Jarrow marchers tired but proud

Press, 4 November 1986, Page 9

Jarrow marchers tired but proud

NZPA-PA London The 1986 Jarrow crusaders limped proudly into London yesterday. Tired, weatherbeaten and footsore, the 80 marchers were welcomed in Trafalgar Square at the end of their 480 km trek by Labour members of Parliament and trade union leaders. “Nothing has changed in 50 years,” said one of the oldest marchers, 56-year-old John Badger, as union banners were unfurled around the base of Nelson’S Column. "We marched for the same thing as our fathers and grandfathers — a jOb. ;

“We are still victims of a profits-before-people policy. It’s a sad day when it takes four million people on the dole to balance the country’s books.” The march set off from Tyneside four weeks ago with the same objective as the 1936'crusade: to draw public attention to the unemployed and to put pressure on the Government. Trades unions, the Labour Party and local councils raised the £lOO,OOO ($278,000) to fund the march from Tyneside, where one man in three is on the dole.

Fifty years ago, the first Jarrow march failed to

provoke the Government into discussing the workers’ plight but this time the marchers will have their case argued in the House of Commons — the member for Jarrow, Don Dixon, has won an adjournment debate on unemployment tomorrow. The marchers were welcomed in Trafalgar Square yesterday by 71-year-old Jimmy Foggen, from Wallsend, one of the original crusaders. “I don’t think anything has changed,” he said. “The reasons are still the same. I only wish I could have marched this time. I’m proud of them all.”