Unique Photograph of National Unemployed Workers Movement National Congress Delegates in the mid 1930's

Collecting Money for Dawdon Strikers

Dawdon people setting out to collect money or donations of food for the feeding
centre. They collected far and wide in County Durham, including at football matches,
outside factories, and in town centres.

Workers International Relief Activists

Dawdon men and women in the Co-operative Hall during the dispute. The placards
explain their case and the efforts of Workers’ International Relief.

National Unemployed Workers Movement Demonstration in Felling, Tyneside.

This shows a demonstration marching through Felling, Tyneside, in 1937 or 1938. The group of men are from the Felling branch of the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement; the man in the foreground is selling papers, probably the Communist ‘Daily
Worker’. The woman is helping to carry a banner commemorating the founding of the
Durham Miners’ Association in 1832, a reminder to the unemployed of the need to be organised. The banner at the rear is inscribed ‘Died in Defence of Democracy’, which means that the demonstration as a whole was being held to support of Republican Spain.

Preparing food for the communal feeding centre during the Dawdon dispute

Preparing food for the communal feeding centre during the Dawdon dispute. Money
and food were collected through Workers’ International Relief, a Communist-inspired international organisation that tried to prevent workers losing strikes through hunger and hardship. A committee of striking miners and their wives from Dawdon village, led by Jim Ancrum, raised money and organised donations of food through Co-operative Societies, trades unions and working class organisations.

The women in the background seem to be looking with some amusement at the men peeling potatoes; men doing the cooking would have been an unusual sight in a colliery village. Some men in Dawdon had been in the Army Catering Corps during the First World War had were able to use this experience of cooking for hundreds of people. During the fifteen weeks of the dispute almost 15,000 meals were prepared and over 1,000 food parcels were distributed.

The Dawdon Colliery Strike

Jim Ancrum addressing a meeting of miners during the Dawdon Colliery dispute in County Durham in 1929. This occurred when the miners went on strike in protest at new conditions imposed by the coal-owner Lord Londonderry. Their action was not supported by their union, the Durham Miners’ Association, who were also suspicious of the influence of Communists like Jim Ancrum. After fifteen weeks the strikers returned to work having negotiated what historians have called ‘an honourable draw’ with Lord Londonderry.

Photo of a Workers International Relief Strikers Canteen in use during the Lancashire Cotton Strikes of the early 1930s

Workers’ International Relief (WIR), an initiative of the Comintern, was also active during the strikes in the Yorkshire and Lancashire textile industries in 1930. This picture was taken there. Jim Ancrum, a W.I.R. organiser during the strikes is standing on the right and wearing a cap.