On this day, 5 May 1882, pioneering British feminist, anti-fascist and left communist Sylvia Pankhurst was born in Manchester. The daughter of famous suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, Sylvia became disillusioned with the mainstream movement during its right-wing turn, and instead focused on organising amongst working class women. When the Women’s Social and Political Union threw its support behind the Allies in World War I, she opposed the war, and supported the campaign against conscription. Sylvia then supported the Russian revolution, and travelled there, meeting Lenin, although when Lenin bankrolled the establishment of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Pankhurst considered it too right-wing for her. Later in life she supported anti-fascists in the Spanish civil war, helped Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe and was extremely active in campaigning against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Security services monitored her for decades, and even in 1948 MI5 (UK domestic intelligence) weighed up different options for “muzzling the tiresome Miss Sylvia Pankhurst.” After the death of her companion, she moved to Ethiopia on the invitation of Haile Selassie, and upon her death in 1960 received an Ethiopian state funeral. While her mother and sister have been commemorated at Parliament in London, the House of Lords has vetoed plans to place a memorial to Sylvia at the site on numerous occasions.
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