Centenary news

In January 1931, an article in Labour Research reviewed the extent of unemployment in the UK and its political impact. 


Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour government had been in office since 1929, the year of the US stock market crash that would trigger a global economic depression. 


The article cited figures showing an increase in unemployment in the UK, from 1,216,349 (10.3% of the population) in October 1929 to 2,368,798 (19.1%) in November 1930. Extracts from the article are reproduced below. 


Unemployment and the political crisis, 


The above figures, of course, only represent unemployment in insured industries. Agriculture and a number of public services are wholly excluded, as well as the thousands of workers who have never been in insured trades. 


There are no general figures to show the numbers of unemployed workers who, on one ground or another, are disqualified from claiming benefit. In October, 1930, there were over 524,000 persons receiving Poor Relief in certain districts, but there are many thousands who get no relief. It is clear a total of over three million workers — nearly a fifth of the industrial population — are now unemployed.


The common characteristics of all the schemes that have been put forward as "remedies" for unemployment and the industrial depression are a more violent attack on wages and conditions, reduced expenditure on social services, and some form of dictatorship — a "strong government" — to carry these measures through.