This is a very useful format as it only really requires one person who knows the 'script' (or has it on a clipboard). This person then recruits volunteers who basically just have to stand in a line, a placard in their hands or hanging from their neck.

They may have a simple action to perform, like handing something to the next person in line.

I first came accross this format at a People And Planet Fair Trade workshop. The format is outlined below, and can also be found on their website.

Example 1

Sweet Injustice: The Chocolate Game.

The game demonstrates the way trade works in favour of rich countries and how the low world market price of raw products, in this case cocoa, means that producers in poor countries end up with a very small share of what we pay for a bar of chocolate!

Line up the volunteers and give them each a role, based on the list below. Start by giving the cocoa farmer, who owns a plot of land about the size of a football pitch, a chocolate bar that represents the money we pay for a normal bar of chocolate. He/she is invited to open the chocolate bar, but warned that before tucking into the fruits of their labour there are some payments to be made.

Each person will represent one of the people who has to be paid. Make signs for them to hold up, so that people who are watching can understand what is going on. As you read off the percentages below, the farmer should hand that number of squares over to the relevant person. You can ask the cocoa farmer how he or she feels as they lose their chocolate. They normally feel that in injustice is being done!

These calculations are for a 24 square Fairtrade Divine chocolate bar:

Non-coca ingredients: 3 squares (13%)

Government: 4 squares (15%)

Shops: 5 squares (22%)

Chocolate Companies: 10 squares! (43%)

Middleman: about half of what remains (3%)

Farmer: This leaves the farmer with just 1 square of chocolate (3%) to pay farm workers, pay for inputs into the farm and support his or her family with food, shelter, healthcare, education etc.

If all of your group take part, you could dress up as each of the roles, and turn the game into a lively theatrical sketch by adding a script.

Example 2

Climate Change

At a recent People And Planet workshop on Climate Change, 5 volunteers held placards with the name of a country on them: USA, UK, Sweden, India and Mali. The audience was invited to suggest the order in which they should stand, the country contributing least per capita to carbon emissions on the right. The audience were then asked to suggest which countries would be physically and economically most affected by climate change, and soon realised that the order would have to be exactly reversed. It formed a very graphic and powerful statement.

Example 3

Ethical investment by universities

This Line up is at the minimum:

1. A Banker

2. An Arms Trader

3. A person who is shot could be a child, woman, civil rights activist, innocent, poor black etc

4. The Narrator

All with big signs round their necks as then hands are free

You could add other roles such as:-

The Arms buyer who would be a corrupt, repressive dictator

The Saver who saves with the bank - could be a plant in the audience

The University if a student audience or relevant institution such as the Pension fund

The child of the shot person

A plant in the audience with a big sign saying ETHICAL INVESTMENT

At the narrator's prompting, the Saver gives a big £££sign to the Banker

Or the student gives the £££ sign (their fees) to the University. (We made our £££sign long and you will see why).The University gives it to the Banker

The Banker gives it to the Arms trader

The Arms Trader turns the sign over and on the back there is the silhouette of a rifle

The Arms Trader gives the rifle to the Arms buyer/Dictator

The Arms Buyer/Dictator shoots the next person in the line

The shot person falls

Much booing etc

Narrator comments on the wrongness of this then asks the Line up to rewind - shot person stands up, rifle is passed back and rifle sign is turned round so it becomes £££ sign again and is passed back along The Line to the Saver.

At Narrator's prompting, Ethical Investment person emerges from the audience - all singing and dancing, colourfully dressed Applause is prompted by the narrator. Ethical Investment replaces the Arms trader. Narrator can prompt booing and shouts of "OFF, OFF, OFF"

The £££sign is passed down The Line again and when it comes to the Ethical Investor they give something helpful to the previously shot person like a sign of a water tap, and shakes hands. All the people in the Line up can shake hands, hug etc to audience applause.

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