MARCHING FOR JOBS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2011 :: RMTnews 23 T he RMT-sponsored Easington Colliery brass band played for young campaigners as they began the long 330-mile march from Jarrow to London to demand real jobs earlier this month. Great grandchildren of the original Jarrow marchers are taking part on its 75th anniversary, as well as unemployed young people, students and young trade unionists. The route is the same as the 1936 marchers to Durham and then on to London by way of Harrogate, Sheffield, Leicester, Coventry, Northampton and Luton, and reaching the capital in five weeks. The march will finish with a rally in Trafalgar Square, London, on November 5 to protest against the high level of youth unemployment. Seventeen MPs have so far signed an Early Day Motion put forward by Labour MP John McDonnell backing the Youth Fight for Jobs Jarrow march. The number of 16-24-year- olds out of work and not in education has risen to over one million and the right to benefits have been attacked by the government. The right to an education has been undermined by this ConDem government which has massively hiked up tuition fees despite a solemn Lib Dem election promise not to do so. At present there are currently one in five graduates on the dole and university is no longer a path to a decent job. Youth Fight for Jobs organiser Claire Laker- Mansfield said: "We are marching to demand that the government does more to invest in a decent future for young people". RMT general secretary Bob Crow warned: "If the union movement doesn't stand by young people in the front line of the Con-Dem attacks we will witness a rerun of the Thatcher government's cynical dumping of a whole generation". MARCHING FOR JOBS