Dissent

First of all I have to admit that I don't know much about this topic. I didn't want to choose a beginning like that because that's what everybody starts with. But in spite of this I eventually also decided to point out my lack of knowledge because it expresses that it's not easy to write an essay of 500 words on this topic. The only sources I have are one page of stuff I wrote down during the lesson and a bit of information in the book.
I remember the picture of the "suffragettes", the women who organised a demonstration for their right to vote. This raised my interest for the meaning of the expression "dissent".
I know that it signifies that someone or a group of people disagree with something. They are of another opinion maybe even in an opposition.
I have also kept in mind that there are several forms of this sort of disagreement. Some people can be in an opposition to society which was expressed by the picture of the naked man on the street surrounded by police men. From my point of view it's a logical consequence that disagreements can also be shown in a violent way which was obviously proved by Eric Cantona and his karate - attack.
Another group of people in England who are not satisfied with some of the society's values are the Punks. In the 1970s the Punks protested against the policy of the National Front, which provoked some racial tensions. The fact that the Punks can't identify with the majority of society is strongly expressed by their physical appearance which differs very much from the ordinary look.
A very large group of people, namely the Irish, were against the British reign in their country. The Irish had a very intense desire for freedom. The resistance reached its critical stage in 1910 when a fight for freedom broke out. In 1916 Irish nationalists fought British troops. Six years later, in 1922, the Irish proclaimed their own independent state - Ireland.
But the northern part of Ireland (where Catholics and protestants stand in opposition to each other) remained under British rule. This was another reason for later conflicts. It was the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who chose violence as a medium to inform the public about the situation in Northern Ireland. One example of the IRA's actions is the 1985 - bombing in Brighton just one day before the congress started. The conflict in Northern Ireland has not been solved until today although there have been lots of negotiations.
Compared with other European countries, Britain is still very much a class - conscious society. In such a society it is not surprising that the lower classes often feel suppressed. Dissatisfaction has repeatedly been the reason for conflicts between social classes in the British history. In 1926 there was a general strike which had been begun by the coal miners. The government started to search for extra workers and threatened the workers. Finally the government could end the strike after eight days.
In the 1980s the coal miners started another strike because they wanted to protest against the closing of many mines.

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