“If brains have brought us to what we are now in, I think it is time to allow also our hearts to speak.” - Rosica Schwimmer
The onset of the war in 1914 saw Emmeline Pankhurst take the Women’s Social and Political Union into a pro-war stance in vehement nationalistic support of the British Government’s militaristic actions. On the 10th August the government announced it was releasing all suffragettes from prison. In return, the WSPU agreed to end their militant activities and help the war effort. Emmeline Pankhurst announced that all militants had to "fight for their country as they fought for the vote.". Having received a £2,000 grant from the government, the WSPU organised a demonstration in London. Members carried banners with slogans such as "We Demand the Right to Serve", "For Men Must Fight and Women Must work". The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies also divided over the war. This shift in the political perspective saw many women widening their political priorities to focus upon the importance of peace campaigning. The Women’s International League was set up in May 1915 for “linking together two movements felt to be vitally connected: the Woman’s Movement and the Pacifist Movement”. Within the year the WIL would have 2,458 members in 34 branches.In Glasgow Helen Crawfurd help set up its WIL in November and within the year it possessed 83 new members
Crawfurd was however dissatisfied with the WIL’s liberalism and its links with the Union of Democratic Control and sought to create a more left-wing anti-militarist organisation. In June 1916 a peace conference in Glasgow was organised by women activists including Helen Crawfurd, Agnes Dollan and Mary Barbour which gave birth to The Women’s Peace Crusade which became an influential force in the anti-war movement. There is some variation on the actual date but June 10th 1916 is generally accepted as the birth of the Women’s Peace Crusade. A year later, June 1917 saw the Women’s Peace Crusade go national with the launch of the National Women’s Peace Crusade with Helen Crawfurd as its Honorary Secretary The Women’s Peace Crusade split the suffragette movement with the majority, in Glasgow at least, turning their activities to the anti-war movement and the rump taking a pro-war stance. Many of the women activists in the Women’s Peace Crusade were not new to this type of struggle as many of them were active in the suffragettes, the Glasgow rent strikes and also the No Conscription Fellowship. However the Women’s Peace Crusade was a concerted attempt to get working-class women organised against the war and made a major contribution to the anti-war movement.
On Sunday June 8th. 1917 a Women’s Peace Crusade processions from all corners of the City converged on Glasgow Green, the usual focal point for demonstrations and struggle in the city, turning the Green into a sea of colourful banners and filling the air with lively music. Estimates put the number of men and women assembled on that occasion as 12,000-14,000. All there in defiance of the patriotic jingoism from the media and official circles, and with one desire, to stop the war. Resolutions were put forward congratulating the Russian revolution of that year and called for immediate peace negotiations. After this event the Women’s Peace Crusade rapidly spread to cities of northern England and the Midlands including Birmingham. By November 1917 there were approximately 45 branches. On 23rd July there was an open air protest in Edinburgh carrying a resolution for adult suffrage and peace negotiations. Other large demonstrations took place in Birmingham (29th July) and Manchester and in Nelson, Lancashire on 11th August
Later in December 1917, the Women’s Peace Crusade requested the Corporation of the City of Glasgow to receive a peace deputation, which was refused. However, the members of the Women’s Peace Crusade were determined that their voice should be heard. So on December 13th 1917 a number of women assembled in George Square opposite the City Chambers to let the Corporation hear their voices raised in opposition to the war. Among those present were Helen Crawfurd, and Agnes Dollan, their banners were held high and peace leaflets were distributed to those passing by and other on-lookers. During this anti-war display in George Square the Patriot League arrived and started harassing the women in the peace demonstration, attempting to destroy their leaflets and tearing their banners. Fights ensued and the women of the Women’s Peace Crusade defended themselves by brandishing their umbrellas and it became nicknamed the the “Brolly Battle”. Helen Crawfurd and Agnes Dollan managed to gain entry to the City Chambers and as the meeting of the City Corporation got under way Helen and Agnes showered the councillors with anti-war leaflets.
The Women’s Peace Crusade can be said to have been an attempt to build a broad working class anti-war movement and many, if not most, of its leading activists were socialistic. It was essentially a housewives movement with men and women marching in different sections. It gained support from housewives who had lost husbands and sons in the war, or whose husbands and sons were on the battle fields.
Sheila Rowbotham writes of the movement in her 'A Century of Women":
"In the Summer of 1917, the Women's Peace Crusade (WPC) was formed with Helen Crawfurd as honorary secretary. Groups spread across the country, campaigning in working-class communities. Women like the ILP-er and suffrage campaigner Florence Exten-Hann, the Glaswegian trade unionist and socialist feminist Jessie Stephen, and the radical suffragist Selina Cooper from Nelson ILP were part of this grass-roots anti-war movement which retained a strong commitment to democracy and social reform."
Reading ILP, in August 1917, resolved to set up a local Women's Peace Crusade, which, at a meeting that October resolved to distribute 5000 pacifist leaflets around the churches. A month later, however, the police raided the Crusade's head offices. Eva Gore-Booth, the younger sister of Countess Markiewicz, was a prominent activist in the WPC in Manchester which may have been the largest branch. Charlotte Despard (suffragist leader, social reformer) and Margaret Bondfield (trade unionist, women's rights campaigner), both based in London, were among other prominent members as well as Ethel Snowden, wife of the first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Snowden, and Katherine Glasier wife of John Bruce Glasier.
Jill Liddington's “The Road to Greeham Common” mentions Womens Peace Crusade activity in Lancashire and West Yorkshire urban areas (besides Manchester, London, and Glasgow.)
The peace movement in the UK during the First World War has not received very much coverage. A great deal was done to suppress the movement. For example, Nellie Best of the Workers Suffrage Federation received 6 months imprisonment in March 1916 for ‘making statements prejudicial to recruitment”. Worse still was the 10 year sentence imposed upon Alice Wheeldon in 1917 for a supposed conspiracy to murder Lloyd George but which was a plot instigated by an MI5 agent provocateur.
In February 1915 an international meeting of women met in Amsterdam several women that had been involved in the struggle for the vote before the war took part. Emmeline Pankhurst (WSPU) and Millicent Fawcett (NUWSS) accused the women of treason and urged their supporters not to attend. Over 180 women from Britain were refused permission to travel to the meeting. Even so, fifteen hundred delegates representing Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Britain, Hungary, Italy, Holland, Norway, Sweden and the United States managed to overcome their government's attempt to stop them reaching Amsterdam. At the meeting the women discussed ways of ending the war. As a result of the conference a Women's Peace Party was formed. Other women who joined this party included Sylvia Pankhurst, Charlotte Despard, Helena Swanwick, Olive Schreiner, Helen Crawfurd, Alice Wheeldon, Hettie Wheeldon and Winnie Wheeldon.
For more information read
The British Womens Peace Movement During World War One by Stanislav Tumis
The onset of the war in 1914 saw Emmeline Pankhurst take the Women’s Social and Political Union into a pro-war stance in vehement nationalistic support of the British Government’s militaristic actions. On the 10th August the government announced it was releasing all suffragettes from prison. In return, the WSPU agreed to end their militant activities and help the war effort. Emmeline Pankhurst announced that all militants had to "fight for their country as they fought for the vote.". Having received a £2,000 grant from the government, the WSPU organised a demonstration in London. Members carried banners with slogans such as "We Demand the Right to Serve", "For Men Must Fight and Women Must work". The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies also divided over the war. This shift in the political perspective saw many women widening their political priorities to focus upon the importance of peace campaigning. The Women’s International League was set up in May 1915 for “linking together two movements felt to be vitally connected: the Woman’s Movement and the Pacifist Movement”. Within the year the WIL would have 2,458 members in 34 branches.In Glasgow Helen Crawfurd help set up its WIL in November and within the year it possessed 83 new members
Crawfurd was however dissatisfied with the WIL’s liberalism and its links with the Union of Democratic Control and sought to create a more left-wing anti-militarist organisation. In June 1916 a peace conference in Glasgow was organised by women activists including Helen Crawfurd, Agnes Dollan and Mary Barbour which gave birth to The Women’s Peace Crusade which became an influential force in the anti-war movement. There is some variation on the actual date but June 10th 1916 is generally accepted as the birth of the Women’s Peace Crusade. A year later, June 1917 saw the Women’s Peace Crusade go national with the launch of the National Women’s Peace Crusade with Helen Crawfurd as its Honorary Secretary The Women’s Peace Crusade split the suffragette movement with the majority, in Glasgow at least, turning their activities to the anti-war movement and the rump taking a pro-war stance. Many of the women activists in the Women’s Peace Crusade were not new to this type of struggle as many of them were active in the suffragettes, the Glasgow rent strikes and also the No Conscription Fellowship. However the Women’s Peace Crusade was a concerted attempt to get working-class women organised against the war and made a major contribution to the anti-war movement.
On Sunday June 8th. 1917 a Women’s Peace Crusade processions from all corners of the City converged on Glasgow Green, the usual focal point for demonstrations and struggle in the city, turning the Green into a sea of colourful banners and filling the air with lively music. Estimates put the number of men and women assembled on that occasion as 12,000-14,000. All there in defiance of the patriotic jingoism from the media and official circles, and with one desire, to stop the war. Resolutions were put forward congratulating the Russian revolution of that year and called for immediate peace negotiations. After this event the Women’s Peace Crusade rapidly spread to cities of northern England and the Midlands including Birmingham. By November 1917 there were approximately 45 branches. On 23rd July there was an open air protest in Edinburgh carrying a resolution for adult suffrage and peace negotiations. Other large demonstrations took place in Birmingham (29th July) and Manchester and in Nelson, Lancashire on 11th August
Later in December 1917, the Women’s Peace Crusade requested the Corporation of the City of Glasgow to receive a peace deputation, which was refused. However, the members of the Women’s Peace Crusade were determined that their voice should be heard. So on December 13th 1917 a number of women assembled in George Square opposite the City Chambers to let the Corporation hear their voices raised in opposition to the war. Among those present were Helen Crawfurd, and Agnes Dollan, their banners were held high and peace leaflets were distributed to those passing by and other on-lookers. During this anti-war display in George Square the Patriot League arrived and started harassing the women in the peace demonstration, attempting to destroy their leaflets and tearing their banners. Fights ensued and the women of the Women’s Peace Crusade defended themselves by brandishing their umbrellas and it became nicknamed the the “Brolly Battle”. Helen Crawfurd and Agnes Dollan managed to gain entry to the City Chambers and as the meeting of the City Corporation got under way Helen and Agnes showered the councillors with anti-war leaflets.
The Women’s Peace Crusade can be said to have been an attempt to build a broad working class anti-war movement and many, if not most, of its leading activists were socialistic. It was essentially a housewives movement with men and women marching in different sections. It gained support from housewives who had lost husbands and sons in the war, or whose husbands and sons were on the battle fields.
Sheila Rowbotham writes of the movement in her 'A Century of Women":
"In the Summer of 1917, the Women's Peace Crusade (WPC) was formed with Helen Crawfurd as honorary secretary. Groups spread across the country, campaigning in working-class communities. Women like the ILP-er and suffrage campaigner Florence Exten-Hann, the Glaswegian trade unionist and socialist feminist Jessie Stephen, and the radical suffragist Selina Cooper from Nelson ILP were part of this grass-roots anti-war movement which retained a strong commitment to democracy and social reform."
Reading ILP, in August 1917, resolved to set up a local Women's Peace Crusade, which, at a meeting that October resolved to distribute 5000 pacifist leaflets around the churches. A month later, however, the police raided the Crusade's head offices. Eva Gore-Booth, the younger sister of Countess Markiewicz, was a prominent activist in the WPC in Manchester which may have been the largest branch. Charlotte Despard (suffragist leader, social reformer) and Margaret Bondfield (trade unionist, women's rights campaigner), both based in London, were among other prominent members as well as Ethel Snowden, wife of the first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Snowden, and Katherine Glasier wife of John Bruce Glasier.
Jill Liddington's “The Road to Greeham Common” mentions Womens Peace Crusade activity in Lancashire and West Yorkshire urban areas (besides Manchester, London, and Glasgow.)
The peace movement in the UK during the First World War has not received very much coverage. A great deal was done to suppress the movement. For example, Nellie Best of the Workers Suffrage Federation received 6 months imprisonment in March 1916 for ‘making statements prejudicial to recruitment”. Worse still was the 10 year sentence imposed upon Alice Wheeldon in 1917 for a supposed conspiracy to murder Lloyd George but which was a plot instigated by an MI5 agent provocateur.
In February 1915 an international meeting of women met in Amsterdam several women that had been involved in the struggle for the vote before the war took part. Emmeline Pankhurst (WSPU) and Millicent Fawcett (NUWSS) accused the women of treason and urged their supporters not to attend. Over 180 women from Britain were refused permission to travel to the meeting. Even so, fifteen hundred delegates representing Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Britain, Hungary, Italy, Holland, Norway, Sweden and the United States managed to overcome their government's attempt to stop them reaching Amsterdam. At the meeting the women discussed ways of ending the war. As a result of the conference a Women's Peace Party was formed. Other women who joined this party included Sylvia Pankhurst, Charlotte Despard, Helena Swanwick, Olive Schreiner, Helen Crawfurd, Alice Wheeldon, Hettie Wheeldon and Winnie Wheeldon.
For more information read
The British Womens Peace Movement During World War One by Stanislav Tumis
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