PEOPLE’S PUBS/CLASSIFIED

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: september 2009 :: RMTnews 33 INDIAN WELLS KISSIMMEE VILLAS 10% discount on rates for RMT members. Beautiful 3 bedroom 2 bathroom villa in Florida 5 minutes drive from Disney. Exceptionally central location, own pool with screen porch and overlooking a lake. Will sleep 8 and cot facilities are available. 01202 427854. www.indianwellskissimmeevillas.co.uk LOVE PERFUMES? WHY PAY OVER THE ODDS? New perfume Company with great fragrances at discount prices Quality products for men, women and children For more information text SCENT/call 07790674173 www.fmforperfume.com/aroma CLASSIFIED ADS Crossword Due to technical difficulties we have been unable to run our regular prize crossword. We hope to re-instate the crossword in the near future. In the meantime, winner of crossword No54 is David Chapman of Eastbourne. D urham. The unemployed marchers from Jarrow to London in 1936 learned that being so called "moderate" was seen as a sign of weakness by the authorities. The government ignored their plea for action to reduce the 80 per cent unemployment rate in the town following the closure of the shipyards and to reverse its decision to reduce unemployment benefit. When the more militant National Unemployed Workers' Movement marched on London a few days later, however, they drew such huge crowds of supporters that the government was forced to meet them and suspend the dole cuts. Jarrow's Labour MP was Ellen Wilkinson, known as "Red" Ellen on account of the colour of her hair and her politics (she had been a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain from 1920 to 1924). The town council approached her to do something dramatic to persuade the government to reopen the shipyards. She consulted leading communist Wal Hannington, leader of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement. He advised her to organise a Jarrow contingent to join a national hunger march of the NUWM taking place in October. The NUWM was considered too militant by the leadership of the Labour Party and the TUC, so this suggestion was rejected by the town council. Instead they organised a separate march of 200 "Crusaders" on the 280 miles to London, and set off a week before the Tyneside and Durham contingent (led by communist councillor Tom Richardson) joined the NUWM march. "Red" Ellen joined the Jarrow Crusaders, but broke off to attend the annual conference of the Labour Party. There she was amazed to find her marchers denounced from the platform. "I thought that we were guaranteed 100 per cent respectable," she wrote. "With the blessing of bishops, priests and clergy, subscriptions from business men, the paternal interest of the Rotary Club, and the unanimous vote of the town council, could anything have been more constitutional?" Despite this, she added, the Labour Party leadership withdrew support and the TUC circulated trades councils advising them against giving help. "So in places like Chesterfield, where the trades and Labour council obeyed the circular, the Conservative Party weighed in with hot meals and a place to sleep". On reaching London they were allowed to sit in the public gallery at the House of Commons where their petition was handed over on November 4. But they could not understand it when the matter was not debated. "The men, who were entertained to tea in the House, were rather disappointed," recalled Ellen. "They had imagined an imposing ceremony and a long discussion". The government never showed any inclination to reward the men of Jarrow for their good conduct, as Wal Hannington remarked in his book "Never on Our Knees", so they left unheralded on November 7. The very next day the officially denounced NUWM marchers were greeted by a crowd of 250,000 as they arrived in Hyde Park demanding the withdrawal of dole cuts. Such crowds led the Parliamentary Labour Party to reassess its opposition to the marchers. Its leader Clement Attlee saw no problem in joining Wal Hannington on the platform and attacking means testing of the dole. The national government also did a u-turn. It had said it would not receive a deputation of the NUWM marchers, but four days after their arrival it was forced to do so, and the Minister of Labour, Ernest Brown, announced a suspension of the dole cuts. The contrasting lack of success of the Jarrow experience was described as "a picture of capitalism at work" by Ellen in her book "The Town that was Murdered". It was also an indictment of the politics that made the town "a workhouse without walls," she concluded. Jarrow is still proud, nonetheless, of the symbolic gesture made by their Crusaders, who are commemorated by a sculpture in the town, which was unveiled in Morrisons car park in 2001. Musician Alan Price also composed a song about them which includes the lyrics: My name is Geordie McIntyre, and the bairns don't even have a fire, and the wife said Geordie go to London town and if they don't give us half a chance, don't even give us a second glance,then Geordie with my blessings burn them down. JARROW CRUSADERS 76 WALTER STREET, JARROW PEOPLE’S PUBS - Words by Mike Pentelow, Pictures by Peter Arkell NORTH CLYDE BRANCH NOMINATE JOHN MACDONALD RELIEF ORGANISER NORTH WARRINGTON BRANCH NOMINATES ANDY WARNOCK-SMITH TO THE POSITION OF NORTH WEST REGIONAL ORGANISER AND SEEKS SUPPORT FOR THIS EXCELLENT CANDIDATE