The Town that Was Murdered

Jarrow is best known as the town that gave its name to the Jarrow March of 1936. In November 1935 Jarrow chose Ellen Wilkinson as its Labour MP. A month later in a speech in parliament she challenged the government to address mass unemployment in the shipyards: `skilled fitters, men who have built destroyers and battleships and the finest passenger ships ... The years go on and nothing is done ... this is a desperately urgent matter… ’The Town That Was Murdered is her well-researched survey of Jarrow: local and labour history, the impact of poverty, the hateful misery of state relief, the history of shipbuilding, and the combined power of city and bank finance and shipbuilding magnates – in the UK and abroad – who drove local firms into bankruptcy and destroyed jobs. The book helped the drive for a Welfare State, and the Labour government of 1945. It is a historical document, but as finance looks to relocate investments, it still resonates today.