Will be of interest to all students of the Communist women’s movement. The full text of discussions on the main speech of Hertha Sturm, Chair of the International Women’s Secretariat, at the Fourth Communist Women’s Congress in June, 1926, the final genuine one to be held. Below are the interventions from Halbe (Germany), Faussecave (France), Kanciewicz (Poland), Scott (Britain), Croll (U.S.), Muratova (U.S.S.R.), Grun (Austria), Malm (Finland), Ostrovskaya (U.S.S.R.), and Nadieznha (China).

‘Discussion of the Report of the International Women’s Secretariat, Party One’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 7 No. 38. July 6, 1927.

Discussion on Comrade Sturm’s Report. Second Session. Monday Morning May 31, 1926.

Comrade HALBE (Germany): The general attitude of the Party to the working masses has also adversely affected the special work among women in factories and trade unions. In some enterprises our influence has grown, we have held working women’s meetings and we have working women’s committees. But the Women Delegate Meetings system has not yet been introduced, namely, that delegates are elected regularly in the factories and big delegate. meetings held regularly in towns and districts.

In some trade unions we exercise influence through the women workers there and through our functionaries. Fraction work is as yet very inadequate. In some trade unions and localities we have considerable influence over working women organised in trade unions, for instance, in the metal, textile and shoemakers unions in Württemberg. But very few working women belong to trade unions because of their dislike of them. There are women’s commissions in the trade unions who work for the organisation and activisation of newly recruited working women members. The reformist and Social Democrats have more influence there than we. With the help of some unions, for instance the shoemakers’ union, we have convened district women’s conferences at which reports were made by us and we had conversations with women workers concerning the application of new labour conditions and working methods in factories, and we have also recruited new members for the trade unions.

On the whole, we can say that lately the masses of working women are coming out of their apathy. During the Hindenburg election, we witnessed large numbers of women voting for Hindenburg, which means that they have gone over to the reactionary camp. We were able to mobilise women very extensively in connection with the expropriation of the ex-ruling houses. During the campaign for the peoples’ demands in regard to this expropriation many women signed the lists. We hope to be able to capture even more women in connection with the plebiscite. We notice that more and more women come to our meetings and show an ever-growing interest in them.

The speaker mentioned also the successful work among women during the campaigns for the expropriation of the ex-ruling houses, for the plebiscite, as well as during the International Women’s Week, which success is greatly due to close collaboration with the Party as a whole. It is only now that men comrades have properly understood what women’s work really is, what the C.P.G. has to do in the direction of work among women, and what the tasks of men comrades are in connection with this work.

We fully agree with the tasks and fundamental motives laid down in the theses.

Comrade FAUSSECAVE (France): In France an impetus was given to the women’s movement since the V. Congress and the III. International Conference of Women Communists. Before that we had only very few women in the Party and no organisation to give them a lead.

We concentrated our efforts on the press and the organisation of women.

Last year, we had to carry on big campaigns, first of all a senate election campaign and then a municipal election campaign. During the latter, the Party brought forward women candidates in several Paris districts and also, in the provinces, in order to prove that it is the only Party which stands up for women’s political rights.

Our main task was struggle against the Morocco war. We succeeded in drawing many women into this anti-war campaign, and thereby we secured many sympathisers. But we were still unable to bring many women into the Party.

Why? Because in France, the old tradition still prevails: Here women were never organised. There were men in the Socialist and in the Radical Party willing to discuss franchise questions, but because women had no political rights, they were always kept out of all organisations. This is one of the great difficulties we encounter in our work. We are endeavouring to overcome them.

Women are gaining more and more confidence in the Communist Party, they do no longer dread the word Communist. We had in Paris meetings attended by 5,000 women, and in the provinces, too, we met with considerable success. Formerly, only a few women attended our meetings, whereas at present they come in large numbers and show great sympathy for our slogans whenever the Party organises meetings of special interest to women.

A month ago the “Humanité” had to accede to our demand for a women’s page. But our men comrades looked upon this women’s page not as a means for getting in contact with large sections of women workers, they considered it rather as a means of capturing for the Party the wives of Party comrades. We, on the other hand, are first and foremost interested in the thousands of women employed in industry. Our next Party Conference must clear up this point.

I should like to point out the necessity of a thorough reorganisation of the women’s movement in France. In answer to a questionnaire circulated by us, we received a fantastical figure, according to which, women constitute 45 to 50% of the total number of wage earners. Recent statistics of the prefecture of the Seine Department gave the number of women wage earners in this Department as two million. The Communist Party should make efforts to organise these women. Fascists are trying hard to capture the women. For some time past, Fascists have been copying our forms of organisation. Just as they began to organise the youth through their “Patriotic Youth League”, they are endeavouring at present to form corresponding organisations among women. In all the Arrondissements, Fascist women’s sections are formed where women are set against the working class.

Our main tasks are:

Firstly an ideological campaign in campaign in the Party the Party press (“l’Humanité”, “Cahiers du Bolchévisme”).

Secondly formation of cadres.

Thirdly, capture of women workers in trade Unions.

Fourthly, organisation of sympathisers. We have a weekly organ for working women and we thought that it would be possible to rally women around this periodical. We succeeded in this, many women who were reluctant to join the Party, but who had been for some time regular readers of the “Woman Worker” enthusiastically joined these groups of “Woman Worker’s Friends”.

But a new question has arisen: One should turn one’s attention to Conferences of Women Delegates. In our country we are not yet able to do this. We succeeded in convening a kind of delegate meeting on September 26th in connection with the campaign against the Morocco war. This meeting was attended by 567 women including 200 unorganised women; the remainder were only organised in trade unions. This was certainly an attempt at a delegate conference, convened however for a special purpose. If we are to put more life into these conferences in our country, we must bring forward perfectly clear demands: struggle against high cost of living, protection of motherhood and childhood, struggle against war. In the present situation these demands will enable us to capture the women and to give them a political education.

We think that it will be possible to have resolutions adopted at the forthcoming Party Congress for the fulfilment of which the Party as a whole is to make itself responsible.

Comrade KANCIEWICZ (Poland): Before giving the comrades here an idea of our work, I want to point out that we have to contend with great difficulties arising out of the illegality of our Party.

This illegality puts obstacles also in the way of our The relations with the International Women’s Secretariat. material never reaches us in time, and we are therefore left to our own devices in regards to all our campaigns. This is not due to defective organisation, but to illegal conditions.

Another circumstance which greatly impedes our work is the lack of understanding among men comrades for our work. For instance before March 8, some men comrades were of the opinion that the material can only be used for women and that it need not be discussed when men comrades are present.

There is a considerable percentage of women in the Party. Because of illegal conditions we have no detailed figures at our disposal, but nevertheless we were able to ascertain that women constitute about 10-11% in nuclei, in the Party apparatus and in the various organisations. But only one-tenth of this per- centage comes from big enterprises, and this not because we do not pay sufficient attention to the latter, but because small industry is very developed in Poland and is employing considerable numbers of women. Contrary to Germany, we have paid very little attention to housewives.

I will deal now with the tasks which the Women’s Secretariat set us.

We considered as the foremost and most important task popularisation of work among women particularly in the ranks of the Party.

The next important question was that of strengthening Communist influence among women workers in factories and trade unions. It is again due to prevailing conditions that we were unable to achieve much in this direction.

As to Delegate Meetings, this question does not concern us directly, because it is impossible to deal with it properly because of our illegal existence.

Of considerable interest is the influence of the other parties among women. The Social Democrats (P.P.S.) who work under legal conditions have achieved very little organisationally. They become active only once a year, on the occasion of the Women’s Day which they keep in June. Big celebrations are organised, but without an extensive agitational programme. The P.P.S. publishes a monthly women’s periodical which, however, does not offer much interest to working women. Organisationally the Social Democrats are so weak that only 37 women put in an appearance at one of their Warsaw women meetings, prior to May Day. This shows that our task is not an easy one, for if even the legal party of the Social Democrats cannot get hold of the women, we find this task even much more difficult because of illegality. The only party which has influence among women are the Christian Democrats.

Nevertheless women in Poland are becoming imbued with the revolutionary spirit. This is due to the economic crisis, unemployment, particularly in the textile industry, hitting women harder than men. For instance in Lodz a big industrial city usually employing 50–60,000 women, 20,000 women are unemployed. A two or three day’s week is a usual thing for workers. This has caused a great deal of bitterness among women. That the revolutionary spirit is growing among women is shown by their active participation in the revolts which took place last winter in various towns because of mass unemployment.

But all these tendencies cannot be properly utilised because of the illegality and organisational weakness of our Party. We are doing our utmost to get an organisational hold on non-Communist women.

In connection with our other activity, I should like to point out that our work among women is carried on systematically throughout the country. Formerly, we only worked in White Russia where fairly extensive mass work was carried on among women in the rural districts. But after the arrests in the autumn of 1925, this work practically stopped. However, we are resuming at present systematic work in this direction.

Many women are engaged in active work in the I.R.A.

If I may be allowed to approach the International Women’s Secretariat with a request, I want to say that what we need most is a propaganda programme. In regard to slogans connected with everyday questions, we can manage ourselves. But there is a whole series of general principial questions concerning religion and family life, for which we have no literature and no material whatever. Our difficult everyday work takes up all our time with the result that we cannot pay the necessary attention to these questions. In this respect the Women’s Secretariat could help us a great deal.

Comrade SCOTT (Great Britain): Since the Fifth Congress, the British Party has paid a good deal of attention to work among working women in England. One of the difficulties which we have had to contend with is the fact that we have very few women in the Party. Of the 6,000 members of the Party, 600 are women. The women are extremely active in general, selling papers, factory papers, etc. We have very few women who are able to devote themselves specially to the work among working women. The Party apparatus itself has taken much more interest than in the past in this question of work among working women, and we have a very active comrade who is in charge of this work and in all local organisations we have a comrade in charge of this work.

The chief work which we have had to do has been in the Labour Party, trade unions, in the delegate meetings and in the Co-operative Societies, and in Women’s Co-operative Guilds. The Guilds have an entirely separate organisation from the co-operative societies, and we have been able to organise some work in the Guilds but it is in the co-operative societies that our work has been weakest. It is due to this fact the co-operative societies did not support the General Strike and the miners in the last struggle. The chief work we have done has been in the Labour Party where we have organised our fractions and have been able to get a good circle of sympathisers and some influence.

We have also gone ahead wit the formation of educational circles where we have about ten Left Wing women who are sympathetic to us, who come to our comrades for political instruction. Many of the women in the Labour Party feel that they do not known enough to be able to speak or take part in discussion and this gives us the opportunity to train them politically.

We have also now in the Labour Party, since the last Labour conference, when the Communists were expelled from the Labour Party, formed a Left Wing, and we have been active in the Women’s Section in getting the Women’s Section affiliated to the Left Wing Committees in the same way as the various organisations are affiliated to the Minority Movement and this has helped us to achieve good results.

In the Trade Unions we have not done sufficient in our work yet. This is due partly to that the women Party are chiefly housewives, and those women members of the Party who can join trade unions are members of the unions. But on the whole, our women are mostly in the Labour Party and in Co-operative Guilds. During the past year, the Minority Movement has been much more active in the organisation of women, but particularly in connection with the Women’s and Co-operative Guilds. In the Trade Union Congress campaign our women have taken an active part in assisting in the organisation of women into the trade unions.

With regard to the other organisations, such as the Class War Prisoners’ Aid, we have been able to get the women interested in this particularly since the arrest of the Communist leaders. We have been able to produce some street papers for agitation among the housewives and one or two factory papers in connection with the textile industry. We have also now started our women’s paper for the women work which comes out monthly. We have issued two numbers, and the circulation at present is very small, but there are great possibilities for us in the publication of this paper.

Delegate Meetings. We have been able to to call some de- legate meetings, but not in the same way as they have been called in Russia. The delegates are not elected as more or less permanent delegates, but elected particularly to discuss one or another question of importance to the workers. The first delegate meetings were called in connection with the struggle of the miners last July. From these delegate meetings, Councils of Action were formed in order to organise the women in connection with this struggle. The miners’ strike was postponed in July, on Red Friday, but these Councils of Action remained in being and assisted us in the organisation of International Women’s Day. Other delegate meetings have been called on the question of the campaign for the release of the prisoners and also in March and April in connection with the great struggle in May. In the General Strike of last month the women were solid with the men, and there was no black-legging done by the women workers in the strike. The struggle of the miners still continues, and we shall be able to utilise these delegate meetings in connection with the miners’ strike.

We have still much work to do. Of the first importance is the question of getting new recruits into the Party, particularly from the factories. In England, the factory groups are very weak. The Party membership is very small and in most cases our factory groups consist of only one or two comrades. In factories where women are employed, this makes the work very difficult, as these one or two comrades cannot themselves accomplish all the tasks of a factory group and we have to add to the group comrades outside the group who are working in connection with the factory in selling the “Workers Weekly” and in the actual production and selling of the factory paper. If we also add a comrade in charge of work among women, it may lead to the factory group losing its character, as the majority of the members would be Party members not working actually in the factory. At the same time we have been able in the cotton industry in Lancashire and in the wool industry in Bradford to get this work begun, if only in a very small way.

Then there is the extension of delegate meetings. We have to get the delegates on a more permanent basis with regular meetings, and we have also much work to do in getting the delegates from the factories. At first we shall be able only to appoint a delegate from those factories where we have some influence, but from this point we shall be able to work towards getting delegates properly elected by the factory workers.

In connection with the work in the Party itself, we have one point of great advantage for this work. We have in the British Party a system of training by which all members of the Party, whether new members or old, must pass through an elementary system of training and the women members of the Party, as well as the men, have to pass through this course. In the syllabus of this training course there is a section on work among women and its importance. This has the advantage of training our women comrades and also of making clear to the men comrades the importance of this work. As a whole, the Party now realises the necessity for work among women as one of the activities of the Party, but we have still to fight the idea that this work is only for women members.

In general the theses put forward by the International Women’s Secretariat are applicable to the conditions in England and will help us to carry on the agitation among women.

Comrade CROLL (United States): The three main lines for work among women laid down by Comrade Sturm can be said to apply to all Western Europe and America especially. Highly industrialised America has already drawn over 81/2 million women into gainful occupations, that is they work for wages. Out of these barely a in the trade unions, even less than 200,000. This makes it clear that our most important task in America is to find ways and means of bringing these women into the Trade Unions.

There are already in existence many housewives’, educational and fraternal organisation etc. which have large numbers of working class women in them but which are mostly under the influence and leadership of the Socialists and reactionaries. We must enter these organisations and win the women to our leadership.

To date our achievements have not been very great in comparison with the work of our European brother parties.

It is only since the last Party convention in 1925 that we have really begun to work among women. A central Party apparatus has been established for this work. District committees have been formed, and all shop nuclei instructed to place one or several comrades, in accordance with the size of the factory and nuclei in charge of work among women.

On Women’s Day we had a special issue of the “Daily Worker”. The whole “Daily Worker”, which is the organ of the Communist Party in America, was devoted to questions of interest to working women.

In Chicago our work in the district apparatus and in the trade unions has already shown results. Women in the millinery trade are very badly organised, and their working conditions therefore very bad. One of our women Comrades employed in the trade took a very active part in organising a local of these millinery workers. A local with two hundred members has been organised, and the comrade mentioned is the secretary of it.  

In Boston, there is the “New England Mothers League”. In a recent demonstration, part of a general “Organise the Unorganised” campaign, this league took part carrying banners with such slogans as “Women, enter the Trade Unions”. “Equal Pay for Equal Work”, “We want’ better schools for our Children” and other slogans connected with the every day needs of the workers.

In New York, we have the “Working, Women’s Council of New York”. This was organised about two years ago when the Socialists called a conference of working women. A few of our active women comrades entered the conference and took the leadership of it. Since then the membership has grown immensely. Now there are over one thousand members in the council with only about ten per cent of the membership Communist Women. At present this council is taking an active part in aiding the Textile Strikers in Passaic (New Jersey) with food and clothing for the Strikers’ children.

Heretofore the Council has also led campaigns for better housing for working people, lower rents, for more and better schools. They took a leading part in school strikes, mothers protesting against their children being made to travel several miles through congested districts to their schools.

Re the press; We do not have a special Women’s page but hardly a day passes without there being one or several stories written by working women in the Workers’ Correspondence page of the “Daily Worker” about the conditions in their factories, wages, hours and their lives in general.

Regarding delegate meetings we can only say that we look to the more experienced sections of the Comintern in this connection and to the Russian Party especially for guidance and instruction, for in the short time that we have seriously devoted ourselves to the questions of work among women we have had no experience with them.

Discussion on Comrade Sturm’s Report continued. Third Session. Monday Evening, May 31, 1926.

Comrade MURATOVA (Soviet Union). This is the place to say definitely among what sections of working women we have to carry on our work. I think that we should extend our influence among the manual and office women workers in enterprises. We have as yet little hold on them and we should therefore pay special attention to them. This does not, of course, mean that we should relax our work among working class housewives and other working elements of the female population. We must, on the contrary, do our utmost to make Communist influence paramount among working women. Organisation of Delegate Meetings must be the order of the day and not only theoretically. The reports of the I.W.S. and of our comrades from the brother Parties show that the work of preparing and organising delegate meetings is restricted to a few countries, and that delegate meetings have actually taken place only in isolated cases, for instance in Germany, Great Britain, etc.  

I would like to tell you about experiences we have had in our work among peasant women in the Soviet Union. I come from White Russia, and before describing about our achievements, I would like to tell you something about the conditions under which we work. White Russia is a preeminently peasant country. In a population of 4,200,000 there are at the utmost 40,000 workers employed in the State industry and on the railways. The development of the State industry is weak, but home industries flourish. We have but few factories employing large numbers of workers. There are only two factories employing 1000 workers each, the remainder are small enterprises. There is no big industry-proletariat in White Russia, industrial workers are scattered in small towns and places. Therefore we can say that our country is pre-eminently a peasant country.

In spite of existing difficulties, we can claim a certain amount of success in regard to drawing peasant women into Soviet work. All the organisations in the rural districts have men and women members, in some cases as many women as men. We have at present 3000 peasant women members of Soviets, 1500 peasant women members of peasant mutual aid organisations and 1200 peasant women members of other public organisations. There are seven peasant women in the Executive of the White Russian Soviet Republic, and there is also one woman in the Central Executive of the Soviet Union. This big army of peasant women is the vanguard in the building up of a new standard of life in the countryside. Moreover, we have several peasant women acting as chairmen of village Soviets and peasant mutual aid organisations.

Just a few words about delegate meetings. We have altogether 17,000 delegates. Every village which has a Party nucleus has also a delegate meeting, which gives active support to the building up of our agriculture. The delegate meeting is our Communist workshop which produces collaborators in the building up of a new life. The peasant women who at present occupy posts in Soviets and other public organisations have all of them gone through the school of delegate meetings. In the course of the last twelve months, peasant women have shown a great desire to join the Party. This can be said particularly in regard to women delegates. Peasant women constitute 8% of the White Russian Party organisation. We also use conferences, discussions, circles and a number of other auxiliary organisational forms for our work among peasant women.

Just a few more words on raising the standard of life of peasant women. During the five years of Soviet rule which we have had in White Russia, 120 creches, 35 consultation centres, and 180 playgrounds were organised. These figures are of course not very imposing, but if one takes into consideration our limited means and the short period of Soviet rule, one will have to say that our achievement in this direction has been considerable. Peasant women participate very actively in this work. Liquidation of illiteracy is one of our most important slogans, as illiteracy is one of the greatest evils inherited from the tsarist regime.

In conclusion, a few words on the activity of the International Women’s Secretariat. I think that the general policy of the Secretariat was correct, that it was adapted to the general tasks of the Comintern. The Secretariat did also definite organisational work. I should like to draw attention to a point on which the International Women’s Secretariat should concentrate in the future. I mean systematic popularisation of the work of the I.W.S. in the press, in order that we people in the other countries should be better informed about this work. I think it would be as well for the I.W.S. to publish a periodical bulletin throwing light on the immediate tasks and the work of our Communist Parties. Forms and methods for the establishment of liaison should be discussed with the Women’s Secretariat.

Comrade GRÜN (Austria): Our Austrian Party is but a small Party, and its 700 women members constitute one-fourteenth of the total membership. What has kept our Party so small? I do not think that the numerical strength of the Austrian Social Democratic Party can be considered as one of the reasons for this, for quality rather than quantity counts. In the Austrian Social Democratic Party we have an Otto Bauer, a Friedrich Adler and a Max Adler, and it is much more difficult to fight against an Otto Bauer as for instance in Germany against an Ebert and a Scheidemann.

Another reason which prevented the further development of our Austrian Party was the fraction strife which was disintegrating our Party for whole three years. It was only after the last Party Congress in October 1925 that our Party Committee, nine-tenths of which consists of factory workers, was able to develop an upward movement, It is only now that the Party is making progress and in view of the general improvement in the internal situation of the Party work among women is also making progress.

I will deal now separately with the various points of the theses before us. We can say that our collaboration with the Party apparatus is satisfactory, contrary to the reports of the preceding speakers. Our explanation for this is: that our C.C. consists almost entirely of workers who can see in the factories where they work, how important work among women is, and who have therefore come to the conclusion that this work is one of the most important tasks of the Party. This is shown in various ways. It goes without saying that the responsible head of the Women’s Department is a member of the C.C. Moreover the heads of sub-departments of our Central Women’s Department are represented in the respective Party departments, for instance the head of the educational work in Agitprop, the head of trade union work in the trade union department. Whenever possible a member of the Party Committee attends the sessions of the Central Women’s Department.

The effects of this harmonious collaboration were particularly noticeable at the recent International Women’s Day. Hitherto our Women’s Days were badly attended, but this year we succeeded in securing the participation of 2500 people in Vienna, and this was entirely due to the fact that the entire Party apparatus was at our disposal for a whole week.

Having kept in constant touch with the International Women’s Secretariat, we identify ourselves with the policy of the Secretariat and the theses. It is only necessary to discus the separate paragraphs. That we attach very great importance to work in the factories is shown by the fact that in our Central Women’s Department we have decided that every member of this department who does not yet work in a factory should be immediately appointed for such work. For instance I have been attached to the biggest factory nucleus and carry out all the work there together with the women comrades.

In this point of the agenda we can only pay a passing attention to Delegate Meetings and say: that delegate meetings  are certainly the best method for the capture of large sections of women, but that in Austria we cannot even contemplate the idea of such delegate meetings, because factories are the stronghold of the Social Democratic Party, and that for this reason it is almost impossible for us to penetrate them from outside. Only where we have already a factory nucleus will it be possible to make a beginning with small women’s circles.

We have only just begun to work among peasant women and women agricultural labourers, and arrangements are being made for propaganda in the rural districts which is intended to bring urban women workers in contact with the rural women proletarians.

We can only endorse what has been said here in respect to training and education. Being a small Party with only a few women members, the development of our work depends entirely on our capacity to train and educate the necessary forces. Therefore our first and foremost task was education and activisation of the women Party members. A Women Functionaries’ Course was held, limited to the organisational training and education of women comrades. The same aim is pursued by a women functionaries’ organ which we publish once a month. We also organised a women referent course, and at present we are training six women comrades selected by the Central Women’s Department for trade union work through: the trade union department of the Party.

The edition of our periodical “Die Arbeiterin” (“The Woman Worker”) increased lately from 2000 to 4000, which means that the periodical is now reaching circles hitherto not in touch, with the Party, considering that we have only 700 women members. Our women comrades do their utmost to increase the circulation of this periodical. We have succeeded in training a staff of about 30 working women correspondents who contribute to our organ.

In conclusion I should like to point out that in no other country is unemployment as great as in Austria, and that unemployment among women is steadily increasing. Our women are in this respect greater sufferers than men, as the u employment dole is first of all withdrawn from women because we represent the line of least resistance. That is why our most revolutionary elements are to be found among unemployed women. They organise demonstrations and meetings without any outside help. It has now been decided to carry on intensive agitation among unemployed women in order to direct these spontaneous demonstrations into the right channel.

Comrade MALM (Finland): A First of all I should like to say that during the last two years a considerable step forward has been made in the application of the delegate system on an international scale. But I have gathered from some of the speeches made at this conference that the possibility of the application of delegate conferences in European countries is still contended. Formerly women comrades used to assert that this method is only possible in Russia and is of no use in other countries as this form of work among women is only suitable where a Soviet regime exists. This objection no longer exists. But another objection has taken its place. In private conversation I have heard it said, and even Comrade Sturm spoke in this strain, that the delegate system as a method of work is only possible where Communist factory nuclei exist. I think that such a conception relegates the realisation of the delegate system in European countries until the time when factory nuclei exist everywhere. Such objections are harmful.

Finland is a predominantly agricultural country. Its population is 3,500,000, 65% of which live in the rural districts. 140,000 people are employed in industry including 48,000 women. 10,000 working women are organised in trade unions. The total number of the industrial and agricultural proletariat of Finland is 400,000.

Political conditions in Finland are not particularly favourable to revolutionary work. I remind you of the dissolution of the Left Socialist Youth League, of the Left Socialist Labour Party which was in sympathy with Communism, in 1923. Just now over 30 trade unions are prosecuted because of illegal activity and connection with the Communist Party. This situation is the background also of the development of the women’s movement.

In 1925 the first Delegate Conference or working women’s conference, as it was called, was held in Helsingfors. At that time Communist factory nuclei did not exist, but working women were determined to be active. This work was done without factory nuclei, and the conference of factory women workers was convened.

A working and peasant women’s conference was held in Uleaborg where a decision was made to address a manifesto to the working and peasant women of the Soviet Union and of other countries concerning the trade union united front. Just at present the bourgeoisie is attacking our trade union organisations, it intends to dissolve the central workers organisation, the Finnish Trade Union Federation. The following questions were on the agenda of the conference: Report on the political situation, delegates report on work among women and in co-operatives as well as their activity in support of political prisoners and Red orphans. 137 delegates attended the Helsingfors conference including 100 from factories. The following questions were on the agenda of this conference: Reports of individual factories and localities, political report, women and co-operatives wall newspapers, etc. The conference also drew up a list of tasks which delegates have to carry out in their respective factories before the next conference.

Prior to the Trade Union Congress a delegate meeting was convened which laid down the policy concerning trade union unity. It is proposed to convene delegate meetings every three months. Limiting the work to organised working women would be detrimental to the delegate system. In Finland no heed is taken if a working woman is organised or not, and this is the foundation of a real women’s movement.

In Finland work is not carried on only among working women but also among housewives. Two housewives conferences have been held which were also attended by women factory workers.

The immediate tasks confronting the radical labour movement of Finland are: firstly, overcoming the old prejudices in regard to work among women which still exist. Secondly, delegate conferences should be made a live institution with the help of which women masses can be drawn into the class struggle and trained for the required work.

I think that the International Women’s Secretariat has not done its utmost for the introduction of the delegate system. This is probably due to the fact that the Secretariat evidently does not agree with the introduction and development of the delegate system in all countries. The Secretariat seems to hold the view that the delegate system is not the chief means for bringing large numbers of non-Party women into the movement. I consider, that in Comrade Hertha Sturm’s theses the delegate movement is not considered the main line of our work. And yet recognition of this is the main thing. When new forms and methods of organisation are proposed, this only means that in most countries the delegate movement is not developing as it should, and that it leads to certain diversions of opinion and to differences among minor collaborators and also in the central organ. We must have full faith in the delegate movement and must bear in mind Lenin’s words.

Comrade OSTROVSKAYA (Soviet Union): If one compares the present speeches of the women comrades from the various capitalist countries with the speeches made by the representatives of the same countries at the Third Communist Women’s Conference, one gets the impression that a certain amount of progress has been made in our work. That this is so is shown by the fact that the central question at this conference is that of the form of organisation of the women masses. The question of delegate meetings found place on the agenda as a live question of the day. I am going to deal with three important stages of the women’s movement, namely the movement in Poland, Great Britain and France. In everyone of these countries the movement has reached a state characteristic of the women’s movement in the capitalist countries.

What do we see in Poland? The only material at my disposal is the report of the comrade from Poland. She said here that a big women’s strike movement has taken place in the country which was under the leadership of the Party. This shows that the Party has captured large sections of the working class population, and that it only remains to secure these elements for the Party.

In France the masses have as yet to be won. Work connected with this was taken in hand during the campaign against the Morocco war. It has not yet taken the character of a fully developed movement of active women masses. Circles are being formed, and it is essential to arouse more sections of women  and to aim at close contact with the masses. The economic situation of the country is favourable to the development of a working women’s movement. But we not the only Party there. Therefore it is necessary to prepare proletarian women for this work. It is essential to find a proper method for establishing contact between us and the mass of working women.

In Great Britain the masses were roused, the Party Executive did its utmost to bring them in contact with the Party, but the influence gained was not made secure organisationally. Everything should be done to prevent sections of the working class, who were aroused by recent events, becoming again passive. In order to establish organisational connection between the Party and the masses, special means and methods must be found.

But to judge by what women comrades from the capitalist countries say about Delegate Meetings, it is self-evident that they are afraid, nay even convinced, that under the conditions existing in capitalist countries it will be impossible to utilise delegate meetings as a method of work, as a link between the Party and the mass of working women. I really did not intend to speak on this point, the first item on our agenda, but I have done so because I could gather from the speeches of the women comrades that a new form of work is making its appearance: the club.

Can Clubs serve as a form of work among women masses? What is the position of clubs in regard to delegate meetings? I am of the opinion that it is essential to thoroughly deal with this question here. Even if it be “not yet” acute and only in its initial stage, it is bound to become acute “tomorrow”. I think that the comrade from Finland was right when she said that delegate meetings are the fundamental and essential form of work among women masses for all countries.

May be that women delegate meetings in capitalist countries must be differently constructed, for instance on the model of women delegate meetings here prior to the revolution. The Russian women comrades spoke already on this subject at the emergency meeting yesterday. With us too the first women delegates were not elected. The Women’s Department selected suitable people for active work, and through this body of active workers the Party issued instructions to the masses, gave them support and organised them. Subsequently, the masses recognised these people as their representatives, and in this way came about election of delegates from below. After this body of active workers had been properly instructed, properly elected cadres of working women delegates were created with its help and the help of the groups which rallied around it.

The comrades here are telling me that under illegal conditions it is impossible to convene delegate meetings in the factories. But after all it is not necessary to bring together at least 100 working women. Make these meetings as small as our illegal propagandist circles were once upon a time. They were built up almost in the same manner: The worker who organised the circle brought with him fellow workers from one or several factories whom he knew and selected; then the propagandists worked systematically with systematically with them, discussed various questions and instructed them. Never mind the number and never mind the title given to the institution. I am of the opinion that delegate meetings are a method tested by long experience and worthy to be copied.

Under special conditions such as we find for instance in the East, the club can facilitate the selection of a basic cadre with the help of which delegate meetings are to be instituted. It is so to speak a laboratory in which the first delegates are produced required for laying the foundation of the delegate meeting.

I will deal now with the next point. In France the method which is given at present most prominence is the organisation of women around the “Ouvrière”, a very interesting form of organisation which is, however, not a broad movement and can on no account take the place of delegate meetings. It is a circle which too can help to select the future delegates among its members.

Clubs will perhaps take root in France which has a tradition of political clubs. Clubs can be certainly successful, but care should be taken to take up a correct attitude, particularly at present. The women’s movement is on the lookout for a method of work. In our times this question is not at all so simple, it can develop into a question of tactics.

Comrade Faussecave said that the working women are still afraid of the Party, whereas they are no longer afraid of the trade unions, and that one should therefore work in the latter. She is quite right. But working women must be adequately prepared for work in the trade unions in order that they should understand what they have to do there and how the work is to be done. This task can be thus accomplished by the delegate meeting.  

I think it necessary to touch upon another important point today. Two years ago one could see by Emmy Freundlich’s theses at the Co-operative Congress in Ghent that the Second International was seriously considering work among women in town and country. I said at the time that it was not really a question of co-operative theses but rather a question of a political activisation of the Second International in regard to work among women as shown by the formation of the International Women’s Guild and the discussion of the question of work among peasant women and of a reorganisation of the Women’s Department of the Second International in this direction. Two years have gone by since then. The International Women’s Secretariat should have given us at this conference a report containing figures concerning the achievements of the Second International in this sphere, telling us what our opponents have accomplished, what forms of work they used, what tasks they set themselves and did not solve.

We must study the activity of our opponents, the methods they use and the movement of which they are the leaders, in order to become master of the situation. An item of the agenda of this conference is the creation of non-Party women’s organisations. To do justice to this question we must have figures concerning the forces and successes of our opponents.  

At present our forms of work are our tactics, our success depends on correct tactics, and in order to elaborate correct tactics it is essential to examine the activity of our opponents on the strength of facts.

Comrade NADIEZHDINA (China): I agree with Comrade Sturm’s report, but would like to deal with the position and tasks of the Chinese Party in regard to work among women.

In the Chinese Party too, we have an apparatus for work among women: the Central Women’s Department. The Women’s Department was not founded until December 1924. Subsequently we formed women’s departments in every Party Committee: in Shanghai, Peking and Canton. Attached to these women’s departments there are commissions for work among women masses. These commissions consist mostly of women comrades. The Chinese Party has over 10,000 members, 10% of whom are women. According to their social composition I must say that most of them are women workers, namely about 80%, the remainder being women students and peasant women. The most important features of our Party’s work among women are:

1. Work among women workers and peasant women.

2. Work among women intellectuals and women students.

1. Work among women workers is the main task of our Party. There is still political oppression in China, freedom of assembly, freedom of press and of speech does not as yet exist. This makes our work very difficult, particularly among women workers and peasant women. Only since 1925 we have been able to get in contact with the masses. Most of the women comrades joined the Party only last year.

Chinese women workers, particularly in Shanghai, are oppressed and exploited by native and foreign capitalists, with the result that their labour conditions are very bad. They work 12, 14 and even 16 hours per day. Their wage is only between 6 and 30 cents, i.e. about 11⁄2d. to 711⁄2d per day. That is why women workers are become revolutionised.

On the other hand work among peasant women has been neglected because objective conditions are difficult and subjective conditions also inadequate. In fact work among peasant women was only initiated this year in the Kwantung province. Peasant women there are in sympathy with us.

I do not know how many peasant women are organised, but as regards women workers we can say that of the 600,000 to 700,000 workers organised throughout China, 100,000 are women. These 100,000 women workers are under our influence because all organised workers are under our influence.

2. We have two legal forms of organisation for work among women in general. Firstly, the Kuomintang which has women’s departments and in which we can work just as we like. The second form are the non-Party organisations. Our plan of work in regard to activity in the women’s movement can be fully carried out through these organisations. Our slogans are: Social equality for men and women! Down with traditions which enslave women! Reforms for women’s education! Equal educational facilities for men and women! Support for poor women workers and peasant women! Protection for motherhood and childhood! We can work for these slogans also in the Kuomintang and in the non-Party organisations, contributing thereby to women’s revolutionisation. But women become revolutionised not only because of our tactics and propaganda, it is rather objective conditions which compel women to become revolutionary.

And now just a few facts: During the Shanghai events of the last few years thousands of women students took part in the demonstrations and collected a considerable amount of money in support of the workers. Formerly women students in Shanghai were under the influence of the clergy. But in this movement they forgot all about their god. Many women students who attended evangelical schools have left them.

On March 18th last a big demonstration took place in Peking in which many women students participated. Among the 40 killed there were also several women students. These facts show that not only working women, but also women students are becoming more and more revolutionary. In spite of objectively favourable conditions, our success has not been considerable. We have but little literature for the labour and particularly for the women’s movement, we have also very few men comrades capable of leading the labour movement and still fewer women comrades capable of working successfully among women masses. Theoretical work is also inadequate. This applies generally but is true particularly of the women’s movement.

At the last Enlarged Executive of the Comintern I proposed that the Women’s Secretariat should publish a women’s periodical. I can take from my own experience that such a periodical is very necessary.

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. A major contributor to the Communist press in the U.S., 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/1927/v07n38-jul-06-1927-inprecor-op.pdf