TRADE UNIONIST AND SUFFRAGIST

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2020 :: RMTnews 18 August 13 this year is the 140th anniversary of the birth of Mary Reid Macarthur in 1880 and New Years Day next year will be the centenary of her death at just 40 years old. Yet in her short life she built trade unions, led strikes, wrote widely, challenged the law and fought for the right of all women to gain the vote not just certain groups of women. Mary Macarthur was born in Glasgow, the eldest of six children, and after attending Glasgow Girls' she decided she wanted to become a full-time writer. At aged 21 her Tory father sent her to spy on a trade union meeting and, after hearing John Turner speak about how badly workers were being treated, she was converted to the workers cause and never looked back. Mary became secretary of the Ayr branch of the Shop Assistants' Union which led to her work for the improvement of women's labour conditions. She met and eventually married William Crawford Anderson, the chairman of the executive committee of the Independent Labour Party but, unusually for the time, she kept her maiden name. She became general secretary of the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) and was involved in the formation of the National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW ) and the National Anti-Sweating League. By 1907 she founded the Women Worker, a monthly newspaper for women trade unionists and, after six weeks in hospital with diphtheria, she presented findings of her research on sweated homeworking women, to the House of Commons Select Committee on Home Working. Her tenacious lobbying and campaigning led to a minimum TRADE UNIONIST AND SUFFRAGIST Brian Denny celebrates the life of Mary Macarthur, a fighter for women’s rights and working people RALLY: Mary Macarthur addressing a strike rally in Trafalgar Square in 1908 Credit: TUC Library