Closures: The Threat and the Future for Labour

Abstract

In May 1981, the British TUC organised a People’s March for Jobs. The march commenced in Liverpool on 1 May, and for the rest of that month unemployed men and women walked south to London. During that time, another 60000 workers had joined the dole queue as a result of plant closures and the continuing massive run down of manufacturing production in Britain; a run down that continued through 1981 and saw British industry entering 1982 with its lowest output figure since 1967. In July of that year, 5.57 million people were employed in manufacturing, compared with 7.1 million four years earlier. It has been a collapse of dramatic proportions, and one which fitted into a general crisis that saw total unemployment in the countries of the OECD rise above 25 million.