Emily Elizabeth Swankie (17 December 1915 - 24 February 2008) was a British activist and campaigner who participated in the National Hunger March from Glasgow to London to protest against poverty and unemployment in the United Kingdom.

Background

Emily Swankie (née Mairs) was born in

Clydebank Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

on 17 December 1915, the daughter of John Mairs, a shoemaker, and Helen McBrearty. She was one of twelve children, living in Glasgow tenement flat in 1934.

Campaigning for poverty and unemployment

Swankie showed political interests since she was young and was politically active ever since. When she was 17, she joined a socialist youth organisation, ILP Guild of Youth, and established a branch in her hometown,

, a year later. She joined the Communist Party and participated in the

hunger marches Hunger marches are a form of protest, social protest that arose in the United Kingdom during the early 20th century. Often the marches involved groups of men and women walking from areas with high unemployment to London where they would protest ou ...

from

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1934 to protest against poverty and unemployment. The protests were organised by National Unemployed Worker's Movement (NUWM), who also delegated Swankie to be the leader of the Youth contingent. Mentioning her reason of her participation in the marches:

"... it was for no political reason other than my strong resentment against the way that we had to live and the lack of opportunity, the lack of jobs."

At that time, the women marchers had to sleep in the local workhouse due to lack of local people offering accommodations. They were also prohibited of alcohol, had to march separately and had to wear black stockings to avoid offending the public when marching in their bare legs. Her experience of the hunger march was published in ''Voices from the Hunger Marches''. In 1941, her older brother, Charlie, was unemployed, which reduced the financial stability of the family. Due to the

Means Test A means test is a determination of whether an individual or family is eligible for government benefits, assistance or welfare, based upon whether the individual or family possesses the means to do with less or none of that help. Means testing is ...

, any unemployed person is ineligible for any welfare payments if they live in any households with at least one employed member. Therefore, Charlie pretended to live somewhere else to qualify. He would have to hide when the Means Test inspectors pay unexpected visits. These intrusions of their privacy further increased the resentment of the poverty and lack of employment in the country. She was in the Scottish Committee of the Communist party between 1946 and 1949. She stood for local council elections in Clydebank from 1950s to 1970s.''Other Burghs'' -The Scotsman - 6 May 1953 She also actively campaigned for housing issues and participated in the rent strike against the Housing Finance Act of 1972.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swankie, Emily 1915 births 2008 deaths British activists Scottish communists Scottish activists