Hornsey & Wood Green Labour Party 1950's

1923 Women's Co-operative Guild Congress

1923 Congress of
The Women's Co-operative Guild

Held at Cory Hall, Cardiff, Wales, June 12th and 13th.

Mrs Prosser presided

Lavender Hill branch, Battersea, South London moved motion on fair trade

"The view was expressed that in the interest of developing international understanding the Co-operative Union should inform the movement of the conditions of labour of all natives employed by British Wholesales."

This was agreed

July 7th 1923 also marked the first International C0-operators Day

Women's Co-operative Guild
28 Church Row, Hamstead, London
President Mrs A.H. Allen Secretary: Miss A Honora Enfield
1,077 branches
51,291 members

Scottish Co-operative Women's Guild
President Mrs McLean
Secretary Miss Kate Callen 71 King Street, Tradeston, Glasgow
300 branches
27,891 members

Irish Co-operative Women's Guild
President: Mrs Green
Secretary Mrs Girvan, 16 Reid Street, Belfast


Co-operative Women's Guild Flowers of the Sections
These were used extensively on branch and sectional banners

Co-operative Women's Guilds

SECTION FLOWER MEANING

Lancashire Cornflower Hope
Mid Southern Red Rose Devotion to Duty
North East Midlands Violet Modesty
Northern Sunflower Brightness
South Eastern Marguerite Alertness
Southern White Rose Purity
South Midland Poppy Purity
South Western Honeysuckle High Endeavour
Western & Welsh Pansy Harmony
Yorkshire Clematis Perseverance

These were used on Co-operative Women's Guilds banners on in particular


Source: The People's Year Book 1924

Co-operative Tea - Plantations

Co-operative Tea Plantations in the East

English and Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Socities 1923

CEYLON
Mahavilla Group 976 acres
Westhall group 1,931
Bowhill Estate 744
Nagastenne estate 487
Baharundrah estate 567
Kolapatna Estate 642
Gingranoya Estate 352

TOTAL 5,699 ACRES

INDIA
MAGO RANGE GROUP 8,191 Acres
Comprising Mango range, Provident, Attikunna and Glenfruin, Strathearn and Maryland, Trevelyan, Richmond, Harewood and Kintail
MANATODDY GROUP 6,111 Acres
Talapoya, teddington, and Glen Bolten, Cherakara, Jessie, Clifton, tatamala, and Thavenjal
KALPETTA GROUP 4,884 Acres
Comprising Auda Tode and Muracarp, Ripon, Anacarp and palatoor, Kuppa Mudi, Emily, and Nellimunda
ANAMALLAIS GROUP 7,982 Acres
Comprising Murugalli, Sheikal, Mudi, Paralai and Kalianapandal
ASSAM 1,449 Acres
Deckiajulie Estate
TOTAL 28, 617


CEYLON AND INDIA TOTAL 34,316 ACRES OF CO-OPERATIVE TEA PLANTATIONS

Women's Co-operative Guild 1883

WOMEN'S CO-OPERATIVE GUILD

In 1883 Alice Acland persuaded the editor of the Co-operative News to let her have a 'Woman's Corner'. In the issue of 14th April 1883 it was announced that 'The Woman's League for the Spread of Co-operation' had formed and all interested should contact Alice Acland. Her co founder was Mary Lawrenson.

At the Edinburgh Congress of the Co-operative Union in June 1883 the Women's League For the Spread of Co-operation was formally established with fifty members and a subscription of 6d a year.

Its aims were to spread a knowledge of co-operation, to keep alive its ideals, and to improve the conditions of women all over the country.




1. To spread a knowledge of the advantages of co-operation
2. To stimulate amongst those who know its advantages a greater interest in the principles of co-operation
3. To keep alive in ourselves, our neighbours, and especially in the rising generation, a more earnest appreciation of the value of Co-operation to ourselves, to our children, and to the nation
4. To improve the conditions of women all over the country.

The first branch of the Women's Co-operative Guild was formed at Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire in September 1883, followed by others in Rochdale and Woolwich before the close of 1883.

The Women's League changed its name in August 1894 to the Women's Co-operative Guild.

Margaret Llewelyn Davies became general secretary in 1889 (MLD right) replacing Mary Lawrenson.

Margaret Llewelyn Davies held the post from 1889 until 1921.


Six years later 1892, the Scottish Women's Co-operation Guild was established and the Irish Women's co-operative Guild in 1906.

By 1910 the Women's Co-operative Guild had 32,000 members.

The National Co-operative Men's Guild was established in 1911.

In 1921 the International Women's Co-operative Guild was established.

By 1933 the Women's Co-operative Guild it had 72,000 members in 1513 branches.

In 1948 the Women's Co-operative Guild still had 62,524 members in 1,774 branches.


WEST LONDON LOCAL NOTE

The Women's Co-operative Guild was strong in West London and the Uxbridge, Southall (circa 1905) and Hayes Women's co-operative Guild were still going strong into the 1980's.

In October 1912 a meeting was held in the School Room, Lawn Road, Uxbridge with Councillor F. Taylor presiding. Mrs Latham advocated the formation of a localWomen's Co-operative Guild, 19 names were handed in at it was agreed to form a branch, The first Women's Co-operative Guild meeting being held on 16th October 1912. I am not sure if this is an Uxbridge branch or a branch named after the local Co-operative Yiewsley & West Drayton which was also reported in the local newspaper

Women's Co-operative Guild

Women's Co-operative Guild 1983


Last week 3,000 women from all over Britain gathered together in the shimmering
heat in the gardens of a country mansion to celebrate the centenary of the Co-op
Women's Guild.

The women treated the grounds and the mansion of Stanford Hall in Loughborough
as 'their own, examining the commemorative plates, the old books and pamphlets on display.
the finely furnished rooms with an air of proud possession for they, as members of the Co-
operative movement, do indeed own them.

Stanford Hall, Loughborough in Leicestershire is the Co-op College which holds courses
long and short for people in the Co-op in Britain and people from the Third World countries on
subjects like retail management or how to set up co-operatively-run enterprises.

It was familiar territory for many of the women there celebrating in the grand centenary
picnic, as they had attended courses about the workings of the vast and complicated co- operative movement with its myriad of services and functions.

And this is the very reason the Co-op Guild was set Up in 1883 — to educate women about the Co-op with the prime purpose to get them to shop there and give the movement full support

The guild's symbol of the woman with the basket reminds us of this early purpose. But the guild grew to be much more than a shoppers' club and burgeoned, especially between the wars, into a mass women's movement with a membership of 90,000. campaigning on social issues.

A photographic exhibition at Stanford Hall remembered the campaigning days when guilds- women marched the streets of London on the peace issue or put pressure on members of Parliament over divorce law reforms,

When the Royal Commission on Divorce in 1911 invited the Co-op Women's Guild to contribute their opinions to the enquiry, over 60 per cent of the guild officers contributing, supported the radical notion of divorce by mutual consent.

In those day "adultery" was the sole grounds for divorce but the woman had also to show that
her husband's offence was aggravated by other wrong-doings such as desertion or cruelty.

After a long discussion about the need for cheaper and easier divorce for working class
women, the central committee of the Guild circularised branches about their opinions on divorce.

Replies were received from 429 branches, 414 supported and equal law for both men and women, while 364 were in favour of cheaper divorces so the low paid could also take advantage of the facility.

It is interesting, now that the Church of England's discussions on divorce are raising once more many old Christian objections, that in 1911 only 40 branches of the Guild were opposed to divorce.

For the first time there was a public expression of female working class opinion on the
-operation of the marriage laws through the Co-op guild. Working class women's experiences of bad marriages were catalogued and made public for the first time.

In the early days the Guild claimed that "it lifted the curtain which in marriage falls on a woman's life."

Women reported all forms of cruelty, including the transmission of sexual diseases, violent
behaviour and even attempts to induce miscarriage'.

A new book about the Guild "Caring and Sharing" written by Jean Gaffin and David Thomas quotes some of die original evidence: "She had 11 children and told me that during the periods of pregnancy he would do all sorts of things to frighten her and bring on a miscarriage.

"He even has crept down the cellar grate and then rushed up the steps and burst into the
kitchen with a great yell. She was obliged to stay with him, because she had no means of supporting herself and children.'

Divorce reform came slowly; in 1923 men and women were granted equality of treatment and in 1937 there was an extension of the grounds for divorce to include desertion, incurable in sanity and cruelty.

Midwifery


Financial assistance for poor families in seeking divorce was introduced in 1949 and mutual consent as the basis for divorce was not introduced until 1969.

Not only did the Guild campaign for divorce reform, armed with the experiences of ordinary women, but they also campaigned for better midwifery services and ante- -and post-natal clinics prompted by the descriptions of the terrible deprivation of expectant mothers and children gathered from guildswomen.

But the most immediate effect the Co-op Guild made on women's lives was getting them to take an interest in social and political issues outside the home.

An old leaflet dating from before World War I found at the exhibition, is a sad reminder that the social position of women has not changed very much in all those years.

It argues that women should take as much interest in outside matters as men, "If education and the fullest development of his powers in this outside work is good for the man then it is equally good for the woman."

It also argues that things had changed. "In the old-fashioned days it was the custom to sever the man's work from the woman's by the hard and fast rule that while the man's work and interests lay in outside matters, the woman's were entirely with those inside the house
children, house-cleaning, washing, sewing etc."

So things were beginning to change in 1903, but it is significant that the present feminist movement began in the Sate sixties by making exactly the same kind of observations on women's lot.

Memories of past radicalism this week have prompted" many guildswomen to compare the present day Co-op Women's Guild, with the old and the conclusion is that no longer is it the lively exciting movement that it once was. There are various reasons for the drop in membership, now down to 15,000. Since the Second World War the number of local co-op shops has been cut and women have lost the local base for branches.

The new general secretary, Claire Turner, a young woman who is taking over from Kathleen Kempton, sees the problem as one of recruiting among, young people. "We have to make' the Guild a political and campaigning force again," she said.Re-launch


"Our image will have to change somehow. If we focus the movement around say six key issues the Guild will be seen as an active movement with a positive identity.

"Really, after the centenary celebration we need a relaunch of the movement to get the new members in.

"Next year will see a lot more campaigning around peace," says Claire. The white poppy
launched by the Guild in the '30s as a symbol of peace, to be worn on Armistice Day, will be sold again.

Claire finds that the older members of the Guild are often much more radical in their willingness to campaign than the younger women. "This is because throughout their life they had to fight for what they have."

One veteran member, Florence Cowings, agrees with that sentiment. Fifty years in" the Guild, she said, "It has been my whole life. Working for the principles of co-operation has led me naturally to Socialism.

"I had five children" and it was for them I was working to get a better life, but now I'm very worried about the young people of today. Unemployment is de-grading and it makes them apathetic.

"I saw worse conditions and unemployment in my time - I joined the Jarrow marchers -
for five miles only — but then there was a more fighting spirit I don't find today."

It remains to be seen what role the Co-op Women's Guild takes now that it is into its second century. The question left hanging in the Loughborough air last week was summed up in the centenary exhibition.

"Can the guild link up with the contemporary feminist movement in attempting to show that the oppression is still as great as ever because of the un paid labour in the home, rein forced by the sexual division of labour under patriarchal capitalism?"

There were few if any guilds-women, young or old, who could disagree with the final statement in the exhibition. "The guild can only survive if it carries out a new identity for itself in its second century."

By Helen Bennett, Morning Star Tuesday 19th July 1983

Lancashire Hunger Strikers 1936

Lancashire Hunger Strikers 1936

250 Lancashire hunger strikers part of a 2,000 contingent were meet in Uxbridge on the 17th day of their march by a welcoming committee organised by Hillingdon and Ickenham Co-Operative Guild they had made a banner with white letters and a red background and marched with them to Southall. the secretary of the welcoming Committee was Mr Hill of 123 Manor way.

later, Jarrow Hunger marchers were present at Hendon West and some of their number spoke to the boys at Harrow school