Marches of the unemployed to London, termed " hunger marches", had taken place since the early 1920s, mainly organised by the National Unemployed Workers' Movement (NUWM), a communist-led body. The failure of the steelworks plan, and the lack of any prospect of large-scale employment in the town, were the final factors that led to the decision to march. Plans for its replacement by a modern steelworks plant were frustrated by opposition from the British Iron and Steel Federation, an employers' organisation with its own plans for the industry. In the 1920s, a combination of mismanagement and changed world trade conditions following the First World War brought a decline which led eventually to the yard's closure. Over the following 80 years more than 1,000 ships were launched in Jarrow. In the early 19th century, a coal industry developed before the establishment of the shipyard in 1851. Jarrow had been a settlement since at least the 8th century. The Jarrovians went home believing that they had failed. The petition was received by the House of Commons but not debated, and the march produced few immediate results. ![]() Around 200 men (or "Crusaders" as they preferred to be referred to) marched from Jarrow to London, carrying a petition to the British government requesting the re-establishment of industry in the town following the closure in 1934 of its main employer, Palmer's shipyard. The Jarrow March of 5–31 October 1936, also known as the Jarrow Crusade, was an organised protest against the unemployment and poverty suffered in the English town of Jarrow during the 1930s.
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