they requested the re-establishment of industry in Jarrow
The closure of Palmers shipbuilding yard, the main emploter of labour in Jarrow, was the main trigger for the march
The National Shipbuilders Security (NSS) Ltd, company created by the government to buy up failing yards and dismantle them so that production could be focused in a smaller numbe of profitable ones
early summer of 1934, Palmers was acquired by the NSS, and dismantiling began
American Investor, T. Vosper Salt, was convinced that Jarrow was the ideal place for a new steelworks
However, the British Iron and Steel Federation was less than enthusiastic - no steelworks built in Jarrow
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The Jarrow March
backed by Jarrow Borough Council, the local mayor, the town's labour MP, Ellen Wilkinson
200 medically fit men slected from over 1,200 volunteers
women were not invited
Over £1500 was raised to meet costs
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Impact of the Jarrow March
the marchers were greeted warmly at some stopovers with food and clothing offered
the general public lined the route of the march in their thousands
Ellen Wilkinson criticised for sending hungry and poorly clothed men on a march that would have no outcome
Labour Party advised not to support the march
4th November - Wilkinson presented petition to parliament, they discussed it briefly and then moved on
The marchers returned home empty-handed
while they were away, the government had cut their unemployment benefit and dole money because they had not been available for work, even there was no work to be had
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Hunger Marches
1921 - Hannington set up the National Unemployed Workers Movement, an effective arm of the British communist party
aimed to destroy capitalism
concerned about the rights of the unemployed to jobs and a reasonable subsistence allowance
the driving force behind a number of hunger marches in 1922-23, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1934 and 1936
many of these led to violent clashes between the police and demonstrators
first Welsh hunger march - started as a protest against the limitations the gov placed on unemployment relief and the impact this had on miners and their families, miners selected to march to London on 8th Nov to coincide with the opening of parliament
270 miners marched to London
the government remanined hostile
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Hunger Marches.2
1932 - angered by the means test, the NUWM organised a national hunger march
means test - introduced as an emergency measure by the gov in 1931, a household test whereby all income coming into a household was taken into account before benefits were given
3000 peope marched to Hyde Park, London
to reconsider the implementation of the means test
to present a petition to parliament containing a million signatures
serious violence broke out
extra police drafte in
police confiscated the petition
did hit the national press and generated questions in parliament
spies were trained and inflitrated the NUWM, regularly reporting back to their handlers
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