FINALLY....
Suffragette
and trade unionist Julia Varley to be honoured by a Bradford Civic Society
plaque on 18 May
Bradford will honour one its greats on Saturday 18 May at 1.00pm
when a blue plaque to suffragette and trade unionist Julia Varley will be
unveiled at 90 Sunbridge Road BD1 2AQ by
retired bus driver Mohammad Taj of Unite the union and who was TUC
President in 2013-14.
The funds for the Bradford Civic Society plaque have been
donated by UNITE’s NEY&H region and the union has republished the
booklet Julia Varley - trade union organiser and fighter for women's
rights booklet by Mark Metcalf.
Joining Mohammed Taj will be Bradford City councillor
Sinead Engel, Simon Cunningham of Bradford Civic Society, Sheila
Coleman of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign and councillor Taj Salam,
a Unite bus workers rep. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has been invited to attend.
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As a teenage mill worker Julia Varley actively participated
in the Manningham Mills strike of 1890-91.
She was to go on to lead a remarkable life in which as a
leading representative of the General Union of Textile Workers (GUTW) she
helped organise numerous workplaces in her home city and was active on Bradford
Trades Council. In 1907 she was, as a radical suffragette, twice arrested and
imprisoned for fighting for the ultimately successful, fight for the rights of
women to vote.
When she moved to Birmingham, she organised many successful
strikes across the West Midlands and the Black Country. She was key to the
Clayworkers Strike in Cornwall in 1913-14 that paved the way for trade unions
in the county. She suffered violence at the hands of the police for standing up
for all workers, especially women.
When she was appointed as an officer for the Workers’ Union,
she became one of the first women to be an officer in a mixed sex union.
In the 1920s, Varley was one of the first women to be
elected onto the TUC General Council. When the WU amalgamated with
the Transport and General Workers Union (which later became Unite in 2007)
Varley was appointed Chief Women’s Officer.
Varley retired to Bradford and died in November 1952. In
2013 a plaque was unveiled on her Birmingham home. Now she will be rightly
honoured in her home city. If this is something you’d like to be involved with
then see you on May 18th.
The event is being organised by Mark Metcalf and Simon
Cunningham and they can be contacted on 07392 852561 metcalfmc@outlook.com and 07891 913196 si-cunningham@live.com
Donations towards the production of a film on the events on
18 May would be welcome. Contact Mark Metcalf.
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