Women, the Vote and Labour 1906-1918 (continued)
Relations with the NUWSS continued to be positive. At the 1913 conference in Manchester the NUWSS not only shared the platform with the ILP leaders but also spoke about the positive relationship between the two organisations. However, not all sections of the suffrage movement saw the ILP in a positive light and the conference was attacked by militant suffragettes frustrated at the ILP’s commitment to gradual reform through parliamentary channels. Reactions to the attack highlight the differing feelings within the labour movement over the best means of obtaining the vote and the Labour Party’s potential role in this process.
Presidents Address from the Daily Citizen 25 March 1913
Suffragettes Trick from the Daily Citizen 25 March 1913
Letters published in the Daily Citizen 27 March and 1 April 1913
Attitudes within the PLP were varied. Keir Hardie and George Lansbury were vocal supporters, whereas Ramsay Macdonald, whose wife was a member of the Women’s Labour League, expressed doubts about ‘women’s organisations’ and obstructed their activities. In general the Labour Party condemned the suffragettes’ tactics, Macdonald’s view was that the violent methods were wrong and antisocial, quite irrespective of vote or no vote.
NUWSS leaflet: Labour Leader’s attitude to Women’s Enfranchisement
Lansbury was a supporter of the militant campaign and in October 1912 he stepped down from his Bow and Bromley seat, which he had won in 1910 with a majority of 863, to fight the seat at by-election on the platform of votes for women. He lost by 731 votes. The following year he was arrested, tried and imprisoned for making speeches in favour of suffragettes involved in illegal activities. Lansbury went on hunger strike and was released under the ‘Cat and Mouse Act.’
Resolution withdrawing Labour Party support from Lansbury's 1912 by-election
"Why am I in Gaol" by George Lansbury
The outbreak of war in 1914 changed the situation considerably for the suffragettes. The war split the suffrage movement between pacifists who opposed the conflict and others who supported Britain’s war effort. The Women’s Social and Political Union [WSPU] led by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst relinquished militant tactics and became strong advocates for the war effort. Their publication ‘The Suffragette’ was reborn as ‘Britannia’, advocating conscription and the internment of aliens.
