The kindness of strangers: some reflections on exile and refugees

Dear Readers

welcome to a guest post from Ruth Eversley who gave this talk at the International Women’s day  event at the Working Class Movement library earlier  this month

Some of what you read here may not be strictly accurate. I am slightly uncomfortable about claiming to be able to recall the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I only recently found out that the story I have been entertaining friends with for years about how my father met his second wife might be completely untrue. So my personal story, like all family stories is a mix of misleadings, myths and memories.

Last October, I joined in the Feminista Lobby of the House of Commons. We had been asked to choose one of five issues important to women
• Ending violence against women and girls
• Childcare for all
• Women’s abortion rights
• The stereotyping, objectification and sexualisation of women in the media
• The ensuring of justice for women seeking asylum.

Like most of you here, I would probably have found it extremely difficult to prioritise any one of these above the others. Except for the fact that since I retired I have been volunteering at a project for destitute asylum seekers and I have been incensed by their treatment in this country – if any group is more stigmatised as outsiders in the UK in 2013, I would be surprised.

While we were walking across to the Houses of Parliament, I got talking to the woman next to me. It took two minutes to establish that we were both called Ruth, we had both chosen the issue of asylum seekers, and that we were both daughters of German Jewish refugees. There was an instant understanding between us.

Second generation of survivors of the Holocaust are sometimes called ‘memorial candles’; for some, that means keeping the story alive, for others, like me, it seemed unimportant, a bit of interesting family history. But as I get older, I find myself thinking about it more and more and wondering what it means and what my responsibilities are. I haven’t found any great clarity of thought yet, but I don’t think it is so difficult to understand why the plight of today’s refugees and asylum seekers might resonate.

My siblings and I were brought up as Quakers – in their time the Religious Society of Friends were outsiders themselves, persecuted and imprisoned for their beliefs, barely tolerated by some within the Christian community; they are still a tiny minority but are always there in the vanguard of movements for social justice from fair trade to gay marriage. But even in the safe environs of the delightful Bournville Junior Mixed Infants School, in the centre of the Quaker-founded Cadbury’s village in Birmingham in the 1950s, I used to lock myself in the outside toilets at playtime while the little boys re-enacted the World War Two outside, killing off those unfortunate enough to be designated Germans. Many years later, I was teaching the Thomas Hardy poem ‘The Man I Killed’ and confronted again the absurdity that my grandfathers were on opposite sides in the First World War. If it wasn’t for the fact that not a single member of either family ever showed any sporting prowess whatsoever, I would add to my mythology the possibility that they had played football together during that famous Christmas Day truce.

In the early eighties, as a naive and idealistic newly-qualified teacher, I was in charge of the sixth-form general studies programme, which meant booking speakers. It was an election year, and (despite my university indoctrination of no platform for fascists) I thought it would be a good idea to invite speakers from all the political parties standing in Canterbury. And that meant including someone from a long-forgotten party called something like the English People’s Party for Folk who Fear Foreigners. Their candidate turned up – a lovely little old woman, and proceeded to convince a few spotty youths that there was nothing wrong with foreigners as long as they stayed where they belonged. Her line was that if you go somewhere you don’t belong, you will be unhappy and then you will start behaving badly. So if all foreigners went back where they came from, all conflicts would stop and the world would be a better place.

There are so many flaws in that argument that it is almost impossible to start – but I was left temporarily speechless. Apart from the fact that as chair, I wasn’t supposed to have an opinion, a sort of tortuous logic whispered in my head Well, you’re not really English – your dad was German, you don’t belong here, so if you argue with her you’re being disruptive and are proving her point!

I’m not sure why, but as a family we never sat down and talked specifically about my father’s family’s experience; we sort of absorbed it by osmosis. It wasn’t a forbidden topic but our focus was always on the future and our education. And it was that emphasis on education which probably explains how they came here in the first place. My great-aunt, Hedwig, had met Quakers working for the Friends’ Ambulance Unit in the First World War and had been so impressed by them that she arranged for her nephews, Hans and Ernst, to attend the Quaker boarding school Leighton Park near Reading, in the 1930s.

the Frank family

Their father, my grandfather, was called Otto. He was one of two Ottos born in Frankfurt in the 1890s. Both went to the Goethe Gymnasium, a highly rated secondary school, and both went on to do well in business. In the 30s, by now married and with two children, two daughters for one, two sons for the other, they saw the blazing writing on the wall and made their move, the one family to Amsterdam, the other to London. You probably know what happened to the Amsterdam family. Initially the business thrived but after a couple of years the family had to go into hiding in an attic where they were kept alive through the extraordinary efforts of their colleagues and friends but they were eventually betrayed and taken to the camps. There, his wife, Edith, and his two daughters, Margot and Anne died. As a child I was obsessed with Anne’s story and (much as I adored my own mother, coincidentally also named Edith) had a little fantasy that had Anne lived, she would have married my father – and my mother would have been Anne Frank. Serious bragging rights, there.

But the other Otto and his wife Dela, made it to London where they found a support system, re-built their family, made friends and stayed until their deaths many years later. They never lost their accents – my sister Judith and I once prayed for the ground to open beneath our feet while Grandma Eberstadt explained in her loud, strongly-accented voice exactly what was going on in the painting we were viewing in the National Galley. It was ‘The circumcision of the infant Jesus’. Total mortification. Their older son was interned as an enemy alien for a while but then joined the Pioneer Corps. He and his brother became naturalised British citizens, made good lives in England, one as an academic, the other as a businessman, and their children’s grandchildren with their multi-cultural German-English-Irish-Jewish-Catholic-Anglican heritage are just starting their education. The in-between generations have produced academics, social workers, teachers, entrepreneurs and business people, all making their contribution to the country which took them in. You could almost believe the Home Office Guide for New Residents when it claims that there is no place in British society for extremism and intolerance.

But of course, you would be wrong. Nowadays outsiders, asylum-seekers and refugees are, like the Franks and the Eberstadts, still too often dependant on the kindness of strangers. The prejudice and misinformation peddled by politicians and press turn desperate people into monsters and thieves, confused with economic migrants, demonised as benefit scroungers, isolated by poverty and stigmatised as criminals.

Stop for a moment and ask yourself, what is an asylum seeker?
We all have our own stereotypes, so don’t be embarrassed. Close your eyes and think of an asylum seeker. Is your image male or female? Young or old? Well-dressed or shabby? What colour is their skin? Where are they living? What are they living on? What did they do before they came here? Why are they here? What on earth would tempt them to leave home for the ordeal of disbelief, detention and destitution which awaits them here? How many of them do you think there are? What country are they from? (and are you surprised that Afghanistan, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Myanmar, the Palestinian Territories and South Sudan head the list?)

Now replace your image with the faces of :
the artist, Mona Hartoum and Alex Wek, the supermodel. How about Gloria Estefan, Olivia Newton John, Marlene Dietrich, Rachel Weisz.

You might be familiar with the work of Judith Kerr, who wrote the wonderful children’s book When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and most of you will have heard of Isabel Allende, Anna Freud and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. All of them either refugees or the daughters of refugees who have each in their own way enriched our lives because they were given a chance to escape persecution and start again. They don’t meet the stereotype so beloved by the Daily Mail.

And Britain hardly leads the world in accepting refugees, not even in Europe, let alone the rest of the world – we fall well behind Germany and Italy, let alone Chad, Jordan, Kenya, and Iran. The UN reckon that over 43 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced by conflict by the end of 2010, the highest number in the past 15 years. Eighty percent of the world’s refugees are in … developing countries … and sometimes, it seems the loudest objections to refugees and asylum seekers come from regions that do not shoulder the biggest burden of accepting and hosting refugees. Recent figures claim that there are already over 1 million refugees from the war in Syria – most of them are in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan. Of the three million Afghan refugees, Iran has taken over a million. In the UK, we have seen maybe 23,000.

The numbers quoted are huge and they are all going in the wrong direction. The statistics show more people are fleeing their homes because of conflict. At the same time, fewer refugees and internally displaced people are returning home than in past years, and fewer still are finding places of resettlement in third countries.

Just to clear up any misunderstanding of what the words mean:
A refugee is a person who is outside their country of origin or habitual residence because they have suffered (or fear) persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because they are a member of a persecuted ‘social group’. She or he may be referred to as an ‘asylum seeker’ until recognized by the state where they make a claim.

Someone like Marjorie, perhaps. In Uganda she was active in opposition politics at a grassroots level: working in her village, helping women to know their rights and teaching them reading and writing. She was imprisoned twice. She was tortured, she was raped, she was burnt with cigarettes. She was cut with razors and subjected to electric shocks.

Eventually she escaped and came to England. She was refused asylum. It took 6 years to fight her case through the courts until she was finally given leave to remain. The anxiety and the fear she endured throughout those years were terrible. It was scary but she says she just wanted to be able to breathe fresh air again.

Or Herlinde – when she came here she thought she would be safe, but she wasn’t. In total, she spent nearly three years in destitution. That means that she was not allowed to work but also she was not allowed to claim benefits and she was not given anywhere to live.

Women like Herlinde with nowhere to go, may spend their nights in shelters. Sometimes those shelters are full, and women are forced to spend the night on the streets. Women have been raped on the streets because they are sleeping rough. Some women go to the airport to sleep. Or they take a night bus, going around and around the streets of our major cities. Some women become prostitutes to survive.

They will tell you, being destitute affects your whole wellbeing; your mind, body and soul. You can’t plan your life. You feel useless and down. Symptoms of anxiety, depression, guilt and shame are common – social isolation and poverty have a devastating effect on your mental health, along with the hostility you encounter, the racism and the fear of deportation.

Eventually Herlinde was given leave to remain but she still finds it hard to accept how her life has turned out. She feels sad all the time knowing all those years have been lost. Living like a beggar was never meant to be her life.

So what goes wrong? Most refugees are escaping some form of ethnic or political persecution. But for women this is frequently accompanied by gender-based persecution. This includes rape and sexual violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation and forced prostitution. Gender-related persecution is not adequately understood by the UKBA and this leads to them doubting the credibility of applicants’ accounts for no good reason. The instability this causes for women who are already highly vulnerable, and the impact on their mental and physical health, is enormous.

This attitude, this appalling ‘culture of disbelief’ is all-pervasive within the UKBA. And then information about the conditions for women from their home countries is either not available or isn’t adequately used to inform decisions on many women’s claims.

In research conducted by Asylum Aid nine out of ten women’s cases are initially refused, the majority because the women are not believed. The fact that nearly half of these decisions are overturned if the women manage to appeal their cases tells you how inefficient the system is. Not surprisingly, under the present regime, women seeking asylum are affected by a desperate lack of legal representation. The new funding plans for legal aid for asylum cases discourages legal representatives from taking the most complex cases to appeal.

The impacts of refusal on individual women are severe – in one recent study, of those women refused asylum, 25% had been detained, 67% were made destitute, and more than half had contemplated suicide.

Adding insult to injury – literally – is the incompetence of the UKBA – you’ve probably seen the stories of the 100,000 unopened items of post in 150 boxes left in a room in Liverpool which included recorded delivery letters some of them probably related to the 147,000 outstanding ‘legacy cases’ which have left people in limbo for an average of 7 years, (which means some applications have been ignored for at least ten years)

While I was gathering my thoughts for this event, I stumbled on story after story concerning asylum-seekers and their treatment in the UK. A Radio 4 play about a gay Iranian facing deportation, a mother who slept on the floor of a mosque for five months, surviving on handouts and, possibly the worst of all, a newspaper story about a Sri Lankan woman in her 40s tortured and raped by security services after being forcibly returned to Sri Lanka on a specially chartered UKBA flight.

But I also read a review for Glasgow Girls, a play based on the activities of a group of Drumchapel High School students who prevented the deportation of a fellow student by co-opting teachers, lawyers, and even the residents of the tower block where the girl’s family lived who set up an early-warning system in case anyone from the Home Office was spotted.

Glasgow Girls

And I met Rebecca, who as a child had escaped Somalia for a refugee camp in Kenya, now a mother of two, at university studying jewellery design and with leave to remain (despite not knowing that for over a year, because the Home Office had lost track of her).

So there are success stories – and behind those stories is an over-stretched network of charities, self-help groups, churches, temples and mosques, and individuals, the odd politician and journalist who, for whatever reason, recognise that these apparent outsiders could and should be our neighbours, friends and family.

Half the people recognised as refugees by the UNHCR are women. Of those who make it to the UK, maybe 24% are women. By the time they get as far as towns like Oldham, the percentages are even lower, maybe under 10%. Most of the time, we don’t hear their voices, we don’t know enough about their stories. This lack of information and understanding feeds into a fear of the unknown, an unease which can lead, as we know only too well to intolerance, disbelief and maltreatment which shames us as a society which prides itself on its tolerance and respect for human rights.

As a retired English teacher, I remember the autumn term I spent with a lively class of teenagers when, by serendipity or synchronicity, we found ourselves studying witches in Macbeth, witches in The Crucible for English Literature, witches among the many supernatural forces in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and even Sabrina the Teenage Witch for Media Studies. It was also the time of year when their younger brothers and sisters were roaming the streets trick-or-treating for Halloween.

If the women we once condemned as witches can now be celebrated as wise women, herbalists and healers – heroines and even super-heroines in some cases – we can and should work to stop the demonisation of those women who have come to the UK for support and justice. The women who come to our project are amazing – what has happened to them and their families, what they have gone through to get here, the prejudice and ill-treatment they endure now they are here can sometimes seem unbearable. But these are stories you should believe.

The Oldham Unity Destitution Project supports 60+ refugees each week providing food and support. They welcome donations for more information contact StewartBailey1943@hotmail.co.uk

International Women’s Day: Inspiring Women for the 21st Century

For the sisters, mothers, friends and lovers

Who would not accept defeat

Who’ve been cut by broken promises

Been pounded by deceit

And still hold out for justice

Against brutality…….

Hitting Home by Claire Mooney  from her CD Slow Riot 1997

On International Women’s Day 2013 I would like to dedicate this post to three women whom I think live up to the spirit of this day. International Women’s Day was proposed by two German socialist women, Luise Zietz and Clara Zetkin, at the Socialist Womens conference in 1910 and was first celebrated on 19 March 1911.

It was organised by word of mouth and debates took place about the role of women and their right to vote. It was a very successful day. Across the country meetings were organised in small towns as well as big cities. So many women attended that the men had to give way to the women and looked after the children, whilst the women went to the meetings. Over 30,000 women attended a street demonstration and, when the police tried to take the women’s banners, the women fought back.

Clara Zetkin believed that it was only working class women and men campaigning together who could change society and bring freedom and equality to all people.

In 2013 life can be really depressing and, even for those of us who have always been active in some kind of political struggle, we need inspiration to continue to oppose the attacks being made on our public services and our way of life. Here are three women who have led lives devoted to opposing injustice and inequality. They are ordinary women who led (or are still leading) extraordinary lives. They show that we can all make a difference to society – but we can only do it if we get together with other women and men. Happy International Women’s Day!

Hannah Mitchell

Hannah Mitchell

She was born on 11 February 1871, one of six children, on a remote farm in Derbyshire. Clashing with her mother, who stopped Hannah from going to school, she left home at 14 years to start a life of domestic service. Fortunately her employer had a good library which she devoured. Domestic work was not for her and, because she had good sewing skills, she left and went to work as a seamstress.

Hannah’s working life taught her many lessons about the limited opportunities for young working class women, the slavery of service – both domestic and factory – and the low wages which meant she often went without meals. But her new freedom did allow her to choose her own friends, develop her education through reading and begin a career in radical politics.

Hannah’s move to Bolton changed her life. She met Gibbon Mitchell, a tailor, member of the Fabian Society and founder member of the ILP. Together they pursued their politics, and Gibbon supported her in her fight for women’s right to vote in the years from the end of the 19th Century to the First World War.

Hannah, Gibbon and their son moved to Elizabeth Street in Ashton-under-Lyne where she began her life’s work;
It seems to me now, looking back, that all my previous life had been a preparation for this great experience. While indirectly it caused me much sorrow, it brought me many contacts which have immeasurably enriched my life.

Hannah became involved with the Pankhursts, the Women’s Social and Political Union and the Suffragettes. She was a good speaker, who wasn’t put off by hecklers or the violent behaviour of a minority of people who attended her meetings. She was employed as an activist and organiser for the WSPU, which involved everything from speaking at parliamentary by-elections to organising campaigns and going to prison.

The intensity of the work led to Hannah having a nervous breakdown and having to withdraw from the campaign whilst she recovered.

Hannah’s belief in pacifism meant that she broke from the Pankhursts over their support for the First World War. The years following the war saw the victory of the campaign for the vote. Hannah and Gibbon continued their political life in the ILP and in 1924 she was elected to Manchester City Council.

As a councillor she worked hard to improve the lives of working class women including building a local wash house where women who did not have bathrooms or wash-house facilities could use.

After retiring from the council in 1935 she continued to speak at womens’ meetings and the Co-operative Womens Guild. Hannah had always wanted to write and now she had the time and wrote stories about everyday life which were published in Labour’s Northern Voice.

Before she died in 1956 she wrote her lifestory: The Hard Way Up; the autobiography of Hannah Mitchell, Suffragette and Rebel which was not published until 1968.To buy it see

Bernadette Devlin McAliskey

Bernadette Devlin, 1969

She was born 23 April 1947 in Cookstown, County Tyrone, in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland, one of six children. Her father was a carpenter who couldn’t find work in Northern Ireland, so he lived, worked and sadly died in England, aged just 46. Her mother died at the same age and Bernadette became the legal guardian for her 15 year old brother, whilst she was a student at Queen’s University in Belfast.

She said about her life:
If it hadn’t been for the fact that I had an essentially Christian background from my mother,poverty would have made me bitter rather than socialist, and what I know of politics would have made me mad Republican.

From The Price of My Soul by  Bernadette Devlin,  1969

In 1968 Bernadette became involved with the growing Civil Rights Movement in the Six Counties, a movement that called for the right to vote, fair electoral boundaries, freedom of speech and assembly, repeal of the Special Powers Act and a fair allocation of jobs and houses. It was part of a world-wide protest movement of massive anti-war Vietnam marches , workers and students striking and rioting in France and sit-ins in Universities across Britain.

The reaction of the Royal Ulster Constabularly to the marches organised by the CRM was to violently attack the demonstrators. This galvanised the movement and within twelve months sent tremors through the Northern Ireland government and the Labour Government in Westminster.

Bernadette and her student comrades set up their own organisation, Peoples Democracy, which went on to organise more marches and leafleting. She became one of the leading figures.

In April 1969 Bernadette was elected to the House of Commons at the age of 21 years and was the youngest woman MP. She stayed as an MP until 1974.

Being an MP did not stop her political activity, she took part in the Battle of the Bogside when the residents, faced with loyalist marchers and a sectarian RUC, defended their area for three days until the British government intervened and replaced the RUC with the British Army.

Bernadette was convicted of incitement to riot and served a prison sentence. In 1971 she had her daughter Roisin and two years later she married Michael McAliskey.

Over the years she has been involved in various left organisations, including Irish Republican Socialist Party. During the Hunger Strikes in 1981 she stood as an independent candidate and she was a leading spokesperson for the Smash the H-Block Campaign. In January 1981 Ulster Freedom Fighters shot her and her husband in front of their children, despite a secret British Army surveillance on their house. Three people were arrested and jailed for the attempted murder.

Bernadette was, and remains critical, of the Good Friday Agreement and the creation of the power sharing executive in Northern Ireland. Her views have not changed, and history has shown that the power still lies with Britain. She believes that only a socialist republic can deliver justice and equality to all the peoples in Ireland.

In January this year she spoke at the 41st anniversary of Bloody Sunday. On that day in 1972 13 innocent people were killed by British soldiers in Derry. The Saville Inquiry confirmed this, but the report failed to expose or even attempt to explain, the role of Edward Heath’s Tory government and British army chiefs in the events of Bloody Sunday and the subsequent cover-up. In her speech Bernadette linked Bloody Sunday with the Miners’ Strike in 84-5, and the Hillsborough campaign, other tragedies where the Government have consistently covered up the truth, and the families and supporters have had to campaign for years to prove the innocence of their children or friends. She also confirmed her lifelong view of politics: that it is only when people get together to oppose injustice that they will produce a better society.

Let’s look at the endurance of the families who have held this fight. Let’s look at the endurance of Marian Price and Martin Corey and the others and let’s say to ourselves: we have got to get a political programme together here and get the struggle for civil rights, political rights, social rights and economic rights together or we are in, comrades and colleagues, for one hell of a hiding.
To read the full speech go to

Bernadette McAliskey Photo by Stephen Latimer

 

Selma James

Selma at the recent disabled peoples protest

She was born 15 August 1930 in Brooklyn, New York. She worked in factories and then became a housewife and mother. At 22 years she wrote A Woman’s Place and became a regular columnist in Correspondence, a newspaper written by its readers with pages dedicated to women, black people and young people. She said about A Woman’s Place:

When the pamphlet was published I took it into work with me and sold a few copies to the women I knew in the factory. ……It was entirely new then for the opinions of a working class woman, especially a housewife to be published, even by a socialist organisation.

In 1955 she married CLR James who had been deported from England during the McCarthy period. Not just a married couple, they were close political allies for over 25 years.

From 1958 to 1962 she lived in Trinidad with CLR James and they were active in the West Indian movement for independence, after which they returned to England. Selma became the first organising secretary of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination in 1965 and also founded the Black Regional Action Movement and was editor of its journal in 1969.

In 1972 she founded the International Wages for Housework Campaign and in 2000 Selma launched the Global Women’s Strike, which called for investment in caring not killing.

She coined the word “unwaged” to describe the caring work women do, and it has since entered the English language to describe all who work without wages on the land, in the home, and in the community. Selma has made visible the struggles of some of the most vulnerable groups, including sex workers and drawn the connections between them and all other workers. She recounts this campaign in her book Hookers in the House of the Lord (1983).

Selma has been active in politics for over forty years. Her writings are grounded in her own activism and she understands that for many people not winning has been their experience, but she draws courage from her understanding of history;
Information and understanding of how and where we resist and rebel are the basis on which we build our determination to win and our confidence that we will win.

Today her articles and books are being read by a new audience of activists.Her most recent book is Sex, Race and Class.

Selma spoke at the Occupy London Stock Exchange in November 2011:

All power to the 99% is a most anti-racist twenty first century statement. To highlight the 99% versus the 1% is to expose the basic hierarchy in society. It stakes a claim that almost all of us, waged and unwaged, belong together.

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Watch…Tull at the Octagon Theatre…what has happened to political theatre I am constantly asking myself,  and then up pops a brilliant play. It’s the real story of Walter Tull, the second black professional footballer in Britain,  and one of the few black officers in the British Army. Phil Vasili researched and wrote a book about Walter which has now been turned into a play. Its not just the story of a mixed race young man and his search for fulfilment on the football and military field but a young man who is part of one of the most dynamic periods of history in this country; 1888 to 1918. A period when the campaign for the vote for women was at its heigth and Vasili knows his history as we watch Tull’s suffragette girlfriend Annie speak at public meetings to make the case for equality and oppose the First World War, two of the most controversial subjects of this era. It all takes place on an empty stage and the actors wear modern clothes allowing the audience to concentrate on the words and actions of a dynamic and totally engrossing play. Its well worth catching but get there before the 16 March further details see

Look…at The original rocku/mocku/documentary. One More Chance by local film maker John Crumpton; Shane Ventura, the legendary rock ‘n’ roll artist of the late fifties and early sixties, narrates the emotional journey of his rise to fame and his equally meteoric fall…

John is a BAFTA award winning sound editor, film and video maker, writer, trainer, BECTU learning organiser and photographer. He makes inspiring and idiosyncratic films including the hit Tea Machine, and I Married a Cult Figure from Salford,  as well as documenting important political events such as the International Workers Memorial Day  featuring Claire Mooney singing A Day to Remember.  To watch these films see

 

Find out about…..The Youth of Palestine; How the occupation is blighting their future at a public meeting organised by Oldham Trades Council on Monday 18 March,  7pm. Speakers to include: Bernard Regan, Trade Union Officer, Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Venue; Oldham Unitarian Chapel, Oldham. Further details contact secretary@oldham.nut.org.uk

Celebrate…International Womens Week….here are some of my favourites…

3 March..Women at Peterloo walk…led by Michael Herbert from  Red Flag History walks, who is the author of “Up then Brave women”, Manchester’s radical women, 1819-1918.   He is also doing walks on 8 March on radical women in Manchester  and 10 March on “Votes for Women”.  booking advised in advance, go to

3-10 March at Three Minute Theatre:..an exciting programme of drama and arts events to celebrate minority womens issues and provide a platform for their voices. See

7 March 12.30-1.30 and 6pm-8. 30pm A talk about artists Isabel Dacre and Annie Swynnerton at Manchester Art Gallery. The gallery has 17 pictures by Dacre who studied at the Manchester School of Art who  with Swynnerton,  founded the Manchester Society of Women Artists in 1876. Not just an artist, Dacre was a member of the executive committee of the Manchester National Society for Women’s Suffrage. For more info see    FREE

8 March 1.15-2pm..Living History Performance; The Hard Way Up-A Suffragette’s Story. Hannah Mitchell is one of my heroes, her life is a testament to the many workingclass women who gave their life to the struggle for equality and justice for women and men. This is an excellent play, written by Eileen Murphy,  and we need more of these stories to inspire us today. See FREE

9 March…2-4pm  Working Class Movement Library.. northwest writer, Livi Michael,  author of  Malkin Child, and activist,  Ruth Eversley,  discuss what it means to be an outsider from  the Pendle Witches to the asylum Seekers and refugees of today.  For more information see FREE

More history…..A blog that offers the public the opportunity to tell their story about the history of Manchester. It says;

HistoryME is a community in which we all get to tell our story and how we have all contributed to the history of Manchester and how we are shaping its future. It’s where the History of Manchester is written  by you. Its simple because its FREE and all you have to do is write about what you know; you and your history, your family and friends, community and your relationship to the great city of Manchester.

 

Indulge in some forbidden arts……… Callout: Manchester Temporary Autonomous Arts is back!! 6th – 9th March. An underground movement has continued to rise over the past 10 years to become an exciting, active, and important network aiming to provide spaces for people not catered for in our consumer driven individualist society. Opening its doors to artists, poets, musicians and creatives of all kinds on Wednesday 6th March for the 4 day event, we hope YOU will join us in the tide of DIY culture, energy, ideas and fun. This unique open access event aims to unite people from all backgrounds on many different levels with creativity, workshops, food, discussion, skill shares, films, and music and and all good things people feel to bring. See

Eat……and make your views heard.…..  Salford based theatre company Quarantine are offering you a free lunch at Manchester curry house, the Kabana Café, if you talk to them for half an hour. It is refreshing that a theatre group want to listen to their customers,  and maybe other companies should follow when going to the theatre is a luxury item. For more info on the monthly curry and chats visit http://www.qtine.com or you can book your place by emailing info@qtine.com or calling 0161 830 7318.
Next date is Wednesday 13 March 2013
Time: Half hour slots between 12 noon – 2.30pm
Venue: Kabana Café
Address: 52 Back Turner Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester M4 1FP

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Watch….Chasing Ice ..as part of Climate Week (4-10 March), Manchester Film Co-op invites you to a screening of the brand new environmental documentary, Chasing Ice by photographer James Balog. In 2005 Balog decided to prove the effects of climate change by undertaking; The Extreme ice Survey. He set up revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the Arctic to produce a record of the change in the glaciers. It was a challenge for him in terms of his own survival and it took years to produce this film. His hauntingly beautiful videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear
at a breathtaking rate. Chasing Ice depicts a photographer trying to
deliver evidence and hope to our carbon-powered planet.
See it; Tuesday, 5th March.
Doors open at 7:30pm, film begins at 8pm.
Admission: £3 waged, £2 unwaged/student.
Venue MERCI, Beswick Street, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 7HR.

Celebrate….International Womens Day 2013 at the Working Class Movement Library Saturday 9 March at 2pm. International Women’s Day was first celebrated on 19 March 1911 following a resolution proposed by two German Socialists, Luise Zietz and Clara Zetkin, at the Socialist Women’s conference in Copenhagen the previous year. At a time when many other women’s organisations want to define IWD as a women-only lifestyle event stripped of its real politics, the WCML places the day at the centre of socialist and historical reality. Our event will have speakers, Livi Michael and Ruth Evers discussing what it means to be an outsider in society. Livi is a novelist who will discuss her latest book Malkin Child, a fictionalised account of the story of the Pendle Witches. Ruth is a volunteer with the Oldham Unity Destitution Project and will talk about her own experience as a refugee and the lives of the asylum seekers and refugees whom she works. Please note the event is open to women and men.For further details see
Further info on Livi see

Stop the English Defence League….who are coming to Manchester on Saturday 2 March. Join all the people who don’t think that they should be allowed to take over our city. Gather at Piccadilly Gardens at 11am on 2 March. Further details see

Support….. Manchester Refugee Support Network. This is a network of Refugee Community Organisations who supports refugee led organisations and provides specialist advice and support to asylum seekers and refugees. Like many similar small charities, it is currently struggling to continue to offer these services on a shoe string. To raise money they have organised a Ceildh on Friday 1st March at Chorlton Irish Club 7.30 – 11pm. Tickets £5 or £7, available from siamak@mrsn.org.uk

Learn about…..A history of social movements; the Bolton Perspective…the tutor is activist and historian Mark Krantz. Starts 17 April 10.30-12.30pm at Bolton Central Library. Further details contact http://www.nw.wea.org.uk or ring their regional office on 0151-243 5340

Take part….as an actor in a play by Bertolt Brecht, Fear and Misery of the Third Reich also known as The Private Life of the Master Race. The play is a compilation of short mini-plays/ sketches which build in tension to paint an intense human picture of life under an increasingly brutal totalitarian regime. It is ideal for those who want a challenge in acting without taking on too much of a commitment in rehearsal time or line learning.Audition: Monday 25th Feb at the Casa, Hope Street, Liverpool L1 9BQ . 7.30pm 3 nights performance at the Lantern Theatre, (performance dates Tue, Wed & Thu May 7th, 8th & 9th)
Experienced actors and newcomers welcome. 0771 684 8894 or tomm562002@yahoo.com for more details.

Don’t Forget……There’s a follow-up organising meeting by Greater Manchester Keep Our NHS Public, as agreed on at their recent conference , taking place on Thursday 28 Feb, 7pm, room G1 at the Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St., Manchester city centre. Please do your best to attend. Room booked as GMATUC / Keep Our NHS Public.

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Watch…..Modernity, municipalism and light: 100 years of Blackpool Illuminations
at Manchester City Art Gallery on 21 February at 6.30pm.
Sadly going to see the illuminations is one of the few reasons to visit Blackpool these days. Blackpool Illuminations, the seaside light show which is a unique autumn tourism event, was 100 years old last year. Blackpool has declined as a holiday tourism destination since its heyday between the war and a combination of council budget cuts and the rise of other forms of entertainment has massively affected its popularity. At this event you can watch three short films depicting pre and post-war Blackpool, featuring aspects of the Lancashire coast, holidaying and attractions in Blackpool and, of course, the Illuminations themselves.
Dr Steve Millington from Manchester Metropolitan University will introduce the films from the North West Film Archive. This event is organised by Manchester Modernist Society, North West Film Archive and Manchester Metropolitan University. Its free but booking is essential, book tickets at.

Celebrate………on 7 March…Derby Peoples History Group has invited historian Louise Raw to speak about her fascinating book on the Bryant & May matchwomen’s strike of 1888, Striking a Light . Not just the history of a struggle but a reminder of how women together can collectively improve their lives. To find out more about her book, see
Derby Peoples’ History next organising meeting is 21st February at Friends Meeting House. 7.30
Further info see

Oppose…fracking and find out more about it…..Greater Manchester Anti-Fracking & Climate Activists Meeting – Tuesday 19th Feb, Friends Meeting House, 7.00pm
With companies such as IGas looking to develop CBM extraction as well as fracking for shale gas as early as 2014 within the Greater Manchester area, and Davyhulme Sewage works potentially also to become the site for the processing of billions of gallons of toxic frack waste water from all over the North West, this meeting aims to begin a discussion amongst local anti-fracking and climate activists, as well as other environmental campaigners, on how we might best work together across the city region as well as regionally and nationally to stop it.
This meeting is organised by Wigan Green socialists. For more information see Wigan Green Socialists

Support….Central American Film and Food night on Friday 15th March, 6.30pm, at the Inspire Centre 747 Stockport Road Manchester M19 3AR

Freedom from Torture (FFT) has been working for 25 years to provide medical and psychological support to survivors of torture who arrive in the UK, as well as striving to protect and promote their rights. Since its inception, over 50,000 individuals have been referred for help. Many are referred to FFT’s centre in Manchester, who have come from countries as diverse as Iran, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Turkey, Pakistan, Sudan, Nigeria, Cameroon and Uganda. FFT relies on individual donations for about 3/4 of its funding.

Special screening of The Echo of Pain of the Many - a personal story of ‘the disappeared’ in Guatemala. Over four years, Ana Lucia Cuevas traced the involvement of her own government and foreign intelligence services in the abduction, torture and murder of her brother and his family. The film will be followed by a Q+A session with the the Director, Ana Lucia.

Tickets £15 including film and a delicious Guatemalan meal. All proceeds to Freedom from Torture.
To reserve/buy a ticket email cglend@hotmail.com or anicolay@freedomfromtorture.org; or text 07739 797027.

Go for a walk…during International Womens Week……
Sunday 3 March, 11.45am Women at Peterloo.

This walk will explore the role of women in the radical movement and
highlight their part in the events of Peterloo on 16 August 1819.
Meet at the Friends Meeting House, Mount Street. Please note that it
will include a walk up to Ancoats and back. Fee £6/£5. Advance
booking strongly advised.

Friday 8 March, 10. 45am. Up Then Brave Women; Manchester’s Radical Women.

On International Women’s Day, this walk explore the rich radical
history of Manchester and the role played by women. It will include
the Owenite feminists, the Clarion movement, women journalists on the
Manchester Guardian amd women artists. Meet at the Robert Owen
statue, outside the Co-op Bank, Corporation Street. The walk will
end at Three Minute Theatre on Oldham Street for tea and biscuits.
Fee £6/£5. Advance booking strongly advised.

Sunday 10 March 11.45am Votes For Women

This walk explore the history of the campaign for votes for women from
1868 to 1928 and the role played by Manchester women such as Lydia
Becker, Eva Gore-Booth, Esther Roper, Margaret Ashton and the
Pankhurst family. Meet at the Friends Meeting House, Mount Street.
Fee £6/£5.
Advance booking strongly advised.
The walks will be led by Michael Herbert, author of the recent book Up Then Brave Women Manchester’s radical women, 1819-1918.

More information and booking : redflagwalks@gmail.com.

Mary Quaile; Manchester Irish Trade Unionist

Mary’s life and political activity shows us why unions are important for women and is an example of the role that Irish people have played in the British trade union movement in this country.

She was born in Dublin; her father was secretary of the Irish Brick and Stonemakers Union. In 1908 she came to Manchester and got a job at the Socialist Clarion Café in Market Street, Manchester. She organised a Café Workers’ Union in Manchester and became its secretary. This was the beginning of a lifetime career as a trade union activist.

In 1911 Mary was appointed as Assistant Organiser to support Mrs Aldridge at the Manchester and Salford Women’s Trades Council. The Council had been established in February 1895 at a meeting in Manchester Town Hall with a view to promoting trade unionism amongst women workers.

By 1914 Mary was the organising secretary for the Council as Mrs. Aldridge had left. She opposed the First World War and belonged to the No Conscription Fellowship. In April 1919 the two Manchester women’s trades councils merged with the Manchester and Salford Trades Council (with Sarah Dickenson appointed Women’s Organiser) and that same year Mary took up a new post as National Women’s Organiser for the Dock, Wharf and Riverside Workers’ Union, which eventually joined the Transport and General Workers Union in 1922. This was Britain’s largest union.

She quickly became prominent in her union, standing for election to the General Council of the Trades Union Congress in 1923 when she came third in the ballot behind Margaret Bondfield and Julia Varley. When Ramsay MacDonald appointed Margaret Bondfield to a job in the first Labour Cabinet as Minister for Employment in January 1924 she resigned from the General Council and Mary took her place as the runner-up, attending her first meeting in March.

Mary was a member of the TUC Women Workers Group, which was looking at the organisation of women in trade unions, following a resolution at the TUC the previous year. In May 1924 the TUC sent out a letter to all unions stating that in their opinion “much could be done to further the trade union organisation of women if all men Trade Unionists would do their utmost to get their wives and daughters to see the importance of becoming trade unionists themselves.”

In 1925 Mary led the Women’s Trade Union Delegation to Russia. She said that “The visit of six working women to Russia was a milestone on the road to international Trade Union unity”. This banner was presented to the British women by the Soviet trade unions.(TUC Archive)

Mary attended the TUC Women’s Conference, held on 20th March 1925, in Leicester, which discussed ways of recruiting more women workers and called on stronger trade unions to come to the aid of the weak, blaming past Executive Councils and union officials for not having made special efforts to organise women.

Later that year at Congress Mary spoke in the discussion on women’s organisation within the TUC, stating her belief that it was necessary to have a women’s group “because of the work that had been done not only in organising the women but in educating them in their responsibilities, and the part they had to take in their own trade union movement”. Mary was elected again in 1925 to the General Council. She was now one of the most prominent women trade unionists in Britain.

The Leicester conference resulted in the TUC launching a recruitment drive for women in the early months of 1926 with Manchester and Salford as its first target. Mary spoke alongside Margaret Bondfield and Walter Citrine, the new TUC General Secretary.

In May 1926 the TUC called the General Strike in support of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain, whose members had been locked out by the coal-owners. The strike was very solid in Manchester and Mary spoke at a mass meeting in Platt Fields, attended by many thousands on Saturday 8th May. Despite the magnificent response of trade unionists across Britain the TUC called off the General Strike unilaterally after ten days without consulting the miners, leaving them to fight on alone until starvation forced them back on the owners’ terms in the autumn.

In September Mary attended the First Annual TUC Women’s Conference in Bournemouth. She did not stand for the General Council in 1926 and the following year returned to Manchester, living in Levenshulme, and again took office as secretary of the Women’s Group on the Trades Council. In 1935 she was elected Vice-President of the Trades Council, the first woman officer of the council, and from 1936 to 1958 she acted as Treasurer. In her later years she was awarded the TUC Silver Badge for Trades Council Officers at a reception at Belle Vue attended by some four thousand people.

Writer and socialist, Jim Allen, in his film Days of Hope, which described this period leading up to the General Strike of 1926, featured a woman, trade unionist called Mary. Given Jim’s in-depth knowledge of labour history I believe he was referring to Mary Quaile.

Sources

Michael Herbert – see

Warwick University

Reclaim the Day!

German Socialist Feminist Poster 1914

What does IWD mean to women today? International Women’s Day was started in 1909 in America by the Socialist Party and was first celebrated internationally two years later. It was originally called International Working Women’s Day, its aim was to promote equal rights for women, and particularly the vote. In Britain it has been traditionally celebrated by trade unions and women’s groups including National Assembly of Women on  8 March .

In the 70s it was revived by the Women’s Liberation Movement and became a focus for women to debate what kind of society we wanted including  issues such as sexuality, childcare and  abortion. There was always a wider political dimension ie highlighting women such as the Miners’ Wives in the 80s, women in Northern Ireland and Palestine.

In 2012 IWD looks very different. We have somehow moved from events that challenged what it meant to be a woman to a lifestyle fest of pampering and cupcakes.

Stockport Council’s IWD event, for instance is a partnership event with the Women’s Organisation, an economic development agency, with the publicity proclaiming ”This is a FREE event sponsored by Stockport Council for women running their own business in Stockport”. Down the road in Manchester the Council has organised a day of “Inspiring Futures” with the emphasis on gaining skills and applying for education or jobs. But the role models offered include a barrister and the chief executive of Nuclear Enterprise.

It is hard to reconcile these events with the stark reality that the numbers of women out of work is the highest in 25 years. Of the 2.67 million people who are unemployed 1.2 million are women. And as women make up 65% of the public sector they are being disproportionately affected by the cuts. And if that is not bad enough the changes in benefits including housing and tax credits are having a massive effect.

I came into Socialist politics in the 70s and for me the spirit of IWD is remembering those women who have challenged the stereotype of what it means to be a working woman and been active in grassroots campaigns. This is why I am pleased to be chairing an event at the Working Class Movement Library which will involve discussing the life of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth. We will be bringing the discussion back to 2012 with input from trade unionist Karen Bosson of the Communications Workers Union. The event starts at 2pm . For more information go here

I have asked some women to contribute their views on IWD and this is what they wrote. What do you think? Please add a comment.

“During the 1970′s and 80′s, when women were organising for themselves and as part of wider movements in Europe and US (anti-war, Greenham Common, in trade unions, women’s health movement etc) we organised marches and events on March 8th that highlighted our issues (access to abortion services being a prime one, which no-one else was going to organise). The events were also a tribute to those unsung women who had struggled in many different spheres, before us. The events were joyous and celebratory. IWD still has meaning for many struggling women’s groups in S.America, the Caribbean, in Africa and the Middle East. But in Britain, most of the activities I have seen advertised are the overt posturing of an anti- working class Labour bureaucracy, trying to hide behind a feminist apron/ petticoat – and a far cry from any independent feminist voice. So I’m not planning to celebrate 8th March this year, although I say “Good Luck” to any women trying to do something.” Pia Feig, trade union activist

“For me International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate our strengh, our successes, our diversity and to focus on the need to continue fighting for rights and equality worldwide because if we don’t who will. It’s also an opportunity to meet inspirational women at a variety of events and re-charge the batteries so we can keep up the struggle for another year!” Claire Mooney, musician and activist.

Finally there is an excellent article by Louise Raw in the Morning Star about International Women’s Day which you can read here.