Suicide protest
| Suicide |
|---|
Suicide and life-threatening self-harm have been used in protests and militant actions by movements and individuals with very diverse ideologies and goals.
Self-immolation
[edit]
Romas Kalanta
[edit]Romas Kalanta was a 19-year-old Lithuanian student who self-immolated in 1972 to protest against the Soviet regime in Lithuania, sparking the 1972 unrest in Lithuania; another 13 people self-immolated in that same year.[1][additional citation(s) needed]
Hunger strikes
[edit]Hunger strikes are another use of self harm, and actual or potential suicide, that is used by some militant groups.[examples needed]
1981 Irish hunger strike
[edit]
In 1981 ten members of the IRA died in hunger strikers, the first was Bobby Sands. By January 1981, it became clear that the prisoners' demands had not been conceded. The republican movement—"unconvincingly", argues Kelly—blamed Britain, insisting that Thatcher had reneged on her promises.[2] Instead, for example, of the right to their own clothes, which the prisoners believed had been conceded them, it became clear that they would have to wear prison-issued clothes until they could demonstrate full compliance with the regime. Sands saw this as "a demand for capitulation rather than a step-by-step approach", argues O'Dochartaigh, and began pressuring the external leadership to authorise another hunger strike.[3]
1987 Suicide of Tamil Tigers
[edit]![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2025) |
See also
[edit]- Global topics
- Anti-suicide blanket
- Hunger strike
- List of political self-immolations
- Lists of active separatist movements
- Martyr
- Mass suicides
- Prison
- Prisoner
- Prisoner of war
- Protests
- Religious views on suicide
- Self-harm
- Self-harm in solitary confinement
- Suicide attack
- Suicide in the military
- Suicide mission
- Suicide prevention
- Local topics
- 1981 Irish hunger strike
- 1987 Suicide of Tamil Tigers
- Blanket protest
- Custodial deaths in the United Kingdom
- Dirty protest
- Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center
- Jaffna hospital massacre
- Kent State shootings
- LGBTQ Mormon suicides
- March First Movement
- March Intifada
- Masada myth
- Mass suicides in Nazi Germany
- Moshe Barzani
- Self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell
- Thích Quảng Đức
Reference
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ Anušauskas, Arvydas. "KGB reakcija į 1972 m. įvykius". Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
- ^ Kelly 2021, p. 129.
- ^ O'Dochartaigh 2021, p. 178.
Sources
[edit]- Kelly, S. (2021). Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative Party and the Northern Ireland Conflict, 1975-1990. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-35011-537-8.
- O'Dochartaigh, N. (2021). Deniable Contact: Back-channel Negotiation in Northern Ireland. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19289-476-2.
