Sylvia Pankhurst British suffragette and left-wing communist. Date of Birth: 05.05.1882 Country: Great Britain

Biography of Sylvia Pankhurst

Sylvia Pankhurst was a British suffragist and left-wing communist. She was born in Manchester to prominent Independent Labour Party activists Richard and Emmeline Pankhurst. Growing up in a family that advocated for women's rights, Sylvia and her sister Christabel were destined to become political activists. In 1906, Sylvia, Emmeline, and Christabel joined forces in the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a feminist organization founded in 1903.

In 1914, Sylvia broke away from the WSPU due to allegations of involvement in arson attacks. She founded the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS), which gradually evolved towards leftist ideals. As the organization's political course changed and its support base expanded, it was renamed the Women's Suffrage Federation and later the Workers' Socialist Federation. Sylvia also founded the Women's Dreadnought, a publication that eventually became the Workers' Dreadnought.

The Workers' Socialist Federation was briefly renamed the Communist Party, British Section of the Third International. However, this party never achieved the required membership to be accepted into the Third International (Comintern). Despite this, the party opposed bourgeois parliamentarism and participation in parliament, unlike the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain.

During a period of heightened tensions between Lenin's line and left communists within the Bolshevik Party in Soviet Russia, the Communist Party, British Section of the Third International was dissolved and merged with the official British Communist Party to avoid causing a split in the British labor movement. However, this unity was short-lived as the Communist Party of Great Britain attempted to take control of Sylvia's publication, the Workers' Dreadnought. When Sylvia refused, she was expelled from the party and joined the short-lived Communist Workers' Party.

Sylvia Pankhurst aligned herself with left communist tendencies, influenced by figures like Rosa Luxemburg, Anton Pannekoek, and Amadeo Bordiga. Despite her expulsion from the Communist Party of Great Britain, she remained an important figure in the international communist movement. She attended meetings of the Internationals in Moscow and Amsterdam and participated in congresses of the Italian Socialist Party.

In the mid-1920s, Sylvia turned her focus to anti-fascist and anti-colonial struggles, distancing herself from other factions of the left movement. When Italy launched its aggression against Ethiopia in 1935, Sylvia renamed the Workers' Dreadnought to The New Times and Ethiopia News in 1936. Inspired by Ethiopia's heroic resistance as the first victim of fascist invasion, Sylvia became a fervent supporter of Emperor Haile Selassie. She raised funds for the first hospital-school in Ethiopia and immersed herself in Ethiopian culture and art. Her research culminated in the book "Ethiopia, a Cultural History" published in 1955.

In 1956, Sylvia moved to Addis Ababa, where she co-founded the monthly publication Ethiopia Observer with her son Richard Pankhurst. The journal focused on various aspects of Ethiopian daily life and the country's development. Sylvia Pankhurst passed away on September 27, 1960, and was buried in front of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa.