Resolution adopted at the IV International Conference of Communist Work among Women in October, 1926.

‘Directions for the Construction of the Apparatus of the Communist Parties for Work among Women’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 6 No. 69. October 26, 1926.

1. In their struggle for the capture of the toiling masses the Communist Parties come into contact with large sections of women, first and foremost women employed in the factories whose role in the process of production is growing continuously. Working women are much more under the influence of the ideology of the Parties hostile to Communism than male workers, as a result of their age long oppression and particularly difficult position. Because of this fact work among women looms big in the Sections of the C.I.

2. The work of the Parties among women must be necessarily adapted to the special social, economic and political conditions of women and their psychology. This requires the establishment of special organs for this work.

3. In spite of the peculiarities of work among women it is an inseparable part of the entire work of the Sections of the C.I. among the masses, and not only the work of the women members of the various Parties. The organs created for the conduct of this work are, as all Party organs destined for special branches of work (organisation, agitprop, trade union work, etc.) departments of the respective Party Executives and are constituted by the latter. In every Party executive, from the C.C. down to the nucleus there should be an organ for work among women: the Women’s Department. Wherever the weakness of the Party, particularly in the lower organisations, prevents the establishment of a Women’s Department, a women’s organiser should be at least appointed.

THE WOMEN’S DEPARTMENT OF THE C.C.

The Structure of the Department.

1. The Women’s Department of the C.C. is like all Departments an organ of the C.C. and is subordinate to the Secretariat.

2. At the head of the Women’s Department is the chief of the department who is appointed by the Secretariat or the Org. Bureau of the C.C. The chief of the Women’s Department is as a rule a member of the C.C., but not necessarily so, in the event of a suitable candidate being available and C.C. members being overburdened with work.

3. In addition to the chief, the Women’s Department has several collaborators (paid or unpaid) among whom the chief of the department divides all the work. The division of work is as a rule mainly as follows: org-, and agitprop work and trade union work.

The Tasks of the Women’s Department.

The tasks of the Women’s Department are:

1. To adapt the decisions of the Party Congress, the C.C. (Plenum, Pol., Org.-Bureau, Secretariat) and also the decisions and directions of the C.I. (Congresses, Enlarged Executive, E.C.C.I. and its organs), to the work among women, to see to their proper explanation among large sections of women and to carry them out within the framework of their field of activity, to present periodical oral and written reports in the Org. Bureau of the C.C. and to send such reports to the Women’s Secretariat of the E.C.C.I.

2. To guide the activity of the lower women’s departments (district, sub-district, etc.), through the competent Party Executives and to control their work.

NOTE: The general guidance and control of the work of the Women’s Departments are in the hands of the competent Party Executives.

3. To elaborate directions and theses for the activity of the Party among women in close connection with the general tasks of the Party, paying at the same time special attention to the international campaigns organised on the strength of the decisions and directions of the C.I. and to establish in their conduct close contact with the other departments of the C.C.

4. To carry on an ideological campaign for the purpose of creating an understanding within the Parties and also among the masses for the importance and role of work among women, its means and methods.

5. To participate in the reorganisation of the Parties especially with respect to the establishment of factory nuclei and of the apparatus for work among women in all Party Executives.

6. To register with the help of the Org. Department all Party forces suitable for work among women and to endeavour to multiply these forces.

7. To elaborate specific forms of work and methods adapted to the peculiarity of work among women and to ensure their application (women delegate system).

8. To collect material having any reference to the position of women and particularly working women taking into consideration their participation in Parties, trade unions, etc.

9. To participate in the general campaigns of the Party and the C.I. and to organise special women’s campaigns (in close contact with the corresponding departments).

10. a) To carry on work among women in the non-Party mass organisations (trade unions, co-operatives, sport organisations, etc.), through the corresponding fractions (or through the women’s organiser appointed for this).

10. b) To guide the fractions in non-Party proletarian women’s organisations.

11. To give a lead to the women’s Party press and to promote its circulation.

12. To ensure there being women’s columns in the general Party and trade union press and to conduct same.

13. To participate in the publishing activity of the Party inasfar as it is connected with the field of activity of the department.

14. To promote the formation and development of the working women correspondents movement.

15. To participate in the organisation of Party schools, circles, etc., and also to establish courses for women organisers and propagandists.

16. To give attention to the activity of the opponent Parties and organisations among women, and to take the necessary counter measures.

17. To collect the experiences of Party work among women in factories, among housewives, and in non-Party mass organisations, to study and utilise them.

The Methods of Work of the Department.

The Women’s Department carries out its tasks in the following manner:

1. By preparing important questions, by dealing with them in the Department itself and by raising them in the Org. Bureau.

2. By keeping up a regular personal and written correspondence-connection with the district executives and the women’s organiser of the central fractions within the non-Party mass organisations.

3. By organising personal consultations with the chiefs of the women’s departments of the districts and the lower Party Executives and by holding consultations with the women’s organisers of the Communist fractions.

4. By convening national conferences for the discussion of the question of work among women or one or other of their partial questions.

5. By sending out directions, circular letters and information material.

6. By sending instructors and making use of the instructors of the Party (Org. Department).

7. By utilising the Party press, labour periodicals etc.

8. By publishing suitable literature.

9. By close collaboration with the other Departments (Org., Agitprop, Trade Union, Co-operative, etc.) of the C.C. and by participation in their sessions through the specially appointed representatives of the department and also by inviting the representatives of these Departments to their sessions.

10. By utilising the acquired experiences.

Relations with the Other Departments of the C.C.

1. To avoid overlapping Org. work is carried on together with the Org. Department, Agitprop work together with the Agitprop Department, trade union work together with the Trade Union Departments and so on.

2. Plans of work, letters of instruction, school programmes, theses, etc., are elaborated by the Women’s Department together with the corresponding Departments of the C.C.

3. All Conferences, consultations, etc., organised by the Departments of the C.C. are to be held with the participation of the Women’s Department. The other Departments of the C.C. must participate without fail in the consultations, conferences, etc., held by the Women’s Department.

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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