History-hunger marches

• • People in areas of great depression felt that the government were doing very little to help them. They organised hunger marches, so that issues such as unemployment, poverty and hunger could be highlighted to the government.
• The most famous hunger march was the Jarrow Crusade. In Jarrow over 75% of the population was unemployed due to the closure of the shipyards. In 1936, 200 men, along with their MP, Ellen Wilkinson, walked 300 miles from Jarrow to London, to present a petition requesting jobs for Jarrow to the government.
• The Depression hit South Wales very hard. On 14 October 1932, 375 marchers set off from the Rhondda, heading for London. They wanted to present the government with a petition to abolish the Means Test, end cuts to social services and end the 10% reduction in dole payments. The Metropolitan Police confiscated the petition and it was not delivered to Parliament.