MARCHING TO REMEMBER
Women in the UK’s major cities of the UK will today be taking part in Processions – a movement across the nation to pay tribute to the women who marched for equality and the vote 100 years ago. RUTH MOSALSKI meets the Welsh women joining the campaign to m
IT’S easy to forget the sacrifices women made to secure the vote 100 years ago. That’s when women across the nation proudly and bravely marched for equality and to give them the right to vote, just as men did.
But today, you’ll find a timely reminder on our streets.
Because women are taking to the streets of the UK – Cardiff included – carrying banners which remember one particular march that took place almost 110 years ago to the day.
On that day, 10,000 women marched through central London on a route that took them through the city to the Albert Hall. They carried banners which spelled out their wish for the right to vote.
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.
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 are marching again today, many with 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, to honour those who, all those years ago, could say they fought and won the vote for the first women, even though it was another 10 years until women eventually secured equal voting rights.
The build-up to today’s multi-city event has seen groups of women meeting across Wales and 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 stretches for two miles from the Cardiff City Stadium to Bute Park.
Among those due to take part is Tash Middleton, who runs Sew Swansea from her studio in the city. She is walking with the banner her group has made – which will have a nod to the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp.
The camp was established to protest about nuclear weapons being sited at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire.
The first blockade of the base was in May 1982 with 250 women protesting – and Welsh women were at the fore.
The camp was active for 19 years before disbanding in 2000.
Thalia Campbell, from Pembroke, made banners at the peace camp.
She told the Peace Museum it came from her irritation of being ignored.
She said the campaigners were vilified “like they vilified the Suffragettes in the early days” and she thought banners would use “beauty and humour to put our point across”.
The Sew Swansea group was asked to incorporate the work of Thalia. It incorporated part of the original design with their own twist.
The banner has 37 handprints of the women who took part in making the banner to signify the 37 years since Greenham Common.
In the middle, the slogan “the red dragon inspires action” is written.
Another dragon will be handstitched by the women on the back.
“We have used her banner and illustrations and the idea of Greenham Common but also what Welsh women have done in history and how they have given us a helping hand.
“The women of World War I, World War II and in the miners’ strike were the women who really stood up and were the spirit of the community and did amazing things,” said Tash.
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.”
And the group pays tribute to 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. But that’s not the case today.
Women from all religions are lining 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’.”
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 are working together, they have a sense of community and learning the history of what has gone before you, what has changed but what needs to change in future.
“It’s been 100 years and while things have improved there are still things that we need to look at in terms of inequality and things that need to be raised and addressed. I see this as a marker and a chance to reflect on what has happened and what needs to happen next.
“There is going to be a great sense of people coming together.
“It’s always great to have this kind of event for people to see. This is a national event and it will be really exciting to see people all together. It will be really powerful.”
Sarah Cole, the producer of Processions, says the point of this weekend’s event is to bring women together.
“Equality and sisterhood is at the heart of Processions and I look forward to seeing the procession form of strangers coming together in support of progress, strength and cultural representation among women.
“The historical significance of Processions is incredible and something that I hope will draw generations, groups of friends and family together. As a woman in the modern world, we stand on the shoulders of those women who created this liberation for us.
“It’s difficult to believe that just one hundred years ago real women died to give us the democratic rights that we have today and we mustn’t let them be forgotten.”