Lying Down for Jobs

When unemployed men and women stopped the London traffic

Chris Wild

1939

Unemployed men and women, campaigning for the provision of winter relief, bring the traffic on London's Oxford Street to a halt by lying down in the pouring rain. Credit: AP Photo

These photos show unemployed demonstrators - men and women - drawing attention to their campaign for employment and winter relief by lying down in London's Oxford Street - bringing all traffic on the busiest London thoroughfare to a complete standstill.

Credit: AP Photo

This was but one in a series of protests carried out by the campaigners toward the end of the Great Depression. Just before Christmas 1938, unemployed men had lain down in the snow at Oxford Circus - the central junction of London's two main shopping arteries, Oxford Street and Regent Street, and the locus of London's Christmas shoppers.

Credit: AP Photo

These protests came at the end of a decade when mass unemployment in Britain was a constant.  In 1933, 2.5 million - one quarter of the total British workforce - was out of work. Notoriously, in the Northern town of Jarrow, every single man in the town was unemployed.On the occasion of this protest, the traffic was held up for around 12 minutes before police removed the demonstrators.

Credit: AP Photo

Twelve months later, such protests were a thing of the past.  The onset of World War II produced a huge demand in heavy industries, and jobs came in their wake.