Hunger strike

The hunger strike is a classic nonviolent pressure tactic used for centuries by activists from all corners of the world. In fact, it’s so central to the direct action toolbox that it is the only tactic among Gene Sharp’s 198 methods of nonviolent action to be broken down into sub-tactics. The gist of it is pretty simple, though: Stop eating.

All people must eat. By refusing to do so until an injustice is corrected you can often exert enough pressure to force a powerful target to concede to your demands.

Used strategically, a hunger strike can not only draw attention to a situation of injustice or violated rights, but also elevate the cause and credibility of those who have chosen to take such a strong and personally risky action, giving hunger strikers more leverage at the negotiating table.

100 years ago, suffragettes in the UK and the US used hunger strikes (often prolonged and from jail) as a pressure tactic in the fight to win women the right to vote. Both governments responded with gruesome force-feeding of prisoners.

A hunger strike is a powerful moral and individual act, but it is also a tactic that is meant to advance a cause.

For Gandhi, fasting was both a political pressure tactic and a spiritual part of his satyagraha philosophy of nonviolence. He fasted 17 times during the struggle for Indian independence and again against the communal violence after Partition. During his longest strike (21 days), the British, worried at the sympathy that might be generated, prohibited any photographs of him to circulate.

In 1981, during a prolonged hunger strike for better conditions and political recognition, 10 imprisoned members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) died, including strike leader Bobby Sands (after 66 days) who was elected MP from prison during the strike. The strike radicalised Irish nationalist politics, elevating Sinn Féin into a mainstream political party.

In 2011, a much-publicized series of hunger strikes outside the administrative headquarters of the Indian Government (some by tax officials turned activists) led to the passage of major anti-corruption measures, and swept the newly-founded Common Man party into power in New Delhi’s municipal elections.

In 2016, 17 Angolan political prisoners, including Luaty Beirão (known also by his musician persona Ikonoklasta) protested their detention with a hunger strike of 36 days — one day for every year the then dictator-President Jose Eduardo dos Santos had been in power. The protest (which came to be known as the Angola 15+2 won international visibility and the regime was pressured to release the prisoners. Weakened by this capitulation, and with popular and international opinion polarized against him, dos Santos stepped down the following year.

Sometimes hunger strikes are undertaken by people on the frontline of an injustice (say the 30,000 California prisoners who engaged in a mass hunger strike against solitary confinement in 2013); sometimes by their allies (as with the hunger strikes by prominent religious leaders in solidarity with Florida farmworkers engaged in the Taco Bell Boycott.

A hunger strike works best when it is part of a thoughtful (and strategic) mix of other tactics, such as solidarity fasts and vigils. In some situations, mass mobilization is required to force a ferocious opponent to budge, as in 2012 when The Palestinian Political Prisoners’ Movement organized 1800 inmates dispersed across several Israeli prisons to go on a coordinated hunger strike.

Before deciding on a hunger strike, you need to ask basic questions such as: Are you acting alone or as a group? Who are you trying to influence and will this tactic be effective on them? And, also, what is your Plan B?

It’s critical to publicize the strike, and especially to escalate pressure (see: PRINCIPLE: Escalate strategically) as the stakes rise and public attention grows. In the 1981 IRA hunger strikes, Bobby Sands began first, but other strikers joined one at a time and at staggered intervals to generate maximum pressure and public support.

In addition to such tactical considerations, you must always ask: What are you prepared to risk and how far are you prepared to go? As Ms. Pankhurst said more than 100 years ago: “Only people who feel an intolerable sense of oppression” should adopt such an extreme tactic.