Political Career
Wilkinson developed an interest in socialism after reading Merrie England by Robert Blatchford. At 16, she joined the Independent Labour Party. At university, she became active in various organisations including the Fabian Society and the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, the latter for which she became an organiser in 1913. In 1915, she was employed by the Amalgamated Union of Co-operative Employees to organise the Co-operative Employees, the first woman organiser of that trade union.
She was a founding member of the Communist Party in 1920 and, in 1921, attended the founding conference of the Red International of Labour Unions in Moscow but left the party in early 1924. She was also active in local politics and in 1923 was elected to Manchester City Council.
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