striking a light matchwomen's festival

MATCHWOMEN’S FESTIVAL www.matchwomensfestival.com

To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the strike that changed history

Bishopsgate Institute, London opposite Liverpool Street station

6th July 2013

Admission free. 11am to midnight

Children and family friendly.

Louise Raw whose ground-breaking book ‘Striking a light’, which for the first time gives a true account of the strike, is theFestival director. [email protected]

Striking a Light

Get your Union, Branch, Trades Council, Party, Women's group or other affiliated body to support this important event. Contact [email protected]

Speakers and Performers

Frances O’Grady, ( first female) TUC General Secretary. Attila the stockbroker High energy, social surrealist rebel poet and songwriter’Anna Davin, writer, historian, key member of History Workshop. Sheila Rowbotham, histo-rian. Her work includes Edward Carpenter: a Life of Liberty and Love’ Joe Wells, hip-hop art-ist the Ruby Kid Kate Hardie – film and TV actor (Mona Lisa, the Krays, Holby City),screen writer and director. John Hendy QC,Robb Johnson, legendary singer-songwriter. Owen Jones, journalist and writer and author of best-selling ‘Chavs: the Demonisation of the Working –Class’. Les Kennedy, Tolpuddle Radical History Group. Ted Lewis , grandson of matchwoman . Martha Robertson, author-ity on East End history.Terry McCarthy, au-thor and authority on the 1889 Great Dock Strike. Jane Martin, Professor of Social His-tory. Author, Bill Oddie, father of Kate Har-die and great grandson of match factory fore-man. Liz Payne, writer, journalist Anne Fieldsformer MOC. Tony Benn . Louise Raw, author of ‘Striking a Light: The Bryant & May Match-women and their Place in History’ and Festival director. Michael Rosen, poet and author, former Children’s Laureate. Chris Searle, poet and writer. His sacking as head teacher at Stepney School in 1971 caused a pupil’s strike. The Socialist Choir. Strawberry Thieves Choir. Steve White and the Protest Family – they rocked Tolpuddle in 2012. KateWilliams – author of books and novels includ-ing ‘The Pleasures of Men’, set in the Victo-rian East End. TV presenter, ‘Restoration House’. Beverley Lewis House speaker: the East End success story that should be source of national pride The UK’s only refuge safe-guarding women with learning disabilities at risk of, or fleeing abuse and/or forced mar-riage. Children’s and Teenagers events Make a Matchwoman’s Hat’ workshop* ‘Make matchboxes against the clock’ *

'I have always been inspired by those teenage rebels

(the matchwomen) and, by your efforts (Louise Raw) to see them celebrated; perhaps another

new generation will be too.'Frances O'Grady TUC General Secretary Designate

Celebrate with us

the women who

changed history




6th July 2013




Striking a Light







Celebrate with us

the women who

changed history




6th July 2013



Louise Raw whose ground-breaking book ‘Striking a light’, which for the first time gives a

true account of the strike, is the Festival director. [email protected]

Striking a Light

Get your Union, Branch, Trades Council, Party, Women's group or other affiliated body to support this important event. Contact [email protected] LHMP TU throughout.


Tony Benn. Frances O’Grady, newly-elected (and first female) TUC General Secretary. Megan Dob-ney, Secretary of South Eastern TUC. Anne Field,former M.O .C and elected SOGAT National Officer. Anna Davin, writer, historian, key member of His-tory Workshop. Sheila Rowbotham, historian. Her work includes ‘Edward Carpenter: a Life of Liberty and Love’. Kate Hardie, film and TV actor (MonaLisa, the Krays, Holby City), screen writer and direc-tor. .John Hendy QC, ‘Barrister champion of the trade union movement’. Robb Johnson, legendary singer-songwriter ‘Love songs as touching as the political material is sharp’ – Red Pepper magazine. Owen Jones, journalist and writer and author of best-selling ‘Chavs: the Demonisation of the Work-ing–Class’. Les Kennedy, Tolpuddle Radical History Group, on the suppression of radical history and how to fight it. Ted Lewis, grandson of match-woman Martha Robertson, authority on East End history and life-long trade unionist. Terry McCarthy,author and authority on the 1889 Great Dock Strike. Jane Martin, Professor of Social History, Author, Making Socialists: Mary Bridges Adams and the Fight for Knowledge and Power, Bill Oddie, Pre-senter, and great grandson of match factory fore-man. Liz Payne, writer, journalist and political activ-ist. Louise Raw, author of ‘Striking a Light: The Bryant & May Matchwomen and their Place in His-tory’ and Festival director. Michael Rosen, poet and author, former Children’s Laureate. Chris Searle,poet and writer. His sacking as head teacher at Stepney School in 1971 caused a pupil’s strike. The Socialist Choir. Strawberry Thieves Choir. Steve White and the Protest Family , they rocked Tolpud-dle in 2012. Kate Williams, author of books and novels including ‘The Pleasures of Men’, set in the Victorian East End. TV presenter, ‘Restoration House’. A speaker (tba) from the Beverley Lewis House (the East End success story that should be source of national pride as it is the UK’s only refuge safeguarding women with learning disabilities at risk of, or fleeing abuse and/or forced marriage—but funding is being cut to the bone.). Lindsey German,author of People's History of London. Attila the Stockbroker ‘High energy, social surrealist rebel poet and songwriter’ .Children’s and Teenagers events Make a Matchwoman’s Hat’ workshop. ‘Make matchboxes against the clock’ activity.


(the matchwomen) and by your efforts (Louise Raw). To see them celebrated; perhaps another

new generation will be too.'Frances O'Grady TUC General Secretary Designate.

Matchwomen: Founders of the New

Union Movement 1888

MATCHWOMEN’S FESTIVALwww.matchwomensfestival.com

to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the strike that changed history Bishopsgate Institute,

London opposite Liverpool Street station 6th July 2013



Louise Raw whose ground-breaking book ‘Strik-ing a light’, which for the first time gives a true

account of the strike, is the Festival director. [email protected]




6th July 2013




Striking a Light







Celebrate with us

the women who

changed history

..

Labour History Movement Publications are proud to be a sponsor of the Matchwomen’s Festival

www.labourhistory.co.ukCelebrate with us the achievements of the matchwomen. There will be choirs, bands, comedians and actors, stalls, and great food and drink, held in over 4 halls. Michael Rosen and others will entertain the children, with more high-tech amusements for teenagers. Our own milliner will lead ‘Make a atchwomen's hat’ workshops, where you can try your hand at making a matchwomen's hat. Or, make matchboxes ‘against the clock’, and find out if you’d have earned enough to

125 years ago next July there was trouble brewing on the streets of East London. 1,400 matchworkers had downedtools and walked out of Bryant & May’s factory in Bow. The strike was a reac-tion to management’s bully-ing and terrible conditions . Bryant & May were powerful and prosperous, with friends

in government: the strike should have failed. The women were mere factory girls and ‘even worse, mostly Irish cockneys’. The women's courage, solidarity and refusal to back down impressed all who saw it. What they revealed about conditions inside the factory shamed Bryant & May and their shareholders, many of whom were MPs and clergymen. Fines and bullying were commonplace: one woman was fined for modifying a machine to make it safer; it had cut the women’s hands. Her foreman angrily told her the machine was more valuable than her fingers. Shortly after-wards a work-mate’s finger was severed, the in-jured woman left unable to work and penniless. Apart from the atrocious conditions and poor pay the women had to run the risk of contracting the horrors of the industrial disease ‘phossy jaw’. White phosphorus, used to make popular ‘Lucifer’ matches, was so toxic that even brief exposure to fumes caused severe vomiting. The women dreaded the full-blown poisoning they called ‘phossy jaw’, which began with swelling of the face, spreading to the jawbone. Putrid abscesses developed, the odour so unpleasant that factory inspectors found suffering matchworkers living on city outskirts like lepers. The women went several days without money but kept up a cheerful solidarity: “I can pawn this for you”, “I’ll lend you that”. This was typical of women known for their loyalty and strong sense of solidarity, which extended to their clothes: fringed hairstyles, high-heeled boots, and shared hats trimmed with huge feathers, bought through com-munal ‘feather clubs’. One Poplar resident also

remembered the hatpins: ‘these matchgirls were tough, and….when in any trouble, did not hesitate to use their horrible long hatpins to defend them-selves’. When striking women marched to Parliament to meet with MPs, their poor appearance attracted stares and catcalls: but they held their heads high, impressing MPs with their eloquence. Finally, the directors were forced into ungracious defeat. All of the women’s demands were met, and they formed the largest female union in the country. The matchwomens victory was remarkable, but until now, rarely acknowledged as the beginning of the modern trade union movement. Following it, a wave of strikes, including the 1889 Great London Dock Strike, swept the nation. Multitudes of the most exploited workers formed new unions, sowing the seeds of the modern labour movement, and Labour Party. The Dock Strikers never denied the match-women’s influence. In the throes of the Dock Strike, leader John Burns urged a mass meeting of tens of thousands to ‘Stand shoulder to shoulder. Remem-ber the matchgirls, who won their fight and formed a union.’ it also demonstrated to women that they had a leading role to play. Sylvia Pankhurst, when talking to working class suffragettes, would often use the example of the matchwomen to inspire them.

Sponsors GMB,NUT,NASUWT,RMT,SERTUC,UNISON,

UNITEBrightonLabour History Movement Publications

Striking a Light

Louise Raw is the author of ‘Striking a Light’ Her research on the matchwomen ‘changed British Labour history’ Professor Mary DavisA great story with a Terrific cast of Characters’ TheTimes ‘Inspiring’ SheilaRowbotham.‘A major contribution to labour and social History’Terry McCarthy, former Director, National Museum of Labour History.‘Wonderful…it shows how the judgements of history excluded working class women’ – Keith Venables, Independent education Foreword by Sheila Rowbotham. Price £16.99.ISBN 978-14411-1426-6 Continuum Press.

The matchwomens Festival is non-aligned and totally Independent of any political

party or trade union. Our aims is to encourage a broad

audience to celebrate the matchwomen’s lives and achievements

Pic.Matchmaker Martha Robertson. Thanks to Ted Lewis.Printed and published by Labour History Movement Publications TU throughout

contact [email protected]

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Striking a Light







striking a light matchwomen's festival

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