Militant Demonstrations

Emily Davison — Tue, 24 Oct 1911 00:01:56 +0000

October 24, 1911, To the Editor of The Evening Standard, “Militant Demonstrations”

The Woman Suffrage movement played out in the midst of an on-going series of political

protests, some concerned with labor rights, others with political autonomy that characterized

early twentieth century British history. In this letter Davison draws a line between suffrage

methods of protest and the more extreme actions of the Tonypandy or Rhondda rioters, coal

miners in South Wales who, in the midst of an industrial dispute with mine owners, smashed

the home windows of mine officials’ houses and the windows of shops on 8 November, 1910.

The Irish Land League was formed in the later nineteenth century to help abolish absentee

landlordism in Ireland and enable tenant farmers to own the land they worked; violence

occurred on the occasion of tenant evictions for non-payment of rents. The Unionists she

refers to are the early twentieth-century Ulster Unionist party who vehemently opposed Irish

Home Rule, that is a repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 that united Ireland to Great Britain.

Sir,– In your leader of October 18, headed ‘Methods of Anarchy,’ you assert that ‘the great

Unionist Party cannot afford to adopt the ethics of the Suffragettes, the Irish Land League,

and the Tonypandy rioters.’ In bringing all these three together will you allow me to point

out that the two last have freely indulged in bloodshed and stone-throwing on a very

considerable scale, such as has certainly not been seen in the case of the Suffragettes?

Further, whether the Unionists could afford it or not, they have certainly indulged in some

decidedly militant demonstrations, such as the very interesting recent scenes in the House

of Commons. Consideration of these makes Suffragists inclined to give the Unionist Party

the wise advice that it is not politic for those who live in glasshouses to throw missiles.

EMILY WILDING DAVISON

31, CORAM-STREET, W.C.

Deeds Not Words | Tag Archives: The Evening Standard

Militant Demonstrations