Ecuador’s election wasn’t free — and its people will pay the price under President Noboa
Emmeline Pankhurst is far from the only suffragette we should remember
DAVID ROSENBERG writes on Teresa Billington, the Women’s Freedom League and the other suffragettes who fought for equality within their own movement and struggle
WFL 6/2/18
Join the traditional march from Clerkenwell Green, which will bring together countless international workers’ organisations in a statement against the far right
The money tap to anti-Cuban agitators will never be shut off under Trump
Mountains of research show that hardcore material harms children, yet there are still no simple measures in place
We face austerity, privatisation, and toxic influence. But we are growing, and cannot be beaten
Trump’s economic adviser has exposed the actual strategy: forcing other countries to provide financial support for US hegemony
Activist Angie Zelter has been arrested more than a hundred times. She’s not stopping now, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
TERESA BILLINGTON was a self-motivated rebel born in Blackburn in 1877. She ran away from her very strict Catholic working-class family. While apprenticed as a milliner, she went to night school, after long days at work, to train as a teacher.
She worked at a school in Crumpsall, Manchester, but was hauled up in front of the local education committee and faced the sack, because she had refused to teach religious instruction. One of her responses to her own strict religious upbringing was to become an agnostic.
[[{"fid":"1316","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Teresa Billington","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Teresa Billington","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"alt":"Teresa Billington","class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]One outspoken member of the education committee was really impressed by Billington’s spirit and arranged for her to be transferred to a Jewish school where she would not herself be obliged to teach religion. That committee member was Emmeline Pankhurst.
More from this author
DAVID ROSENBERG assesses the far-right threat in the wake of the summer's Islamophobic pogroms and asks what lessons we can learn from the 1930s
DAVID ROSENBERG takes a look back to the days when the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism stood against against the thugs of the National Front, and sees some important differences to the anti-racism battles of today, which call for fresh thinking rather than transplanting the tactics of the ’70s
The large demonstrations against the war in Gaza saw a participation of progressive young Jews. DAVID ROSENBERG welcomes the renewed interest in the traditions of Jewish socialist internationalism
DAVID ROSENBERG recalls the Islington North MP’s record as an ever-present fighter against division, xenophobia and hate
