3 minute read
NO VOTE, NO TAX
In 1907 another important suffrage organisation was launched — the Women’s Freedom League (WLF). The WLF was a breakaway group made up originally of women who had left the WSPU because they though the Pankhursts were too authoritarian. The WLF believed in direct action and was closely linked to the Tax Resistance League, whose members argued that if women did not have the vote, they would not pay taxes. Hastings resident Isabella Darent Harrison was a staunch supporter of direct action. In 1911, as a householder, she refused to pay her taxes. Bailiffs seized goods worth the unpaid tax and the goods came up for sale. Making maximum use of a propaganda opportunity, Mrs Darent Harrison, with other women, arrived at the auction rooms carrying banners emblazoned with the words “No Vote, No Tax”. They marched into the auction rooms, causing complete mayhem, then proceeded to march around town before setting up a protest meeting. The following year Isabella Darent Harrison once again refused to pay her taxes, as did other local women, including Isabel Hogg. This time, to prevent the bailiffs entering her house, Mrs Darent Harrison barricaded herself into her house at 1 St Paul’s Place. Friends sent up food and other items by means of a basket on a rope. The ‘siege’, which got full coverage in the local press, lasted for a month, by which time the bailiffs, who had obtained a special warrant, broke into her house through a kitchen window.
TAKING TO THE SKIES
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In 1908 Muriel Matters, who was a well-known activist in the Women’s Freedom League, took to the skies in a hot air balloon, which carried the slogan “Votes for Women.” Air borne and with a megaphone in her hand, she dropped Votes for Women leaflets over London. Unfortunately the direction of the wind meant most of the leaflets did not reach their targets but her creative stunt made headline news.
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NO VOTE, NO TAX
In 1907 another important suffrage organisation was launched — the Women’s Freedom League (WLF). The WLF was a breakaway group made up originally of women who had left the WSPU because they though the Pankhursts were too authoritarian. The WLF believed in direct action and was closely linked to the Tax Resistance League, whose members argued that if women did not have the vote, they would not pay taxes. Hastings resident Isabella Darent Harrison was a staunch supporter of direct action. In 1911, as a householder, she refused to pay her taxes. Bailiffs seized goods worth the unpaid tax and the goods came up for sale. Making maximum use of a propaganda opportunity, Mrs Darent Harrison, with other women, arrived at the auction rooms carrying banners emblazoned with the words “No Vote, No Tax”. They marched into the auction rooms, causing complete mayhem, then proceeded to march around town before setting up a protest meeting. The following year Isabella Darent Harrison once again refused to pay her taxes, as did other local women, including Isabel Hogg. This time, to prevent the bailiffs entering her house, Mrs Darent Harrison barricaded herself into her house at 1 St Paul’s Place. Friends sent up food and other items by means of a basket on a rope. The ‘siege’, which got full coverage in the local press, lasted for a month, by which time the bailiffs, who had obtained a special warrant, broke into her house through a kitchen window. “We heard a most ferocious bang, a fierce onslaught on the tradesmen’s entrance. But they failed! It was doubly locked and chained… I was militant through and through: it was war all along the line.”
