A member of the International Women’s Secretariat of the Comintern, and head of its Western Europe Berlin Sub-Bureau, Hertha Sturm reports on its work since the Second International Congress of Communist Women.

‘The Activity of the Berlin Sub-Bureau of the International Women’s Secretariat’ by Hertha Sturm from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 2 No. 7-8. January 27, 1922.

**At the initiative of the Second Women’s World Congress in Moscow last summer a sub-bureau of the International Women’s Secretariat was created in Berlin in order to support the activities of the Moscow Secretariat.

The political leadership of the international women’s movement, the decision on fundamental problems, the starting of international actions, remained of course in the hands of the International Women’s Secretariat which carries on all its activities in close cooperation with the Executive Committee of the Communist International. The tasks of the sub-bureau were mainly of an organizational and technical character. It had to gather and to arrange reports and material on the Communist women’s movement of the various sections of the Communist International and so send them to the International Women’s Secretariat. Furthermore it had to furnish all sections in the various countries with material, directions and decisions from Moscow and to supervise the putting into practise of the theses and resolutions of the International Women’s Congress and of the World Congress of the Communist International. Thus the sub-bureau was to be the connecting link between Russia, both the heart and the brain of the World Revolution, and the West European countries. By scrutinising the actual state and the development of the Communist women’s movement in the western capitalist countries and by furnishing concrete knowledge of conditions it had to create a broad solid basis for the future activities of the international women’s movement.

How far these tasks have been fulfilled by the Berlin Sub-Bureau will have to be decided by the Third International Women’s Congress. Though the achievements may seem small compared to the immense amount of work which still remains to done, though the part of the Berlin Sub-Bureau in the significant progress of the Communist women’s movement in Western Europe may be only a very modest one, we may state after our experience of these few months that the institution of a Sub-Bureau has proved useful in quick and close connections between the Centre and the various sections, in exchanging information and exp experiences on practical problems. By these activities the Executive in Moscow was enabled in various cases to grant practical support to the sections. The Berlin Sub-Bureau has furthermore succeeded in gaining satisfactory material on the state of the women’s movement in most countries of Western Europe, thus filling a gap which at the last International Women’s Congress was commented upon as something deplorable.

Considering the part the international women’s movement is now playing in the International we realise the immense importance of the Second International Women’s Congress in giving the first impulse for the organising of widespread propaganda among the women. In our opinion the effects of this Congress are still being felt. The discussions of the Congress were mainly limited to the theses on the Communist women’s movement, issued some time ago, and very few new points of view were expressed; yet, the spoken word and the personal exchange of ideas and experiences and, above all, the experiences of the delegates in Soviet Russia were more convincing and inspiring than dead letters. This becomes obvious from Communist women’s and the women’s supplements of the Communist organs. Articles and reports on the International Congress itself, on the liberation of women by the Proletarian Revolution, on the life of working women and children in Russia, on the educational activities of the Soviet Republic and pictures of Russian militant women occupy a large space. This becomes still more obvious from all reports of the sections on their activities among the women, from all meetings and conferences of women and from their participation in the relief campaign for Soviet Russia.

In those countries where already before the International Congress of the problem of the women’s movement had been discussed, no conference or meeting of women took place without the decisions and directions of the International being utilised as the basis for extended and intensified activities among the masses of the proletarian women, for a more practical organisation of the propaganda among women, for the setting up of clearer aims.

In Germany special attention was paid to the work among the women in shops and trade-unions. By initiating and proposing discussion evenings for Communist women in all important parts of the country, and by preparing the publication of an simply-written pamphlet on all problems with which working women are concerned, our comrades endeavored to gain influence among the proletarian women in the shops and trade-unions. The Communist movement in Czecho-Slovakia, which was heretofore split into national sections, was united and the separate Czech and German women’s secretariats formed a united National Women’s Secretariat. In order to provide better political information for the officials, our female comrades established an Information Bulletin which contains material on all actual and general political problems and will be instrumental in educating women leaders and speakers. Besides this Information Bulletin there are three Communist women’s organs in Czecho-Slovakia.

In accordance with the resolutions of the International Women’s Congress and of the World Congress our comrades in Austria had the National Director of propaganda among the women admitted as an accredited member to the Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Austria. The Party Convention which will take place in March will have to pass a decision that the responsible leaders of women’s propaganda in the districts and locals also become accredited members of their respective Party committees. Our Austrian comrades have furthermore started the publication of a Communist women’s paper besides the existing weekly women’s supplement of the Vienna “Rote Fahne “.

In Holland a National Committee for propaganda among the women was formed, the chairman of which is allowed to take part in the sessions of the Party Executive. The first National Conference of Communist Women, which took place recently, decided upon the dissolution of the Revolutionary Socialist Women’s League. The Communist members of the latter must join the Communist Party. In the meantime this decision has been put into practice and the organ of the League “De Voorbode ” has been transformed into a women’s organ of the Communist Party.

A still more rapid development of the Communist Women’s Movement is to be perceived in those countries where nearly no beginnings of a movement existed before the International Women’s Congress. This can especially be said of France, England and Belgium.

Under the leadership of the International Secretary, Lucie Colliard, our eager and devoted comrades in France have succeeded in creating a provisional committee. This committee elaborated a programme for propaganda among the women, took all necessary organisational measures for the setting up of women’s secretariat, gained assistance from the Party and convoked the first women’s conference at Marseilles in conjunction with the Party Congress. We can state today that this Conference has proved very successful. The Conference as well as the report of Comrade Colliard at the Party Convention and the following adoption of the Communist Party programme on the activities among the women, caused the French Party to recognize the fact that the problem of propaganda among women is a vital necessity for the Party. Furthermore, some of our female comrades were elected members of the new Party Executive. One of them, Comrade Marthe Bigot, is the responsible secretary for agitation among the women. It was decided to start a women’s magazine. The three columns in the “Humanité” which every week were devoted to women’s propaganda, will be transformed into a regular “Women’s Tribune”. The complete results of these decisions will become evident in the coming months.

In Great Britain the results of the International Women’s Congress seemed to be lost as the British delegate to the Moscow Conference, Norah Smythe, had left the Communist Party after the expulsion of Sylvia Pankhurst. Only recently the Berlin Sub-Bureau was informed by Comrade Dora Montefiore, who without success had repeatedly drawn the attention of the Party Executive to the problems of the women’s propaganda, that now Comrade Crawfurd, an experienced and capable comrade, has been charged with this task. A detailed and clear plan which Comrade Crawfurd presented to the Sub-Bureau will be a guarantee for systematic and energetic work in Great Britain. The plan includes the creation of women’s supplements in the Party papers, the publication of a women’s magazine and of propaganda literature for the broad masses. A preliminary condition for the successful carrying through of these tasks, however, is, that in a session of the Party Executive with the comrades active in the work, the Party guarantees the organisational and financial support of the newly established women’s secretariat.

In December 1921 in a meeting of the female Party members Comrade Kestemont has for the first time in Belgium developed the idea of forming a women’s committee for Communist propaganda among women. In accordance with the theses of the International Women’s Congress she emphasised the necessity of all Communist women taking part in the life of the Party with equal tasks and rights. Thus the danger of a separate women’s organisation can be prevented. Among the practical demands she laid special stress on “social protection of women and mothers”. As Comrade Kestemont, member of the Party Executive, immediately after the World Congress was charged by the Communist Party of Belgium with the task of providing material and information for the organisation of propaganda among the women, (in this connection getting into connection with the Berlin Sub-Bureau) we may hope that in Belgium a strong Section of the International Communist Women’s Movement will develop in close co-operation with the Communist Party.

Though realising the great importance of the International Women’s Congress for the movement we do not overestimate its influence. We are conscious that the international Communist women’s movement develops in close correlation with the entire Communist International and that it may be considered as a measure of the maturity of the whole Communist Movement. If to-day, six months after the Second International Women’s Congress and the Third World Congress of the Communist International, the Communist Women’s Movement has become larger, clearer and better organised than before, this obvious development must be regarded as a result of the more united energies and more uniform tactics of the Communist International. In its approach to the realization of its slogans, “Go to the Masses” and “The United Front of the Proletariat” it is gathering greater and greater masses of proletarian women. The development of the Communist movement in every country and the enrolling of the women in the militant vanguard of the world proletariat depends to a large extent upon the consciousness of every Communist Party and up on the continuous intensification of class antagonism which in every country will show the necessity of a revolutionary struggle on a large scale.

In a following article we will try to give a summarising review of the net of Women’s Agitation Committees in the International as well as on their connections with the Berlin Sub-Bureau.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

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