Thursday, October 17, 2013

Sylvia Pankhurst - Suffragette, Socialist and Scourge of Empire - A new book by Katherine Connelly



Suffragettes were members of women's organization (right to vote) movements in the late 19th and 20th century, particularly in the United Kingdom and United States.

Suffragist is a more general term for members of suffrage movements, whether radical or conservative, male or female.

The term "suffragette" is particularly associated with activists in the British women's suffrage movement in the early 20th century, whose demonstrations included chaining themselves to railings and setting fire to mailbox contents. One woman, Emily Davison, died while trying to throw a 'Votes for Women' banner over the King's horse at the Epsom Derby on 5 June 1913. Many suffragettes were imprisoned in Holloway Prison in London, and were force-fed after going on hunger strike.

Democracy and Class Struggle says the Suffragettes have many lessons us today with their history of militant direct action but it is the Sylvia Pankhurst's has Communists and militant revolutionaries that we have the most to learn from.

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Pankhurst


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