Minnie Lansbury

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Minnie Lansbury (born 1889 in Stepney , London ; died January 1, 1922 in London) was a leading suffragette and a councilor on the first Labor Party- led councilor for the Poplar borough in London, England . She died at the age of 32 from contracting fatal pneumonia in Holloway Prison .

Life

Minnie Glassman was the daughter of the Jew Isaac Glassman. He was one of the Jewish immigrants in the East End of London who had escaped anti-Semitic tyranny in Russian Poland. He was originally a shoemaker, but later became a coal dealer. In 1913, Isaac paid five pounds in dues to become a British citizen with guaranteed voting rights.

Minnie became the first wife (married in 1914) of Edgar Lansbury, son of George Lansbury , Mayor of Poplar and later leader of the Labor Party . After Minnie's death, Edgar married actress Moyna MacGill and became the father of Angela Lansbury .

Minnie Lansbury became a teacher and in 1915 she joined the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS). She and her husband Edgar Lansbury campaigned against the First World War . They were arrested in December 1916 during a peace demonstration at the “Dock Gates”. Labor demanded participation in the committees that administered war relief. Minnie became a member of the "War Pensions Sub-committee" (sub-committee for war pensions) in Poplar. She became known by everyone as a strong advocate for the needy. She refused to run the funds in a neutral manner, as was expected, but acted more like a union representative on behalf of the widows, orphans and crippled former soldiers.

Enthusiastic about the Russian Revolution , she became a member of the Communist Party and was also a member of the Labor Party. It was possible then, and unity, despite small differences of opinion, was one of the strengths of the labor movement in the East End of London.

She was elected alderman or city councilor in the first Labor City Council of 1919, as the changed legal situation had given some women the right to vote in parliamentary elections and also allowed candidacies. As a councilor, she continued her citizenship activities, opening her house to voters every morning, and developing important improvements in welfare measures for mothers and children. The Labor City Council radically improved services to the citizens of the working class it had elected.

Poplar tax rebellion

prehistory

The Labor Party had won 39 out of 42 city council seats. In 1921 Poplar had a flat property tax rate of £ 4 and provided for 86,500 unemployed people. In contrast, richer councilors in other boroughs could use flat values ​​of £ 15 to support only 4,800 people without jobs. Georg Lansbury suggested that the city council stop collecting taxes for areas outside London. This was approved and on March 31, 1921, Poplar City Council set a tax of 4 shillings 4 pence instead of 6 shillings 10 pence.

The march

Wall painting in Poplar, reminiscent of the "Rates Rebellion"

The London “County Council” and the “Metropolitan Asylums Board” responded to this solution by going to court, suing the High Court . The city council's answer was to organize a demonstration with 2,000 participants and to march to the court from the Bow district, led by the bearer of the official club and accompanied by a chapel and a banner. The banner proclaimed: "Poplar Borough Council marching to the High Court and possibly to prison" (German: The city council of Poplar Borough marches to the high court and possibly to prison ). This was known as the "Poplar Rates Rebellion" (Poplar Tax Rebellion).

Condemnation

Thirty councilors, including six women, one of whom, Nellie Cressall, was pregnant, were sent to jail indefinitely for contempt of court - rejection of a court order to transfer funds. The men were placed in Brixton Prison and the women in Holloway Prison , where they were treated much better than the men. The men were brought to Brixton (now part of the Borough of Lambeth) in carriages, where city council meetings were held. Susan Lawrence used the time to read Tolstoy and prepare a pamphlet on taxation.

Holloway prison and death

Another woman imprisoned was George Lansbury's daughter-in-law, Minnie. Because of her imprisonment, she developed pneumonia and died in early 1922. She was buried in the Jewish cemetery in East Ham .

Appreciation after death

Lansbury Memorial Clock

The restored clock, November 2016

There is a Minnie Lansbury Memorial Clock at the Electric House on Bow Road, Tower Hamlets , which was installed in the 1930s. The “Memorial Clock” was restored in 2008 and re-attached to the Electric House. The "Jewish East End Celebration Society" and the "Heritage of London Trust" had organized a public appeal and in this way raised over 13,000 pounds, which were donated to the "Tower Hamlets Council" to complete the restoration. Angela Lansbury was with the donors. The restored clock, now in green and gold, was officially unveiled on October 16, 2008 in the presence of Minnie Lansbury's relatives and residents of the neighborhood.

The inscription on a plaque under the clock reads:

The clock above was erected by public subscription in memory of Minnie Lansbury who after a life devoted to the service of the poor of this borough, died on New Year's Day, 1922, aged 32 years.

Millicent Fawcett statue

Minnie's name and picture (and those of 58 other supporters of women's suffrage) are engraved on the base of the Millicent Fawcett statue in Parliament Square , London, unveiled in late 2018.

literature

  • Janine Booth: Minnie Lansbury: Suffragette, Socialist, Rebel Councilor . Nottingham, Five Leaves Publications 2018. ISBN 9781910170557
  • "Timely reminder of a suffragette," Jewish Chronicle , April 13, 2007, p. 6th
  • "Lansbury's Tribute to suffragette 'heroine'", East London Advertiser , October 16, 2008, p. 4th

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Minnie Lansbury . Janine Booth. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  2. ↑ Minnie Lansbury in Spartacus Educational. Retrieved April 3, 2019
  3. ^ Lansbury: example for Labor women.Retrieved April 13, 2019
  4. ^ Lansbury: example for Labor women.Retrieved April 13, 2019
  5. ^ Presentation of poverty in Poplar after the First World War. Accessed on April 13, 2019
  6. ↑ Noreen Branson, "Poplarism, 1919-1925: George Lansbury and the councilors' revolt", Lawrence and Wishart., 1979
  7. ↑ Manchester Guardian , September 7, 1921
  8. ↑ Manchester Guardian , Sept. 7, 1921, page 8
  9. ↑ http://www.stevenwarren.co.uk/a1-auntie-nelllie-uncle-george-poplar-rates-revolt.htm
  10. ↑ http://www.stevenwarren.co.uk/a1-auntie-nelllie-uncle-george-poplar-rates-revolt.htm
  11. ↑ Minnie Lansbury . Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  12. ↑ Millicent Fawcett statue unveiling: the women and men whose names will be on the plinth . iNews. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Lansbury, Minnie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English suffragette and suffragette
DATE OF BIRTH 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Stepney , London
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 1922
Place of death London