Women in the Victorian Socialist Party (VSP) organised the Labor Women's Anti-Conscription Committee, which unified left-wing women against conscription. Its members conducted house-to-house visits, organised the distribution of anti-conscription literature, arranged cottage meetings and rallies and addressed factory workers during their lunch hour. Open-air gatherings were held throughout Collingwood and Prahran.
Women in the the (VSP) organised the Labor Women's Anti-Conscription Committee, which unified left-wing women against conscription. Its members conducted house-to-house visits, organised the distribution of anti-conscription literature, arranged cottage meetings and rallies and addressed factory workers during their lunch hour. Open-air gatherings were held throughout Collingwood and Prahran ... VSP women were directly involved, and Elizabeth Wallace was elected secretary. These women joined forces with Labor Party members Muriel Heagney, Doris Blackburn, Bella Lavender and Mary Killury.
Throughout 1916, the committee organised a series of successful public meetings and rallies for women only. In the first week of October, three separate meetings were held on the one night, at the Women's Political Association, Socialist Hall and Guild Hall, where women from the WPA and VSP shared the platform. The Socialist recorded that by 7.30 pm the Guild Hall was "rammed, jammed, crammed, and a few minutes afterwards the two halls were also packed to the doors".On 21 October 1916, a Women's No Conscription Demonstration took place in which socialists Baines, Bremner, Wallace, Daley, Hickey, Lewis and Webb combined with Women's Political Association members Goldstein, John, Fullerton, Gardiner, Pankhurst and Labor Party activists Killury and Lavender to lead a procession of 10 000 women from the Guild Hall in Swanston Street to the Yarra Bank, where the crowd had swelled to 50 000. In a letter to Ethel Berringer, F J Riley described the scene:
"The women's demonstration ... was a gigantic success; in fact ... we expected a procession, but we never expected to see the crowd of women who marched. The procession was over a mile long, extending from the Guild Hall right to the road that led to the Yarra Bank ... During the afternoon, from about six platforms speeches were delivered, all of which were listened to attentively ... "
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