A People's History of London by Lindsey German & John Rees

Author:Lindsey German & John Rees
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 2012-06-17T16:00:00+00:00

THE TWO SIDES OF THE SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT

Yet the tactics of the suffragettes were themselves causing problems in the movement. The stress was more and more on conspicuous acts of militancy carried out by a few dedicated activists, not on the action of the mass of women. And so the great demonstrations and popular agitation in working-class areas diminished. In their place was more emphasis on the smashing of windows in shops and public buildings throughout the West End, carried out with small hammers which the suffragettes kept in their handbags. Acts of arson and attacks on country houses, post boxes and other targets increased. These were directed by Christabel in secrecy from Paris, where she had moved to avoid arrest. In her militancy she became more contemptuous of the labour movement and of forms of mass action. She repeatedly made clear that she held no brief for the emerging Labour Party. She did not see a political role for working-class women, or indeed men, and did not seek their help in winning the vote. Emmeline Pankhurst worshipped Christabel and never challenged her in any way, inevitably leading to disagreements with Sylvia and eventually to a split in the movement. In the years between 1910 and 1913 support for the WSPU plummeted, with subscriptions falling.58 Any who could not countenance Christabel’s autocratic behaviour were also forced out. In 1912 the Pankhursts parted company with their oldest allies, the Pethick Lawrences.

Sylvia, however, the accomplished artist who came to London in 1904 as a student at the Royal College of Art, never lost the socialism learnt in her ILP family in Manchester. She became a close friend and later lover of Keir Hardie, and frequently travelled from her home in Park Walk, Chelsea, to visit him in his lodgings at Neville Court, Fetter Lane. She first spoke at an outdoor meeting in Ravenscourt Park in Hammersmith,59 and her artistic and organizing talents were put to use by the WSPU in making posters and banners. On the 1908 demonstration her contingent from Chelsea alone comprised 7,000. Her special interest in working-class women drew her increasingly to the East End, where she set up a local group which was to become the East London Federation of Suffragettes. She organized women and men around the question of the vote, but also worked on child care and welfare. She was fully part of WSPU’s campaigns and herself went on hunger and thirst strike, but she became increasingly disenchanted.

From 1912 there was growing discord between her and Christabel, especially over class questions. This was evidenced in the conflicts which emerged when George Lansbury resigned his seat in Bow and Bromley to force a by-election on votes for women. Lansbury needed the backing of suffrage supporters outside the East End to win and while some work was done for him by the WSPU, when the rich suffrage supporters failed to produce their cars on the day to ferry voters to the polling booths, Lansbury lost the election. This failure

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