E. Sylvia Pankhurst, Edited with an Introduction by Katherine Connelly, a Suffragette in America: Reflections on Prisoners, Pickets and Political Change Joan Sangster
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Document généré le 1 oct. 2021 13:28 Labour Journal of Canadian Labour Studies Le Travail Revue d’Études Ouvrières Canadiennes E. Sylvia Pankhurst, edited with an Introduction by Katherine Connelly, A Suffragette in America: Reflections on Prisoners, Pickets and Political Change Joan Sangster Volume 85, printemps 2020 URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1070918ar DOI : https://doi.org/10.1353/llt.2020.0017 Aller au sommaire du numéro Éditeur(s) Canadian Committee on Labour History ISSN 0700-3862 (imprimé) 1911-4842 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer ce compte rendu Sangster, J. (2020). Compte rendu de [E. Sylvia Pankhurst, edited with an Introduction by Katherine Connelly, A Suffragette in America: Reflections on Prisoners, Pickets and Political Change]. Labour / Le Travail, 85, 306–308. https://doi.org/10.1353/llt.2020.0017 All Rights Reserved ©, 2020 Canadian Committee on Labour History Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur. L’utilisation des services d’Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d’utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ 306 / LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL 85 provinces and the federal government, has produced a detailed reconstruction and the influence of the United States on of Imperial Oil’s activities over the past Canadian energy policy. 140 years, which reveal how the company For all its undoubted strengths, some skillfully navigated changing and un- readers may regret the book’s lack of certain energy landscapes, triangulating theoretical engagement or discussion of itself between global energy hegemons issues like class, gender, or race. The au- while forging a uniquely Canadian path. thor’s approach is decidedly top-down. Much more than a corporate history, Taylor pays much attention to Imperial’s Imperial Standard offers a window onto preeminent status within the Canadian the rise of the age of oil in Canada and business community, but less on the so- beyond. cial and cultural aspects of Imperial’s Ian Wereley legacy. Workers and their experiences University of Calgary are not included in the book, and Taylor’s examination of the class dynamics be- tween Imperial’s board of directors and E. Sylvia Pankhurst, edited with an the rank and file is limited to a few an- Introduction by Katherine Connelly, A ecdotes. Chapter 5 briefly delves into the Suffragette in America: Reflections on establishment of safety programs, ben- Prisoners, Pickets and Political Change efit and retirement packages, and social (London: Pluto Press 2019) clubs for Imperial workers during the 1910s and 1920s, but these developments Travel was an integral part of the early are framed not as part of a growing class twentieth century international suffrage consciousness but, instead, as “policies movement. Suffragists, especially those that would hold the labour unions at bay.” from North America and Europe, built (107) Taylor’s history of Imperial con- international organizations of solidarity, tains virtually no discussion of women visited other nations as political tourists, and gender, either. The first and only and created alliances and friendships as mention of women and their role in the they lectured in other countries. Travel company’s history appears at page 275, in was primarily the prerogative of the more a paragraph on geologist Diane Loranger. affluent, though some socialist suffragists There is very little on the history of the also moved in international circles, and company’s marketing activities – many some suffrage lecturers paid their own of which were aimed at women – and way through lecturing fees. The latter ar- while Taylor describes the minutia of rangement was used by Sylvia Pankhurst boardroom decision-making, analysis of in her 1911 and 1912 visits to the US and the company’s methods of actually selling Canada. its products to the public is surprisingly A Suffragette in America traces Sylvia’s lacking. Lastly, there was also room for two North American tours through the more discussion about Indigenous issues manuscript she prepared about the visit, beyond how much money oil companies which was never published. Katherine have made, lost, or doled out. The book is Connelly has assembled and edited piec- also marred by some typographical and es of the unfinished manuscript, avail- formatting errors, but it remains an im- able through the International Institute pressive piece of archival research. of Social History, and added a long intro- Imperial Standard will be valuable to duction as well as short introductions to readers in Canadian history, business each section. The result is an extremely history, and the history of oil. Taylor valuable and enlightening picture of LABOUR / LE TRAVAIL, ISSUE 85 (2020), ISSN 0700-3862 REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS / 307 Sylvia Pankhurst’s changing political the conditions of American working- ideas, as well as revealing snapshots of class life, much like social investigators in the American women’s movement and Edwardian Britain. Connelly has includ- U.S. labouring and social life. Connelly’s ed chapters, for example, on Pankhurst’s extended introduction provides an ex- study of women’s laundry work, prisons cellent picture of the context framing and workhouses, a long investigation of Sylvia’s travel, including the variegated Milwaukee municipal socialism, colleges, British and American suffrage move- including a “Red Indian” college – and ments that she interacted with. more. Pankhurst was not the only British Travelling suffragist lecturers like suffragist to demand tours of prisons Sylvia Pankhurst helped to solidify in- when abroad. Having experienced prison ternational feminist solidarities while themselves, they became highly attuned informing audiences about suffrage to the deplorable conditions of women’s progress, or lack of it, in their mother incarceration in all countries. countries. Some also raised money for Pankhurst’s detailed observations their own organization or had audiences are valuable in themselves, and some- send telegrams of support to the British times show the difference between her government–a tactic intended to em- American guides’ and her own views. barrass the intransigent British state. By While some American suffragists as- World War I, the Pankhursts – mother sured her only the “foreign” workers suf- Emmeline, sisters Christobel and Sylvia fered sweating conditions, Pankhurst – were some of the best-known feminists thought differently. One tour guide on the lecture circuit in North America. spoke positively about Taylorism in the Although the British constitutional suf- workplace, but Pankhurst was far more frage organization, the National Union critical. Pankhurst also differed with her of Women’s Suffrage Societies nuwss( ) American guides over questions of race: had longstanding links with the National against their advice, she insisted on vis- American Woman Suffrage Organization, iting the south and was critical of racial North Americans were eager to hear segregation and Jim Crow, as she was about the Pankhurst-run Women’s Social also critical about the dispossession of and Political Union (wspu), especially as American native peoples. Sylvia’s com- it was increasingly committed to militant mentary on both race and “Red Indians” action. Audiences wanted to hear about were early indications of her later anti- hunger strikes, property destruction, and imperialist and anti-racist work after women’s courageous assaults on the state World War I. – whether they thought them foolhardy Canadians will find a mere smattering or courageous. of text on Sylvia’s few stops north of the Connelly, who has already written a 49th parallel. Sylvia, like many other lec- monograph on Sylvia Pankhurst, uses turers, spent most of her time in the US: this edited collection to trace Sylvia’s there were more funds to be raised, larger evolving politics as well as her insight- populations to impress, and many wanted ful commentary on American society. to assess claims about American democ- Sylvia Pankhurst’s two trips had punish- racy for themselves. Pankhurst did briefly ing schedules as she crossed the coun- visit Ottawa (including the jail), Toronto, try multiple times, speaking sometimes and St. John, where she was looked after twice a day for hours to both large and by progressive labour reformers Elle and small audiences. At the same time, she Frank Hatheway, contacts made through used her trip to investigate and describe SANGSTER 308 / LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL 85 Sylvia’s mentor and romantic attach- Vivien Goldman, Revenge of the She- ment, ilp leader Keir Hardie. Punks: A Feminist Music History from What is especially significant about Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot (Austin, Texas: Connelly’s collection is the way in which University of Texas Press 2019) it traces Sylvia’s changing politics along with her travel. During and after her Vivien Goldman takes the reader on US visit, she was moving away from her a whirlwind tour of feminist punk music mother and sister, who rejected all ear- that spans time and geography. The book lier labour ties as they built a top-down, is broken down into four primary themes: authoritarian organization. As Connelly girly identity, money, love, and protest. shows, Sylvia’s trip brought her into The structure of Revenge of the She-Punks close contact with class issues as she is further organized around carefully cu- interviewed working-class women and rated playlists. These playlists represent prisoners. Her research, and indeed her the specific themes that each chapter of geographical distance from Emmeline the book explores, and each song corre- and Christobel, allowed her to cement sponds to a sub-section of the text. One her own left-wing suffrage ideals.