1920 BLIND MARCH: A CENTENARY TO CELEBRATE

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2020 :: RMTnews 24 O ne hundred years ago, two hundred and fifty blind people from across the UK marched from Newport, Manchester and Leeds to London in protest at poverty and poor working conditions. Setting off on April 5, the marchers arrived in London twenty days later and rallied in Trafalgar Square along with ten thousand supporters. The march was very much a labour movement event, organised by a trade union called the National League of the Blind (NLB) and its rally addressed by trade union and Labour leaders. The marchers refused to leave London until Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd agreed to meet them, which he eventually did on April 30. Under the pressure of the march, Parliament passed the 1920 Blind Persons Act requiring local authorities to provide for the welfare of blind people and lowering the retirement age for blind (male) workers from seventy to fifty. Following the awful carnage of the First World War, there were many blind and disabled people in Britain. Despite being promised a ‘land fit for heroes’, many found themselves unemployed, begging, or in low-paid, super- exploited jobs in charity workshops. By the NLB’s estimate, over half of the thirty-five thousand blind people in the United Kingdom lived in poverty. When the War finished, the NLB held a large gathering in Trafalgar Square and disrupted a Parliamentary session in 1919. But Parliament refused to legislate to improve the welfare of blind people, voting down a Bill proposed by Labour MP Ben Tillett. So the NLB stepped up its campaign by calling the march. The marchers – all civilian men, as the NLB barred women and ex-soldiers from taking part – were accompanied by music played on trumpets and drums. They demanded better education, more work opportunities and a financial grant to all blind people, and carried banners with the slogan ‘Social justice not charity’. They marched arm in arm and four abreast, and some held on to a rope. Sighted guides marched with them and shouted and whistled to direct them. Trade unions and co-operative societies provided overnight 1920 BLIND MARCH: A CENTENARY TO CELEBRATE RMT national disabled members’ advisory committee chair Janine Booth tells the story of the Blind March