Lesson video

Hello and welcome back to lesson three of our unit, where today we are going to be looking at what change has protest achieved? Now for today's lesson, you are going to need a pen and some paper, and you are going to need to find that quiet working space so that I have your full attention for the duration of this lesson.

Make sure pause the video now, while you grab that space and grab those materials for today's lesson.

And once you are ready to start, please press resume on the video, and then we will continue with today's lesson.

Now today, we're going to look at three key elements.

We're going to look at what do people protest about? So we're going to look at issues that are really important to you and issues that people protest for and against.

Then we're going to have a look at some case studies about people who have influenced change, and we'll look back at the history about what they've done, and then we're going to consider what makes an effective protest.

And then we're going to analyse that protest by looking at an example.

To get us thinking then, I've got a little task for you to get your brain working.

Now, this is called, see, think, wonder.

You may have done something like this before, but what I'd like you to do is write down three sentences that each start with the following: So one sentence that says I see, one sentence that says I think, and one sentence that says I wonder.

And I want you to use the image that's on your right hand side to generate those three questions.

So have a look at that image for five, 10 seconds and see what you can see, ask yourself what you are thinking, and then again, ask yourself what you are wondering about that image.

So write down those three questions.

One that says I see, one that says I think, and one that says I wonder, and once you are done, press resume on the video.

For now pause the video to complete your task.

So here are some examples that I've got.

Now, You may not have some similar, but don't worry because this is just an exercise to get us thinking about today's lesson.

Now, for me, it can be really simple.

So I've gone with see a woman holding a sign.

I see a crowd of people.

I see people protesting.

I see people walking.

Okay, nice and straightforward.

Nice and simple.

Then for I think, I've gone for, I think that they're wanting to change something, or I think it may have something to do with equality as they are all women.

So they might be campaigning for equal rights.

Finally, for I wonder, I wonder whether any one will take any notice of their demonstration, and I also wonder if their actions will bring about change for their chosen issues.

Okay.

Like I said, you might have very similar sort of questions, but don't worry if mine are a little bit different to yours.

So we're going to look at now about what people protest about? Okay.

Now it's really important our right to protest, as long as we use it in a productive way.

So what makes a person or people protest? Well, there are many, many reasons why somebody would stage a protest and research shows people who engage in protest do so because they feel angry about injustices perpetrated against groups that they're committed to.

And they believe that they can make a difference by acting collectively.

So they really complain about issues that are personal to them, and they feel that there may have been an injustice and they're standing up for groups of people.

So this is just a list and they're not limited to just the list that I've got for you, but they can include the desire to address an injustice or an inequality or the improving of rights for individuals or for groups.

So they may feel that somebody has been treated unfairly or that there might be unjust actions to a certain person or certain group.

And they feel that by protesting change will come from that.

On the flip side, they may protest to resist unwanted or undesirable change.

So it might be to just show their dissatisfaction against a group that's made a law, or maybe it's a business.

And they feel that, because they don't want that to go forward or they don't want anything to change, they will then protest for that action.

They also might protest for lack of trust in government or in authority.

So if they don't feel like they're particularly advocating rights for a certain group, or they're not doing enough for a certain person or against a certain group, then you can use your right to protest in that way.

Now efficiency here, the contagion effect in that, people who protest feel that if they are in a bigger number, therefore they get more recognition.

So the contagion effect, that growing effect of the larger the group of people, the more attention that it gets, and then hopefully the change will come.

Some people, however, like to protest on the opposite of that, to be anonymous for that anonymity.

And because you are just one person in a sea of crowd, you feel that you can just blend in and protest on perhaps contentious issues.

And if perhaps there's some negativity towards those protests, because you are just one person in that crowd, people feel that it is a good way to voice your concerns without actually showing your face or being like the ringleader is if you would.

Personal experiences, so something we've said there that people might tackle injustices for individuals or groups, people do protest for personal experiences.

So they might've happened to themselves.

And then that shared intensity down in the bottom.

If you've ever been to a football match and you can see people start to chant and people start to shout about certain decisions that are made, and you don't go there intentionally to start a protest or intentionally to cause problems or disruption.

But because everybody else is around you that's doing it, people get involved in it that way.

So those are, like I said, they're not limited to those reasons, but those are some reasons why people may protest.

Now we're going to have a look at some examples of people protesting.

So in 2020, the death of George Floyd, reignited the hashtag #blacklivesmatter movement all across the world.

And the black lives matter movement had started long before the death of George Floyd.

But because people felt really passionate about that issue and they thought there was an injustice there, there was several protests, not just in America, but all across the world in recognition of this movement.

There's also some climate change protests going on in the world.

So Greta Thunberg has been heavily involved in trying to change climate.

about climate change, sorry.

And those protests again, go across all over the world in relation to try and raise awareness about the impact of climate change.

So what I want you to do, is just to summarise, why you think protests start.

So based on your knowledge, which elements of protesting can be used and why? So if you pause the video now to complete that task and you can make a list of, what people protest about and why they do so.

If you need some help stick with me, so I can give you some sentence starters.

So you might want to say, one example of a recent protest is the.

And you can use one of my examples.

Then you can use the sentence stem, I think that this protest started because.

And then you can put but and maybe there is a problem with that.

Did it get recognition? Did it fix the problem? And then so, come to a conclusion or not.

So because, but, so, and then say why that protest started.

Okay, so we're going to look at, what other protests have created change? Now these are some protests that you may be aware of, but they're also that happened in the past.

So these might be completely new to you.

The first one we're going to look at is something called the 'Dagenham girls'.

And the Dagenham girls were a group of machinists who worked for Ford Motor factory back in the 1960s.

Now protesting in the 1960s wasn't a new thing.

And although there'd been industrial action in Dagenham in the past, up until that point, only men had ever gone on strike.

So on the 7th of June 1968, all of that changed.

And after pay regrades sewing machinists classed as "unskilled labour", 187 of those machinists who were all women decided to walk out and cause disruption to the Ford Motor factories production line.

Now you've got to think of, why did they decide to protest? Well, they'd have been unfairly graded as a category 'B' when men doing a similar job elsewhere in the factory were given a higher grade of 'C'-skilled labour.

That meant that they were officially unskilled, despite the fact that they had to pass tests in order to gain their employment.

So just pause and think about that for a moment.

To get the job as a machinist at the Ford Motor factory, these women had to show that they were skilled machinists on a sewing machine.

Once they were given the job, they were then classed as being unskilled despite the fact that had to go through that skill test.

So obviously they were really, really unhappy the fact that they were getting unequal treatment in comparison to the men of the factory doing a very similar job.

Now, after their protest, after they walked out, all 187 came back to work, after Barbara Castle, who was one of the ministers working for the government at the time, she intervened.

And although they did come back to work, they didn't come back for the equal pay all their C grade that they campaigned for.

Instead, what they did is they came back for 92% of the male rate.

Now you may think, well, that's still not equal and it wasn't, but it was an increase from the 85% that they were getting before the strike.

It wasn't for another 16 years however, that they got their recognition and got their equal pay.

So you can see there that it took a very long time to get where they wanted, but they did so in a very peaceful manner.

They didn't break any laws.

Yes, there may have been some contractual disputes because they'd walked out, but they got what they wanted eventually.

What I'd like you to do now, is pause the video here and move over to the worksheet and watch slide two, and then take next activity to access the worksheet and then come back to the video and hit resume once you've done so.

Okay, in comparison to the Dagenham girls, we're going to look up the Strangeways prison riot.

Now in the 1990s, prisoners felt their complaints about conditions were being ignored.

And the prisoners who were on remand, were only allowed out of their cells for 18 hours per week.

And I'll stress that, per week.

Okay, so if you split up and do the maths, that's two and a bit hours per day.

However, if you were a category A prisoner, you were locked in your cell for 22 hours a day, and you only left your cells for exceptional circumstances, one being a one hour exercise period each day or a weekly shower.

So you may feel rightly or wrongly, but the prisoners felt that they had complained to the authorities, to the prison guards, perhaps even to the government.

And they felt that their complaints were being ignored.

So what they did, was they took control of a chapel and they took over the prison for a number of days in two weeks.

Because of that, Lord Woolf who was master of the rules and chief justice, decided that a complete overhaul of the prison system was necessary.

And Lord Woolf described the conditions inside Strangeways prisons, in the months leading up to the riot as intolerable and viewed a combination of errors by both staff and management at the prison and the prison service as a whole.

And that was a contributing factor to the riot.

Because of their riots, Lord Woolf recommended a major reform of the prison service and made 12 key recommendations with another 204 accompanying proposals.

What I'd like you to do here, is compare how the Strangeways prison riots compared to the Dagenham girls, and look at how quickly they got changed, but also look at the effects of the strategy of prison riots.

Look at all of the illegal activity that were there.

So pause my video here and move onto to the worksheet and watch slide three.

So you can click next activity to access the worksheet.

And once you're done, come back to the video and press resume once you are finished.

Okay, I got a quick, true or false for you now.

So all I need you to do, is write down the answers true or false to the following questions.

So number one, the Dagenham girls started the Strangeway prison riot.

True or false? I'm going to give you five, four, three, two, and one, hopefully you've said that the answer is false because it was the prisoners of the Strangeway prison that gained control of the chapel in the prison itself.

Second then, number two, the factory strike in Dagenham brought about instant change.

Again, true or false.

And I'll give you five, four, three, two and one.

Again I hope that you've said that the answer was false, because it took 16 years, it wasn't instantaneous, 16 years from 1968 to 1984 to get that equal pay for both men and women.

Finally then, although violent, the prison riot was successful in achieving its purpose.

So again, write down the answer true or false.

I'll give you four, three, two, and one.

Hopefully this time you've said true, 'cause Lord Woolf recommended a complete overhaul of the prison system.

Okay? So in comparison then, if we take the Dagenham girls first, you can see here that it was peaceful, in that it involved just walking out of work.

And what that did was cause a disruption to the workforce.

There was a financial impact for Ford Motor company.

However, change wasn't immediate, and it took 16 years for legislation to change.

But the unions backed the factory workers, there were no repercussions from their actions of walking out.

If we then compare to the prison riots, it was violent in comparison to the peaceful protest of the Dagenham girls.

And it consisted of destruction to the prison wings.

So there was heavy damage done.

And the physical damage to the prison investigation, cost the taxpayer 112 million pounds or an estimated cost of 112 million pounds.

So you can see there, although that the Dagenham girls had a financial impact because the production line had stopped, the Strangeway prison riots cost an estimated 112 million pounds worth of damage and in costs into the investigation.

However, because of the amount of publicity that the riots got an immediate inquiry into the prison was instructed by Lord Woolf.

However, that came at a cost because those involved were given prison sentences and had extra time added on to their prison sentences.

So they didn't get away with it, but they felt that it was necessary to bring about the conditions and bring about change.

So you can see there were very two different ways to protest.

One being very legal and one being illegal.

Okay.

And people were punished for their illegal actions.

So what I want to do is just to evaluate what we've just spoken about.

So task three is, I'm giving you a statement here.

It has been said that the Dagenham girls factory strike was ineffective.

To what extent do you agree? So I want you to give two reasons to agree and two reasons to disagree before you arrive at an evaluative conclusion.

And I'd like you to mention the following in your answer.

So I want you to identify the form of protest used and then the outcomes of the protest.

If you want to stick with me, I will give you some sentence starters.

But if you want to give that task a go, you can pause the video now and then click resume once you have finished.

But if you want to stick with me, continue to do so.

So you might want to structure your answer like this.

One reason to agree with this statement is.

However, it can be argued that it was effective because.

Then in comparison to the Strangeway riots and what did the Strangeway riots do.

And then overall, I believe the factory strike was, or was not effective because.

And then I want you to arrive at a conclusion.

So you're aiming to write just a model paragraph there on your thoughts, to what extent do you agree that it's been said that the Dagenham girls factory strike was ineffective? So pause the video now and complete that task for me.

Okay.

So I've given you a model paragraph here.

So don't judge me.

I've said that one reason to agree with the statement that the Dagenham girls protest was ineffective is the fact that it took such a long time for change to be recognised in the eyes of the law.

The original protest only achieved the proportion of what they'd originally protested for.

However, some may say that it was an effective protest because it did it become violent.

And they raised awareness of the issue of inequality, which then became subject to public discussion.

Whilst the Strangeway riots proved to have a quicker reaction in terms of government response, the media focused more on the damage caused than the issues being protested for.

Then I would arrive at a conclusion whether or not the protest was ineffective or effective.

Okay.

So don't worry if your paragraph doesn't look like that, but make sure you've got some key points down there from both the Dagenham girls and the Strangeways riots prison.

Sorry, Strangeways prison riots.

Helps if you get them right or wrong.

Doesn't it? That in essence is the end of our lesson today.

And we'll just do a quick recap on what we have learned today.

We've looked up reasons why people protest, and then we've looked at the case studies about previous protests, so we've looked at the Dagenham girls and the Strangeways prison riots, and looked up both how they were different in their approach to protesting, but also how they went about achieving their aims. Then we've looked at an evaluative response to a question, and hopefully you have arrived at that conclusion.

Then what I'd like you to do is share your work with #LearnwithOak.

And if you'd like to do that, please ask your parents to carer your work on Instagram or on Facebook or on Twitter tagging @OakNational and using the hashtag #LearnwithOak.

One last thing before we sign off for today is can you please now complete the exit quiz just so that we can really consolidate our knowledge for today and make sure that we are and the knowledge that you have been given.

Thank you for attending today and I'm really, really looking forward to seeing some of your responses.

I know it's been sort of a difficult lesson because there's lots of new terms there and lots of different ideas.

But don't worry and well done for coming in with such a positive attitude.

And like I said, I'm really looking forward to seeing some of these levels of work that you are doing.

Join me again next time.

But until then, thank you for coming in.

Thank you for attending and a big massive well done for today's lesson.