A U.S. delegate writes on July, 1924’s Third International Conference of Women Communists held in Moscow around the Fifth Comintern Congress.

‘East Meets West and the North Meets South at International Conference of Communist Women’ by Sadi Amter from The Daily Worker. Vol. No. 130. August 19, 1924.

MOSCOW, July 12. The International Conference of Communist Women met In Moscow, with 148 delegates from all over the world and hundreds of visitors from Moscow and all Russia. Just as in the Comintern Congress, here east meets west and north meets south and all colors and races are represented.

A presidium was elected including Comrade Clara Zetkin, a Chinese delegate, a Turkish delegate, four Russian delegates, and one each from several other countries, in addition to the honorary presidium consisting of Comrades Zinoviev, Krupskayia, Trotsky, Tomsky, Bucharin and Pepper.

Women From All Parts of Globe.

Here were delegates from all quarters of the globe: from China and Korea; from France and Belgium; from Poland and Norway, North and South America, England and Turkey, Roumania, Armenia and Turkestan. Here were women of all races and all colors, come to discuss the problems of the proletarian women in all countries and to listen to reports to women of all countries and to take back with them the decisions, advice and the inspiration of the conference.

Clara Zetkin, the old war horse, now weak and white, but still alive with her unconquerable idealism and enthusiasm, is the founder of the international women’s movement. For thirty years she has been a ceaseless worker in the battle of the proletariat, against the exploiter, and the women’s international is one of her latest and finest achievements.

The peasant women all over Russia, from the Ukraine and the Caucauses, from the Volga and the Don Bas, were represented. They told of the educational and cultural work among the peasant women, who formerly could not read or write, and were as much without rights as the women of the orient.

Women Praise Proletarian Revolution.

The Russian proletarian revolution has completely changed the status of women, both industrial and peasant, all over Russia. The rights of the women in Russia are exactly the same as those of the men, and this means not only before the law, but in the shops, factories and trade unions. There are special laws for working women, such as the prohibition of night work and dangerous work, and maternity laws providing two months’ rest before and after birth. Therefore the 22 Russian delegates have much to tell to their sisters from bourgeois countries, where the power is still in the hands of profit-gorged and blood-stained capitalists.

The Women of the Far East.

Comrade Casparava, in charge of the eastern section, gave a detailed report on the problems and struggles of the proletarian women in the near and far east. She said in China and Japan there is complete disenfranchisement of women, and a state of virtual slavery exists because of the illiteracy of the women and their absolute subjection to the heads of the household. In China women are bought and sold, and upon marriage become the complete property of their husbands. In Japan a woman is punished with thirty days’ imprisonment for participating in a political movement. Thus the fight in these countries takes the form of a fight for the emancipation of women from barbarous marital and suffrage laws; the fight for education, the stamping out of prostitution, as well as equality with men.

But even in these backward countries the women have already resorted to strikes in industry, although in Japan at present there are only 6,000 organized women. In November and December three textile strikes took place in which 8,000 women took part, 70 per cent of the Japanese peasants are hired laborers and semi-proletarians. In China in 1923 there were 35 strikes involving 40,000 women. The problems affecting the women of other eastern countries like India and Korea are practically the same; that is the fight for education and the emancipation of women from ancient and barbarous customs.

Problems Facing Western Women.

In western countries, particularly Germany, we find a different situation. Here the feminist fight is a thing of the past. Here it is a question of the class struggle. The German proletariat is on the eve of taking power. The German women both in industry and in the homes must be mobilised for the final struggle. The German proletarian women must stand solidly in the ranks with labor and by their numbers and power add to the fighting capacity of the entire working class.

In Germany, France, England and America, the question is therefore one of organization. The question of the shop nuclei becomes one of paramount importance. The shop nuclei must be organized and spurred on to activity. They must begin at once the work of awakening the self interest of women in the shop. The question of wages, hours, shop conditions, equal pay for equal work with the men, shop committees etc., must be brought before the workers. The Communist women nucleus in a shop must be in constant touch with the women’s committee of the party and this, in turn, with the central committee.

Tenant Leagues and Co-operatives.

Communist women must also form fractions in such proletarian organizations as tenant leagues and co-operatives and work actively within them, in the struggle; at the same time showing the workers the necessity for even greater and greater efforts toward organization.

The conference discussed and adopted the women’s delegates meetings as one of the best means for reaching the masses in the factories, awakening their self interest and pointing out to them the need for organization and class consciousness.

How Meetings Are Conducted.

The following method is used in the delegates’ meetings: The Communist nucleus in a shop after a certain amount of canvassing and personal contact with the women workers calls a meeting for discussion. Out of this meeting should be elected a committee built around the Communist nucleus to whom all shop grievances should be taken. The committee should arrange, thereafter, regular meetings and get into contact with other shop committees for joint meetings of delegates elected at their shop meetings. The delegates should hold office for several months. Thru the delegates elected in each shop contact is established with all the women workers in a factory district, thus reaching the masses of women in industry.

At the conference all the difficulties of this procedure in capitalist countries were pointed out, but since the move for the seizure of power will come out of the factories. The dangers involved must not deter us from organizing the millions of women in industry in the best way we know.

Comrade John Pepper, C.I. representative, must be given credit for his clear arguments for the delegate system, about which there was considerable misunderstanding. The Russian delegates were at first inclined to believe, that, while the women’s delegate system has worked splendidly and with flaming spontaneity among Russian women, since the seizure of power, that the plan would be difficult or impossible in capitalist countries. The delegate system won out and is incorporated in the organizational thesis.

Factory Workers Greet Conference.

Women delegates from a number of Russian factories greeted the conference. With great enthusiasm they told the foreign delegates of women’s work in Russia, what the revolution had brought to them and their interest in revolutionary work abroad.

It is nothing short of miraculous to hear these women of factory, shop and field speak with knowledge and confidence at large meetings of foreign delegates. They were answered with storms of applause and a pledge of the conference to take up more keenly than ever, the work or organizing the world proletarian women for the proletarian revolution.

Lenin’s Widow Attends Conference.

At the conference appeared a little woman with great calm eyes and gray hair. Her black cotton dress was always the same. To hear her speak is a delight and to see her once is never to forget her. She is Krupskayia (wife of Lenin) and her big heart and fine mind fit her ideally for the place she holds—organizing homes for homeless children.

Krupskayia spoke of Lenin’s great faith in the masses and the proletarian instinct. Lenin said that future society will be built out of the collective will and the collective life of the masses who free to think and act will by their own creativeness organize the new world.

“To the masses”—that is the slogan of the congress of the Communist International—that is the slogan of the Women’s Conference: that is the slogan of the Youth International. Reach the masses of the workers. Awaken their understanding of the class struggle. Show them the hopelessness of capitalism. Teach them the spirit of solidarity. Teach them that in organization lies strength! The victory of the entire working class is approaching, but we must prepare for it; we must be ready to take power and to hold power when that time comes. Three great tasks lie before us. “Organize, organize and organize.”

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1924/v02a-n130-aug-19-1924-DW-LOC.pdf