●Political protests

○ Attempts to change to laws or legislation
○ Organised political movements
○ Public protests
○ Petitions, marches

● However, we can look at political protest in terms of:

○ Cultural resistance
○ Everyday people

● Why look at cultural resistance?

○ Overt political protest is uncommon. When it occurs, it often results in a backlash.
○ Even if overt political protest does results in changes in legislation, it won’t necessarily change public
opinion.
○ Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions.

● In the 1970s, a group of cultural theorists in Birmingham applied Gramsici’s theories to post-war
British working-class youth culture
● Looked at working class cultures like the teddy-boys, mods, skinheads, and punks – subcultures
unified by shared tastes in fashion, music and ideology.
● They argued argued that the formation of subcultures offered young working class people a solution
to the problems they were collectively experiencing in society.
Positives of The Birmingham School’s subcultural theory:
● Validated the study of popular culture – previously considered superficial
Criticism The Birmingham School’s subcultural theory:
● Focused on white working class masculinity
● Ignored ethnic minority, female and queer youth cultures

Prime Minister 1979-1990
● Militant campaigner for middle-class interests
● In an 1978 interview: ‘British national identity
could be swamped by people with different
culture’
● Hardline attitude towards immigrantion
● Conservative Manifesto: ‘firm immigration control
for the future is essential if we are to achieve
good community relations’
● British Nationality Act of 1981: introduced a
series of increasingly tough immigration
procedures and excluded Asian people from
entering Britain.

• ‘Ghost Town’: a haunting 1981 protest song that still makes sense today
• It was their last song before splitting up and reforming as The Special AKA and stayed at the top of the UK charts for three weeks.
• The music video was directed by Barney Bubbles and filmed in the East End of London, Blackwell Tunnel and a before-hours City of London.