‘An industrial Red Cross’: Labour women’s support for the miners’ lockout in the south west.

This talk will describe the setting up of the Women’s Committee for the Relief of Miners Wives and Children in London by the Labour Party Chief Woman Officer, Marion Phillips. It will then focus on the efforts of Labour women to raise funds and to organise relief in the southwest and the support they gave to relief committees in Bristol and in Radstock.

It will suggest that the Lockout gave them the opportunity to demonstrate that they had the necessary skills to organise relief on a national and a local scale and showed the significance for the Labour Party of grass roots organising. At the same time it brought women from the labour movement together in a shared endeavour which strengthened the bonds between them and gave them a sense of purpose and personal fulfilment.