This photo was taken of a Canadian hunger march forming up in 1932 in Alberta. A short time later, as it set off to the legislature a few blocks away it was dispersed by billy-club wielding constables on foot and horseback.
Hunger marches are a form of social protest that arose in the United Kingdom during the early 20th century. Often the marches involved groups of men and women walking from areas with high unemployment, to London where they would protest outside parliament. Sometimes they would march instead to the offices of regional authorities in cities closer to home. Protesters would try to make the point that lack of work meant they were unable to buy sufficient food to avoid hunger for themselves and their families. The first such march took place in 1905. The term "hunger march" was coined three years later in 1908. In the first two decades of the 20th century, there was relatively little unemployment in the UK, but it could still become a severe problem in various areas after disruptive changes to the local economy. Hunger marches became much more prominent in the 1920s and 1930s during the Great Depression in the United Kingdom.[1]
During the widespread Great Depression of the 1930s, hunger marches also occurred in Canada and other countries.
Many of the UK hunger marches were supported by the British wing of the Communist party. While communism was at this time far more respectable than it was to become during the Cold War,[2] authorities often regarded the Communist-organized hunger marches with hostility. The marches were often brutally oppressed, and by the late 20th century had been mostly forgotten. An exception is the Jarrow crusade. This march had fewer than five hundred participants, with religious rather than political overtones. It did not provoke a hostile response from the authorities and was therefore not tinged with violence. Michael Portillo has said this caused the Jarrow march to be well-regarded and remembered, in contrast to other marches that often had many more thousands of participants and had had a greater impact.[1][3]
In the decades that followed World War II, there was much less unemployment in the UK and throughout the industrialized world, due in part to the Keynesian revolution. Even those without work or savings found it easier to feed themselves, due to the establishment of the welfare state. As a result, hunger marches were no longer needed. There were incidents where thousands of people embarked on marches to draw attention to hunger in the developing world, as happened for example during the 1973 Ethiopian famine, but the term "hunger march" was not often used to describe these events.[1]
September 5, 1931. 112 people, including 12 women, took part in a hunger march to the TUC offices in Bristol, under the slogan "Struggle or Starve". A third of the marchers were from Rhondda. The TUC refused to listen to the deputation and the march was broken up in Bristol by mounted police.[5]
An economic depression is a period of carried long-term economic downturn that is the result of lowered economic activity in one major or more national economies. Economic depression maybe related to one specific country were there is some economic crisis that has worsened but most often reflexes historically the American Great Depression and similar economic status that may be recognized as existing at some country, several countries or even in many countries. It is often understood in economics that economic crisis and the following recession that maybe named economic depression are part of economic cycles where slowdown of economy follows the economic growth and vice versa. It is a result of more severe economic problems or a downturn than the recession itself, which is a slowdown in economic activity over the course of the normal business cycle of growing economy.
Jarrow is a town in South Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the River Tyne, about 3 miles (4.8 km) from the east coast. The 2011 census area classed Hebburn and The Boldons as part of the town, it had a population of 43,431. It is home to the southern portal of the Tyne Tunnel and 5 mi (8.0 km) east of Newcastle upon Tyne.
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 following the closure in 1934 of its main employer, Palmer's shipyard. The petition was received by the House of Commons but not debated, and the march produced few immediate results. The Jarrovians went home believing that they had failed.
The Great Depression in the United Kingdom also known as the Great Slump, was a period of national economic downturn in the 1930s, which had its origins in the global Great Depression. It was Britain's largest and most profound economic depression of the 20th century. The Great Depression originated in the United States in late 1929 and quickly spread to the world. Britain did not experience the boom that had characterized the U.S., Germany, Canada and Australia in the 1920s, so its effect appeared less severe. Britain's world trade fell by half (1929–33), the output of heavy industry fell by a third, employment profits plunged in nearly all sectors. At the depth in summer 1932, registered unemployed numbered 3.5 million, and many more had only part-time employment. However at the same time, it is important to consider that from 1929 to 1933 employment dipped only to 94.9% relative to 1929 employment metrics and recovery was seen as early at 1933. The positive trend continued across real national income and wages. New houses built increased by 33% from 1929 to 1933, while profits, prices, export volume and value, and imports volume and value dropped. Overall, while all these metrics were concerning to parliament and businessmen along with devastating industrial regions, the common person especially in areas around London did not experience major hardship and even prospered.
Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), also known as the American Communist Party, is a Marxist–Leninist communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revolution.
Ellen Cicely Wilkinson was a British Labour Party politician who served as Minister of Education from July 1945 until her death. Earlier in her career, as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Jarrow, she became a national figure when she played a prominent role in the 1936 Jarrow March of the town's unemployed to London to petition for the right to work. Although unsuccessful at that time, the March provided an iconic image for the 1930s and helped to form post-Second World War attitudes to unemployment and social justice.
The second MacDonald ministry was formed by Ramsay MacDonald on his reappointment as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by King George V on 5 June 1929. It was only the second time the Labour Party had formed a government; the First MacDonald Ministry held office in 1924.
Australia suffered badly during the period of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. As in other nations, Australia suffered years of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement.
In the United States, the Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and then spread worldwide. The nadir came in 1931–1933, and recovery came in 1940. The stock market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth as well as for personal advancement. Altogether, there was a general loss of confidence in the economic future.
The National Unemployed Workers' Movement was a British organisation set up in 1921 by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. It aimed at drawing attention to the plight of unemployed workers during the post First World War slump, the 1926 General Strike and later the Great Depression, and at fighting the Means Test.
Relief Camp Workers' Union was a Canadian Great Depression era relief union in which the workers employed in the Canadian government relief camps organized themselves into in the early 1930s. The RCWU was established by the Workers' Unity League and was associated with the Communist Party of Canada. The creation of the union was a direct response to the conditions of the camps and the lack of financial compensation for the work the men provided. The union is best known for helping to organize the On-to-Ottawa Trek during the Great Depression.
Interwar unemployment and poverty in the United Kingdom describes a period of poverty in Interwar Britain between the end of the First World War in 1918 and the start of the Second World War in 1939. Unemployment was the dominant issue of British society during the interwar years. Unemployment levels rarely dipped below 1,000,000 and reached a peak of more than 3,000,000 in 1933, a figure which represented more than 20% of the working population. The unemployment rate was even higher in areas including South Wales and Liverpool. The Government extended unemployment insurance schemes in 1920 to alleviate the effects of unemployment.
The Great Depression (1929–1939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagion began around September and led to the Wall Street stock market crash of October 24. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century.
The National Hunger March of September–October 1932 was the largest of a series of hunger marches in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s.
International Unemployment Day was a coordinated international campaign of marches and demonstrations, marked by hundreds of thousands of people in major cities around the world taking to the streets to protest mass unemployment associated with the Great Depression. The Unemployment Day marches, organized by the Communist International and coordinated by its various member parties, resulted in two deaths of protestors in Berlin, injuries at events in Vienna and the Basque city of Bilbao, and less violent outcomes in London and Sydney.
The National Campaign Committee for Unemployment Insurance (NCCUI) was a mass organization of the Communist Party USA established in October 1930 in an effort to build a radical movement around the issue of unemployment insurance, thereby advancing the American Communist Party's cause. Headed by Alfred Wagenknecht, the NCCUI gathered a claimed 1.4 million petition signatures, which were presented to United States Congress amidst a heightened police presence on February 10, 1931. Three of the group's 140 delegates were expelled from the gallery of the U.S. Senate on that date for interrupting the debate.
The Unemployed Councils of the USA (UC) was a mass organization of the Communist Party, USA established in 1930 in an effort to organize and mobilize unemployed workers to advance party policy goals in preparation for an anticipated final conflict to overthrow capitalism.
The Housing Protests on the South Side of Chicago in August 1931 began as a clash between white police and African Americans over the eviction of Diana Gross, a seventy-two year old black woman. Police who were sent to enforce the eviction came into direct conflict with the crowd that had assembled and who were attempting to place her furniture back inside her home. The ensuing confrontation between police and the protesters led to the shooting deaths of two black men during the event, one black man killed later in the aftermath, as well as several injuries to policemen.
The 1920 blind march was a protest march to London of 250 blind people from across the United Kingdom. It was organised by the National League of the Blind (NLB) to protest poor working conditions and poverty experienced by blind people. In particular the NLB raised concerns over the conditions in workshops run to provide employment to the visually impaired by various charities. The marchers assembled at Newport, Manchester and Leeds on 5 April and marched to London, assembling at Trafalgar Square on 25 April. They were greeted by a crowd of 10,000 who listened to speeches from Herbert Morrison and trade union leaders. The march leaders met with prime minister David Lloyd George on 30 April, who made few promises apart from to pay for the marchers' rail tickets home. A subsequent Blind Persons Act 1920, the first disability-specific legislation in the world, compelled local authorities to ensure the welfare of blind persons and reduced the pension age for blind men. The march served as inspiration for the more famous 1936 Jarrow March against unemployment, in which the NLB also participated.
Emily Elizabeth Swankie was a British activist and campaigner who participated in the National Hunger March from Glasgow to London to protest against poverty and unemployment in the United Kingdom.
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