ABSTRACT
During 1934 the emphasis in Left politics began to shift from domestic to international affairs. Although unemployment remained and the problems of the Distressed Areas grew worse, the politically active were increasingly forced to consider the implications of European fascism. The relatively puny Fascist and Communist movements in Britain gained attention because they were seen as projections of much more important European counterparts. Extra-parliamentary agitation began to shift from the unemployed movement to opposition to fascism, despite the fact that the unemployed demonstrations continued to attract popular attention. Regular Hunger Marches from the Distressed Areas to London, of which the most famous was the Jarrow March of 1936, helped to emphasize to the more prosperous areas that unemployment had not been abolished but had merely receded. On most occasions when mass demonstrations took place there were clashes with the police and it was primarily for this reason that the Labour Party and the TUC tried to discourage such a form of protest.1
