The Women's Peace Crusade

The Women's Peace Crusade was a grassroots socialist movement that spread across Great Britain between 1916 and 1918. Its central aim was to spread a 'people's peace', which was defined as a negotiated end to the First World War without any annexations or indemnities. The movement was first established in Glasgow in July 1916, and officially launched on 10 June 1917. It later spread across Great Britain, with demonstrations taking place in Leeds, Bradford, Leicester, Birmingham and Lancashire. Although it gathered a substantial following, the Women's Peace Crusade faced opposition from both the government and police, with members being arrested and reportedly threatened. Origins The outbreak of war caused a schism within the pre-war efforts for women's suffrage as individuals within the Suffrage movement took various stances with regards to the necessary morality of Great Britain entering the ever widening war footing that developed among neighbouring European Nations after the assassination of the Arch Duke Ferdinand on 28 June 1914. In the early aftermath of the British Government's Declaration of War, Emmeline Pankhurst, Leader of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), and from her politically motivated decision to move to Paris, announced that, from this time, the WSPU should desist from its suffrage activities and concentrate their efforts in supporting the Government's War effort. Other women fervently disagreed with this stance. Women around Europe mobilised – against their respective Government's wishes – to convene the annual International Congress of Women in the Hague on 28 April 1915. One hundred and ninety women applied for permission to attend by the British Government. Of these, 166 had their passports either refused of cancelled. The remaining 24 were considered to be non-militant and allowed to attend. The conference culminated in the creation of various anti-war projects such as The International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace and the Women's International League (WIL). Helen Crawfurd – an Independent Labour Party (ILP) representative and a lapsed member of WSPU – was the secretary of the Glasgow branch of the WIL. Even within the Glasgow branch, class divisions became evident between the middle class and the working-class membership.