Class Encounters: Walter Hannington unemployed workers activist

In the twelfth of our series on meetings with figures from labour history, Gregory Billam encounters Walter Hannington of the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement. Walter Hannington was a young toolmaker from Camden, best known as the National Secretary of the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement (NUWM) during the interwar period. The 1930s, often popularly referred to as the ‘Hungry Thirties’, was a period marked by high … Continue reading Class Encounters: Walter Hannington unemployed workers activist

The People’s March for Jobs: taking the protest to Westminster

The first People’s March for Jobs had been a great success. Five hundred marchers set off from Liverpool, Yorkshire and South Wales, heading towards Westminster in a conscious echo of the Jarrow Crusade of 1936 and with a similar objective – to highlight the plight of those at the sharp end of government economic policies that were devastating whole industries. Initiated by the North West … Continue reading The People’s March for Jobs: taking the protest to Westminster

Sources for the History of Unemployment

This fact sheet on sources for the history of unemployment and the unemployed was created to coincide with a conference titled ‘From the Blanketeers to the Present: Understanding Protests of the Unemployed’, German Historical Institute, on 16 and 17 February 2007. It was updated in April 2019 and reissued in September 2024. The guide includes information on the major archives and thier holdings on this … Continue reading Sources for the History of Unemployment