on the other hand, focused much more on ILP platforms where she was
always in demand. Although extremely busy in the women’s cause, Emmeline
did not lose touch with other social reforms demanded that summer, also
taking part with Christabel and Eva Gore-Booth in the demonstrations to
press on the government the necessity of carrying through the Unemployed
Workmen Relief Bill. She spoke in early July at the Heaton Park demonstra-
tion organised by the Manchester and Salford Trades and Labour Council, the
ILP, the Social Democratic Federation, the Manchester, Salford and District
Women’s Trades and Labour Council, and the Gorton United Trades and
Labour Council. She also attended the address on the bill given by Keir
Hardie at the Ardwick Empire where she seconded the vote of thanks to her
old friend.^54 On 31 July, a demonstration of unemployed, ragged men
marched through Manchester; a scuffle broke out with the police, who used
their batons, and four men were arrested. Within two weeks the government
had found time to pass the bill. That protests, demonstrations and arrests had
forced the government to concede was carefully noted by Emmeline, and
especially Christabel.
After the failure of the Women’s Enfranchisement Bill, Emmeline issued an
exaggerated warning which was, nevertheless, a rallying cry. ‘Women all over
the country are burning with indignation, and the result of that indignation will
be felt at the General Election. A fire has been lighted in the country which
will burn fiercely until women are free.’^55 The autumn of 1905 brought her
fresh hope since a general election was to be held in which it was assumed that
the Liberals, who were promising a number of reforms, would be returned rather
than the Conservative Party that had held office for twenty years. Christabel
felt keenly that the WSPU was ‘making no headway, our meetings were not
reported ... our work was not counting’.^56 In particular, she believed that the
old method pursued by the NUWSS of private members’ suffrage bills was
futile; the only worthwhile course was to seek pledges from those who would
become members of the new government which would then make women’s
suffrage government policy. In discussions with her mother and some other
trusted WSPU members, Christabel decided on a more confrontational policy
which drew upon a much older male radical tradition of political protest, which
she had seen in action, in the socialist movement, and on pre-existing radical
currents within the women’s movement.^57 What was new was that Christabel
wanted women to protest in such a way that they would court imprisonment
and thus bring publicity to the women’s cause. The original plan was for
Christabel, Annie Kenney and Teresa Billington to persist in asking a question
about votes for women at the Liberal Party meeting to be held in the Free Trade
Hall on the evening of 13 October, when Sir Edward Grey, the main speaker,
would outline future policy; Emmeline would not participate in the disturbance
since to do so might jeopardise her employment as a Registrar, the main source
of her income. But the day before the fateful meeting, Emmeline thought it
wiser if only Christabel and Annie went to the Free Trade Hall, leaving Teresa
FOUNDATION AND EARLY YEARS OF THE WSPU