Kmflett's Blog

From the Suffragettes to Palestine protests..The Court of Appeal gets the history wrong

The Court of Appeal has upheld the ban on Palestine Action originally introduced by Yvette Cooper when she was Home Secretary. In the judgement the view was expressed that the direct action tactics of Palestine Action could not be compared with those of the Suffragettes.

Historically this was not the case

Below is an extract from a BBC report from 2024 about how a section (not all) of the Suffragettes carried out a campaign of direct action to get votes for women before 1914 (the vote for women was implemented in 1918 and 1928- the tactics worked)

In March 1912 she and fellow members, armed with hammers, participated in a window-smashing campaign in London – and she was jailed for two months. In July 1912, following the arrest of the group’s leader, the suffragettes turned to arson. Lenton and Olive Wharry conducted a series of arson attacks, and were arrested. The arson attacks were initially extremely high-risk for the activists, though they were careful never to put the public at risk. “We only just got out in time on one occasion,” said Lenton.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20240307-in-history-suffragettes-speak-about-direct-action-and-their-brutal-treatment

This is a headline point. I will post further on the Suffragettes and direct action. Research has been done but  the context and particularly the links or otherwise between the mainstream Suffragette leadership and those who participated in direct action requires careful investigation.