This page is about anti–establishment activists and activities, around the world and throughout history.
| Sunni Islamist terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden |
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Al–Qaeda |
| Revolutionary wave of demonstrations, protests, riots and civil wars in the Middle East and
North Africa, beginning in December 2010 in Tunisia (affecting, in decreasing order of seriousness: Syria, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain,
Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia). Largely faded by mid–2012, although the civil war in Syria was still
ongoing in late 2016 |
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Arab Spring |
| Chairman of the PLO, from its foundation in 1969 until his death in 2004 |
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Yasser Arafat |
| Alternative name for the Red Army Faction, founded in West Germany in 1970 |
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Baader–Meinhof Gang |
| Derbyshire–born gentleman: hanged, drawn and quartered in 1586 for plotting to assassinate Elizabeth I and
enthrone Mary, Queen of Scots |
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Anthony Babington |
| Led Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela (his own country) to independence from
Spain |
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Simon Bolivar |
| Popular name for Hitler's attempted coup near Munich, November 1923, which led to his being
imprisoned for high treason |
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Beer Hall Putsch |
| South African student leader, died while in police custody, 1977 |
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Steve Biko |
| Steve Biko's pressure group |
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Black Consciousness |
| Serbian resistance movement that contrived the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, 1914 |
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Black Hand |
| USA: revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization, founded in 1966 by Huey P. Newton
and Bobby Seale, active until 1982 |
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Black Panthers |
| Palestinian guerrilla movement, formed 1972, massacred Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics (1972) |
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Black September |
| Attracted worldwide attention in 2014 when it kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from their dormitory in the Nigerian town
of Chibok |
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Boko Haram |
| Chinese peasant uprising, 1899–1901, against foreign influence – led by the Society of Right and
Harmonious Fists |
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Boxer Rebellion |
| Neapolitan secret societies with Masonic links, major role in the Neapolitan Revolution (1820) |
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Carbonari |
| Leader of the Gunpowder Plot |
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Robert Catesby |
| 1820 plot to assassinate the entire Cabinet, including Prime Minister Lord Liverpool, and instigate a French–style
Committee of Public Safety |
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Cato Street conspiracy |
| Zulu leader in Zulu Wars (defeated 1879) |
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Cetewayo |
| 19th century working class movement led by William Lovett – newspaper The Northern Star
– founded 1838, last convention 1838 |
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Chartism |
| Parisian rebels in the aftermath of French defeat in the Franco–Prussian War |
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Communards |
| Right–wing guerrilla force that tried to overthrow the democratically elected Somoza government
in Nicaragua, 1979–90, with covert US funding (revealed by Col. Oliver North in the
"Irangate" trial, 1986–7 |
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Contras |
| 1955–9: EOKA (led by General Giorgios Grivas) opposed British rule in |
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Cyprus |
| 1825 military revolt or uprising in Russia, in protest at the accession of Nicholas I after his elder
brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession |
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Decembrist |
| 17th–century English dissenters, led by Gerrard Winstanley
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Diggers |
| Alleged conspiracy to poison Stalin and other Soviet leaders, 1952 |
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Doctors' Plot |
| Name given to the unsuccessful armed insurrection in Ireland, April 1916 –
aimed at ending British rule |
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Easter Rising |
| Nationalist guerrilla organisation that fought for an end to British rule in Cyprus, 1955–9
– led by Georgios Grivas, also known by the nom–de–guerre Digenis |
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EOKA |
| Basque separatist movement, founded in 1959 to establish an independent socialist state for the
Basque people; now aims to assert the right of the Basque people to self–determination |
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ETA |
| Founded in Tanzania in 1962, to fight for independence for Mozambique; has ruled Mozambique since
1975 (last checked December 2019) |
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FRELIMO |
| Leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule – including a 240–mile,
24–day march from his house in Ahmedabad to the coast, in 1930, to protest against the salt tax |
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'Mahatma' Gandhi |
| Coined the Sanskrit word satyagraha to refer to his form of non–violent protest |
| Leftist faction of the Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing; assumed
power towards the end of the Cultural Revolution (1976), but ousted in a coup in October 1976, one month after Mao's death; subsequently
charged with a series of treasonous crimes; name later used (somewhat ironically) for the four founders of the UK's SDP (1981), as well
as other diverse groups |
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Gang of Four |
| Populist, grassroots political movement for economic justice, that began in France in 2018: name is
French for 'yellow vests', after the high–visibility jackets that protestors wore |
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Gilets jaunes |
| The "liberal republican" faction in the French Revolution – rose to power through 1792,
but fell to the Jacobins in 1793 |
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Girondists |
| Riots in protest at Catholic emancipation, London, 1780 |
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Gordon riots |
| Revealed in a letter to Lord Mounteagle; John Wright, Christopher Wright and Thomas Winter were
executed for their parts in |
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Gunpowder Plot |
| State formed following a successful slaves' revolt in the French colony of Saint Domingue, begun
in 1791 by Dutty Boukman (and others); Toussaint Louverture (L'Ouverture) took up the cause in 1793 and became its best–known leader;
independence, declared on 1 January 1804 by Louverture's lieutenant, Jean–Jacques Dessalines, who became its first independent ruler,
was recognised in 1825 |
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Haiti |
| Founded in 1987 with the aim of establishing an Islamic state in Palestine: name is Arabic for
"zeal" |
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Hamas |
| Anglo–Saxon nobleman who led a revolt against the Norman conquest in 1070, from his base on
the Isle of Ely; reputedly the last Saxon leader to hold out against the Normans |
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Hereward the Wake |
| Militant Shiite Muslim organization, formed 1982 in reaction to Israel's military presence in
Lebanon; name means 'God's Party' |
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Hezbollah |
| Started Barrackpore Jan 1857; ended Gwalior June 1858. Started by rumours (denied by the British)
that cartridges for the new Enfield rifles, which soldiers had to bite to open, were greased with cow and pig fat |
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Indian Mutiny |
| Industrial action by sailors of the British Atlantic Fleet in 1931, in protest against proposed pay
cuts: caused a panic on the London Stock Exchange and a run on the pound, bringing Britain's economic troubles to a head and forcing it
off the Gold Standard five days later |
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Invergordon Mutiny |
| Jewish extremist organisation led by Menachim Begin from 1942 |
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Irgun Zvai Leumi |
| Radical democrats, led by Robespierre, who overthrew the Girondists and instituted the Reign of Terror
(June 1773 to July 1774) |
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Jacobins |
| 1715 and 1745: the First and Second |
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Jacobite Rebellions |
| George Brooke and his brother Lord Cobham hatched a plot against |
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James I |
| Popular name for the intensive 28–day campaign of civil resistance in Tunisia that forced President Zine
al–Abidine Ben Ali to step down in January 2011, and inspired the so–called Arab Spring (a wave of similar protests throughout
the Middle East and North Africa) |
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Jasmine Revolution |
| Founder of the Zambian African National Congress, imprisoned 1958, who became President of Zambia |
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Kenneth Kaunda |
| Leader of the Mau Mau (1950s) who became President of Kenya |
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Jomo Kenyatta |
| English Civil War movement led by Richard Overton, William Walwyn, John Lilburne; the leaders were
executed by Cromwell in 1649 |
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Levellers |
| Peasants who destroyed machines in the Industrial Revolution |
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Luddites |
| Radical journalist of the French Revolution, particularly noted for editing the newspaper
L'Ami du Peuple (the Friend of the People); became an icon to the Jacobins as a revolutionary martyr after he was assassinated
by Girondist sympathizer Charlotte Corday, while taking a medicinal bath for his debilitating skin condition, as portrayed in a famous
painting by Jacques–Louis David |
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Jean–Paul Marat |
| Secret guerrilla movement against British rule in Kenya, 1952–60 |
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Mau Mau |
| Extreme left–wing group within the British Labour party, named after a newspaper founded in 1964:
succeeded in getting a resolution passed at the 1972 party conference, committing the next Labour government to "a socialist plan ...
based on public ownership"; five members were expelled from the party in 1982; highly influential in Liverpool City Council 1983–7,
leading to 47 councillors being banned; influence ended from 1985 under the leadership of Neil Kinnock |
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Militant (Tendency) |
| Toasted as 'the little gentlemen in velvet' by Jacobites, in Queen Anne's reign
(held responsible for the death of William III) |
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Mole |
| Secret society with origins in the 18th century, opposed evictions in Ireland in the 1840s; also
active among Irish–American and Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania in the 1870s |
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Molly Maguires |
| Attempt by James Scott, illegitimate son of Charles II, to overthrow James II (his uncle) –
taking its name from his dukedom; ended in defeat at Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685; Scott was hanged for treason, and many of his supporters
were tried at the so–called Bloody Assizes |
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Monmouth Rebellion |
| Arabic word for those engaged in a holy war: first came to prominence when used by insurgent groups
who opposed the Soviet army in the Soviet–Afghan war of 1979–89 (they were supported by several foreign governments, including
the USA) |
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Mujahideen |
| Russian revolutionary movement, mid–19th century |
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Nihilists |
| First stage of Russia's Bolshevik uprising |
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October Revolution |
| Series of protests against corruption in the Ukraine elections of 2004 – after the campaign
colour of the main opposition candidate, Viktor Yuschenko (who was confirmed as president after the second vote) |
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Orange Revolution |
| English uprising of 1380–1 – a.k.a. the Great Uprising; led by Wat Tyler (also Jack Straw
and John Ball); prompted by the imposition of a poll tax, it led to the end of serfdom in England |
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Peasants' Revolt |
| In 1715, James Francis Edward Stewart, son of James II – the "Old Pretender" –
landed at |
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Peterhead |
| Catholic rebellion against Henry VIII, 1536–7, originating in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire,
against the break from Rome, the dissolution of the monasteries and the enclosure of common land; led by Robert Aske |
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Pilgrimage of Grace |
| Alleged conspiracy to murder Charles II and re–establish Catholicism, 1678–81, fabricated
by the Anglican clergyman Titus Oates. 15 alleged conspirators were executed, including Oliver Plunkett (Archbishop of Armagh) and
William Howard (Viscount Stafford – son of the Duke of Norfolk) |
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Popish Plot |
| Mozambique: Frelimo opposed colonial rule by |
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Portugal |
| Period of reform and liberalisation in Czechoslovakia, led by Alexander Dubcek, that led to an
uprising against Soviet rule and eventually to the Soviet invasion of 1968 |
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Prague Spring |
| Militant left wing group active in Italy from 1970; kidnapped and assassinated prime minister
Aldo Moro, 1978 |
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Red Brigades |
| Youth movement in the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1960s) |
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Red Guard |
| June 1793 – July 1794: period of violence following the onset of the French Revolution,
characterised by conflicts between the moderate Girondins and the more radical Jacobins; between 16,000 and 40,000 people were
executed (mainly by guillotine) |
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Reign of Terror |
| 1808: New South Wales Corps (of the British army) overthrew William Bligh, Governor of New South Wales,
in response to his attempts to stop them trading in the eponymous commodity |
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Rum Rebellion |
| Ten Days that Shook the World: title of a 1919 book by John Reed, about the |
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Russian Revolution |
| 1683 plot to kill Charles II and the Duke of York (later James II) and put the Protestant Duke of
Monmouth on the throne |
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Rye House Plot |
| Left–wing movement that helped to overthrow Somoza's government in Nicaragua in 1979,
but was defeated in 1990 by Violeta Chamorro's US–backed coalition |
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Sandinista National Liberation Front |
| Revolt of disaffected samurai against the new Japanese imperial government, in 1877 (nine years into
the Meiji Era) – from the 'domain' that had become home to unemployed samurai after military reforms rendered their status obsolete |
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Satsuma Rebellion |
| Marxist guerrilla group active in Peru, 1980–94 |
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Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) |
| Anglicised version of the name (meaning 'Lord Alexander' – presumably in reference to
Alexander the Great) given by the Ottoman Turks to the Albanian nobleman George Castriot, who led a rebellion that lasted from 1443 to 1468 |
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Skanderbeg |
| Thracian slave, led the gladiators' revolt of 73–71 BC |
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Spartacus |
| President of South Africa's African National Congress, 1977–91 |
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Oliver Tambo |
| Separatist guerrilla movement based in northern Sri Lanka |
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Tamil Tigers |
| Duke of Monmouth was proclaimed King in 1685 at |
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Taunton |
| Women who sat knitting by the Guillotine in the French Revolution |
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Tricoteuses |
| Alternative name for the First Kyrgyz Revolution (2005), which removed Kyrgyzstan's first
president, Askar Akayev, from power |
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Tulip Revolution |
| Carts that carried condemned prisoners to execution in the French Revolution |
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Tumbrils |
| HQ of PLO since being expelled from Beirut (late 80s) |
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Tunis |
| Marxist urban guerrilla movement in Uruguay, 1960s and 70s |
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Tupamaros |
| Colonel von Stauffenberg's unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler, 1944 |
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20 July Plot (Conspiracy) |
| Euromaidan (a series of protests in November 2013) and the Revolution of Dignity (in February 2014) led to the
overthrow of the Government in (European country) |
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Ukraine |
| Jonas Savimbi: founder (1966) and president until his death in 2002 of (Angolan guerrilla movement) |
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UNITA |
| Name given to the bloodless revolution of late 1989 that overthrew the Communist government in
Czechoslovakia |
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Velvet Revolution |
| Resistance movement led by Ho Chi Minh, defeated by French forces in Vietnam |
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Viet Minh |
| Mexican revolutionary general, real name Doroteo Arango Arámbula: raided Columbus, New Mexico in
1916, and subsequently evaded General Pershing's "Punitive Expedition" for over a year; assassinated in 1923 by rival Mexican
revolutionaries |
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Francisco 'Pancho' Villa |
| Term for a counter–revolutionary, originating in the French Revolution but chiefly associated
with the Russian civil wars of 1917–21 |
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White |
| Popular uprising in England, 1554, against Queen Mary I's plans to marry Philip II of Spain |
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Wyatt's Rebellion |
| Leader of the 1910 revolt in Mexico – slogan 'Land and Liberty'; took pride in his
impressive moustache, in a style that came to be named after him; killed in 1919, aged 39, in an ambush by Government troops led by General
Pablo Gonzales |
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Emiliano Zapata |
