On this day, 4 November 1913, the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS) who were fighting for women’s rights and working class emancipation, had its first paramilitary assembly and gun drill in Victoria Park, London. The following day, the group formally inaugurated their People’s Army, a community militia to resist police repression. Sylvia Pankhurst, a left communist and daughter of famous suffragette Emmeline, was a key organizer of both ELFS and the People’s Army.
Pictured: illustration of a photograph of the drill, by Hester Reeve https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1846397805545361/?type=3