Abstract
This chapter compares the hunger marches associated with the British and French unemployed protest movements during the 1930s. It is based on archival research in both countries. The study locates the hunger march within national repertoires of action of the unemployed and within the distinctive national political cultures and traditions. The comparative and transnational context of the hunger march helps to identify the mechanisms of transmission of this form of protest from the British to the French environment. The chapter makes the case that the hunger march is unique within the repertoire of action of the unemployed as it is a form of action that does not appear in the repertoires of other social groups: it is an exclusive mode of unemployed protest. This study reveals that the hunger march also has distinctive characteristics given that it is an amalgam of several forms of collective action and that it has a particular relationship to cycles of protest among the unemployed.
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Notes
- 1.
NUWM NAC Report, August 26–27, 1933, p. 2.
- 2.
TNA CAB 27 497 Attorney General’s Memorandum, December 2, 1932.
- 3.
NUWM NAC Minutes, December 3–4, 1932, pp. 3–8.
- 4.
ADSSD 3Mi6 107 Tillon’s report, January 7, 1934.
- 5.
Institut d’Histoire Sociale (CGT) Comité Régional des Chômeurs de la RP “Bilan de la marche”, in Bulletin: Après la Marche de la Faim, January 25, 1934, p. 6.
- 6.
ADSSD 3 Mi 6 30 PCF Central Committee minutes, January 13, 1927.
- 7.
NUWM NAC Minutes, April 7–8, 1934, p. 3.
- 8.
Communism and the International Situation: Thesis on the International Situation and the Tasks of the Communist International, Adopted at the Sixth World Congress of the Communist International, 1928.
- 9.
International Press Correspondence, February 4, 1930, p. 100.
- 10.
F7 13307 Journée of March 6, 1930.
- 11.
ADSSD 3 Mi 6 57 PCF BP minutes, September 22, 1930.
- 12.
AN F7 13541 police report, February 25, 1931.
- 13.
International Press Correspondence, October 30, 1931, p. 1018.
- 14.
International Press Correspondence, October 30, 1931, p. 1007–1008.
- 15.
RILU Magazine, 1932, pp. 499–507.
- 16.
RILU Magazine, 1932, pp. 937–938.
- 17.
L’Humanité, September 24–October 29, 1932.
- 18.
Le Temps, June 7, 1930.
- 19.
L’Humanité, October 16, 1932.
- 20.
L’Humanité, November 18, 1922.
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Perry, M. (2013). The British and French Hunger Marches of the 1930s: An Exclusive Mode of Protest, a Cultural Transfer, and a Fulcrum of Success. In: Andreosso-O'Callaghan, B., Royall, F. (eds) Economic and Political Change in Asia and Europe. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4653-4_9
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