Thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Vauxhall Community Law & Information Centre are delivering Giz a Job, a grassroots heritage scheme exploring the 1981 People’s March for Jobs and wider right to work movement of the period.
Spearheaded by hundreds of jobless teenagers, the so-called ‘green army’ left Liverpool’s world-famous Pier Head on 1 May 1981. Over the next month, they passed through 25 economic blackspots, seeking to draw attention to the plight of the nation’s 2.5 million unemployed workers.
The campaign culminated in a 150,000-strong rally in London’s Trafalgar Square – one of the largest political demonstrations in Britain’s post-war history.
Despite successfully awakening the public’s consciousness to the issue of mass unemployment, the events of May 1981 have largely been forgotten.
That is until now!
Throughout the summer and autumn of 2023, Giz a Job volunteers will be undertaking interviews with witnesses to the events of May 1981.
The oral histories will help inform a series of creative heritage outputs including an exhibition, project website and educational booklet – to be launched to the public in early 2024.
If you or someone you know remembers the march, please contact our project coordinator Greig Campbell:
Twitter: @GizaJob81
