Educating Britain
Suffragettes on the BBC: Omission/filtering/sanitisation: It is scary to know that prominent Suffragettes were socialists.
The BBC is celebrating 100 years since women over 30 and "who met minimum property qualifications" won the right to vote in Britain.
I have gone through these three pieces and I have noticed deliberate ommision of what is an integral part of some prominent Suffragettes and the Suffragettes movement: socialism, communism, the Independent Labour Party.
Sylvia Pankhurst is described as "a vocal pacifist, anti-fascist and anti-colonialist activist." In this introduction (click "more"), and this one ( recommended to teachers!) claims to be tracing "the history of women's movement in Britain" and "how women won the right to vote.
Now, compare the above with
Emily Davison "was a staunch feminist and passionate Christian, and considered that socialism was a moral and political force for good."
Sylvia Pankhurst "was an English campaigner for the suffragette movement, a prominent left communist and, later, an activist in the cause of anti-fascism." She was the founder of the Workers Socialist Federation.
Emmeline Pankhurst, probably the most venerated in the mainstream British media, defended the presence and reach of the British Empire: "Some talk about the Empire and Imperialism as if it were something to decry and something to be ashamed of. [I]t is a great thing to be the inheritors of an Empire like ours ... great in territory, great in potential wealth...If we can only realise and use that potential wealth we can destroy thereby poverty, we can remove and destroy ignorance." For years she travelled around England and North America, rallying support for the British Empire and warning audiences about the dangers of Bolshevism."
Constance Markievicz "was an Irish Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil politician, revolutionary nationalist, suffragette and socialist."
Harold L. Smith in his "The British Women's Suffrage Campaign 1866-128 (Longman 1998), does the same thing. In Part One of the book, under Origins and Ideology, he never mentions "left-wing" or "socialist" background and militancy of prominent Suffragettes. The word "socialism" does not appear in the Index, either. My question is: is it because he wanted to protect the public?
Suffragettes on the BBC: Omission/filtering/sanitisation: It is scary to know that prominent Suffragettes were socialists.
The BBC is celebrating 100 years since women over 30 and "who met minimum property qualifications" won the right to vote in Britain.
I have gone through these three pieces and I have noticed deliberate ommision of what is an integral part of some prominent Suffragettes and the Suffragettes movement: socialism, communism, the Independent Labour Party.
Sylvia Pankhurst is described as "a vocal pacifist, anti-fascist and anti-colonialist activist." In this introduction (click "more"), and this one ( recommended to teachers!) claims to be tracing "the history of women's movement in Britain" and "how women won the right to vote.
Now, compare the above with
Emily Davison "was a staunch feminist and passionate Christian, and considered that socialism was a moral and political force for good."
Sylvia Pankhurst "was an English campaigner for the suffragette movement, a prominent left communist and, later, an activist in the cause of anti-fascism." She was the founder of the Workers Socialist Federation.
Emmeline Pankhurst, probably the most venerated in the mainstream British media, defended the presence and reach of the British Empire: "Some talk about the Empire and Imperialism as if it were something to decry and something to be ashamed of. [I]t is a great thing to be the inheritors of an Empire like ours ... great in territory, great in potential wealth...If we can only realise and use that potential wealth we can destroy thereby poverty, we can remove and destroy ignorance." For years she travelled around England and North America, rallying support for the British Empire and warning audiences about the dangers of Bolshevism."
Constance Markievicz "was an Irish Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil politician, revolutionary nationalist, suffragette and socialist."
Harold L. Smith in his "The British Women's Suffrage Campaign 1866-128 (Longman 1998), does the same thing. In Part One of the book, under Origins and Ideology, he never mentions "left-wing" or "socialist" background and militancy of prominent Suffragettes. The word "socialism" does not appear in the Index, either. My question is: is it because he wanted to protect the public?
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