How Did Sylvia Pankhurst React To The Outbreak Of The First World War?

Unlike her sisters who wholeheartedly supported their government during the war, Sylvia Pankhurst condemned the war as an imperialistic venture. She supported conscientious objectors and adhered to her socialist principles and even preached sedation at times. "We believe the conscientious objector who refuses to become a soldier, the soldiers who establish a truce in the trenches and the people which forces its government to make peace, are all fighting for the same fight," Sylvia said.

She attended the Hague Women's Peace Conference and was on the executive committee of the Women's International League. By the end of the war, she was a fully committed revolutionary socialist wanting the abolition of capitalism and a Socialist Commonwealth established. In 1916, she changed her party's name to the Workers' Suffrage Federation and in 1918 to the Workers' Socialist Federation. She campaigned for civil liberties, control of food prices and profits, the nationalisation of the food supply and was against rising food prices.

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