Suffragette Fascists

Suffragette Fascists by Simon Webb

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We live in Manichean times. History is the battlefront of the culture wars. History is being erased, at least insofar as that history does not denigrate Western civilization. Statues celebrating the great scientists, authors, and leaders of the past are unceremoniously burned down. On the other hand, the history of the oppressive oppressing class is “protected.” Suggest that there is nuance or blemishes in the history of the heroes of the new elites is treated as a kind of treason, eliciting cries of “racism” or “sexism.”

Simon Webb has committed a kind of lese majeste with this book. Webb argues with evidence, wit, and insight that the suffragette movement was a type of proto-fascist movement whose leaders eventually became actual fascists.

Webb starts out with some context. By the early 20th century, while women were not enfranchised to vote in parliamentary elections, this was the case with a lot of men - around 40% - as well. (On the other hand, both men and women could vote in non-parliamentary elections.) Nonetheless, the path to women's enfranchisement was well-advanced, with a lot of political support from both parties for the proposition. This had largely been accomplished by the “suffragists,” a movement that included both men and women.

In the face of inevitability, Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). The WSPU became the “suffragettes.” While Pankhurst was advocating for “votes for women,” she did not mean “all women.” Pankhurst and her organization were upper-class elitists who wanted “equal votes” for women limited to upper-class voters, not “universal voting” for everyone.

The suffragettes began a campaign of terror, starting fires, lacing mail with acid, and other acts of violence. The suffragettes hurt other people and/or acted in ways that exposed people - usually, lower-class people - to risk of death or injury. Webb writes:

//Anybody looking at the Wikipedia article on the WSPU on 19 May 2019 would have read the following statement about the arson attacks on houses carried out by the suffragettes: ‘Included in the many militant acts performed were the night-time arson of unoccupied houses.' What is really meant in this context by ‘unoccupied' is not that nobody was present in the houses which they torched, but rather that the important owners were not there that night. Other people often were, but since they were only working-class people such as servants and caretakers, they did not really count. Like the postal workers, it was not especially important if such individuals were caught in the crossfire.//

And:

//Fortunately, the smell of smoke woke one of them and they were able to escape, but it was a close thing. They could easily have died that night. This was a classic example of the callous attitude of the WSPU. Here were five women, none of them with the Parliamentary vote, who were nearly burned alive as a by-product of a terrorist attack. Those carrying out the arson either did not bother to check, or perhaps did not care, that domestic staff were sleeping in the house.//

And:

//The women of the WSPU also set fire to many churches, business premises and even private houses. The reason for these attacks was a little different from their motives in burning letters, but the victims were the same; working-class men and women.//

This behavior resembles recent Antifa efforts to set police stations on fire after blocking the fire escapes. Another bit of resemblance to Antifa is the shared constituency of young, wealthy, bored individuals looking for something new and exciting. Webb offers this example:

//The act which made Richardson famous and for which she is remembered today took place on 10 March 1914 and resulted in her acquiring the nickname of ‘Slasher' Richardson.
In 1906 the National Gallery had acquired a masterpiece of the Spanish artist Diego Velazquez. It had for many years been in private hands in a Yorkshire house called Rokeby Hall. The subject of the painting is the goddess Venus, depicted naked. Although it is today known as the ‘Rokeby Venus', the actual title of the painting is ‘The Toilet of Venus', a name which, because of the changing meaning of the word ‘toilet' over the decades, might cause the odd snigger today. On that March morning, Mary Richardson entered the National Gallery with a meat cleaver hidden under her clothes. After loitering for two hours, she plucked up her courage, pulled out the chopper and began hacking away furiously at the painting. She was subsequently sent to prison for six months for this act.
The statement which Mary Richardson released after her senseless attack on a painting is revealing. She said;
I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government for destroying Mrs Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful character in modern history.//

The casual use of violence is also typical of Fascists (and other anti-bourgeoisie movements.) Webb also notes that the WSPU was based on a cult of personality around Emmeline Pankhurst. Suffragettes followed Pankhurst's orders and idolized her as the “leader.” Pankhurst eliminated any democratic structure within her movement and went so far as to drive out anyone who threatened her control.

Feminists will probably object to learning about the elitism of the suffragettes, but the fact is that it was an upper-class movement that received substantial financing from upper-class Britons. Webb discusses the suffragettes' interest in color-coordinated outfits and movement jewelry. The cost of these items was well beyond the means of working-class men and women.

The suffragettes lost interest in winning the vote for a limited number of women with the advent of World War i. At that time, they became boosters of the English empire. They subsequently transformed into anti-communists. and, ultimately, many of them became partisans of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists.

The suffragettes fit the description of Eric Hoffer's True Believer: people looking for a cause larger than themselves. Such people can flit from movement to movement, always looking for the high of belonging. Many of the suffragettes moved from the WSPU to anti-communism to religion to fascism and back and forth. Webb explains their motivation:

//Many suffragettes had revelled in the fact that their activities and political beliefs were unacceptable to many people. They enjoyed the feeling that they were rebels, people breaking though society's usual boundaries. This is quite understandable for Edwardian women; it was a liberating experience for them. Instead of sitting quietly at home, embroidering handkerchiefs, entertaining neighbours to tea or running a household, they were smashing windows, fighting the police or racing round in motor cars and planting bombs or setting buildings on fire. It is very likely that the young women who gravitated to the BUF were motivated by identical feelings. The fascists were viewed askance by most people and joining them was in itself an act of rebellion against ordinary life. There was fighting, trouble with the police and on top of that the belief that all these exciting activities were justified, because members of the group were following an important new idea which would revolutionize the society in which they lived. They were able to transgress against societal norms in the name of idealism. It is easy to see how the young woman who, had she been in her twenties before the First World War, rather than the second, might have hung out with the suffragettes, would now, on the eve of the Second World War, instead be joining the fascists. Sometimes, the two movements showed almost eerie similarities.//

Webb is a good writer. There are redundancies in the book, where Webb recapitulates a point he made previously. On the other hand, Webb has a historian's gift of understanding and explaining the context, events, and motivations of the time.