Pacifist and suffragette.
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (known as Sylvia) was a notable campaigner for the suffragette movement in the United Kingdom. She was for a time a prominent communist but later devoted herself to the cause of anti-fascism and became a noted pacifist.
She was born in Manchester, a daughter of Dr. Richard and Emmeline Pankhurst, members of the Independent Labour Party and much concerned with women's rights. She and her sisters attended the Manchester High School for Girls. Her sister, Christabel, would also become an activist.
In 1906 she started to work full-time with the Women's Social and Political Union with her sister and her mother. In contrast to them she retained her interest in the labour movement.
In 1914 she broke with the WSPU over the group's support for the First World War. Sylvia set up the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS), which over the years evolved politically and changed its name accordingly, first to Women's Suffrage Federation and then to the Workers' Socialist Federation. She founded the newspaper of the WSF, "Women's Dreadnought", which subsequently became the "Worker's Dreadnought". It organized against the war, and some of its members hid conscientious objectors from the police.
Sylvia Pankhurst joined with Charlotte Despard (who had been influenced by Gandhi as early as 1909 and had become a friend of George Lansbury) to form the Women's Peace Army, an organisation that demanded a negotiated peace.
This lead Sylvia into direct opposition with her own mother and sister. As she herself wrote, "When I read in the newspapers that Mrs. Pankhurst and Christabel were returning to England for a recruiting campaign, I wept. To me this seemed a tragic betrayal of the great movement to bring the mother-half of the race into the councils of the nation… We worked continuously for peace, in face of the bitterest opposition from old enemies, and sometimes unhappily from old friends."
Following this, she lead anti-conscription rallies. As she wrote about one march:
**********
"The militarists continued their agitation for "National Service" for all men and women "from 16-60 years of age," and a "Service Franchise" giving a vote to every soldier, sailor, and munition worker and disfranchising conscientious objectors. The women were to remain voteless till after the war.
We were to march from the East End to Trafalgar Square, to raise our opposing slogans:
"Complete democratic control of national and international affairs!" "Human suffrage and no infringement of popular liberties." The Daily Express, the Globe, and many other newspapers, wherein appeared frequent incitement to violence against "peace talk," directed their battalions of invective against our meeting, denouncing it as "open sedition." As usual, friends saluted us on our march through the East End; crowds gathered to speed us; they had struggled with us for a decade; they supported us still, though our standard seemed now more Utopian, more elusively remote.
At Charing Cross we came into a great concourse of people, clapping and cheering. They welcomed our slender ranks as an expression of the old, old cry: "Not might, but rights' - a symbol of the triumph of the spirit over sordid materialism, and of their own often frustrated hopes and long unsatisfied desires. To them we were protestants against their sorrows, and true believers in the living possibility of a world of happiness. In their jolly kindness some shouted: "Good old Sylvia!" I gave my hands to many a rough grip. They pressed round me, ardent and gay, sorrowful, hopeful, earnest. Many a woman's eyes brimmed with tears as she met mine; I knew, by a sure instinct, that she had come across London, overweighted with grief, to ease her burden by some words with me.
As we entered the square a rush of friends, with a roar of cheers and a swiftness which forestalled any hostile approach, bore us forward, and hoisted a group of us on the east plinth, facing the Strand, whilst the banner-bearers marched on westward, where the banners were to be handed up; but the north side was packed with soldiers who fell upon the approaching banners and tore them to shreds. The law offered no protection; so few policemen had never been seen in the square at any demonstration. Far from assisting us to maintain order, they prevented our men speakers, and numbers of our members who wished to support us, from mounting the plinth, though we urged that they should come. We were left, a little group of women and a child or two, to deal with what might arise.
**********
The Women's Dreadnought continued to campaign against the war and gave strong support to organizations such as the Non-Conscription Fellowship. The newspaper also published the famous anti-war statement in July, 1917, by Siegfried Sassoon.
In the mid-1920s, Pankhurst drifted away from communist politics but remained involved in movements connected with anti-fascism and anti-colonialism. She responded to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia by publishing The New Times and Ethiopia News from 1936, and became a supporter of Haile Selassie. She raised funds for Ethiopia's first teaching hospital, and wrote extensively on Ethiopian art and culture; her research was published as "Ethiopia, a Cultural History".
Pankhurst became a friend and adviser to the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and followed a consistently anti-British stance. She moved to Addis Ababa at Haile Selassie's invitation in 1956 and founded a monthly journal, "Ethiopia Observer", which reported on many aspects of Ethiopian life and development.
She died in 1961, and was given a full state funeral at which Haile Selassie named her 'an honorary Ethiopian'. She is the only foreigner buried in front of Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa.
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (known as Sylvia) was a notable campaigner for the suffragette movement in the United Kingdom. She was for a time a prominent communist but later devoted herself to the cause of anti-fascism and became a noted pacifist.
She was born in Manchester, a daughter of Dr. Richard and Emmeline Pankhurst, members of the Independent Labour Party and much concerned with women's rights. She and her sisters attended the Manchester High School for Girls. Her sister, Christabel, would also become an activist.
In 1906 she started to work full-time with the Women's Social and Political Union with her sister and her mother. In contrast to them she retained her interest in the labour movement.
In 1914 she broke with the WSPU over the group's support for the First World War. Sylvia set up the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS), which over the years evolved politically and changed its name accordingly, first to Women's Suffrage Federation and then to the Workers' Socialist Federation. She founded the newspaper of the WSF, "Women's Dreadnought", which subsequently became the "Worker's Dreadnought". It organized against the war, and some of its members hid conscientious objectors from the police.
Sylvia Pankhurst joined with Charlotte Despard (who had been influenced by Gandhi as early as 1909 and had become a friend of George Lansbury) to form the Women's Peace Army, an organisation that demanded a negotiated peace.
This lead Sylvia into direct opposition with her own mother and sister. As she herself wrote, "When I read in the newspapers that Mrs. Pankhurst and Christabel were returning to England for a recruiting campaign, I wept. To me this seemed a tragic betrayal of the great movement to bring the mother-half of the race into the councils of the nation… We worked continuously for peace, in face of the bitterest opposition from old enemies, and sometimes unhappily from old friends."
Following this, she lead anti-conscription rallies. As she wrote about one march:
**********
"The militarists continued their agitation for "National Service" for all men and women "from 16-60 years of age," and a "Service Franchise" giving a vote to every soldier, sailor, and munition worker and disfranchising conscientious objectors. The women were to remain voteless till after the war.
We were to march from the East End to Trafalgar Square, to raise our opposing slogans:
"Complete democratic control of national and international affairs!" "Human suffrage and no infringement of popular liberties." The Daily Express, the Globe, and many other newspapers, wherein appeared frequent incitement to violence against "peace talk," directed their battalions of invective against our meeting, denouncing it as "open sedition." As usual, friends saluted us on our march through the East End; crowds gathered to speed us; they had struggled with us for a decade; they supported us still, though our standard seemed now more Utopian, more elusively remote.
At Charing Cross we came into a great concourse of people, clapping and cheering. They welcomed our slender ranks as an expression of the old, old cry: "Not might, but rights' - a symbol of the triumph of the spirit over sordid materialism, and of their own often frustrated hopes and long unsatisfied desires. To them we were protestants against their sorrows, and true believers in the living possibility of a world of happiness. In their jolly kindness some shouted: "Good old Sylvia!" I gave my hands to many a rough grip. They pressed round me, ardent and gay, sorrowful, hopeful, earnest. Many a woman's eyes brimmed with tears as she met mine; I knew, by a sure instinct, that she had come across London, overweighted with grief, to ease her burden by some words with me.
As we entered the square a rush of friends, with a roar of cheers and a swiftness which forestalled any hostile approach, bore us forward, and hoisted a group of us on the east plinth, facing the Strand, whilst the banner-bearers marched on westward, where the banners were to be handed up; but the north side was packed with soldiers who fell upon the approaching banners and tore them to shreds. The law offered no protection; so few policemen had never been seen in the square at any demonstration. Far from assisting us to maintain order, they prevented our men speakers, and numbers of our members who wished to support us, from mounting the plinth, though we urged that they should come. We were left, a little group of women and a child or two, to deal with what might arise.
**********
The Women's Dreadnought continued to campaign against the war and gave strong support to organizations such as the Non-Conscription Fellowship. The newspaper also published the famous anti-war statement in July, 1917, by Siegfried Sassoon.
In the mid-1920s, Pankhurst drifted away from communist politics but remained involved in movements connected with anti-fascism and anti-colonialism. She responded to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia by publishing The New Times and Ethiopia News from 1936, and became a supporter of Haile Selassie. She raised funds for Ethiopia's first teaching hospital, and wrote extensively on Ethiopian art and culture; her research was published as "Ethiopia, a Cultural History".
Pankhurst became a friend and adviser to the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and followed a consistently anti-British stance. She moved to Addis Ababa at Haile Selassie's invitation in 1956 and founded a monthly journal, "Ethiopia Observer", which reported on many aspects of Ethiopian life and development.
She died in 1961, and was given a full state funeral at which Haile Selassie named her 'an honorary Ethiopian'. She is the only foreigner buried in front of Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa.
Pacifist and suffragette.
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (known as Sylvia) was a notable campaigner for the suffragette movement in the United Kingdom. She was for a time a prominent communist but later devoted herself to the cause of anti-fascism and became a noted pacifist.
She was born in Manchester, a daughter of Dr. Richard and Emmeline Pankhurst, members of the Independent Labour Party and much concerned with women's rights. She and her sisters attended the Manchester High School for Girls. Her sister, Christabel, would also become an activist.
In 1906 she started to work full-time with the Women's Social and Political Union with her sister and her mother. In contrast to them she retained her interest in the labour movement.
In 1914 she broke with the WSPU over the group's support for the First World War. Sylvia set up the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS), which over the years evolved politically and changed its name accordingly, first to Women's Suffrage Federation and then to the Workers' Socialist Federation. She founded the newspaper of the WSF, "Women's Dreadnought", which subsequently became the "Worker's Dreadnought". It organized against the war, and some of its members hid conscientious objectors from the police.
Sylvia Pankhurst joined with Charlotte Despard (who had been influenced by Gandhi as early as 1909 and had become a friend of George Lansbury) to form the Women's Peace Army, an organisation that demanded a negotiated peace.
This lead Sylvia into direct opposition with her own mother and sister. As she herself wrote, "When I read in the newspapers that Mrs. Pankhurst and Christabel were returning to England for a recruiting campaign, I wept. To me this seemed a tragic betrayal of the great movement to bring the mother-half of the race into the councils of the nation… We worked continuously for peace, in face of the bitterest opposition from old enemies, and sometimes unhappily from old friends."
Following this, she lead anti-conscription rallies. As she wrote about one march:
**********
"The militarists continued their agitation for "National Service" for all men and women "from 16-60 years of age," and a "Service Franchise" giving a vote to every soldier, sailor, and munition worker and disfranchising conscientious objectors. The women were to remain voteless till after the war.
We were to march from the East End to Trafalgar Square, to raise our opposing slogans:
"Complete democratic control of national and international affairs!" "Human suffrage and no infringement of popular liberties." The Daily Express, the Globe, and many other newspapers, wherein appeared frequent incitement to violence against "peace talk," directed their battalions of invective against our meeting, denouncing it as "open sedition." As usual, friends saluted us on our march through the East End; crowds gathered to speed us; they had struggled with us for a decade; they supported us still, though our standard seemed now more Utopian, more elusively remote.
At Charing Cross we came into a great concourse of people, clapping and cheering. They welcomed our slender ranks as an expression of the old, old cry: "Not might, but rights' - a symbol of the triumph of the spirit over sordid materialism, and of their own often frustrated hopes and long unsatisfied desires. To them we were protestants against their sorrows, and true believers in the living possibility of a world of happiness. In their jolly kindness some shouted: "Good old Sylvia!" I gave my hands to many a rough grip. They pressed round me, ardent and gay, sorrowful, hopeful, earnest. Many a woman's eyes brimmed with tears as she met mine; I knew, by a sure instinct, that she had come across London, overweighted with grief, to ease her burden by some words with me.
As we entered the square a rush of friends, with a roar of cheers and a swiftness which forestalled any hostile approach, bore us forward, and hoisted a group of us on the east plinth, facing the Strand, whilst the banner-bearers marched on westward, where the banners were to be handed up; but the north side was packed with soldiers who fell upon the approaching banners and tore them to shreds. The law offered no protection; so few policemen had never been seen in the square at any demonstration. Far from assisting us to maintain order, they prevented our men speakers, and numbers of our members who wished to support us, from mounting the plinth, though we urged that they should come. We were left, a little group of women and a child or two, to deal with what might arise.
**********
The Women's Dreadnought continued to campaign against the war and gave strong support to organizations such as the Non-Conscription Fellowship. The newspaper also published the famous anti-war statement in July, 1917, by Siegfried Sassoon.
In the mid-1920s, Pankhurst drifted away from communist politics but remained involved in movements connected with anti-fascism and anti-colonialism. She responded to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia by publishing The New Times and Ethiopia News from 1936, and became a supporter of Haile Selassie. She raised funds for Ethiopia's first teaching hospital, and wrote extensively on Ethiopian art and culture; her research was published as "Ethiopia, a Cultural History".
Pankhurst became a friend and adviser to the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and followed a consistently anti-British stance. She moved to Addis Ababa at Haile Selassie's invitation in 1956 and founded a monthly journal, "Ethiopia Observer", which reported on many aspects of Ethiopian life and development.
She died in 1961, and was given a full state funeral at which Haile Selassie named her 'an honorary Ethiopian'. She is the only foreigner buried in front of Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa.
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (known as Sylvia) was a notable campaigner for the suffragette movement in the United Kingdom. She was for a time a prominent communist but later devoted herself to the cause of anti-fascism and became a noted pacifist.
She was born in Manchester, a daughter of Dr. Richard and Emmeline Pankhurst, members of the Independent Labour Party and much concerned with women's rights. She and her sisters attended the Manchester High School for Girls. Her sister, Christabel, would also become an activist.
In 1906 she started to work full-time with the Women's Social and Political Union with her sister and her mother. In contrast to them she retained her interest in the labour movement.
In 1914 she broke with the WSPU over the group's support for the First World War. Sylvia set up the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS), which over the years evolved politically and changed its name accordingly, first to Women's Suffrage Federation and then to the Workers' Socialist Federation. She founded the newspaper of the WSF, "Women's Dreadnought", which subsequently became the "Worker's Dreadnought". It organized against the war, and some of its members hid conscientious objectors from the police.
Sylvia Pankhurst joined with Charlotte Despard (who had been influenced by Gandhi as early as 1909 and had become a friend of George Lansbury) to form the Women's Peace Army, an organisation that demanded a negotiated peace.
This lead Sylvia into direct opposition with her own mother and sister. As she herself wrote, "When I read in the newspapers that Mrs. Pankhurst and Christabel were returning to England for a recruiting campaign, I wept. To me this seemed a tragic betrayal of the great movement to bring the mother-half of the race into the councils of the nation… We worked continuously for peace, in face of the bitterest opposition from old enemies, and sometimes unhappily from old friends."
Following this, she lead anti-conscription rallies. As she wrote about one march:
**********
"The militarists continued their agitation for "National Service" for all men and women "from 16-60 years of age," and a "Service Franchise" giving a vote to every soldier, sailor, and munition worker and disfranchising conscientious objectors. The women were to remain voteless till after the war.
We were to march from the East End to Trafalgar Square, to raise our opposing slogans:
"Complete democratic control of national and international affairs!" "Human suffrage and no infringement of popular liberties." The Daily Express, the Globe, and many other newspapers, wherein appeared frequent incitement to violence against "peace talk," directed their battalions of invective against our meeting, denouncing it as "open sedition." As usual, friends saluted us on our march through the East End; crowds gathered to speed us; they had struggled with us for a decade; they supported us still, though our standard seemed now more Utopian, more elusively remote.
At Charing Cross we came into a great concourse of people, clapping and cheering. They welcomed our slender ranks as an expression of the old, old cry: "Not might, but rights' - a symbol of the triumph of the spirit over sordid materialism, and of their own often frustrated hopes and long unsatisfied desires. To them we were protestants against their sorrows, and true believers in the living possibility of a world of happiness. In their jolly kindness some shouted: "Good old Sylvia!" I gave my hands to many a rough grip. They pressed round me, ardent and gay, sorrowful, hopeful, earnest. Many a woman's eyes brimmed with tears as she met mine; I knew, by a sure instinct, that she had come across London, overweighted with grief, to ease her burden by some words with me.
As we entered the square a rush of friends, with a roar of cheers and a swiftness which forestalled any hostile approach, bore us forward, and hoisted a group of us on the east plinth, facing the Strand, whilst the banner-bearers marched on westward, where the banners were to be handed up; but the north side was packed with soldiers who fell upon the approaching banners and tore them to shreds. The law offered no protection; so few policemen had never been seen in the square at any demonstration. Far from assisting us to maintain order, they prevented our men speakers, and numbers of our members who wished to support us, from mounting the plinth, though we urged that they should come. We were left, a little group of women and a child or two, to deal with what might arise.
**********
The Women's Dreadnought continued to campaign against the war and gave strong support to organizations such as the Non-Conscription Fellowship. The newspaper also published the famous anti-war statement in July, 1917, by Siegfried Sassoon.
In the mid-1920s, Pankhurst drifted away from communist politics but remained involved in movements connected with anti-fascism and anti-colonialism. She responded to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia by publishing The New Times and Ethiopia News from 1936, and became a supporter of Haile Selassie. She raised funds for Ethiopia's first teaching hospital, and wrote extensively on Ethiopian art and culture; her research was published as "Ethiopia, a Cultural History".
Pankhurst became a friend and adviser to the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and followed a consistently anti-British stance. She moved to Addis Ababa at Haile Selassie's invitation in 1956 and founded a monthly journal, "Ethiopia Observer", which reported on many aspects of Ethiopian life and development.
She died in 1961, and was given a full state funeral at which Haile Selassie named her 'an honorary Ethiopian'. She is the only foreigner buried in front of Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa.
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