‘YTS Is Shit’ : The Liverpool School Strike – 1985

In 1985 I was staff photographer for The Militant Newspaper, writes Dave Sinclair I was sent to Liverpool to photograph the school strike against Margaret Thatcher’s Tory governments Youth Training Scheme, YTS. The youth of Britain saw the scheme as a form of exploitation or ‘slave labour’ and all over Britain school students were taking strike action.

The atmosphere in Liverpool was particularly angry and anti-Thatcher (the Miners Strike of 84-85 had just finished in defeat) and was looking to be the largest strike of children. Parts of Liverpool had 80% youth unemployment. Students had been campaigning for weeks and with the help of the Labour Party Young Socialists, LPYS they had been leafleting different schools to spread the word.

They agreed to gather on the 23rd April, 1985 outside St George’s Hall and then march through the town centre to a rally at the Pier Head. We were later told by the Education Authority that as many as 30,000 took strike action, as many as 10,000 making it into town. Many students made their own placards and banners.

See many more photos and read stories from the great day on Flashbak