An honest look at women in unions during the first years of the N.E.P. Veteran Austrian educator, and revolutionary Marxist Isa Strasser was long a women’s organizer in the Socialist movement, was an original dissident internationalist in 1914, later to participate in the Austrian revolutions of 1918, and help found the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ’), as well as the Third International in 1919. She became an editor of the KPÖ’s paper, “Die Rote Fahne,” the head of the KPÖ’s Women’s Central Committee, and elected member of the Executive of the Comintern’s Women’s Section. Removing with her husband, the also important comrade Josef Strasser, to Moscow for Comintern work in 1923, they both became non-aligned oppositionists, were relieved of posts in 1928 and returned to Austria in 1929. There they first corresponded with Trotsky and the Left Opposition before associating themselves with the Council Communists movement and comrades like Anton Pannekoek, remaining politically active the rest of their lives.

‘Women in the Russian Trade Unions’ by Isa Strasser from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 3 No. 47. June 28, 1923.

In the Russian trade unions there has never been a “Women’s Question” in the sense as is still unfortunately to be found in the trade unions of western Europe. The Russian trade unions, under the leadership of conscious socialists, from the very beginning adopted an essentially different attitude towards women’s work, and the questions connected with it, from that taken, for instance, by the trade unions in England, with their guild character, or the trade unions of Germany, cut according to bourgeois pattern. The admittance of women to the trade unions and to highly qualified work and the principle: Equal pay for equal work, were a matter of course in the Russian trade unions as early as 1905. Thus a resolution passed by the printing workers in 1905 demanded the employment of skilled women printers, and equal payment for male and female employees doing similar work. And in 1907 a leading trade unionist, Dimitrov, stated that the employment of a comparatively large number of skilled female compositors in Petrograd and Moscow was due to the attitude taken by the trade unions, which had sided in favor of like training for male and female compositor apprentices. In other industries, as for instance the metal industry, the wood industry, etc., equal rights for women in trade unions and in the workshops were principles which were theoretically recognized by the Russian trade unions, even before the revolution. It was of course only natural that in a capitalist world, where the wishes of the workers collided violently with those of the employers, the weakness of the young Russian trade unions prevented the full actual recognition of these principles. Thus we read, in a report issued by the printers union in 1909, that when the wages of men and women in this profession are compared, it must be admitted that very little has been attained.

It was not until political power had been captured by the proletariat that the path was cleared for the Russian trade unions to realize their theories in practice. In the Russia of today, women’s labor is reckoned at precisely the same rate as men’s. The working woman receives the same wages as the workman who performs the same work. The abolition of “pajok” (payment in kind), and the introduction of payment in money, has been proved by inquiry into the question to have altered nothing whatever in this relation. But in spite of this, the great mass of working women continue to receive, now as before, considerably lower wages than the majority of working men. The reason for this is easily to be seen if we glance at the distribution of women over the various trades and professions. Among the metal workers 63% of all women employed in this industry belong to the lowest category, to the semi-skilled workers; in the next category of better skilled workers only 13%. Among the wood workers 74% of all female workers come under the unskilled and half- skilled category. Among the textile workers the proportions are somewhat more favorable; here only 17% of the women workers belong to the unskilled assistant workers, but 43.3% and 31.4% to the half-skilled and qualified/workers. The Russian trade unions do not however, regard this fact–that women’s work is for the most part unqualified work–as an irremediable fact. The question: “What is to be done to help women out of their position as unskilled workers, so that they themselves and Russian industry may be raised to a higher level”–this is one of the questions to which the Russian trade unions are devoting the greatest attention at present. Thus the metal workers union convened a conference of trust leaders, factory directors, and labor protection commissions of the trade unions, in April of this year, at which this question was dealt with in connection with the unemployment question. A resolution was passed that an investigation be made as to which branches of work, in the metal industry can be made accessible to women without injury to their health. In addition to this, a circular was drawn up and sent to all trade union leaders, to the following effect: “Why is unemployment greater among the women in the metal industry than among the men? Because the overwhelming majority of women are doing unqualified work. It has, however, been actually demonstrated that the women are equally capable of qualified work. Efforts must thus be made towards securing precisely the same training for girls as for boys in the metal industry, in those branches of work which girls are able to perform without injury to their health”.

In the other industries (wood working and chemical industries), investigation is also being made of the possibilities of opening out new fields of work for the wives of qualified workers, physicians, and technicians. And everywhere measures are being taken to further the education of women and girls, in the factory schools and evening classes connected with the factories. Thus, for instance, the union for the lithograph industry sent a circular to the trade union leaders requesting that 25% of the places be left open for girls.

It is clear that the chasm which has been created in the manufacturing and great industries between working men and women, between skilled and unskilled workers–a chasm which capitalism has invariably endeavored to artificially maintain and even extend, on the principle of “Divide and rule”–is not to be bridged at once, even in a Soviet state, and with the trade unions entirely willing, but only after a long and obstinate struggle. But there is one thing which can substantially accelerate this process, and that is: the active co-operation of women in the trade unions themselves. It need not be said that even in Russia, women take comparatively little part in trade union work. Despite this, the Russian working woman appears to participate much more actively in this work than the working women of western Europe, a fact which should be highly appreciated, for the Russian working woman is at a great disadvantage, with regard to schooling, when compared with the German or Austrian working woman. (Among the textile workers 40% of the women cannot read or write. but only 10% of the men.) In Moscow, for instance, there are 29.3% women among the leaders of the textile workers unions, but in the province only 17%. At the last election to the Moscow committee for the tailoring profession, 90 women and 60 men were elected. In Ukraine, where about 30% of the trade union members are women, 10% women have been elected to leadership.

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. Inprecorr is 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/1923/v03n47[27]-jun-28-1923-Inprecor-stan.pdf