Participants will:
- Participate in a game in which they play the role of factory workers
- Respond to the game as it develops
- Discuss the scenario after the game and apply it to the real world in an
age-appropriate manner
Participants will develop:
- Knowledge about the role of exploitation under capitalism
- An understanding of different responses to exploitation, including trade union organisation, co-operatives, strikes and revolutions
- Problem-solving, collectivising and negotiating skills
- A deeper understanding of their own attitudes towards exploitation and co-operation
Materials
Chocolate (check dietary requirements and buy fairtrade!), plates
(one per participant), blunt knives (one per participant). You need enough
chocolate for each child to have at least four small squares, 6-8 is probably
better.
Before you start
Set out a place for each participant with a chair and enough table space for a plate. Set out a separate space for facilitator(s) (playing the boss) at the head of the table or on a separate table where they can be seen by all. Stack
the plates, knives and chocolate in front of the facilitator(s).
Start by welcoming the participants and explaining that you are going to demonstrate the ‘Great Money Trick’ but you will need their participation. Explain that you are a rich factory-owner (you represent the capitalist class) and that on the table in front of you are some items representing the things you own. Firstly, you are rich, so you have lots of money. Each coin represents a week’s wages. Secondly, you are a factory-owner. The plates represent your factories and the knives the machines that you own. Finally, you have raw materials, which need to be worked up into the necessities of life (food, clothing, etc.). These are represented by the chocolate, which needs to be cut before it can be eaten. All of these things belong to you. They don’t need to know how or why; you inherited them or acquired them through deals with friends. They just need to accept that these are your private property.
They, on the other hand are workers. They represent the working class. They own no factories or means of production, so they will need to earn money to eat. Luckily, as you are a kind factory-owner, you are willing to offer them a job. All they need to do is cut one small square off a block of chocolate, cut it into three pieces and you will pay them one coin. Secure their agreement and then hand out the plates and knives. As you hand them out, remind the participants that these are your private property and that they are merely using them to process your raw materials. Similarly, hand out the chocolate with the same reminder. Once everyone has cut a small square off their chocolate bar and cut it into three pieces, you can collect 3 pieces off each ‘worker’ and pay them one coin in return. This represents their wages. Remind them that the factories (plates), machinery (knives) and raw materials (uncut chocolate) still belong to you. You should now have a pile of cut chocolate pieces in front of you and each ‘worker’ should have one coin.
Explain that, after a hard week’s work, they must now be hungry, and need food, clothes, etc. for their families. Luckily, you have plenty of these, produced in your factories and are willing to sell them a small piece of chocolate for one coin. This, they can eat. After this transaction, you should once again have all the coins, plus two thirds of the small chocolate pieces, plus all of the factories, machines and raw materials still belong to you. Make a show of eating two or three pieces of chocolate and stockpiling the rest.
Continue this cycle several times, prompting the participants with questions about how little they have at the end of each week when there money is spent and comments about how much you are enjoying eating multiple pieces of chocolate, how you appreciate them working so hard while you can relax but it is all fair because you own the factories and machinery.
You may then wish to try some of the following strategies to further increase the inequality of the situation:
– Due to an economic downturn, you may decide to close some of your factories. When the children who have their plates, knives and chocolate complain that they have nothing to eat, you can point out that you can’t be expected to feed them for free. After all, you paid them fairly for their work. They should have saved their money while they could!
– You may wish to reward a couple of ‘workers’ by allowing them to work a double shift and cut two squares of chocolate into six small pieces, earning two coins each time. If they are very efficient, you may lay off more ‘workers’ and close more factories so you can move production to where labour is most efficient.
– You may decide to cut wages, offering one coin for two squares being cut into six small pieces, or raise prices, asking two coins per small piece of chocolate.
– You may appoint some participants as managers and supervisors, offering them an additional coin to keep an eye on other ‘workers’ and ensure their work is up to standard.
The aim is to provoke the participants with the unfairness of the situation and see how they react to is. Some groups may refuse to cut any more chocolate until everyone is treated fairly, or until increased wages are paid or prices are lowered. This effectively represents strike action. Other groups may try to set the price for chocolate through negotiation or even club together to purchase plates and knives from the factory owner and share what they get fairly between the whole group (a workers’ co-operative?). Others may simply try to seize the chocolate, plates and knives and refuse to return them – seizing the means of production?!
Take time to discuss afterwards the participants response to a patently unfair situation where one person controlled all the wealth of society and how they came together collectively to change that situation. This is the fundamental basis of trades unionism.