A rare English-language contemporary look at Italian working women at the height of that country’s class war–the Two Red Years that followed the end of the First World War, including Argentina Altobelli, General Secretary of the Land Workers’ Federation. The only women to lead an Italian union until then.

‘Women Workers in the Italian Labor Movement’ by Ira W. Bird from Justice (I.L.G.W.U.). Vol. 3 No. 28. July 8, 1921.

Rome, June 11. Women workers of Italy are standing shoulder to shoulder with their men comrades in the national struggle against the organized employers who are plotting to break down standards of wages and working conditions that have been won by the organizations of the labor movement in the last five years Never before have the workers of Italy been faced with such a gigantic wave of reaction, and every effort is being made not only to hold what they have gained, but also to better conditions which provide only starvation wages for the highest paid workers.

Until the war years the organization of women workers was neglected by the General Confederation of Labor. As in America and other countries, the leaders of the labor movement did not believe the women could be organized. Their appearance in industry was believed to be only temporary, and was not believed that girls and women who were not going to devote a lifetime to work in the shops and factories could be organized as efficiently as the men. When the war came and the employers sought to break down wages by the employment of women in the places of the men who had gone away to the war, all labor organizations rushed to the protection of conditions by organization campaigns among the women.

To the great surprise of the labor movement, the girls and women welcomed the invitation to join with their men comrades in the labor movement. Hundreds of thousands of girls and women entered the labor organizations in 1917, 1918, 1919 and 1920, The greatest growth was made by the Textile Workers’ Union and the Land Workers’ Union which together have about 600,000 feminine members.

Although no leaders were developed in the great mass of women workers, perhaps because the men kept them back from places of leadership, the girls and women formed a class-conscious and militant rank and file. That they had an understanding of their duties in the labor movement was shown by their loyalty to the Metal Workers’ Federation in the factory occupation movement in September, 1920. Girls who were new to the labor movement, who had come into the shops, mills and factories during the war, were as enthusiastic supporters of the occupation movement as the veterans of many struggles with the employers.

One of the most picturesque features of the factory occupation movement was the formation of Red Guard groups by girls and women metal workers. They were armed with rifles, revolvers and bombs, and drilled by veterans of the World War in duties of the Red Guard. It was no picnic plaything, this Red Guard membership. They were as serious as the members of the Battalion of Death in Russia, as brave as the women who fell in the battles of the French Revolution and the Commune.

There are only two specially prominent women in the labor movement of Italy, Signora Argentina Altobelli, General Secretary of the Land Workers’ Federation, and Signora Laura Cabrini, one of the secretaries of the Associazione Nazionale per la Donna (National Association for Women). Signora Cabrini is not part of the labor movement, but she devotes much of her time in efforts to interest girls and women in their labor organizations. Signora Cabrini was in the United States two years ago for the International Labor Congress of the League of Nations at Washington. She made the acquaintance of a number of officials of the New York Ladies’ Waist and Dress Makers’ Union, Local 25, of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. When the Italian branch of the union several months ago asked for assistance in the formation of a library for the girl members, Signora Cabrini wrote to all publishers asking for contributions.

She obtained nearly 900 volumes, including all the most valuable labor and socialist books, and the Department of Emigration shipped them free of charge to the United States. Through her efforts the New York union now has one of the best Italian libraries in the United States. Signora Cabrini was most active in the adjustment of the controversy between the women employees of State departments and the crippled soldiers which recently threatened to interfere seriously with the continuance of work in government buildings in Rome and many other cities. Discouraged by years of unemployment and poor housing and feeding by the government, with plenty of promises from government officials and no action, the crippled soldiers took matters into their own hands about two months ago. In great numbers they occupied the State offices and refused to permit the women workers to enter. They demanded that all women workers be discharged and crippled soldiers be put in their places.

At a conference in Rome, at which Signora Cabrini represented the women workers, an agreement was drafted in which both sides to this war of the sexes sought to reach a middle ground. With the assistance of the government, it was agreed to place men in the places of the women who leave government places, that temporary girl workers shall be replaced by men, when men are fitted for the work, and that the girls and women who are on the civil service list are to be retained as long as they wish to remain.

“The condition of the crippled soldiers is terrible, but it would not be just to the girls and women who carried on the government during the war to kick them out to starve just to make places for the ex-soldiers,” said Signora Cabrini in an interview at her office in the Via in Arcione in Rome. “Just now we are having many hard struggles, with the women workers attacked on all sides. The crippled soldiers want their jobs, the employers are trying to reduce wages, the general labor movement is meeting a national attack and the girls are suffering greatly from the cost of living. But as soon as we pass through the industrial depression conditions for the women and for all. workers will become better.

“The women of Italy have conducted a long struggle to win the franchise, and this year may be successful. The bill for political rights was passed by the Chamber of Deputies in 1919, but was not voted on by the Senate because Parliament was dissolved before the bill was reached on the calendar. The bill was re-introduced in the next Parliament, passed by the Chamber of Deputies and again Parliament was dissolved before the bill was acted on.

“There will be no hurry in this Parliament to give the vote to women, because many fear that if the women had the vote they would aid the Partito Populare (clerical party). Many believe the women will be tools in the hands of the clericals who are fighting strenuously to increase the power of the Catholic Church. The Socialists who are the leaders in the suffrage movement are not energetic in their demands for enfranchisement of women because they know that hundreds of thousands of women will become clerical party followers.

“One of the most encouraging signs of the labor movement’s progress has been the great growth of feminine membership in the organizations which dominate the textile, agricultural, hat making and bookbinding industries. There is no doubt that the women really understand the labor movement and will be a strong force in the struggles that are ahead of us. Even the unorganized women clerks of the State offices are becoming enlightened. When the clerks of all Italy I went on strike on May 1, and again on June 1, the women walked out with the men, showing that there is no sex hostility even among this former reactionary group of workers.

“I hope we will be able to develop women leaders through organization of women’s branches of labor organizations. Today the men and women belong to the same organization. At the meetings the women are shoved to the background. They are permitted to progress only so far in their development and then the men Say ‘Stop.’ If the women could have branches of their own, where they could develop without hindrance from their male comrades, I know we could have such groups of able women leaders as have come to the front in the United States and England.

“It is difficult for the girls and women of Italy to progress as fast as their sisters of England and the United States because they are not given as much freedom by their families. It is not considered proper for a girl to be out at night unescorted, so the girls are barred from participation in union meetings unless someone goes along to see that they meet with no harm. But the old prejudices are going as the number of women workers increases. The most reactionary realize that the girls and women have come into industry to stay, and that, if they are to make a decent living, they must organize and fight for it.”

That the women of Italy are leaving the shelter of their homes to take an active interest in political affairs was demonstrated a month ago at Pisa when a Socialist school teacher was murdered by a Fascista (White Guard), who was aided by two women Fascisti. Women have joined the White Guard in many cities, to take part with the men of the master class and the gunmen of the Fase di Combattimento in murderous raids on the workers. The Pisa White Guard women were in prison for several days, but, like others of the White Guard, they got out while thousands of Socialist men and women remain in prison.

The number of girls and women in the Socialist and Communist Parties is very small. In Rome, there are only a dozen women who might be said to be active in the Socialist movement, and half of these do not devote as much time and energy to their work as the ordinary rank and file woman member of the Socialist Party of the United States. But they are making progress. The entrance of women into industry and polities in Italy is very new. They make progress quickly in Italy, and if the women forge ahead with anything like the speed made by the General Confederation of Labor they soon will play important roles in the political and industrial life of their country.

The weekly newspaper of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, Justice began in 1909 would sometimes be published in Yiddish, Spanish, Italian, and English, ran until 1995. As one of the most important unions in U.S. labor history, the paper is important. But as the I.L.G.W.U. also had a large left wing membership, and sometimes leadership, with nearly all the Socialist and Communist formations represented, the newspaper, especially in its earlier years, is also an important left paper with editors often coming straight from the ranks radical organizations. Given that the union had a large female membership, and was multi-lingual and multi-racial, the paper also addressed concerns not often raised in other parts of the labor movement, particularly in the American Federation of Labor.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/justice/1921/v03n28-jul-08-1921-justice.pdf