The East London Federation of the Suffragettes
In January 1914 the East End branches of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) broke away and formed an independent, democratic organisation focused on the rights of working women, the East London Federation of the Suffragettes (ELFS).
Led by Sylvia Pankhurst and based in Bow but with branches all over the East End, the ELFS grounded their campaign in the everyday reality of working women’s lives.
They argued that if women had the vote the whole community would have greater leverage in the struggle to improve pay and working conditions, secure decent housing, and protect children’s health. They saw the vote as just one aspect of the struggle for equality and adopted a broad campaigning programme.
The East London Federation of the Suffragettes fought for a living wage, decent housing, equal pay, food price controls, adequate pensions for the elderly and for the widows of servicemen, among numerous other causes. They marched through East London, held huge public meetings, opened their own social centres, organised benefit concerts and parties. They even recruited a small ‘People’s Army’ of supporters to defend them from police brutality.
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, factories across East London closed and food prices spiralled. The suffragettes led community action to support those most affected by the sudden wave of unemployment, organising the distribution of milk for starving infants and opening a volunteer-run children’s health clinic, a nursery school and a series of canteens serving nutritious food at “cost price”. They even opened their own cooperative toy factory, which paid a living wage and included a crèche.
In their campaigns and in their war relief work the East London suffragettes continually connected individual hardship to the bigger picture of structural inequality. Their remarkable organisation existed for 10 years, from 1914 to 1924, and in that time it was entirely transformed.
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Led by Sylvia Pankhurst and based in Bow but with branches all over the East End, the ELFS grounded their campaign in the everyday reality of working women’s lives.
They argued that if women had the vote the whole community would have greater leverage in the struggle to improve pay and working conditions, secure decent housing, and protect children’s health. They saw the vote as just one aspect of the struggle for equality and adopted a broad campaigning programme.
The East London Federation of the Suffragettes fought for a living wage, decent housing, equal pay, food price controls, adequate pensions for the elderly and for the widows of servicemen, among numerous other causes. They marched through East London, held huge public meetings, opened their own social centres, organised benefit concerts and parties. They even recruited a small ‘People’s Army’ of supporters to defend them from police brutality.
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, factories across East London closed and food prices spiralled. The suffragettes led community action to support those most affected by the sudden wave of unemployment, organising the distribution of milk for starving infants and opening a volunteer-run children’s health clinic, a nursery school and a series of canteens serving nutritious food at “cost price”. They even opened their own cooperative toy factory, which paid a living wage and included a crèche.
In their campaigns and in their war relief work the East London suffragettes continually connected individual hardship to the bigger picture of structural inequality. Their remarkable organisation existed for 10 years, from 1914 to 1924, and in that time it was entirely transformed.
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