Activities
Activity 1: The General Strike - the government view
Work in pairs or small groups. Watch the programme and read through the Background Information.
- Then look carefully at the Quotations. Sort through them and choose all of the items you think are favourable to the TUC and the miners.
- Now write your own account of the General Strike, based only on the material you have selected.
Activity 2: The General Strike – the strikers’ view
This activity follows on directly from activity 1. Watch the programme and read through the Background Information.
- Then look carefully at the Quotations. Sort through them and choose all of the items you think are opposed to the TUC and the miners, and/or in support of the government
- Now write your own account of the General Strike, based only on the material you have selected
Activity 3: Truth is the first casualty?
Why were the newspaper reports so confusing in the week of May 4th – May 12th 1926?
The programme sets out the enormous differences in the reports of the events during the week of the General Strike. Your task in this activity is to work out why there were such huge gaps between the different versions of events.
Stage 1: Use the programme to list as many examples as you can find of the newspapers giving different accounts of the events of the week.
Stage 2: Discuss in pairs or groups why these differences might be there.
Finally, prepare a short presentation based on this theme:
The first casualty in any conflict is the truth.
Does the Press coverage of the General Strike in 1926 bear this out?
