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Campaign methods

Campaign methods. Direct. Illegal acts Lobbying Protest Boycotts Strike (official & unofficial) or break their contract of employment. Marches, rallies and protests Civil disobedience illegal obstruction

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Campaign methods

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  1. Campaign methods

  2. Direct • Illegal acts • Lobbying • Protest • Boycotts • Strike (official & unofficial) or break their contract of employment. • Marches, rallies and protests • Civil disobedience • illegal obstruction • Direct action takes may forms, it need not be considered to be solely illegal in nature. Protestors from the group, Protestors for the Ethical treatment of Animals (PETA) demonstrate their objections to the fur trade.

  3. Illegal acts • Terrorism – intimidation of workers or owners/management of a business, for example • Violence – bombings, shootings, threats, attacks • Criminal damage – damage to property, releasing animals into the wild – Animal Liberation Front. • Some pressure groups aligned with campaigns against animal testing have carried out a number of illegal acts from grave violation to harassing animal laboratories. Criminal damage can be one way in which pressure groups make their views known but is illegal.

  4. Lobbying • Parliament – seeking interviews and discussions with ministers in parliament to secure their support • Companies – making contact with companies to make them aware of concerns, e.g. at Board level • Local Government – contacting local councillors • Legal system – contacting judges, legal representatives, etc. Protestors against the IMF and the World Bank inflate a giant pig to represent corporate gluttony in Washington DC, USA.

  5. Boycotts • A boycott of Topshop was based on their unethical practices which are said to include sweatshops in the UK and tax avoidance. • Another example is factory conditions for Cambodian Garment workers producing clothing for H&M. • The following fashion brands are included on active boycott lists: Liberty, Burberry, Escada, Harrods and Apparel; reasons include use of fur rather than factory conditions and sweatshops. • Other well publicised boycotts within the fashion industry have included clothing brands boycotting Uzbek cotton because of the enforced child labour and Britain's leading fashion retailers boycotting Australian wool because of the controversial practice of Mulesing.

  6. Strike • Some trade union pressure groups may go on strike (official & unofficial) or break their contract of employment. An example is on 30th November 2011, two million teachers, health workers, civil servants and other public sector employees took part in the biggest mass strike since 1979.

  7. Civil disobedience • Civil disobedience can be considered to be direct action, this includes causing an obstruction, sit ins, lie downs, making noises, etc. • Some pressure groups carry out ‘sit ins’ where they occupy public buildings often used in the 1960’s and now employed recently as a protest against the rise in student tuition fees. • A more recent example is on 15th October 2011 thousands of protestors converged on London's financial district, blocking traffic and demanding access to the London Stock Exchange. Police closed in on the demonstrators, eventually confining them to the plaza around the cathedral. This prompted protestors to start setting up camp on the steps of St. Paul's.

  8. Illegal obstruction Occasionally pressure groups may cause an illegal obstruction by blocking the highway. • An example would be the fuel protests,a series of campaigns over the cost of petrol and diesel for road vehicle use. • The first protest in 2000 was primarily led by lorry drivers and farmers. Blockades of oil facilities caused widespread disruption to the supply of petroleum products with knock on effects for the public and the authorities. • The aim of the protests was to force a reduction in the fuel duty rate on petrol and diesel, which the government refused. • Subsequent protests haven't had has much of an impact.

  9. Illegal obstruction • Fathers4justice often brought traffic to a halt illegally. • An example is 14th August 2008, a F4J protester was arrested after a stunt on the M25 caused a 15-mile traffic jam. Police were forced to shut part of the motorway. • However, this was not the only stunt of the year, in June of 2008, Harriet Harman (then Deputy Leader of the Labour Party) was forced out of her home after two F4J campaigners dressed as comic book superheroes climbed onto her roof and refused to come down from her roof. For nearly two hours, causing tailbacks severe tailbacks during the height of the summer holidays, causing significant upset to holidaymakers on their way to the airports.

  10. Marches, rallies and protests • Some pressure groups will go on marches and demonstrations to show their views on a topic or issue as with recent marches against the rise in student tuition fees.

  11. Marches, rallies and protests • In 2003, 1 million people marched through London to protest against the Iraq war. • The London demonstration was organised by Stop the War Coalition, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Muslim Association of Great Britain.

  12. Indirect • Petitions/e-petitions • Leaflets/adverts • Media and publicity stunts. • Providing research • Social networking sites and blogs. E-petitions website are intended to "empower" people to make their voices heard on various topics. If it reaches a certain level of signatures the topic of the e-petition will be debated in the House of commons.

  13. E-petitions http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/how-it-works Some examples of recent e-petitions: • Convicted London rioters should lose all benefits: Number of signatures: 258,244, closed 02/02/12. • Grant a pardon to Alan Turing: Number of signatures:31,641, closing 23/11/12. • No to 70 million: Number of signatures:138,626, closing: 20/10/2012. • Full disclosure of all government documents relating to 1989 Hillsborough disaster: Number of signatures:155,725, closing: 09/08/2012.

  14. Leaflets and adverts • Leaflets and adverts have been used by pressure groups to convey their messages an example is The FULL STOP Campaign began in 1999 as the NSPCC’s way of involving everyone in society with ending cruelty to children. • Calls to a child abuse helpline rose by 150% after the launch of a controversial and hard-hitting campaign to end cruelty to children. • The adverts, which were so hard hitting they could not be shown before 9pm, featured the Spice Girls and the then England football captain Alan Shearer.

  15. Media and publicity stunts • In July 2008, a campaigner glued himself to the then PM Gordon Brown. • At a Downing Street reception, Dan Glass, a member of Plane Stupid, was about to receive an award from Brown when he stuck out his super glued hand and touched his sleeve. The campaign was against Heathrow Airport’s third runway, the objective was to make Mr Brown “stick to his environmental promises”.

  16. Media and publicity stunts • Bradford city centre was transformed into a scene resembling a horror movie as more than a hundred zombies descended on Centenary Square as part of a protest against nuclear weapons. • Protesters dressed as the walking dead as a tongue-in-cheek way of highlighting the potential catastrophe a nuclear war could bring to Bradford. ‘Zombies’ in nuclear weapons protest

  17. Providing research • Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), had links to the previous Labour government and also had regular contact with cabinet ministers. • The IPPR, describes itself as the UK’s leading progressive think-tank. • The IPPR produces research and policy ideas for a fair, democratic and sustainable world. Their key policy areas: the future of the economy, reform of public services, family policy, welfare reform, political renewal, climate change and migration. • The IPPR North, based in Newcastle and Manchester, specialises in regional economics, localism and community policy. • The IPPR publishes over 50 reports each year.

  18. Social networking sites and blogs • Groups have used the new mediums of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to convey their messages and recruit members. • An example is the Last Round on the Underground or Last Orders on 1st June 2008. the events had been widely advertised on social networking and other internet sites.

  19. Social networking and the Arab Spring • The “Arab Spring” in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the Mid-East heavily relied on the Internet, social media and technologies like Twitter, TwitPic, Facebook and YouTube in the early stages to accelerate social protest. • The role of social media in Yemen (where Internet infiltration is low) or Libya (where the government controlled Internet) was not as significant. • In Tunisia, for example, the protests began in December 2010 with a college-educated street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in the coastal town of SidiBouzid in despair at the corruption and joblessness. • Bouazizidied from the burns, but his protest, despite Tunisia’s strict web censorship laws, was rapidly fanned by online Internet tools. • The protesters relied heavily on social media Web sites like Facebook and Twitter to circulate videos of each demonstration and issue calls for the next one.

  20. Make Poverty History – YouTube • Make Poverty History – YouTube • Chaos at Bristol fathers4justice protest, 13 June 2008 – YouTube • Get involved | Greenpeace International

  21. Using the campaign methods hand-out answer the following questions. Ensure that your responses are detailed as they form your revision notes. • Explain what is meant by the term ‘points of access’? • Why might a pressure group wish to influence the following ‘points of access’: • Ministers and civil servants • Parliament • Political parties • How might pressure group use public opinion to aid their aims and objectives? • Explain what is meant by direct action and how pressure group make use of this campaign method? • Describe the different ways in which pressure group could seek to influence a law they like or dislike (based on their aims and objectives). • Create a summary diagram of your choice to illustrate the different ways in which pressure group can campaign. Next rank each of the methods in terms of the likely degree of success. • Explain what is meant by the term lobbying. • Evaluate the significance of media attention for a pressure group.

  22. Create a summary diagram to illustrate direct and indirect campaign methods

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