Directions for both internal and external work in education and publications from the Comintern’s Fourth International Conference of Work Among Women held in Moscow during May and June, 1926

‘Instructions on Women’s Communist Educational Work and the Press’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 6 No. 69. October 26, 1926.

The maximum of attention must be directed to the winning over and the education of women, since in accordance with the decision of the Plenum, the centre of gravity of the work of the Communist Party has been transferred to winning over the masses, of whom working women are the main component part. To do justice to this task there must be participation by the Party as a whole, its functionaries and rank and file members must be made to realise the necessity of winning over large sections of women to the side of Communism

Therefore, work among women must no longer remain the task of the Women’s Departments and women’s organisers only. All the functionaries and the entire Party apparatus must be set in motion to win over large sections of women, to overcome the mistaken idea of many men comrades that the work of winning over women is a task of secondary importance, and also that other and still more unfortunate notion that women have nothing to do with politics.

Therefore, the educational activity of the Party must take all the circumstances into consideration and make sure that’ the ‘necessary measures, particularly the education of the working women employed in factories, receive due attention in the Party programme.

Educational Work.

To give the Party membership a fundamental political and practical education is one of the general tasks of the Party, especially of the Agitprop Department.

The Women’s Department of the Party, as an organ of the Party as a whole for work among women, has within the framework of the entire educational work the special task of seeing to it that work among women be given the necessary consideration. In connection with this three points are of particular importance:

1. The Party as a whole — both women and men members — must be made to take up correctly an ideological-political attitude towards Communist work among women, and a definite fundamental knowledge of women’s role in society and in the class struggle must be imparted to them, particularly in view of the present revolutionary epoch.

2. As many Party members as possible must be induced to take an interest in practical work women and must be educated for it. (Cadre of functionaries for work among women.)

3. Educational work among women members must be such as to enable every woman to take an active part in Party work among women or in other spheres.

All this makes it incumbent on the women’s department to concentrate on the two main spheres of educational work:

1. Full Utilisation of the General Educational Opportunities (schools, courses, debates, reporters’ courses) offered by the Party.

2. Formation of special courses as a supplementary measure for the special purpose of doing justice to those subjects which can receive only little, or no attention at all, in the general courses, etc.

I. General Party Education.

In this connection, the Women’s Department together with the Agitprop have to proceed as follows:

1. They must include in the programme (plan of work) of the schools, courses, etc., items important work among women (for instance women’s role in the various stages. of history of human society) in connection with the labour movement; the necessity to draw women into social production, in connection with the programme of action of the Party; the main reasons and opportunities for the mobilisation of women; in connection with organisational questions; the structure and tasks of the Party apparatus for work among women, etc.

In connection with all these questions, the Women’s Department has to do its share in supplying teachers and students with the necessary material. Eventually it will have to appoint itself the teaching staff for certain courses or sections.

2. It will have to include into the programme of the educational work of the Party questions connected with work among women which offer particular difficulties or are ideologically vague, in order that a special study be made of them, for instance sex equality (the right to vote, equal pay, competition between male and female labours, etc.)

3. It must see to it that women members be drawn in large numbers into the general courses.

It must fix a definite minimum of women’s entries and advise and take part in the selection of suitable women students for definite courses.

II. Special Courses.

Two main types of such courses must be considered:

1. Courses for the training of the active body of Party functionaries (women and men) for work among women.

These forces pre-suppose a certain amount of elementary Party education. this basis they deal entirely with special questions indispensable for work among women.

These courses may be comprehensive and of long duration and may deal for instance with the following important subjects:

a) Women’s role in history and in the modern labour movement including results of the proletarian revolution in Russia.

b) Relation of the general tasks and slogans of the CP. to the question of women’s emancipation.

c) Thorough study of the so-called “women’s questions” as opportunities for the mass mobilisation of women (political fights, protection of women’s labour, wage questions, mother and child care, position of unmarried mothers and their children, family and matrimonial rights).

d) Forms and methods of Party work among women.

Other courses to follow on these may be used for the training and education of functionaries (women and men) for Definite spheres of work on the basis of the former experiences; factory work, trade unions, co-operatives, working women correspondents, women reporters, etc.

Finally, there are the short duration courses for the preparation of Definite Campaigns, such as Women’s Day, Lenin Week, important national campaigns of a Section, etc.

2. Elementary Courses first and foremost for women comrades.

An elementary education of all Party members through the general courses of the Party is desirable.

Experiences has shown that the Party elementary courses are not elementary enough for politically unprepared members. This frightens many away, particularly women, from participation in these courses.

Therefore, it is essential to organise special courses for the totally uneducated members particularly for the newcomers.

These courses may be of various kinds, in accordance with the degree of education of those who want to attend them.

Beginning with more or less narrow circles, they can be if necessary, extended in the event of a mass influx of new members into the Party, as for instance at the time of the Lenin recruitment in Russia, into periodical big meetings of an instructive character.

Experiences has shown that such courses are well attended, particularly by women. Therefore, women’s departments should induce the Party to give due consideration to the organisation of such courses.

The aim of the special courses for utterly untrained (particularly new) members is — to explain to them on the basis of the concrete situation and the mutual tasks of the Party, the principles of the revolutionary class struggle and the aims of the Communist Party. This grounding is to prepare them for successful participation in further educational work side by side with the other Party members, and serve. as a basis from which they can undertake some Panty function after the necessary practical training.

III. Organisation and Methods of the Courses.

1. The barriers between the various forms of the special courses under II are not rigid.

In many cases courses of training for definite spheres of Party work (work among women, trade unions, etc.). will follow up the more comprehensive general course, — will so to speak, form the advanced grade, — the participants in the first course being divided among the various special courses which constitute the second course.

In the same manner the elementary preparatory courses will, as a rule, have to be continued for practical reasons in the form of further instruction for practical work.

Arrangements with respect to the various types of courses and the selection of students will have to be regulated from case to case as necessity arises.

2. On the strength of past experience, the following points must be taken into consideration with respect to methods and organisation:

a) The more decentralised the courses are, the broader the sections of members — particularly women members — they can absorb and the better they can be adapted to concrete conditions.

b) Educational work should be conducted according. to modern pedagogical methods (development of self-activity). No long lectures, seminary exercises, written work, organisation of discussions on the standpoint of our opponents.

c) When selecting the teaching staff, quality must be the first consideration, in order that the most inadequate trainers should not be allotted to the women as is frequently the case.

Already during the preparatory period the capacity of the teachers at the disposal of the courses must be seriously considered. Care should also be taken that the number of students be not excessive, in order to make individual intercourse between leaders and pupils possible.

d) The courses should be steadily utilised by taking the acquired knowledge the subject of debates, or by organising circles on the whole course.

e) At the end of the course the students are to receive further advice and instruction in practical Party work.

In connection with all these courses the initiative, the participation in the preparation of programmes and material and also the selection of teaching staff and students rest with the women’s department, as it has a special interest m such courses.

But preparation of the subject matter itself should be made jointly with the Agitprop, and organisational preparation with the competent Party Executives and their Org. Departments.

Form Substance and Volume of the Women’s Press, International and Nationally.

The International Press.

A bulletin as leading central organ for dealing with actual questions on the basis of principle and for international exchange of national experiences in campaigns, with respect to Organisation and the press. Every now and then devoting a whole number to some burning question of principle, utilising from time to time the material in the form of a pamphlet.

The Party Press of the Sections.

I. Press for Recruiting Purposes Among the Masses.

1. Central organ for large sections of working women, the title not to be an official Party title, ditto with respect to the outward appearance of the publication. Special emphasis to be laid on gaining large numbers of working women, in the factories and trade unions. Moreover, to give effect to a real “smytchka”, we must turn our attention to the capture of those sections of the population which count in the respective country (for example peasant women, women engaged in home industries).

Brightening up the press by pictures reflecting women’s role in the fighting front of the revolutionary proletariat on an international scale.

2. All sections must have a central organ. Wherever it is possible, district or local organs of a smaller volume should be published. These organs are to link up the needs and struggles of the working women in the district or town: with the wider issues and give a vivid picture of factory and social events by means of a big staff of working women correspondents (on the model of the “Arbeiterin”, Berlin).

3. Women’s pages or platforms and working women’s correspondence in the general press on the model of the women’s periodicals.

4. Women’s pages in the factory newspapers, women to contribute to them.

5, Pamphlets and leaflets (pamphlet for agitation and propaganda among the female masses).

Supplementing printed material by hand production.

6. Collection and advance publication of agitation material on Soviet Russia in various forms, making use of all possibilities -— correspondence, poems, essays, theatrical pieces.

7. Production and collection of illustrated material, both national and international.

8. Exchange of articles and correspondence, newspapers etc., on a national and international scale.

9. Production and collection of theatrical pieces and recitation material, propaganda material generally.

10. Initiative and encouragement in the matter of getting literature from working women’s circles.

11. The formation of editorial boards and attraction of a circle of contributors and working women correspondents.

12. Training of active elements and working women Correspondents through the editorial boards.

II. Material for the clearing up of the Political Attitude and for Practical Guidance in the Work among Women.

1. Publication of articles and material in the general organs of the Party and in the dailies, the scientific organs, the trade union press, the co-operative press.

2. Issuing instruction, reporters’, teachers’ and students’ material on special questions (trade union, protection of women’s labour, abortion paragraphs, etc.)

3. Information material for one’s use and information.

III. Utilization of the Non-Party Press.

1. Utilisation of sympathising women’s newspapers and newspapers of sympathising or neutral proletarian organisations through the inclusion of women’s pages.

2. Supply of material to proletarian and petty-bourgeois press of organisation not under our influence.

3. Following up carefully and utilising women’s periodicals of other tendencies. and polemical attitude to their views.

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. The ECCI also published the magazine ‘Communist International’ edited by Zinoviev and Karl Radek from 1919 until 1926 monthly in German, French, Russian, and English. Unlike, Inprecorr, CI contained long-form articles by the leading figures of the International as well as proceedings, statements, and notices of the Comintern. No complete run of Communist International is available in English. Both were largely published outside of Soviet territory, with Communist International printed in London, to facilitate distribution and both were major contributors to the Communist press in the U.S. Communist International and Inprecorr are an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1926/v06n69-oct-26-1926-inprecor.pdf