Call for jobless march on Washington: 1977
A flyer from the New York/New Jersey United Workers Organization lays out the case against cutting unemployment benefits and calls for a march on Washington.
The demonstration sponsored by the Unemployed Workers Organizing Committee attracted 1,000 unemployed to march from All Souls Church at 16th & Harvard Streets NW, down 18th St to the White House on March 5, 1977 to demand “no cuts in unemployment benefits.”
Jimmy Carter had just taken office as President and the unemployment rate was hovering around 9%. Carter proposed to cut 13 weeks of unemployment benefits and make another 13 weeks conditional those out of work accepting any job—including minimum wage jobs.
Marchers carried a letter to Carter that said in part, “Why do you represent the interests of the moneyed class while claiming to speak on our behalf?” The demonstration was organized by the Unemployed Workers Organizing Committee (UWOC) which had chapters in 33 cities at the time.
The United Workers Organization and UWOC were organized by the Revolutionary Communist Party, a group was formed as the protest movement of the 1960s and early 1970s began to ebb. The RCP grew out of the Revolutionary Union and upheld Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought at its 1975 founding.
For a PDF of this 8 ½ x 14, two-sided flyer, see washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/518676...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsjtYSs76
Donated by Craig Simpson
Call for jobless march on Washington: 1977
A flyer from the New York/New Jersey United Workers Organization lays out the case against cutting unemployment benefits and calls for a march on Washington.
The demonstration sponsored by the Unemployed Workers Organizing Committee attracted 1,000 unemployed to march from All Souls Church at 16th & Harvard Streets NW, down 18th St to the White House on March 5, 1977 to demand “no cuts in unemployment benefits.”
Jimmy Carter had just taken office as President and the unemployment rate was hovering around 9%. Carter proposed to cut 13 weeks of unemployment benefits and make another 13 weeks conditional those out of work accepting any job—including minimum wage jobs.
Marchers carried a letter to Carter that said in part, “Why do you represent the interests of the moneyed class while claiming to speak on our behalf?” The demonstration was organized by the Unemployed Workers Organizing Committee (UWOC) which had chapters in 33 cities at the time.
The United Workers Organization and UWOC were organized by the Revolutionary Communist Party, a group was formed as the protest movement of the 1960s and early 1970s began to ebb. The RCP grew out of the Revolutionary Union and upheld Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought at its 1975 founding.
For a PDF of this 8 ½ x 14, two-sided flyer, see washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/518676...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsjtYSs76
Donated by Craig Simpson