Just up the road from where I live  there is a statue of Annie Kenney in Oldham town centre. . She stands looking out across the town with a handbell in one hand and a sheaf of papers in the other. There is a sense of irony in the solitary nature of the  statue (and other suffragette ones) as Annie was a collectivist; she came from a big family (11 surviving, ) was part of a northern radical community and a dynamic and supportive movement.

Oldham is  one of the poorest towns in the country with  women bearing the brunt of the lack of decent jobs,  housing and social services.  And presided over by a Labour Council that has done little to improve the lives of local people. Annie despised political parties and the trade unions for their hostility to women getting the vote. In 2024 Oldham she would be horrified that a Labour Council and MPs were promoting her life and activism.

Lyndsey Jenkins has written an important (and accessible) history book, not just  about Annie and her siblings but also about  how the suffragette movement changed the lives of working -class women. It reminds us of the collectivist nature of the movement and the way in which women (and some men) supported each other in their personal and political lives.

Annie is an intriguing member of the Women’s Social and Political Union because she was a working- class woman who was originally a factory worker and trade unionist. In 1905, Annie and her sisters Jessie and Nell met Christabel Pankhurst and it changed their lives forever.

Class is a big issue in the history of the suffragette movement – as with the history of progressive organisations in the UK. In this book Lyndsey unravels the complexity of Annie’s role in the WSPU; as a working- class woman amongst a largely middle-class organisation led by Emmeline and Christabel who were conservative on most issues other than the vote.

Annie believed that women getting the vote alone  would set them free to be equals in society. Whereas other suffragettes, notably Sylvia Pankhurst, saw the vote as only the beginning of a struggle for a fairer society for all. And, as we know in 2024, she was right!

Annie’s role in the WSPU was ambiguous. Originally, they hailed her working-class connections and loved  the image of the factory worker with a shawl on her head and wearing clogs leading her female comrades into battle. But once the organisation sought wealthier members, they downplayed her class and hailed her role as a militant suffragette. The Suffragette in 1913 said. “Society made Annie Kenney a  worker-but God made her something better still -a creator. She was born, then, for the job of setting the working woman’s face to the dawn.”

Unlike many working- class women Annie had a job as a full-time organiser  for the WSPU and mixed with rich families which gave her (and her sisters) practical and material benefits including clothing, holidays, access to their homes, staff, and money.

Her sisters, Jane, and Caroline, who were not activists in the suffrage movement used these connections to improve their teaching careers and work across the world.

This book is about more than politics. As Lyndsey says; “The Kenneys were connected to one another by their shared history, values, obligations, politics, respect, loyalty, and love long after they had ceased to live together.”

Often overlooked, the life of the youngest sister Jessie, is highlighted in this book. She played a central role in the WSPU and was their youngest organiser. Her office was next door to Christabel’s in the HQ. She was second in command to “General” Flora Drummond and coordinated the links between women in prison and their families. Jessie took part in undercover activities and made sure that The Suffragette continued whilst Christabel was in exile in 1912. Sadly, although Jessie wrote her autobiography The Flame and the Flood it has never been published.

The Kenneys were an extraordinary family and this new history puts into context their lives and political activities. It addresses some of the important and often neglected aspects of women’s activities and how personal relationships are an important part of political work. It also challenges myths about class and identity and how working- class women can be active in organisations which support and enable them to pursue their lives in many other spheres.

In an era where there is a lack of working -class women (and men) involved in politics but we have an outpouring of statues and plaques memorialising past activists, we need to ask the question; where is the   Annie Kenney of today?

Read Annie’s autobiography Annie Kenney, Memoirs of a Militant (1924) You can read it online here : https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.201549

Watch a brilliant portrayal of Annie Kenney by Georgia Brown  in “Shoulder to Shoulder” on BBC I Player https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b009s76k/shoulder-to-shoulder-2-annie-kenney

If you live in Greater Manchester, you can borrow a copy from Manchester Libraries. Otherwise it a very expensive purchase.