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World
War One & the Suffragettes
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| Play
the 1906-1918 webquest |
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More
about the Suffragettes
Visit our local
Women's Library
Play
Women's Suffrage Hall of Fame Webquest
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The East End has also always been a political area, and
was home to Sylvia Pankhurst and her fellow Suffragettes throughout
the First World War.
Unlike her mother and sister, Sylvia refused
to put patriotism before demands for women’s suffrage.
She was based in Old Ford road, where she formed the East London
federation of Suffragettes, trying to improve the lives of
many East End women both through practical actions and relief,
as well as through politicisation.
She set the East London Toy Factory where wooden toys and dolls
were made by women workers, in return for a decent wage.
Sylvia also opened Sylvia’s Cut Price Restaurant, to ensure that
the women and their families could afford nutritious meals. When women
were finally granted the vote, and the Great War ended, she continued
to campaign to end oppression around the world.
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Find out more about the First
World War with the BBC
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| 1921 Poplar Councillors, including George Lansbury, Susan Lawrence,
and John Scurr, refused to levy Poplar’s share of the London
County Council Metropolitan Asylum and Police rates. They argued
that the population was too poor, and many were on poor relief
themselves. The councillors were imprisoned for six weeks, but
it had an effect in that a fairer system of rate levying was
introduced across London. |
Click
here to see an image of the protest |
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3rd to 12th May 1926 saw the General Strike.
This was called by the Trades Union Congress, in support
of a strike by coal miners over the issue of threatened wage
cuts. The strike only involved certain key industrial sectors
(docks, electricity, gas, railways) but there were bloody
clashes with the police and military around the London Docks.
This was an important area, as it was where food supplies
came in – so there was a great deal of pressure to
ensure that the foodstuffs were moved.
Many didn’t forgive the government for its willingness
to break the strike with violence, nor the then Chancellor
of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill, for his attitude.
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In 1936, violence was again witnessed on the streets of
the East End, with the Battle of Cable Street: A demonsration
by Oswald Mosley's (fascist) “Blackshirts” on 4th
October 1936 led to the Battle of Cable Street.
See
the Work children did on the Battle of Cable St
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London
as a 20th Century Port |
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