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Tea, tips and trade unionism
The ghost of labour movement activist Mary Quaile haunts a fast-food restaurant in a new play bridging the gap between past and present, says BERNADETTE HYLAND

STATUES are costly and, by their very nature, immobile. Yet they’ve become popular with some campaigners who believe they’re the way to celebrate women activists of the past.

There are plans to erect statues of Emmeline and Sylvia Pankhurst and Mary Wollstonecraft in Manchester and London but some activists — rather than heritagists — think that, given the harshness of the lives of women in Britain now, there are other ways to acknowledge the lives of women campaigners.

One is to promote their history and draw the links with young women activists on the front line of fighting the same battles over pay and conditions in the fast-food industry.

  • Dare To Be Free will be premiered at Manchester May Day Festival on April 30 and will then be performed on three more occasions. The final performance will be part of the launch of the pamphlet Dare To Be Free, Women in Trade unions, Past and Present on June 4, details: maryquaileclub.wordpress.com. Bernadette Hyland is a writer and blogger and founder member of the Mary Quaile Club. Read her blog at lipsticksocialist.wordpress.com
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