Daphne Davies
The Hammersmith and Fulham group, Little Newport Street office and the 1971 Women’s Day march
I came to London in October 1970 to take a Social Administration course at the London School of Economics This marked my entry into the Women’s Liberation Movement, which has framed my life ever since.
The Hammersmith and Fulham Women’s Liberation Group
Having heard about the beginnings of a UK Women’s Liberation Movement, while at Nottingham University, I wanted to be part of it, and so did my flat mate, so we joined the Hammersmith and Fulham Women’s Liberation group. This met weekly in a flat in Upper Richmond Road, and was a fairly active group. First, we organised a short play about Women’s Liberation, which we performed for a class at a local girls’ secondary school. Looking back it was incredibly naïve, containing lines spoken by one of the ‘men’, along the lines of “As you’re a woman, you don’t want to work, here, you can iron my shirt”. We weren’t asked to perform it again.
Shrew, magazine of the Women’s LIberation Workshop groups in London
Then, like many of the London WLM groups we produced a copy of Shrew, the magazine produced in turn by each group, which was then sold throughout the WLM. We worked together writing articles, doing the layout, typing it onto Gestetner ‘skins’ and printing it. I wrote an article along the lines of how narrow my mother’s life had been, and how she had tried to pass her views onto me. I now cringe at how intolerant I was, blaming her rather than understanding where she came from.
The Women’s Liberation Workshop office
As a student I had time off during some days, so when I heard about the Women’s Liberation Workshop at 12-13 Little Newport Street, and met Lois Graessle, who worked there, I started volunteering. It was on the top floor and every Tuesday morning I would climb up the steps to the little office to help her. She was very efficient, a true organiser, and a bonus to every group. She told me about the history of the WLM and the office, which had originally been in her flat not he south side of Battersea Bridge. Among other jobs, we produced leaflets and flyers, on Gestetner machines, where you had to type on ‘stencils’ or ‘skins’, and if there was a mistake, correct it with nail varnish. None of us really wanted to type, or admit we could, as we had all been so used to political organisations where this was the job that women, who had traditionally been trained as Secretaries, got to do, as men couldn’t, and wouldn’t learn.
One strong memory I retain is that we were rightly concerned that the movement was very middle class, so everyone was delighted when May Hobbs, a night cleaner, started organising night cleaners, who had terrible pay and conditions, into the Cleaners Action Group.
Night cleaner May Hobbs on women’s demo 1971
Photo credit: Chandan Fraser
She got strong support from the WLM in London, and Shrew dedicated one issue to her. At times there were concerns that we were ‘patronising’ her, but with or without our support the CAG won, and cleaning companies were forced to raise wages, and improve working conditions. This could also be seen as a move towards the opening up of trade unions to women, which had tended to ignore women workers or their concerns. Because of her links to the WLM, she joined the 1971 Women’s Day March. Her book, published in 1973 Born to Struggle.
1971- the first big Women’s march on International Women’s Day
1971 marked the first big WLM through London, and I went to several of the organising meetings. I remember there was a strong Maoist feminist group, and as their contribution they were going to organise a mass model of a woman giving birth, with babies coming out of her vagina. This idea was stamped out in horror (I’m not sure why, but I expect I went along with the general consensus, as I was generally overawed by all the strong voices in the movement). The march was a great success, full of original ideas and enthusiasm, although it was a very cold day.
I moved to Glasgow after Easter and was keen to continue to work with the WLM, so I joined the group there: ‘Women in Action’. To put it plainly – this has always been a good way to meet women with similar ideas, and make friends, as well as being politically active.