About Sylvia Pankhurst: Further to RaHN Meeting

Meeting of the Radical History Network of North East London

Held on Wednesday 29th June 2016 at Wood Green Social Club

The SPEAKERS were:-

SARAH JACKSON, co-author of Voices from History: East London Suffragettes and co-founder of the East End Women's Museum - www.eastendwomensmuseum.org.

See also: www.eastlondonsuffragettes.com/

GEOFFREY BELL, author of Hesitant Comrades - The Irish Revolution and the British Labour Movement, He has also written an article in 'History Ireland' on Sylvia Pankhurst and Ireland's 1916 Rising and its aftermath.

There was also, of course, discussion around the talks, with numerous contributions, questions and comments from several people present.

Back cover of The Suffragette Movement, paperback edition

In lieu of a meeting report, one of those who attended has prepared an extended account of the topic as above, in both of its aspects, which can be accessed here (15pp., c8500 words as currently formulated). 

It is largely but not exclusively based on what the two speakers have said and written. -   

Sylvia Pankhurst’s Life and Legacy

"Sylvia Pankhurst was a campaigner for the suffragette movement. She was for a time a prominent left communist who then devoted herself to the cause of anti-fascism. This report is in two parts; her movement for equality in the East End of London, and her commitment to the Irish Revolution after the Rising of 1916." 

The main headings are:

Suffragettes

Brief Background to the Suffrage Movement

Sylvia Pankhurst and the East London Federation of Suffragettes

(Mainly in the words of Sarah Jackson)

Votes, Wages and Milk:

the East London Federation of Suffragettes on the Home Front, 1914-1916

Sylvia Pankhurst and Ireland’s Easter Rising

A Brief Guide to Ireland’s Easter Rising and its Aftermath 

Geoffrey Bell wrote

Section including

• support of the workers in the Dublin Lock-Out
• association with James Connolly
• eye-witness account of the aftermath of the Rising 
• what such endeavours had to do with Pankhurst’s broader socialist principles... 

Additional points from the meeting and book

Unwavering support of complete self-determination

Socialism and Nationalism

Optimist

Religious hatred and class struggle

Call to Action

==================

The subject and date of the next Meeting of the Radical History Network of North East London have yet to be decided.
In the mean time, the group will have a presence at the London Anarchist Bookfair in October, including a meeting:-

Haringey Solidarity

Lessons from 4 decades of radical anti-authoritarian community action in Haringey

A look at local campaigns and organisations from the late '70s onwards fighting back against capitalism and the State and trying to create a better world. Including strike support, unwaged struggles, anti-poll tax movement, women's struggles, anti-racist action, anti-police campaigns, community/neighbourhood self-organisation, lesbian and gay liberation, libertarian and anarchist activity, housing action groups and campaigns, resistance to property developers, defence of public and community services and facilities, radical community centres and projects... and more. We will also note where local groups and campaigns have linked or federated with similar ones around London and the UK. Followed by general discussion. 
Organised by Haringey Solidarity Group (http://www.haringey.org.uk/ ) and the Radical History Network of NE London (http://radicalhistorynetwork.blogspot.co.uk/)

Radical Housing in Tower Hamlets

New exhibition and events programme

Radical Housing in Tower Hamlets
20 June - 22 September 2016

Tower hamlets Local History are pleased to announce our next local history exhibition and events programme which will run for three months over the summer: Radical Housing in Tower Hamlets. From the rent strikes of the 1930s to the squatting movement of the 1970s and the formation of the first housing co-operatives, the fight for decent and affordable housing has a long history in London's East End.
Drawn exclusively from the archive and local history library collections and curated by  Learning & Participation Officer Perdita Jones, the upcoming exhibition will provide an overview of tenant action in Tower Hamlets, highlighting some of the key events and movements which have taken place over the last 100 years.

The exhibition was programmed to tie in with the conference Radical Histories; Histories of Radicalism organised by the Raphael Samuel History Centre, which took place next door to us at Queen Mary, University of London, from 30 June - 3 July.

So far confirmed are the events below to accompany the exhibition, with more being added to the programme over the next few weeks. All activities in the programme are free and take place at THLHLA, with the exception of the guided walk.

Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives
277 Bancroft Road
London
E1 4DQ
020 7364 1290

To book, please call 020 7364 1290 or email: localhistory@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Exhibition Launch
Thursday 7 July 2016, 6:00 - 7:30pm
Join us for the formal launch of the exhibition with guest speakers to be announced. Free, no booking required.

Walk: Social Housing in Poplar
Tuesday 26th July, 7-9pm
Join Borough archivist Malcolm Barr-Hamilton for a walk exploring the history of social housing in Poplar. Limited space, booking essential.

Talk: East End Migrants and the Battle for housing 
Saturday 6th August, 2-3pm
Join academic and architect Sarah Glynn, who will talk about the struggle of Jewish and Bengali migrants for housing during the 1930s and 1970s respectively. Just drop in, no need to book. (past tense note: check out http://www.sarahglynn.net/ ...some very interesting stuff on housing struggles, rent strikes and more...)

Talk: Setting the Record Straight: housing politics and the archive
Thursday 18th August 6.30-7.30pm
Elena Carter, archivist, will explore how housing activists create and use archival resources to create a 'useful' past. Just drop in, no need to book.

Walk: Housing in Bethnal Green
Saturday 20 August 2016, 2:00 - 4:00pm
A guided walk exploring the housing heritage of Bethnal Green. Free, booking essential.

Film screening: Goodbye Longfellow Road
Saturday 17 September 2016, 2:00 - 3:30pm
A free screening of rarely seen 'Goodbye Longfellow Road' (1977, 78 mins), a documentary originally broadcast on ITV, telling the story of the residents of a Stepney street. Declared a slum in the 1930s, earmarked for demolition in 1943 but still inhabited in the 1970s: what happened when the bulldozers finally moved in?
No booking required.

http://ideastore.co.uk/local-history-whats-on

Past Tense comments: 
"... Especially important at the moment with so much upheaval in East London, gentrification, displacement and deliberate dismantling of social housing, and the growing resistance from those being forced out and displaced."

RaHN meeting: Sylvia Pankhurst and the East London Suffragettes and Ireland

Next meeting of the Radical History Network of North East London

Wednesday 29th June 7.30 p.m., Wood Green Social Club


In October 1912 Sylvia Pankhurst climbed onto a wooden platform outside an old baker's shop on Bow Road, and painted the words 'VOTES FOR WOMEN' in golden letters above the door. What began as a simple recruitment drive for the Women’s Social and Political Union soon sparked a rebellion in the suffragette ranks, and launched a mass movement for equality in the East End.

Our meeting will look at Sylvia Pankhurst’s life and legacy – both in London and internationally.

Speakers

Sarah Jackson is co-author of 'Voices From History: East London Suffragettes' and co-founder of the East End Women's Museum - www.eastendwomensmuseum.org

Geoffrey Bell is the author of the recently published 'Hesitant Comrades - The Irish Revolution and the British Labour Movement', described by one reviewer as “a fine example of politically committed scholarship”, and by another as “this fascinating book”. Bell has also written a recent article in 'History Ireland' on Sylvia Pankhurst and Ireland's 1916 Rising and its aftermath.

Plus discussion:

• How does this history connect with campaigns today?
• If everyone loves the suffragettes, why are women still struggling for equality?

Wednesday 29th June 7.30 pm
Wood Green Social Club, 3 Stuart Crescent, London N22 5NJ
(Off the High Rd, near Wood Green tube and buses 329/121/141)

Free to attend, all welcome.

=======================
Previously on this blog:
The variously radical life of Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst
Radical History film show: Sylvia Pankhurst. 23rd April 2013
Meeting: Sylvia Pankhurst - Suffragette, Socialist and Scourge of Empire
===========================
And report of our last meeting (9th March 2016):
A REVOLUTIONARY SCHOOLGIRL OF THE 1960s: Meeting report

Action East End Radical History Walk: this Sunday

Action East End Radical History Walk Sunday January 11th 11am.

Meet outside Spitalfields Church, Commercial Street, London E1 6LY

£6 WAGED, £3 UNWAGED

BRING STOUT WALKING SHOES. FINISH AT A CAFÉ AFTERWARDS WHERE THERE’LL BE
TIME FOR QUESTIONS. ALL PROCEEDS GO TOWARDS PRINTING THE EAST END HOWLER.

Nearest tubes: Liverpool Street, Aldgate East

ANARCHISTS, SOCIALISTS, SQUATTERS AND STRIKERS

A Radical History Tour around the East End, raising funds for the East End Howler – The radical voice of East London Let a seasoned anarchist veteran introduce you to all the rich and unknown history of the East End. Take a trip around the “narrow, crooked streets”, by-lanes and alleys of the East End. THRILL as we visit the site of the Sugar Loaf pub, famed for its weekly anarchist meetings which tempted “poor flies into the trap”. GASP as we visit the sites of the first organising attempts among Jewish workers and the scenes of mass strike meetings. SOB as we see the soup kitchens which fed the poor and hungry.

Your pulse will race when we come upon the site of the Russian Social Democratic Party Congress, where the split between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks first emerged. You will gaze in wonder at the door through which Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin all went. Your heart will beat loudly when you gaze upon the place where two Latvian revolutionaries held off armed police and Guardsmen for many hours. You will be awestruck by our visits to the two great Anarchist clubs of the East End, home of many speeches, plays and musical diversions and you
will mutter in outrage when you hear about the brutal attacks by the police on the Anarchists there. You will wonder at the streets which were squatted lock stock and barrel in a confrontation with the authorities and you will be intrigued by the building which housed one of the several free schools in the East End dedicated to enlightened education.

So down your tools, pick up your red and black flag, and dive into the inspiring world of East London’s Radical History.

Nearest tubes: Liverpool Street, Aldgate East

Action East End
For Community and Solidarity
ACTIONEASTEND.WORDPRESS.COM

For King and Country, Question-mark

The Jewish East End at War

Walking tour: Poetry and Parades

Sunday 6^th April, 11 a.m.

Cost: £13.50

 “Highlights the association of the Jewish East End with the Great War”. Includes

·         poet Isaac Rosenberg

·         the stories behind those who refused to fight.

Part of a programme of events entitled For King and Country? The Jewish Experience of the First World War, which will be running from this weekend through to August. See

www.jewishmuseum.org.uk for tickets and further details. (Or leaflets in public libraries.)

 

Clapton Festival event, 28 September.

"Memoirs of an East End Guttersnipe" by Brian Walker

3.00 p.m. on Saturday 28^th at the Levy Centre, 18-24 Lower Clapton Road, E5

(part of the annual Clapton Festival).

Brian's personal recollections and anecdotes date back over seventy years and are documented on his website "Tales of the Old East End"  <http://www.tales-of-the-old-east-end.co.uk>. Essentially this is the history of the life of a riverside community in Hackney filtered through the author's earliest memories and experiences.

Born in 1938 in the family home overlooking the River Lea, Brian still lives close to his former Lea Bridge home. His stories are told with wit, warmth and emotion and are filled with the everyday dramas which his family and their neighbours faced during the period encompassing World War II and the aftermath of war in the 1950s.

The variously radical life of Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst

(Estelle) Sylvia Pankhurst

5 May 1882 to 27 September 1960

September 2010 brings the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Sylvia Pankhurst. Her surname is inevitably associated first and foremost with the Suffragette movement, the militant campaign for votes for women in the early 20^th century, and she was certainly active and prominent in that, repeatedly risking health and liberty in the cause. But her determination to act on her principles led her into involvement in many other areas of equal or more interest to radical historians, including syndicalism, anarchism, soviet communism, peace campaigning and anti-fascism.

Socialism

Sylvia Pankhurst grew up in the early stages of the British political labour movement, in a household on close terms with some of its key elements – Fabians, Independent Labour Party (ILP) – and stood by the ideas she absorbed. Eventually she was to take them much further, and in rather different directions. She became a close friend of Keir Hardie, whom she called in an obituary (1915) the ‘greatest human being of our time’.

In 1907 she undertook a tour of parts of Britain, with the aim of making a visual record in paintings of working women; she had given up her studies in art to work for the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Despite her social awareness she was not prepared for the scenes of hardship she found and heard about from the women themselves: in industry - pit-brow, textiles, potteries; on quays packing and gutting North Sea herring; doing agricultural labour in Berwickshire.

A few years later her travels extended to the USA, in the first three months of 1911and 1912, primarily for the suffrage movement but not confined to that. She noted the ‘squalid poverty’ of new immigrants in the ‘nightmare industrialisation’ of Pittsburgh, incurred hostile criticism by agreeing to speak at the Negro University of Tennessee, and Insisted on seeing prisons, as well as Nashville sawmills and a blanket factory. Such observations confirmed her misgivings about single-issue politics and elitism.

Nevertheless in 1913-14 Sylvia the Suffragette was arrested numerous times and suffered the torture of forcible feeding under the notorious ‘Cat and Mouse’ Act. She continued to speak and work for the WSPU, but was against the sort of ‘stealthy act of destruction’ (arson) ordered by her sister Christabel.