The recession has hit the working class hard as big business seeks to make ordinary people pay the price for the greed of the banksters and the City of London. For working class women, things are looking very grim already – here Rachel Gibbs reveals some of the facts and what they mean.

To mark the hundreth anniversary of International Women’s Day this week, we are publishing an article which forms the centre pages of this month’s edition of Socialist Appeal. The author is a contributor to a recent book on women’s rights and class struggle published by the Danish Marxists around ‘Socialistick Standpunk’.

The life of Sylvia Pankhurst is rich in experience for all activists in
the labour movement. The names of the Pankhurst family are synonymous
with the struggle to win the vote for women, but what distinguished
Sylvia Pankhurst’s approach from that of her mother Emmeline and her
sister Christabel were class issues.