Jarrow March

The Jarrow March of 5–31 October 1936, also known as the Jarrow Crusade, was an organised protest against the unemployment and poverty suffered in Jarrow during the 1930s. Around 200 men marched from Jarrow to London, carrying a petition to the British government requesting the re-establishment of industry in the town. The march was a success and led to a series of protests against the government’s handling of the Great Depression and the introduction of the National Insurance Act of 1926.

About Jarrow March in brief

The Jarrow March of 5–31 October 1936, also known as the Jarrow Crusade, was an organised protest against the unemployment and poverty suffered in the English town of Jarrow during the 1930s. Around 200 men marched from Jarrow to London, carrying a petition to the British government requesting the re-establishment of industry in the town. The petition was received by the House of Commons but not debated, and the march produced few immediate results. Jarrow had been a settlement since at least the 8th century. In the early 19th century, a coal industry developed before the establishment of the shipyard in 1851. Over the following 80 years more than 1,000 ships were launched in Jarrow. In the 1920s, a combination of mismanagement and changed world trade conditions following the First World War brought a decline which led eventually to the yard’s closure. Plans for its replacement by a modern steelworks plant were frustrated by opposition from the British Iron and Steel Federation, an employers’ organisation with its own plans for the industry. The failure of the steelworks plan and the lack of any prospect of large-scale employment were the final factors that led to the decision to march. Despite the initial sense of failure among the marchers, in subsequent years, the J Arrow March became recognised by historians as a defining event of the 30s. In contrast to the Labour Party’s coldness in 1936, the post-war party leadership adopted the march as a metaphor for governmental callousness and working-class fortitude.

The march helped to foster the change in attitudes which prepared the way to social reform measures after the Second World War, which their proponents thought would improve working conditions. The town holds numerous memorials to the march. Re-enactments celebrated the 50th and 75th anniversaries, in both cases invoking the \”spirit ofJarrow\” in their campaigns against unemployment. The march became a symbol of the struggle against unemployment in the UK in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when unemployment peaked at 22%, representing more than 3 million workers. In 1921, the newly formed British Communist Party set up the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement. From 1922 until 1922, the NUWM organised regular marches in which unemployed workers converged on Parliament, in the belief that this would improve conditions. These became known as \”hunger marches\”, reviving a name coined by the press in 1908, when a group of unemployed marched to Hyde Park to seek a meeting with the new prime minister, Bonar Law. The 1922 marchers sought a meeting of the new Prime Minister, who refused to see them because of their undemocratic leadership. In 1925, the march leaders were denounced in The Times as “avowed Communists who have been identified with their own localities in local disturbances” The march was a success and led to a series of protests against the government’s handling of the Great Depression and the introduction of the National Insurance Act of 1926.

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