workingclasshistory:

On this day, 23 February 1932, a riot broke out on Old Market Street in Bristol as part of a protest against the government’s 10% cut to unemployment benefits in the middle of the Great Depression. Estimates range between three and fifteen thousand people had been taking part in a demonstration organised by the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement (NUWM) when police ambushed them on Old Market Street by charging out of a cinema in which they’d been hiding. However, the demonstrators fought back leading to riots in Old Market and the surrounding areas. Refusing to be cowed by police violence, the NUWM organised a mass meeting for that evening, which resulted in more clashes with police.
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