Declaration Project

New Declaration of Independence

by Emma Goldman, 1896-1940, Editor/Founder in 1906 of what at the time was the radical if no anarchist Mother Earth magazine, anarchist, feminist, author, editor, and lecturer on politics, literature and the arts. Still reads fresh to us. [Published in Mother Earth, Vol. IV, no. 5, July 1909.] When, in the course of human development, […]

Declaration of Conscience — Senator Margaret Chase Smith, June 1, 1950

[Editor’s note; Margaret Chase Smith, former U.S. Senator from Maine, is a profile in courage and a true states-person, the likes of which we arguably haven’t had in either chamber of Congress in the longest time, though such souls in elective office are more sorely needed in our times than ever. Senator Chase Smith, a […]

Declaration of Wants, Youth Liberation Movement of Ann Arbor, 1970

Editor’s Note:  In December 1970, fifteen-year-old Keith Hefner, along with other teens, launched the Youth Liberation Movement of Ann Arbor. This was considered the nerve center for a number of radical youth movements started across the U.S.   One of its members, 15-year-old Sonia Yaco, received 1,300 write-in votes in the movement’s effort to have a member on the school board so youth would have […]

UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Nov. 20, 1963)

Editor’s Note: The adoption of this declaration over a half century ago by the United Nations General Assembly led to enactment of the binding International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which took effect in 1969. All signatories to the agreement pledge both to do away with racial discrimination and build […]

Tibetan Declaration of Independence (1913)

Editor’s note:  On February 13, 1913, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama returned to Tibet from exile in India — where he’d fled four years earlier after China’s Quing (Manchu) dynasty had dispatched troops — and issued this proclamation declaring the restoration of its independence. At the time of the Dalai Lama’s return to the Himalayan region, the […]

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program — “A combination of a Bill of Rights and a Declaration of Independence” (1967)

Editor’s note:    This document is characterized by Huey P. Newton, co-founder in 1966 with Bobby Seale of the radical Black Panther Party, as a “combination of a Bill of Rights and a Declaration of Independence.” Officially called “The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program, it was crafted and then published by the […]

Declaration of Common Aims of the Independent Mid-European Nations (1918)

Editor’s note: A veritable declaration of independence was issued on October 26, 1918, after leaders of mid-European nations convened in for several days at Independence Hall in Philadelphia — of all places — shortly before the ending of World War I and the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Thomas Masaryk, a professor who would become […]

Declaration of Independence, or Purna Swaraj, of the Indian National Congress (1930)

Editor’s note: Drafted on behalf of the Indian National Congress by Mahatma Gandhi, this declaration of independence was issued on January 26, 1930. Gandhi’s reasoning in the opening sentence for why India should be a sovereign state free of British rule is that,  “it is the inalienable right of the Indian people,” as a people, […]

Declaration (Proclamation) of Korean Independence (1919)

Editor’s note: On March 1, 1919, after 9 years of Japanese occupation, 33 primarily cultural and religious leaders of the Samil Movement (most political leaders were jailed or in exile) convened and drew up a proclamation of independence. This sparked a nationwide protest movement, called the March 1st Movement or the Samil Independence Movement, which featured widespread demonstrations to […]