menu page is titled 'Campaigns, Not Movements'), linked to the methods it used |
| What it records | nonviolent action campaigns across 100+ countries and 400+ years; featured cases include a labor strike (Guatemalan workers at Lunafil), a student sit-in against sweatshop apparel (Macalester, 2000) and a transgender activists' campaign on Philadelphia public transit |
| Whose record it keeps | the record of nonviolent campaigns, written up as cases |
| Who holds it | Swarthmore College; licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 unless otherwise noted; the public can suggest a case |
| The losing side | not recorded. A 'Limitations of the Database' page and coding definitions are listed and were not read; the saved pages do not show whether failed campaigns or splits inside campaigns are recorded |
| Method | written case studies coded against definitions (a Coding Definitions page, unread); the public can suggest a case; how cases are researched and written is not recorded in the saved text |
| Coverage | geography: 100+ countries; period: 400+ years |
| Count | value: 1,200+ cases; as_of: 2026-10-31 (home page read) |
| Holdings | 1,200+ cases; 100+ countries; 400+ years covered; a browse of methods of nonviolent action; a map of campaigns |
| Stated limits | a page titled 'Limitations of the Database' is listed in the navigation; its text was not read |
| Data access | public browse and search of cases, tags, methods and map; registered users can log in |
| Licence | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International, unless otherwise noted |
| Lifecycle | state: active; detail: the site answered on 2026-10-31 and takes case suggestions; update dates are not recorded in the saved text |
What its record can settle
- how a named nonviolent campaign was conducted, as the case writes it up
- which campaigns used a given method, through the methods browse
What it cannot settle
- the frequency of nonviolent action in any country or period (the cases are written up one by one)
- strikes or campaigns that have no case
- the positions argued inside a campaign (not shown in the saved pages)
Kept apart
- NOT a labor dataset: labor cases are one part of a database of nonviolent action of every kind
- NOT a database of movements: its unit is the campaign
- NOT an event count
Evidence
- operator (the resource's own statement):
The Global Nonviolent Action Database is a project of Swarthmore College, including the Peace and Conflict Studies Program, the Peace Collection, and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - license (the resource's own statement):
The Global Nonviolent Action Database is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license unless otherwise noted.
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - tagline (the resource's own statement):
Powering Learning about Nonviolent Action
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - count_cases (the resource's own statement):
1,200+ cases
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - count_countries (the resource's own statement):
100+ countries
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - count_years (the resource's own statement):
400+ years covered
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - unit (the resource's own statement):
Campaigns, Not Movements
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - limits_page (the resource's own statement):
Limitations of the Database
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - coding (the resource's own statement):
Coding Definitions
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - suggest (the resource's own statement):
Suggest a Case
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - methods (the resource's own statement):
Browse Methods
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - map (the resource's own statement):
View Campaigns on the Map
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - labor_case (the resource's own statement):
Guatemalan workers at Lunafil strike
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - case_sweatshop (the resource's own statement):
Macalester students stage sit-in to oppose sweatshop apparel, 2000
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - case_transit (the resource's own statement):
Transgender activists end policy of gender markers on Philadelphia public transit
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a… - login (the resource's own statement):
Registered users can login to the website.
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/ · read 2026-10-31 · http 200 · sha256 c4ecffa2e4ca662a…
Unchecked
the About page (content/about: connection reset, nothing saved); the /about address (http 404; its saved text is the site's not-found page and is not quoted); the Limitations of the Database, Coding Definitions, Campaigns, Not Movements and Who Made the Database? pages; the cases themselves; how many cases concern labor
Cite: Lee Sharks, ed. "Global Nonviolent Action Database." Mary Lee Labor meta-aggregator: left politics and labor, maryleelabor.org, compiled 2026-10-31. https://www.maryleelabor.org/aggregators/gnad