Jobs for a Change

Who is Jobs for a Change?

The Greater London Council, the city's local authority from 1964 to 1986, ran two major popular-music festivals to highlight what it was doing to fight unemployment under Margaret Thatcher's government, boost the London economy and help create and fund new jobs. It also ran several concerts for the unemployed – at various town halls across London, at a big top set up in Finsbury Park for a Christmas Party and at the Royal Albert Hall for an evening of jazz and African music.

The events took place against a background of massive unemployment, a miners’ strike lasting a year and Thatcher's developing plans for the abolition of the GLC itself. The Conservative government issued a White Paper in 1983, arguing that the GLC and the six metropolitan county councils were profligate and inefficient and should be abolished. In 1985, a local government Act was narrowly passed by Parliament, cancelling the scheduled elections of that year and setting the abolition date for March 31, 1986. Thatcher objected to the anti-government nature of Ken Livingstone's GLC and of other metropolitan councils; her critics claimed she was politically motivated.

The Jobs for a Change festivals, which were both free, attracted huge audiences. The first, on the South Bank in June 1984, drew about 150,000 people. The second, in Battersea Park the following July, attracted an estimated 250,000. The musicians included The Smiths, Billy Bragg, Hank Wangford, Aswad, The Redskins and The Pogues. There were also theatrical groups, cabaret, films and exhibitions, talks, debates and stalls set up by external organisations.