Workers' Dreadnought

Workers' Dreadnought advertising poster

At the start of the First World War, a significant minority of suffragettes, including Sylvia Pankhurst, broke away from the Women's Social and Political Union and took a strong stance against the war. They formed the East London Federation of Suffragettes and started to publish The Woman’s Dreadnought from March 1914.

The title was changed to The Workers' Dreadnought in July 1917. The paper's first issue for October 1917 advocated for a peace referendum among the British Army, but before it could enter circulation the Metropolitan Police raided and destroyed the copies of the issue.

On 19 June 1920 the paper, edited by Sylvia Pankhurst was adopted as the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain. However, in September 1921, arguing that there had to be "free expression and circulation of opinion within the Party" and "an independent Communist voice, free to express its mind unhampered by Party discipline", Pankhurst refused to hand over control of the paper to the CPGB, and was expelled. 

The paper continued, criticising the Bolshevik dictatorship in Russia and warning about the rise of Fascism in Italy, until ceasing publication on 14 June 1924.