- CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE/DIRECT ACTION
- Some direct action is legal (e.g. trade union strikes), but some is illegal (e.g. environmental protesters blocking
- access to tracking sites in 2017).
- Direct action in the age of rapid communication, has become a much more popular and mainstream way of
- exerting pressure.
- In its most extreme form, direct action can include violence (e.g. the English Defence League’s protests can turn
- violent) and harassment (e.g. Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAG) harassed and attacked individuals linked
- to the Huntingdon Life Sciences animal testing centre) or even terrorism.
- Violent direct action is intended to forcibly compel the government to change policy.
- Some groups may use illegal methods as a form of civil disobedience – disrupting public events or staging a sit-in in – they feel they have no other option.
- This is a risky strategy, but it can create immediate publicity and even give rise to so much disruption that the
- government decides to back down or negotiate.
- In 1990, the extraordinary violence of the poll tax riots in Trafalgar Square further undermined an already
- weakened Margaret Thatcher, contributing to her resignation and to her successor, John Major, swiftly abandoning
- the tax.
- 2.CELEBRITIES
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- Groups may recruit a celebrity spokesperson in order to raise the profile of the group, gain media attention and attract more support by sharing issues.
- e.g. Gurkha Justice Campaign – Gurkhas are Nepalese soldiers who serve in the British army. Until 1997, they were based in Hong Kong, but they had to relocate to the UK when Hong Kong was returned to China.
- In 2004, the Labour government said that all Gurkhas who had served since 1997 would be allowed to settle in Britain.
- The Gurkha Justice Campaign spent 4 years trying to persuade the Blair and Brown governments to give equal rights to all Gurkhas.
- It was not until the celebrity Joanna Lumley Joined the campaign in November 2008 that the media began to take notice and, due to her campaigning, in May 2009 Gordon Brown announced that all Gurkhas would be given equal settlement rights.
3.DIGITAL CAMPAIGNS
- Groups may set up websites to promote their cause and use social media to publicise events and create viral campaigns – an online campaign can be a cheap way of spreading information and raising awareness, particularly if it goes viral.
- The internet gives people a more convenient means of participation, however, it can be swamped with groups, making it difficult to stand out and if a campaign does go viral, there is no way of guaranteeing that people will understand the message behind it and to be really successful, a group needs a professional website and expertise, which can be expensive.
- The internet can lead to ‘slacktivism’ where people might ‘like’ something but fail to engage with the wider issue, making them less likely to get involved/join the group.
- Groups such as Amnesty International, Oxfam and Friends of the Earth all appreciate the importance of having a considerable internet influence.
- Facebook, Twitter and hashtag campaigns provide a valuable way of keeping the public informed of a pressure group’s activities and its website will usually provide opportunities to donate, sign online petitions and up-to-date information on getting involved in national and regional campaigns.
- This way of mobilising public support has been called a ‘clickocracy’, since the internet enables the public to engage with pressure groups purely online.
- 38 Degrees, for example, was established in 2009 and provides a forum for its members to quickly choose and launch their own online campaigns.
- Hillsborough Family Support Group/ Hillsborough Justice Campaign – the group was set up to demand a reopening of the case and to achieve justice – endorsed an e-petition, which gathered 130,000 signatures, demanding full disclosure of all relevant documents to an independent enquiry.