No Justice Without A Struggle — The National Unemployed Workers’ Movement In The North East Of England 1920-1940
by Don Watson    

(Merlin Press, £15.95)  

ANYONE looking for the inspiration or stamina to continue battling the current government over its constant attacks on the unemployed and the disadvantaged need look no further than the story of the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement (NUWM).

Don Watson’s book concentrates on the NUWM struggles in north-east England from 1920 to 1940, along with the stories of the selfless men and women who were at the forefront of every battle.

Led at national level by working-class legends Wal Hannington and Harry McShane, the principal aim of the movement was to remove the main cause of unemployment — capitalism.

At a regional level this translated into constant battles with local Boards of Guardians who had the powers,  through differing interpretations of the Poor Law, to vary the relief rates for the unemployed.

The anger over unemployment culminated in the first of the hunger marches to London in 1922, with a contingent from South Shields and Tyneside.

Further marches to London followed in later years, culminating in the 1935 Jarrow March.

They were in protest at the Unemployment Insurance Act — which stopped unemployment benefit for hundreds of thousands and forced them onto Poor Law relief — and over the hated Means Test and the Anomalies Act, which took large numbers of married women off the unemployed register.

The Jarrow March, organised by local MP Ellen Wilkinson, did not have the support of the Labour Party or the TUC who preferred the “constitutional path” to change.

The constant tension between the Labour Party and TUC also extended to the Communist Party. Most of the NUWM activists were CP members and the organisation was constantly derided as little more than a party front.

Yet the CP’s central committee regularly criticised the NUWM as being nothing more than a “trade union for the unemployed” rather than concentrating on political organisation and that it contained too many “lumpen-proletarian elements,” though Hannington and McShane managed to keep it on track.

Ultimately, the commitment and politics of many of the leading activists naturally led them to fight in Spain. They included Frank Graham from Sunderland, Wilf Jobling from Blaydon and Harry Reynolds from Newcastle, both killed at Jarama, and Bob Elliot from Blyth who was killed at Brunete.

Meticulously researched, with excellent notes and references, this book’s a great read  and it’s a worthy memorial to those whose commitment to the class struggle is a legacy we can only strive to match.