Press release: No return to the 1930s

Campaign launched to combat job losses amongst young people

Bob Crow and others give their support to the Youth Fight for Jobs

A campaign has been launched against job losses amongst young people, and a march for jobs, in the tradition of the Jarrow Marchers, has been called to the G20 on 2 April. This march will visit all 4 of the poorest boroughs in London, assembling at Camberwell Green at 9am, marching past parliament and the Bank of England, through Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham finishing at the G20 meeting.

This campaign has support from a wide layer of activists and trade unionists, including Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary*, Chris Kitchen, NUM General Secretary, Andrew Price, UCU Wales EC, Bernard Roome, CWU NEC, Chris Baugh, PCS Assistant General Secretary, Gary Jones, CWU NEC, Glenn Kelly, Unison NEC, Jane Aitchison, PCS DWP section President, Janice Godrich, PCS President, Jean Thorpe, Unison NEC, John McInally, PCS NEC, Onay Kasab, Unison Greenwich Branch Secretary, Katrine Williams, PCS Chair Wales & DWP GEC, Kevin Greenway, PCS NEC, Robbie Segal, Usdaw NEC, Roger Bannister, Unison NEC, Stan Herschel, RMT North East Regional Organiser*, Bob Potts, RMT NEC*, Kevin McHugh, PCS NEC, Jim Barbour, Executive Council, FBU, Northern Ireland, Dave Green, Executive Council, FBU, East Midlands, Roddy Robertson, Executive Council FBU Scotland, Phil Clarke, NUT South East Region Young Teachers rep, Helen Flanagan, PCS Young Members Committee Vice-Chair and DWP GEC, Michael Wrack, Homerton Unison Youth Officer, Matthew Wright, Stoke Unison Young Members officer, and more (all in a personal capacity except *).

Sean Figg, national organiser for the Youth Fight for Jobs, says “This campaign is being initiated to fight for young peoples’ future.

The bankers have been bailed out with billions of pounds, but former workers in Woolworths are having to sign on.

In Dundee in the Prisme Factory, workers are having to occupy their factory just to get redundancy pay.

There is anger amongst young people, and we want to fight back. Large-scale government action should be taken to alleviate unemployment and the threat of job losses.

There is an urgent need for more social workers, nurses and teachers. Just a fraction of the money used to bail out the banks could take hundreds of thousands off the dole queues and train them to carry out vital public services.

Five million people want decent public housing, but there is virtually none to be had.

But currently there are enough bricks sitting idle to rebuild Nottingham, and building workers are losing their jobs by the thousand! Why couldn’t the two be combined in a major, publicly owned, house building programme?”

“Our March for jobs to the G20 stands in the traditions of the Jarrow march and others in the 1930s.

We are demanding no return to this era of hardship, and for the right to a decent job, for training facilities, for free education and for a positive future for young people.”