Suffragette bombing and arson campaign

Suffragettes in Great Britain and Ireland orchestrated a bombing and arson campaign between the years 1912 and 1914. The campaign was instigated by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), and was a part of their wider campaign for women's suffrage. The campaign, led by key WSPU figures such as Emmeline Pankhurst, targeted infrastructure, government, churches and the general public, and saw the use of improvised explosive devices, arson, letter bombs, assassination attempts and other forms of direct action and violence. At least 5 people were killed in the attacks (including one suffragette), and at least 24 were injured (including two suffragettes). The campaign was halted at the outbreak of war in August 1914 without having brought about votes for women, as suffragettes pledged to pause the campaign to aid the war effort. Both suffragettes themselves and the authorities of the time described the arson and bomb attacks as a terrorist campaign. Contemporary press reports also referred to attacks as "terrorist" incidents in both the United Kingdom and in the United States. A number of historians have also classified the campaign as one involving terrorist acts, such as C. J. Bearman, Rachel Monaghan and feminist historians Fern Riddell and Cheryl Jorgensen-Earp. Multiple suffrage societies formed across Britain during the Victorian era, all campaigning for women's suffrage - with only certain men being able to vote in parliamentary elections at the time. In the years leading up to the First World War, "suffragettes" had become the popular name for members of a new organisation, the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, the Union was willing to carry out forms of direct action to achieve women's suffrage. This was indicated by the Union's adoption of the motto "deeds, not words". After decades of peaceful protest, the WSPU believed that more radical action was needed to get the government to listen to the campaign for women's rights.