<P> Environmental movement organizations such as Greenpeace have used direct action to pressure governments and companies to change environmental policies for years . On April 28, 2009, Greenpeace activists, including Phil Radford, scaled a crane across the street from the Department of State, calling on world leaders to address climate change . Soon thereafter, Greenpeace activists dropped a banner off of Mt . Rushmore, placing President Obama's face next to other historic presidents, which read "History Honors Leaders; Stop Global Warming". Overall, more than 2,600 people were arrested while protesting energy policy and associated health issues under the Barack Obama Administration . </P> <P> In 2009, hundreds blocked the gates of the coal fired power plant that powers the US Congress building, following the Power Shift conference in Washington, D.C. In attendance at the Capitol Climate Action were Bill McKibben, Terry Tempest Williams, Phil Radford, Wendell Berry, Robert Kennedy Junior, Judy Bonds and many more prominent figures of the climate justice movement were in attendance . </P> <P> Anti-abortion groups in the United States, particularly Operation Rescue, often used non-violent sit - ins at the entrances of abortion clinics as a form of direct action in the late 1980s and early 1990s . </P> <P> Anti-globalization activists made headlines around the world in 1999, when they forced the Seattle WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 to end early with direct action tactics . The goal that they had, shutting down the meetings, was directly accomplished by placing their bodies and other debris between the WTO delegates and the building they were meant to meet in . Activists also engaged in property destruction as a direct way of stating their opposition to corporate culture--this can be viewed as a direct action if the goal was to shut down those stores for a period of time, or an indirect action if the goal was influencing corporate policy . </P>

Example of direct action politics in the united states