Sylvia Pankhurst

Ask most people what they associate with the women's suffragette movement and they will probably say, 'votes for women', chaining themselves to railings, or they may mention Emmeline Pankhurst. It is of course true that she was probably the most leading woman in the British movement, but so were two of her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia, and it is Sylvia with who we are most concerned.

Sylvia was born in Manchester before she was seven years old her mother had become fully involved in the campaign to give women the vote, as she grew up Sylvia developed an interest and talent for art which led her to winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London, while there she divided her time between her studies and campaigning with her mother and sister.

After trying to put their bill before parliament with the help of sympathetic MP's, usually by being deliberately talked out, the thoughts of Mrs Pankhurst turned to more direct action. As Sylvia was a pacifist this decision caused some distance between her and both her mother and Christabel. Nevertheless she remained a dedicated member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) which she had helped found with her mother and sister.

During this time she was arrested many times for non violent protests and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, whenever this happened all suffragettes would go on hunger strike and the authorities would force feed them. This practice was horrendously and vividly described by Sylvia as the following:

'' On the third day the two doctors sounded my heart and felt my pulse. The senior told me he had not alternative but to feed me by force. Then they left the cell. I was thrown into a state of great agitation, heart palpitating with fear, noises in my ears, hot and cold shivers down my spine. I paced the cell, crouched against the wall, knelt by the bed, paced again, longing for some means of escape, resolving impotently to fight to prevent the outrage, knowing not what to do … Presently I heard footsteps approaching, collecting outside my cell. I was strangled with fear, cold and stunned, yet alert to every sound. The door opened - not the doctors, but a crowd of war dresses filled the doorway … There were six of them, a;; much stronger and bigger than I. They flung me on my back on the bed and held me down firmly by the shoulders and wrists, hips, knees and ankles. Then the doctors came stealing in. Someone seized me by the head and thrust a sheet under my chin. My eyes were shut. I set my teeth and tightened my lips over them with all my strength. A man's hands were trying to force open my mouth; my breath was coming so fast I felt I as though I should suffocate. His fingers were striving to pull my lips apart - getting inside. I felt them and a steel instrument pressing round my gums, feeling for gaps in my teeth … I was panting and heaving, my breath quicker and quicker, coming now with a low scream which was getting louder. 'Here is a gap' she of them said. 'No here is a better one. This long gap here!' A steel instrument pressed my gums, cutting into the flesh. I braced myself to resist that terrible pain. 'No, that won't do' - that voice again. 'Give me the pointed one!' A stab of sharp, intolerable agony. I wrenched my head free. Again they grasped me. Again the struggle.

Again the steel cutting its way in, though I strained my force against it. Then something gradually forced my jaws apart as a screw was turned; the pain was like having teeth drawn. They were trying to get the tube down my throat, I was struggling madly to stiffen my muscles and close my throat. They got it down, I suppose, though I was unconscious of anything then save the mad revolt of struggling, for they said at last: 'That's all.' And I vomited as the tube came up. They left me on the bed exhausted, gasping for breath and sobbing convulsively. '' 

Judging the penal system of their day by ours is pretty ineffectual, there were no human rights for the suffragettes who were treated far more harshly than the diktats of the day would expect, their rallies were often broken up by baton wielding police, and the working class recruits were singled out for even worse treatment, not even rape was exempt in an attempt to 'put women back in their place'.

When the authorities discovered they couldn't prevent the women going on hunger strike they brought in a new law specifically to deal with this, the law was widely known as the 'cat and mouse' act. In reality whenever the women were near death through refusing food and in some cases water they were released. When they were seen to be recovering their health they were re-arrested to finish their original sentence and the whole process started over again.

Perhaps it was against this backdrop of rising violence that Emmeline decided that the WSPU should meet violence with violence, and because of this Sylvia distanced herself even further, for as she couldn't involve herself in the arson attacks her mother was planning she came to the east end. Sylvia had been feeling adrift in the organisation for some time, her mother had sister believed that emancipation was for 'ladies' whereas Sylvia was concerned with working class women, who she believed would benefit the most.

The first thing she did when arriving in Bow and at the bakery shop she had rented was to paint the 'VOTES FOR WOMEN'  in gold letters on the fascia. In 1912 George Lansbury Labour MP in the neighbouring borough of Poplar had resigned his seat to fight on the single issue of  'votes for women', however he got little if any assistance from the local WSPU mainly because of Sylvia's insistence of working not only with working class women but also with men, something her sister Christabel totally opposed. As a result Lansbury lost his seat to the Conservatives.

Following the defeat the WSPU wanted to close the office in Bow but Sylvia refused and she was ejected from the organisation. Not to be deterred she renamed her branch the  East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS).With this, her own, organisation Sylvia could put into practice her belief that true democracy starts with the emancipation of the whole working class both men and women, and that to achieve this aim poverty must be eradicated.

Free from the constraints of the WSPU Sylvia could expand her office in the way she wished, using the wooden platform outside the office she could give speeches to the crowd that gathered below.

Soon however as more and more people came to listen to her so a meeting at Bromley Public Hall was arranged, this building which still stands in Bow road was used for marriages, and the registration of birth, marriages and deaths, it was just a few minutes walk from where Sylvia had her offices.

However following her first meeting at the hall she and her American co-worker, Zelie Emerson were arrested and taken to the local police station further up the road, it was here that a couple of windows were broken either by those arrested or the crowd of supporters outside is not recorded. The result was that Sylvia and her two companions were sentenced to two months hard labour.

Between February 1913 and August 1914, Sylvia was arrested eight times. Each time she went on hunger strike, was released, would defy the government by appearing on platforms in the East End while on 'licence', and was then hunted down by the police. Her arrests were always resisted violently by the community and her mixed bodyguard of women and dockers.

By this time Sylvia had moved her office to 231 Roman Road, it was here she took over the Gunmakers Arms public house where she set up The Mother Arms in Old Ford it was a nursery, creche, mother and baby clinic and nursery school. She used to hand out free milk, bread and free medicine and organised a lending library, choir, and a junior suffragettes club. The offices were used for lectures, concerts, and as strike headquarters by the asbestos workers. News of the Women's Hall grew and people with problems began to call there for help. Also the older women who were working as seamstresses taught their skills to the younger females.

Although Sylvia's story continues on we will leave her from the time she left Bow Road. Towards the end of World War One she moved to Wood Green with her partner Silvio Corio who was an Italian anarchist. In 1927 their had their son Richard, Sylvia didn't believe in marriage so their son was given her name of Pankhurst. It was because of this her mother Emmeline Pankhurst refused to speak to her again.

In 1935, she campaigned vigorously against the invasion of Ethiopia by Fascist Italy and founded The New Times and Ethiopia News to publicize the plight of the Ethiopians and other victims of fascism. She later helped settle Jewish refugees from Germany.

In 1956, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie invited her to live in Ethiopia, and she accepted the invitation. Although in her 70s, she founded the Ethiopia Observer and edited the paper for four years.

She died on September 27, 1960, and was given a state funeral by the Ethiopian government in recognition of her service to the country. She is the only foreigner buried in Holy Trinity Church Addis Ababa an honour usually reserved for those patriotic Ethiopians who fought in the Italian campaign.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQO8GwJIXBk