National Unemployed Workers' Movement

The National Unemployed Workers Movement (NUWM) was set up in 1921 by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. It campaigned for better support for the unemployed and against the Means Test. Between 1921 and 1929 it was called the National Unemployed Workers' Committee Movement. Its main organiser in England was Wal Hannington, and in Scotland Harry McShane.

The massive rise in unemployment in the early 1930s resulted in the work of the NUWM becoming more urgent and intense.

A hunger march, of unemployed workers to petition parliament, was organised in 1922. There were further national marches organised in 1929, 1930, 1932, 1934 and 1936. These involved groups of unemployed spending up to a month walking from town to town on their way to London, calling for support for their cause.

The largest march, in 1932, involved about 3000 individuals converging on London from every part of the country. The media gave little publicity to the march until they reached London on 27 October where they were met at Hyde Park by a crowd 100,000 strong. The government condemned them as a threat to public order, their petition was confiscated by the police, 70,000 of whom were mobilised to contain and disperse the demonstrations. The following days saw several violent confrontations between the police and demonstrators, and 75 people were seriously injured. Several leaders of the NUWM were imprisoned. These included 75 year old Tom Mann.

Eddie Frow, co-founder of the WCML was a leader of a march in Salford in 1931. He served five months in Strangeways prison for his pains. The end of the 1930s saw unemployment decline and when Wal Hannington became National Organiser of the Amalgamated Engineering Union the NUWM's work was suspended. By 1946 it had been formally disbanded.

From the guide to the National Unemployed Workers Movement collection, 1920-1984, (Working Class Movement Library)