Subjects of 2.27 include (transcript page numbers given in brackets): hunger march in 1936 from Scotland to London (2); expulsion from Communist Party Sid Elias, chairman of the National Unemployed Workers Movement, for offering to work for the Economic League (2); disagreements on organisation between the CP and the NUWM (3-4); Labour Party opposition to hunger marches in 1930 and their support in 1936 (4-5); marches to Edinburgh from Glasgow and elsewhere, 1922-1933 (5-7); marchers led by McShane in 1933 sleeping and eating meals on Princes Street in Edinburgh in defiance of the police and having their fares home paid by the corporation (7-9); marches to London in 1934 and 1936, including incidents on the latter (10-14).
Subjects of 2.28 include (transcript page numbers given in brackets): dispute about accommodation in Middleton-on-Tees on 1936 hunger march from Scotland to London (1); organisation and leadership of this and other marches in the 1930s (1-5); Wal Hannington leading song singing with Scottish and Welsh contingents (5-6); flute bands and singing in the former (6-7); fighting of benefit and rent cases by National Unemployed Workers Movement branches in Glasgow (7-8); formation in 1936 of a march council including prominent Labour politicians and its agreement that the NUWM should continue unemployment agitation using funds generated by the march (8-9); subsequent failed attempt to form unified unemployment campaign between the NUWM and the TUC (9-11); liquidation of NUWM on day before outbreak of Second World War (10); dealings of the NUWM with the corporation and trades council in Glasgow (11-12); limited influence of Communist Party on NUWM, despite most NUWM leaders being party members (12-13); McShane’s rejection of the idolisation of Stalin (14).
Brand: Pinnacle P90.