Youth Unemployment: "We won't stand for this any more"

Story published on  Women's Views on News, Sunday, November 6, 2011

WVoN recently spoke to Stephanie Maston, a 21-year-old unemployed woman from Bradford who is marching to protest youth unemployment.

Maston is one of around 20 young people who have been re-creating the historic Jarrow march of 1936, when thousands of unemployed workers marched from the North East to London, to draw public attention to the poverty and misery caused by unemployment.

The marchers are part of Youth Fight for Jobs, a trade union-backed group which campaigns for jobs, education and housing for young people.

Maston was on Employment Support Allowance because of a mental difficulty until she was ruled fit to work, against the advice of her doctors.

“My housing benefit was completely cut and they told me I owed them money.  I had to move back in with my parents.  All the stress is not going to help someone with mental health difficulties.

“They are forcing people to work whether they are fit or not,” she said. 

But Maston would be marching even if she wasn’t unemployed. 

“It’s all about solidarity, it doesn’t matter whether it affects me or not.

“Pensions are being cut and older people are being forced to work.  This is denying young people jobs. 

“Older people are having to work when they should be enjoying their retirement,” she added.

The government’s new Work Programme is a particular concern for the marchers.

“They are making people work for their dole money.  The agencies are getting work for free. There is no guaranteed job at the end.  The minimum wage is too low and people need contracted hours,” said Maston.

She said that a friend, Bobbie Crannie, who is also on the march, spent six months on the Work Programme folding and packing boxes with ten others.

“They said there would be work for some of them, but no-one got a job, which meant they got more free work. 

“It’s a crap job anyway, but people used to be paid for it.  Their jobs have been cut and the agencies get free work.  And the government has arranged for this to happen.

“Further education is off-limits for a lot of young people and even if they get through sixth form, [university tuition fees of] £3,000 were too high for some people, let alone £9,000.”

They are also campaigning for council housing for everyone.

The marchers have received a warm welcome throughout the five-week slog from Jarrow, through towns and cities like Leeds, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and Rugby, with some people joining them for parts of the march.

“One woman pulled up at the side of the road, said ‘It’s fantastic what you’re doing’, put £100 in the bucket and drove off,” said Maston.

The march is officially sponsored by the Rail Maritime and Transport workers union, the University and College Union, the Communication Workers Union and the Public and Commercial Services union.

Some councils have allowed them to stay in community halls, but they have mostly relied on the hospitality of more seasoned campaigners.

“One of the women we stayed with, Lorna, had a Che Guevara flag on her wall.  Her nieces and nephews had drawn pictures of our march.

“She was involved in the Poll Tax campaign and showed us a lot of pictures.  She gave us a letter she wanted us to hand in to No 10,” said Maston.

The march has been covered on Newsnight, in the Guardian and on Sky News.

“I’m in a big room full of interviews at the moment,” she laughed.

When they appeared on The One Show, Happy Days actor Henry Winkler drew parallels with the Occupy Wall Street movement in the USA.

Stephen Fry tweeted his support, which brought 2,000 views to their blog.

But there has been some negative coverage.  In early October the Daily Telegraph reported that the march had “fizzled out”, and quoted Robert Goodwill, Tory MP for Scarborough, who called them “an insult to the memory of the Jarrow marchers.”

“We see that as a positive,” said Maston.  “Why would they write things like this if we are not making people realise?  We have made people notice and they are scared.”

The marchers crossed the border into London on Wednesday night. Later half of them marched to the Occupy London protest outside St Paul’s Cathedral. 

The rest leafleted colleges to publicise a benefit gig in Brixton featuring comedy, music and speakers including film-maker Ken Loach, and a rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday.

“I have been the resident foot doctor, I’ve seen a lot of blisters but it hasn’t stopped anyone.  There have been a few tears but the endurance has been fantastic,” said Maston.

Yesterday the marchers joined hundreds of supporters for a demonstration from the Embankment to the rally in Trafalgar Square.

They were addressed by Bob Crow from the Rail Maritime and Transport union, Lizzi Gray, granddaughter of one of the original Jarrow marchers, and organisers of the London Slut Walk.

Next week the marchers will return home and will help unions build support for the public sector strikes planned for November 30.

“We are all interlinked.  The main aim of this march is to get students, the unemployed, everyone together on the same platform to say we won’t stand for this any more,” said Maston.

“If the capitalist system can’t afford to give us jobs we can’t afford this system any more.”