This is part of a series on nonviolent protest methods, which explains approaches and provides inspirational examples from history. For additional resources, please explore the Museum of Protest’s activist guides and view items in the collection.

On December 30, 1936, autoworkers at General Motors’ Fisher Body Plant No. 1 in Flint, Michigan, stopped their machines, sat down at their stations, and refused to leave. For the next 44 days, they lived inside the factory—playing ping-pong on makeshift tables, holding kangaroo courts for rule-breakers, and sleeping beside the very equipment their labor had built but their hands did not own.

When they finally walked out in February 1937, they had won union recognition and changed the course of American labor history. This was seizure of assets in action—not theft, not vandalism, but a strategic act of resistance that turned the question of who controls productive resources into a public confrontation with power.

Gene Sharp, the scholar who catalogued 198 methods of nonviolent action, classified seizure of assets as Method #187 within his framework’s most confrontational category: nonviolent intervention. Unlike symbolic protests or strikes that withdraw cooperation, seizure physically disrupts the opponent’s control over material resources. Workers don’t just stop working—they take over the factory. Farmers don’t just march—they occupy the land. Students don’t just demonstrate—they seize the administration building. This distinction matters because it transforms protest from a request into a fact on the ground.

How seizure differs from simple trespassing

What separates these actions from ordinary crime? Sharp identified several crucial distinctions that mark the boundary between nonviolent resistance and lawbreaking for personal gain.

The first is political purpose. When Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement occupies an estate, they don’t seek personal enrichment—they challenge a system where 1% of landowners control nearly half the country’s farmland. Their constitution’s Article 186 states that land must serve a “social function,” and MST occupations force the question: whose land is this, and for whose benefit?

The second is nonviolent discipline. The Flint sit-down strikers maintained strict rules: no alcohol, no violence, no destruction of equipment. When police attacked with tear gas, workers fought back with fire hoses and car-door hinges—but never with lethal force. This discipline wasn’t just ethical; it was strategic. Violence would have justified the state’s use of overwhelming force and destroyed public sympathy.

The third is public character. Unlike burglary, which seeks concealment, seizure of assets operates in daylight. When Native Americans occupied Alcatraz Island in 1969, they broadcast “Radio Free Alcatraz” daily and invited journalists to document their community. The occupation was designed to be seen, to create what Sharp called “political jiu-jitsu”—forcing opponents either to tolerate the occupation or to use violence that would be witnessed and judged.

The fourth is targeting illegitimate control. Movements seize assets whose ownership they consider unjust—land taken from indigenous peoples by broken treaties, factories abandoned by owners who stripped the equipment and fled, buildings sitting empty while families sleep on streets. The seizure doesn’t deny property rights in general; it challenges specific claims it considers illegitimate.

The strategic logic behind taking control

Sharp’s theory of power provides the conceptual foundation. All political power, he argued, rests on six pillars: authority, human resources, skills and knowledge, intangible factors like belief, material resources, and the ability to enforce sanctions. Seizure of assets directly attacks the material resources pillar while simultaneously demonstrating that the opponent’s authority is not as solid as it appears.

When workers occupy a factory, they prove two things simultaneously. First, they can run the machinery without bosses. Second, the boss’s property rights depend on workers’ willingness to respect them. This creates what Sharp called a “double-bind”: if opponents don’t repress the occupation, it undermines their position. If they use violent repression against nonviolent occupiers, it generates sympathy for the movement and further undermines their authority.

The mechanism through which seizure produces change varies. Sometimes it leads to conversion—opponents genuinely accept the movement’s position. More often, it produces accommodation—opponents concede because the cost of continued resistance is too high. In some cases, it achieves nonviolent coercion—opponents lose the ability to enforce their will because their sources of power have been withdrawn.

Factory seizures and worker takeovers across history

The Flint sit-down strike set the template for factory occupation in the industrial age. General Motors had invested $839,000 on spies and surveillance between 1933 and 1936 to suppress organizing—an average autoworker earned $900 per year, while $1,600 was the minimum a family of four needed to survive. Union organizers worked in secret, meeting in workers’ homes and keeping new member names confidential even from established union officials who might be informants.

The tactical innovation was simple but revolutionary: stay inside. Previous strikes had walked out, allowing companies to bring in replacement workers. But you can’t bring in scabs to run machines that strikers are sitting on. When police stormed Fisher Body Plant No. 2 on January 11, 1937—the “Battle of the Running Bulls”—workers defended themselves with fire hoses and thrown hinges. Fourteen workers were shot, but police retreated. The strike held.

The Women’s Emergency Brigade, led by 23-year-old Genora Johnson, proved essential. Women walked picket lines, delivered food to strikers inside, acted as human shields during police attacks, and in one crucial moment, smashed windows to let tear gas escape during a police assault. Community support sustained what individual workers could not have accomplished alone.

Political cover mattered enormously. Governor Frank Murphy sent the National Guard not to evict strikers but to protect them from police and corporate strikebreakers. A judge with over 3,000 GM shares issued an injunction against the occupation, but when UAW lawyers discovered his conflict of interest, he was disqualified. President Roosevelt pressured GM to negotiate. After 44 days, workers won recognition of the UAW as exclusive bargaining representative, wage increases, and the right to discuss unions during lunch. Nationwide union membership exploded from 3.4 million in 1930 to 10 million by 1942.

Argentina’s recuperated enterprises movement emerged from desperation rather than ideology. When the economy collapsed in December 2001—unemployment over 20%, more than half the population below the poverty line—factory owners stripped equipment and fled. Workers who had not been paid in months simply stayed. Their slogan became “Ocupar, Resistir, Producir” (Occupy, Resist, Produce).

The Zanon ceramics factory in Neuquén, renamed FaSinPat (“Factory Without Bosses”), faced five government eviction attempts. On April 8, 2003, over 5,000 community members came out to physically defend the factory. It still operates under worker control today. The BAUEN Hotel in Buenos Aires was occupied in March 2003 by workers who had been locked out since December 2001; they entered through a side entrance by cutting the lock, made repairs with donated materials, and fought years of legal battles for recognition. By 2013, between 190 and 311 enterprises had been recuperated across Argentina, employing over 10,000 workers. Surveys showed 93% of Buenos Aires residents viewed these worker-run factories positively.

Scotland’s Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in of 1971-1972 introduced a tactical innovation: instead of stopping work, workers continued building ships after the government refused a £6 million loan and announced closure. Shop steward Jimmy Reid announced: “We are not going to strike… We are taking over the yards because we refuse to accept that faceless men can make these decisions.” The work-in demonstrated that the yards were economically viable—that the problem wasn’t worker productivity but political choice. John Lennon donated £5,000; 80,000 people marched through Glasgow. The government backed down, provided £35 million in funding, and saved 5,000 jobs. The work-in inspired approximately 260 subsequent factory occupations across Britain over the following decade.

Land occupations and indigenous reclamations

Land seizure carries particular moral weight because land itself is often contested. Treaties were broken. Peoples were dispossessed. Colonial boundaries ignored prior claims. When movements occupy land, they assert not just economic claims but historical and spiritual connections.

Brazil’s Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) has led over 2,500 land occupations since 1984, settling approximately 370,000 families on 7.5 million hectares. Their process is carefully organized: identify unproductive estates (latifúndios), gather 500 to 3,000 families into base groups of 10-20 people, establish encampments marked by black tarpaulin tents and raised flags, and build self-sufficient communities with schools, cooperatives, and vegetable gardens while fighting legal battles for formal recognition.

The constitutional basis matters. Brazil’s 1988 constitution allows the state to expropriate land not fulfilling a “social function”—land not used productively. MST invokes Article 186 to argue their occupations accelerate constitutional mandates rather than violate them. In 1996, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that land occupations aimed at hastening reforms are “substantially distinct” from criminal acts against property. The movement now operates over 1,500 primary schools using Paulo Freire’s educational philosophy.

The occupation of Alcatraz Island from November 1969 to June 1971 galvanized the Native American rights movement. Eighty-nine members of “Indians of All Tribes” claimed the abandoned federal prison under the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which guaranteed return of unused federal lands to tribal control. They established a governing council, built a clinic, kitchen, nursery, and school, and broadcast “Radio Free Alcatraz” daily from the island. At its peak, 400-600 people lived there.

The occupation ended when U.S. marshals removed the final 15 occupiers, but it had already succeeded in its deeper purpose. It focused national attention on tribal grievances, inspired the Red Power movement, and contributed to changes in federal Indian policy that moved toward self-determination rather than termination. The symbolism of indigenous people reclaiming a federal prison resonated powerfully.

Standing Rock’s resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016-2017 became the largest gathering of Native Americans in over a century, with more than 200 tribes represented. Youth from Standing Rock and allied tribes established “water protector camps” near the pipeline route, framing their action as defense of water (“Mní Wičóni”—Water is Life) rather than mere protest. The framing mattered: it emphasized a universal value rather than a particular tribal interest.

The camps functioned as both resistance and alternative community. They faced militarized police response: attack dogs, water cannons in subfreezing temperatures, rubber bullets, and mass arrests. Over 300 people were injured; hundreds were arrested. But 2,000 veterans arrived in December 2016 to serve as human shields, and their presence changed the dynamic—authorities backed down. The Obama administration denied the pipeline easement, though Trump reversed the decision. Legal battles continue today.

New Zealand’s Māori land occupations achieved lasting victories through sustained resistance. At Bastion Point (Takaparawhau), Ngāti Whātua protesters occupied ancestral land for 506 days in 1977-1978 after the government announced plans to sell it for luxury housing. By 1976, the iwi held less than one hectare of land their ancestors had once controlled. They built a temporary meeting house and vegetable gardens. When 800 police and army personnel finally evicted 222 protesters, the action sparked public outrage. In 1987, the Waitangi Tribunal supported Māori claims; the land was returned with $3 million compensation.

At Ihumātao, protesters occupied sacred land from 2016 until 2020, when the New Zealand government purchased it for $30 million to prevent development. Effective social media organizing under #ProtectIhumātao brought thousands of supporters to the site when police attempted eviction.

Building takeovers as sites of transformation

Buildings carry symbolic weight. Government buildings represent state power. Universities represent institutions that should protect students. Banks represent financial power. When movements seize buildings, they claim both the physical space and its meaning.

Columbia University’s 1968 occupation became the best-documented student protest in American history. On April 23, Students for a Democratic Society and the Student Afro-American Society occupied five buildings to protest the university’s ties to the Institute for Defense Analyses (a military research organization) and plans for a segregated gymnasium in Morningside Park. Black and white students made a strategic decision to separate—Hamilton Hall was renamed “Malcolm X Liberation College” while SDS occupied other buildings with more spontaneous organization.

The occupation lasted nearly a week. When nearly 1,000 police cleared the buildings at 2 AM on April 30, Black students in Hamilton Hall surrendered peacefully—86 walked out calmly. White students in other buildings resisted; police used nightsticks, arrested over 700 people, and injured more than 100. This police violence sparked a campus-wide strike. The gymnasium project was permanently cancelled, Columbia terminated its IDA contract, and a Black Studies program was created.

The Wisconsin State Capitol occupation of February-March 2011 became the longest continuous occupation of a major government building in U.S. history. When Governor Scott Walker introduced legislation stripping public sector unions of collective bargaining rights, the Teaching Assistants Association made the key decision: occupy overnight. By February 20, a fully functioning community had formed inside—sleeping areas, medical station, food stations, information center, and walls covered with thousands of handmade signs.

At peak, 100,000 people marched on the Capitol in snow. Fourteen Democratic state senators fled to Illinois to deny quorum. The South Central Federation of Labor endorsed consideration of a general strike—the first such discussion since 1946. The Capitol police chief refused orders to evict, instead sleeping in with demonstrators. Though the legislation ultimately passed, the occupation created networks and politicized a generation of labor activists who went on to lead recall efforts and subsequent campaigns.

South Africa’s #FeesMustFall movement used occupation tactics to win major victories on higher education funding. Beginning in October 2015 with protests against a 10.5% tuition increase at the University of the Witwatersrand, students barricaded campus gates, occupied administration buildings, and used social media to coordinate nationally across at least seven institutions simultaneously. Their flat, non-hierarchical structure with task teams for food, health, education, and shelter provided mutual support during sustained action.

The immediate outcome was a 0% fee increase for 2016. By December 2017, President Zuma announced free higher education for poor and working-class students, and the government increased higher education budgets by R17 billion. Property damage exceeded $44 million, and at least two protesters died from police responses—the costs of confrontation were real.

Defending and sustaining seized assets

Successful seizures require not just taking space but holding it. Movements have developed diverse tactics for sustaining occupations against attempts to dislodge them.

Human chains physically block access. In the Basque Country in 2018, a 200-kilometer chain of 200,000 participants demonstrated solidarity. In India in 2020, 50 million people formed an 18,000-kilometer chain. At Standing Rock, the arrival of 2,000 veterans to serve as human shields changed the dynamic of the confrontation.

Internal organization sustains morale and functionality. The Wisconsin Capitol developed medical stations, food distribution, and sleeping areas. Occupy encampments created general assemblies for democratic decision-making. MST encampments assign families responsibility for health, education, and food, with collective production in cooperatives. The process of learning to live cooperatively is itself political education.

Media and documentation provide protection. Authorities often block journalists during evictions precisely because visibility creates accountability. At Standing Rock, the #NoDAPL hashtag reached millions; journalists and celebrities drew national attention. When documentation is impossible, violence increases.

Community solidarity provides material support and political cover. Argentine factory takeovers succeeded in part because neighborhood assemblies brought food and supplies. The Women’s Emergency Brigade at Flint sustained workers inside the plants. Churches in the sanctuary movement provided not legal protection but social protection—authorities were reluctant to raid religious buildings.

Legal strategies sometimes convert occupations into recognized claims. MST’s constitutional arguments about “social function” of land gained judicial recognition. New York squatters on the Lower East Side eventually obtained legal status through negotiated agreements. Adverse possession doctrines allow long-term occupiers to gain title after 5-20 years of continuous, open, exclusive possession, though recent legislation in several U.S. states has restricted these claims.

The legal landscape and real risks

Occupiers commonly face criminal charges including trespass (misdemeanor to felony depending on circumstances), disorderly conduct, failure to disperse, obstruction of streets, and resisting arrest. At Standing Rock, federal civil disorder charges were filed. Property owners can sue for actual damages; the Standing Rock cleanup cost an estimated $1 million.

But historical patterns show significant variation in outcomes. Many civil rights sit-in convictions were reversed by the Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds. Mass arrests often result in dismissed cases because prosecutors lack resources or evidence. Charges may be reduced when public sympathy is high. The Republic Windows and Doors occupation in Chicago in 2008 succeeded in six days partly because the workers had clear legal claims—the company had violated federal law requiring 60 days notice before closure—and partly because targeting Bank of America during the bank bailout controversy generated overwhelming public support.

Violent evictions have occurred throughout history. The Occupy Wall Street eviction at 1 AM on November 15, 2011 used batons and pepper spray while blocking media. Standing Rock protesters faced attack dogs, water cannons in freezing temperatures, and rubber bullets. Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement ended with mass arrests after 79 days. Ukraine’s Euromaidan saw snipers kill nearly 100 protesters in February 2014 before President Yanukovych fled.

The risks are real. Over 20 MST leaders have been assassinated. Abahlali baseMjondolo in South Africa has lost over 20 leaders to political killings. The 2009 armed attack on Kennedy Road left two dead. Movements must weigh these dangers against potential gains.

Community support determines outcomes

Occupations succeed or fail based on whether they can maintain public sympathy and build coalitions broader than their core participants.

Framing matters. Standing Rock’s “water protectors” emphasized a universal value—clean water—rather than a particular tribal interest. “We are the 99%” at Occupy created broad identification. MST’s insistence that occupation is “the only solution” conveys necessity rather than preference.

Connection to broader movements provides protection and resources. The 280+ tribes represented at Standing Rock created unprecedented solidarity. MST’s international links with Via Campesina connect local occupations to global agrarian reform movements. Paris 1968 showed how student occupation could spark a general strike of 10 million workers.

Diverse coalition members bring different forms of social capital. Veterans at Standing Rock carried credibility that student protesters would not. When they removed “battle gear” to appear non-threatening and ceded leadership to tribal leaders, they demonstrated how allies can support without dominating. Celebrity support from figures like John Lennon and Yoko Ono brought resources and media attention.

When movements fail to build support, they become isolated. Occupy Wall Street’s decline has been attributed partly to not building a sustainable base—when Zuccotti Park was cleared, the movement dissipated. Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement, despite 79 days of occupation and participation by an estimated 20% of the population, did not achieve its core demand of genuine universal suffrage because Beijing could successfully frame protesters as subverting social stability.

The strategic purpose behind seizure of assets—claiming physical control over contested resources to force a confrontation with power—remains as relevant today as it was when Flint autoworkers sat down at their machines in 1936. Whether workers take over factories, indigenous peoples reclaim ancestral lands, students occupy universities, or housing activists move homeless families into vacant bank-owned properties, they are all using the same basic method: transforming abstract disputes about rights and resources into concrete facts on the ground that cannot be ignored. The question is never simply whether one has the legal right to occupy a space, but whether the occupation can build enough support, maintain enough discipline, and sustain itself long enough to force the powerful to negotiate. History shows that under the right conditions, it can.