Marching on in tribute

IT IS 110 years, almost to the day, since 10,000 women marched through central London on a route that took them through the city to the Albert Hall.

They walked in groups, carrying banners which flickered overhead.

The women who marched that day were heckled. But they marched on regardless.

What they wanted was the right, as men had, to vote.

“Procession” was printed in bold letters at the top of a flyer, the rules for the event listed underneath.

The women were told to “form up six abreast” with each line a yard apart.

The women marched in alphabetical order, Bath, then Birkenhead, Birmingham, Blackburn, and Bradford came before Cardiff.

Each carried a banner made for the march by local branch members.

All had a regional or national emblem – a leek for Llandudno and a dragon for Cardiff.

An article in The Scotsman at the time said “there were as many as 800 of them and the designs and mottoes which they bore appeared to be almost as numerous”.

A week later, the militant Women’s Social and Political Union held their own procession which became known as Women’s Sunday. Again, they carried banners.

Thousands of women will again walk together tomorrow, many will again carry banners.

This time, all those taking part will be given a scarf in purple, green or white – the suffragette colours – creating a living version of the Suffragette flag.

They will walk the streets of Cardiff, London, Belfast and Edinburgh, creating what is described as a “river of colour”.

“Processions” is described by organisers as a once-in-a-lifetime mass participation artwork.

It is free to take part. Thousands of women will walk the streets to honour those who, all those years ago, could proudly say they fought and won the vote for the first women – it would, after all, take a decade longer for women to secure equal voting rights.

The build-up to tomorrow’s multicity event has seen groups of women meeting across Wales, making their own banners in the style of the women who went before them.

Workshops have been held to get 100 official centenary banners made.

The walk will be two miles long, going from the Cardiff City stadium and ending in Bute Park.

The banners will include their own slice of recent Welsh history.

Banners will show unity. Some will call for action, others for peace.

Mel has been leading a group of vulnerable women who all engage with support at Cardiff charity Inroads in their sewing.

“We wanted our banner to carry the message of peace,” she said. “It was something we all felt strongly about.”

Her group was also inspired by the Greenham Common women.

“We were inspired by an exhibition at St Fagans when they got the banners out to show us.”

Their banner has a “chain of peace” as its main emblem.

“We were inspired by everything we have read and the pictures we have seen about Greenham Common and how these women had a very, very gentle way to try to change things.

“We saw images of them forming a chain of peace, we picked up on that.

“We were inspired because it showed you can change things in a very courageous way, but without shouting.”

The images you see of the 1900s marches are white women in fancy dresses leading the way. That won’t be the case tomorrow.

Women from all religions will line up together.

Sahar Al-Faifi is part of MEND (Muslim Engagement and Development). The banner has the almost hypnotic shapes of Islamic geometry on the background and Arabic calligraphy.

Artists Mariya Zaman, Shaimaa Osman, Nabila Ahmed, Emmi Khan, Jaffrin Khan and Husna Hussain have been working on it together.

“We’re a group of Welsh women artists who all have different backgrounds,” Sahar explains. “Some are Arabs, some Pakistani or Bangladeshi but the common factor is that we are proud Welsh and all proud Muslims.

“We wanted to break down misconceptions and stereotypes of Muslim women and we wanted to show the world that we’re part of this struggle.

“Our banner has two key messages. The first message is to show the diversity amongst Muslim women.

“A lot of people paint Muslim women with the same brush and think we are all the same. We are all very diverse within ourselves.

“The second message is to show how it’s important to have women from across different sections of society.

“You need women represented in public life and you still have not got equality for women.

“We have a statement on our banner that says, ‘women are half of society who give birth to the other half of society and that’s the whole of society.’”

But why are banners so crucial to get that message across?

By 1908, banners had long been used to create attention.

Often, it was simple strips of white material with writing, including the iconic “votes for women” banners.

By the early 20th century, the Artist Suffrage League was set up. The idea was to create high-quality, eye-catching campaign posters, postcards and banners.

Mary Lowndes didn’t just come up with the ideas and sketch them, but wrote a manifesto to go with them.

“A banner is a thing to float in the wind, to flicker in the breeze, to flirt its colours for your pleasure,” she wrote.

Suffrage historian Elizabeth Crawford said the banners were designed to “look beautiful and morally uplifting”. And they worked. Thalia Campbell, from Pembroke, who made banners at Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, said: “I think the legacy of the suffrage banner is that as we look at them, we can see the work that actual women at the time put into them.

“It gives you a chance to feel you’re with them, as they stitched away.

“Not only did they provide spectacle for the onlookers on the streets and also readers of newspapers and promoting the suffrage cause, it brought together women in their solidarity of sisterhood.” That is as true now as it was then. This project was the excuse Sahar’s group needed to work together.

“The artists loved the process because they had heard each other’s names before, but never had a medium to get together and do this collaborative work,” she said.

Sally Evans is community manager for Sewrec (South East Wales Racial Equality Council).

Sewrec works with women coming from challenging situations, women who are asylum seekers and those who use English as a second language.

The group which has worked on their banners, along with those from Newport Live and the Riverfront, has been hugely broad, said Sally.

“It’s a very multi-cultural group of women who have all come together and who like making things.”

Many of the women taking part were learning about the history of the suffrage movement for the first time, she says. “Many of them didn’t have a clue.” But it hasn’t just taught them a piece of history, but a part of the community where they live.

“It’s all been a part of placing them and for people to have an understanding of the history of where they are, and also passing that on,” Sally said.

“It’s all been making people feel that they are part of a community. If people