Craft-activism, known as craftivism, is the participation of people who are a part of textile arts in political activism. This includes anything from government reform, to fighting for climate justice, social justice and equality for those of all races and women/non-gendered people, and war.
The main source I am citing for this part of my research is “Craftivist History”, written by Betsy Greer. Greer chose to focus on knitters and their history of activism. This dates back to the first and second world wars, where (primarily) female knitters knit clothing for those fighting in the war, in order for the soldiers to have clothing to protect them in war. After the wars, people kept knitting, but in the 1960s it was activists knitting against war.
Many followed, with knitting circles taking place in protest to show a prime example of peaceful protest, “demonstrat[ing] the peaceful nature of the protests versus the brutality of (masculine) police oppression and the wider politics that had brought the threat of nuclear war” (Greer, pg. 185). In 2001, a massive protest against the Free Trade Area of the Americas Agreement broke out, but, instead of enforcing violence, the protesters sat, while being doused in teargas, and knit scarves, and instead of there being tons of news coverage on the event, it went nearly silent due to lack of violence (Greer, pg. 187).
Knitting became further radicalized, especially with its more prominent appearance in the news. However, there was rarely any mainstream news coverage, mainly because if there was no violence, there seemed to be no need to broadcast. "They'll Needle the Police," was one of the very few headlines from the Calgary anti-G8 protests (Greer, pg 188). The Guardian had an article discussing rebel knitting, asking if "rebellious dollies" would be the next form of action, dismissing the knitting as an activist group because of their non-confrontational way to protest, "knitting is seen as a safe form of activism, both for those practicing it and those covering it in the media," (Greer, pg. 189). The way the media treated knitters was dismissive, trying to nag them to become more violent. They wanted to pin destruction on the protestors, not on the agitators, such as the police, not see "feminine" tactics to protest.