Giz a Job community heritage project seeks volunteers to help tell story of the 1981 People’s March for Jobs

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Are you passionate about the history of Liverpool? Do you want to gain experience in the heritage sector? If so, become a volunteer for the Giz a Job project!

Project organisers are seeking to recruit a team of 16 participants (aged 18+), who will receive training in archival research, oral history interviewing and exhibition design.

All training and travel expenses will be paid for by the generous National Lottery Heritage Fund grant. Food and drink will also be provided at each volunteer event.

Prospective trainees aren’t required to possess any experience of volunteering or working in the heritage or arts sectors. As long as they are eager to learn about Merseyside’s labour history, they will be welcome!

Greig Campbell is also looking to speak to potential interviewees, so if you or someone you know took part in or supported the 1981 People’s March for Jobs, please contact him at info@thepeoplesmarch.co.uk / 07585 669 833.

Background

The  Vauxhall Community Law & Information Centre has been awarded a £70,000 grant by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to deliver Giz a Job, a ground-breaking community oral history project that seeks to tell the story of the 1981 People’s March for Jobs.

The Project:

Working out of Liverpool’s north end, Giz a Job will support a group of volunteers to produce an intimate ‘people’s history’ of the March and the wider right to work movement.

The scheme will be delivered in three distinct stages:

1. Volunteers will receive free training in transferable heritage skills (archival research, oral history interviewing and exhibition design) provided by Liverpool Archives, the Oral History Society and the Museum of Liverpool
2. Utilising these newly acquired research skills, participants will explore relevant documentary archive material housed in various archives across the North West; whilst gathering oral testimonies from key witnesses to the March. Meanwhile, several free public events (heritage walks, reminiscence sessions and a historical talk) will be organised
3. Volunteers will work alongside local creatives to produce an exhibition, educational booklet, public artwork and website, which will be launched to the public early next year.

The Heritage of the March:

Giz a Job will provide an intimate account of the first People’s March for Jobs, which culminated in May 1981 when approximately 500 protestors arrived in London having undertaken a 200-mile trek from Liverpool. Over the preceding 4 weeks, the group, which was largely spearheaded by jobless young adults from Merseyside, passed through 25 towns experiencing mass redundancies.

At each location, the Marchers collaborated with civic leaders and community activists to organise rallies highlighting issues surrounding unemployment, race, disability and gender inequality. The March concluded with a huge music festival in Brockwell Park and a 150,000-strong demonstration in Trafalgar Square.

This evocative act of popular protest not only galvanised the labour movement, but also awakened the public’s conscience to the plight of mass unemployment.

To read the full Press Release, please click here.