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The Story of the Historic Scottish Hunger March Harry Mcshane page 30 • variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 The March The story of the historic Scottish hunger march Harry McShane Introduction On Friday, 9th June 1938, along the main roads Originally published in 1933 by the National leading to Edinburgh, columns of men were Unemployed Workers Movement (NUWM) this story marching; men with bands, banners, slogans, eve- relates events seventy years ago. Massive numbers of ryone equipped with knapsack and blanket, their people were out of work in those days, with the field cookers on ahead: an army in miniature, an attendant poverty and misery. unemployed army, the Hunger Marchers. Readers of Three Days That Shook Edinburgh will In the ranks were men of all political opin- themselves feel angry that so little has been done by ions—Labour men, Communists, ILP; there were the labour movement to organise and fight back Trade Unionists and non-Unionists; there were against the ravages of unemployment in the present even sections of women marchers—all marching situation. The daily growing number of unemployed four abreast, shoulder to shoulder, keeping step, are not involved in organising contemporary protest surging along rhythmically. marches to any great degree, and compared to the Here was the United Front of the workers, one of the first fronts of the drive for Unity now being efforts, the imagination and the organisation of the The Hunger March of June 1933, was a coping made in all parts of Britain. NUWM in the thirties they are puny affairs. stone to a whole series of mass activities which In a situation where more than ten people are had swept Scotland. In Glasgow, in Renfrewshire, chasing every vacancy; where more than a million Youth in Fifeshire, Lanarkshire, Dumbartonshire, even workers have been unemployed for more than a year; An outstanding feature of the March was the pre- in far north Aberdeen and Fraserburgh, the mass when the majority of school leavers can't find a job, dominant part played in it by the young workers. movement of the unemployed had developed. and in many cases are not entitled to any benefits; At least 50 per cent of the Marchers could be clas- Despite sneers, insults, batonings, jailings, the agi- and finally, when most men and women over fifty sified as young workers. Their discipline, courage tation had developed, thousands of meetings held, can be taken off the unemployment register to reduce and determination were of the very highest order incessant delegations and deputising, huge popu- the total, and they realise that they may never work and showed how the Youth can assist to a tremen- lar petitions containing the demands of the unem- again - has the time not come when we must raise dous degree the fight of the Unemployed. ployed organised, mass demonstrations held. the fundemental question of the very existence of the This March, with its strong Youth representa- Clashes with the police were frequent (in capitalist system? tion, is a living refutation of the pessimists who Glasgow, due to plain clothes policemen provoca- Long before labour leaders became respectable, assert that the young workers are not interested tion, a fierce fight took place on Glasgow Green they discussed and organised on street comers and, as in the struggle. It drives home the necessity of the and fourteen policemen were injured). A tremen- this pamphlet shows, fought for decent living condi- most careful and extensive preparations being dous petition, containing the signatures of over tions in the midst of mass unemployment. The pio- made so that in every area and locality the young 112,000 people was organised, a concession of 1s neers of the working class unions did have a dream workers will be drawn into the general mass activ- 6d per child literally torn out of the Glasgow PAC1 - it was called Socialism. In a world where what is ity. It reinforces a thousand times the urgent by mass pressure— only to have the National on offer is only booms and slumps with the occasion- necessity of building strong Youth sections of the Government2 step in, in order to prevent a work- al war thrown in, there must be a better way. Unemployed Movement. ers' victory in Glasgow. In 1983, when he was ninety years old, Harry In Fife, in Dumbartonshire, even in Ayrshire, McShane was interviewed by the magazine Socialist the workers forced concessions. Review, and had this to say: Why They Marched County Hunger Marches in Fife, Ayrshire, The marchers were going to Edinburgh, endeav- "Last night on television Michael Foot was talking about Lanarkshire, were organised. They were very suc- ouring to secure an interview with Sir G Collins, unemployment, that it would be with us for a long time cessful. More and more workers were being Secretary of State for Scotland. They proposed to to come. For the first time he was admitting that brought into the struggle; hope was being given to lay before him the steadily worsening conditions unemployment is a permanent feature under capitalism. the faint-hearted and the lukewarm. The struggle of the unemployed masses of Scotland, to demand He had no solution to offer, and he said "we can't raise against the means Test, the Dole Cuts, the increased relief for semi-starving men, women people's hopes". We have to make propaganda and say Anomalies Act was intensifying. The stage was set and children, and to put certain carefully thought clearly there can be no solution to the problem of for an all-Scottish Hunger March to raise the fight out proposals for work schemes which would help unemployment under capitalism. We have to argue that to a still greater height. The famous Hunger to give employment to tens of thousands of the alongside the fight to improve the conditions of the March in June was the result. unemployed army; to demand the ending of the unemployed we must fight all the time to change the Not an isolated event, not a stunt, but the logi- embargo on Russian goods which was preventing system. That is the only solution..." cal development, the coping stone, of the mass employment for 60,000 Engineering workers local activities throughout the winter and spring. Les Foster (including many in Scotland) because of stoppage The preparations for the March were more of Soviet orders. They marched for work, for thorough and wide-spread than anything hitherto. bread, and for maintenance of all unemployed. Not simply to organise contingents of marchers, The marching unemployed were the delegates, but to organise a mass working-class support for the representatives of their four hundred thou- the March contingents, to bring factory workers, sand unemployed comrades at home. Every trade, Trade Union branches, Co-operatives, Trades every industry, was present. The workers of Councils into the March, to get active support in Scotland stood behind the Marchers, stood behind popularising the Demands. their demands for work and maintenance, stood Hunger Marchers' Councils were organised in behind their Hunger 'Trek to Edinburgh. the areas composed of delegates from as many Our Demands working-class organisations as possible; hundreds of March Recruiting Meetings were held; Trade (1) Abolition of the Means Test. Union Branches circularised, and in some cases (2) That children of unemployed be granted 1s 6d visited; public correspondence initiated with Sir per week extra, and that adult unemployed and adult Godfrey Collins and with Town Councils and dependants be granted 3s per week extra. These Trades Councils on the main routes to Edinburgh; increases to apply to all unemployed whether in receipt resolutions passed from a very large number of of statutory or transitional payments or in receipt of Trade Union branches and from meetings, Public Assistance. demanding that Collins be present; Town Councils (3) That rents be reduced 25 per cent. and Councillors deputised; a regular series of (4) That the Social Service Schemes and all propagandist and agitational activities which had voluntary labour connected with the same be a tremendous result in focusing attention on the repudiated. In addition, the lifting of the Embargo on March and in breaking down the former isolation the Soviet Union and conclusion of a new Trade of the unemployed from the employed and trade Agreement. union workers. variant • volume 2 number 15 • Summer 2002 • page 31 All this time the recruiting for the March con- as to whether Mr Citrine4 or the TUC endorsed or tingents was going on, the Field Kitchens were did not endorse the March. prepared, money and foodstuffs collected—a sig- No! The workers realised instinctively that this nificant feature, indicating the progress made in was their own people who were marching, their breaking down isolation, was the very fine own class, kith and kin; it was "their side", and response from Trade Union branches and anybody who opposed it was on the other side. Co-operatives in sending donations and passing determined. Not a single contingent had accom- The class character of the March broke resolutions demanding that Collins come to modation guaranteed, not a single contingent through all the flimsy arguments of the Labour Edinburgh. The Recruiting Form, as follows, ena- entertained the slightest doubt that it would be and Trade Union leaders and showed, as in a light- bled the best type of Marchers to be recruited, secured. They knew that the pressure of the mass- ening flash, where they stood—on the other side and prevented our enemies saying that anyone es was something that no Town Council nor of the barricade. was mislead. bureaucratic Provost could long stand against. In this pamphlet there is not one-tenth of the In Glasgow there was a tremendous send-off; space required to tell of one-half of the episodes of this memorable March, of the heroism and SCOTTISH HUNGER MARCH thousands of people gathered at George Square; and as the March started—headed by Comrades determination that kept men plugging on with Declaration Form McGovern; Heenan of the ILP; Aitken Ferguson, feet torn, blistered, bloody, even when their com- May, 1933.
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