Still in the mid-1920s, many Comintern sections had negligible women members and no women’s work, with the largest percentages of women (20% and over) in Scandinavia, and Czecho-Slovakia, those areas being well represented at the 1925 Organizational Conference. After the opening reports by Zetkin and Nikolayeva the conference moved to discussion with interventions from Bertz, Ullrich (Germany,) Suzanne (France), Suchardova (Czecho-Slovakia), Viola (Italy), Brown (Great Britain), Mitzkevitch, Arboré-Ralli, Kornblum, (E.C.C.I.), Hansen (Norway) as well as closings from Zetkin and Nikolayeva.

‘Organization Conference on Communist Work Among Women: Discussion’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 5 No. 56. July 15, 1925.

Comrade Bertz (Germany):

The work of our Party among the women has made great progress. It now forms a part of the general Party work. In all Party organisations a leading member is made responsible for the work among the women. By this means a closer connection is brought about between the women’s work and the political leadership. The district organisations, local groups, etc., possess women’s committees carrying on the work among the women in the factories, among the housewives, etc. In Chemnitz the leaders of the district organisation decided that every district conference has to hear a half hour’s report on the work being done among the women. The women comrades including working women from the factories, take an active part in the conferences. The mandates of the women comrades have to be confirmed by the competent Party leaders. The Party leaders have to be represented at every meeting held by the women’s committee or by the women comrades.

Our chief sphere of work is in the factories and trade unions. The reorganisation of the Party work on factory nucleus lines has involved certain difficulties, since the majority of our women comrades are housewives, and our work was formerly carried on more among the housewives than among the working women. One member of each factory nucleus is made responsible for work among the women.

In the textile industry we have numerous nuclei composed of women comrades only, and working extremely energetically. The nuclei furnish us with excellent fingerposts for our work. At the last women’s conference in Berlin not only the women leaders of the district women’s committees participated, but women representatives of important factor nuclei.

We have not made much progress with the working women’s committees. The committee in Gera is still too isolated. The movement should be spread over the whole of Thuringia and Saxony.

Work in the shops and factories is being carried on in close combination with the trade union fractions.

We have carried on campaigns among the women home workers, especially in the Ore Mountains, Vogtland, in Silesia, and in Berlin. The only way of reaching these women is to visit them in their homes. In the Ore Mountains a series of systematic visits paid by our women comrades enabled 50 question sheets to be filled out, containing much valuable information on the working and living conditions of the home workers. This material is used by us in the press, and for working out motions to be submitted to parliament, as for instance in the question of the exploitation of child work.

We are also endeavouring to reach the peasant women. But for this field of work we have not many active women comrades. Our women comrades have delegated a working woman to a peasants’ conference for the establishment of a connection between town and country.

We place great value on keeping the working women in communication with the press. In Chemnitz the working women have become accustomed to coming to the district secretary when they have complaints to make.

Besides the “Kommunistin”, we have a number of other special working women’s papers, written almost exclusively by working women, and appearing in Berlin, West Saxony (Leipzig), Ŏre Mountains, Vogtland (Chemnitz), Thuringia, and Baden-Rhine-Saar. These papers, despite some defects, give a faithful picture of the working woman’s life.

Our latest experiences have taught us that the movement is still in the stage of infancy, but that we were able to attain greater success last year than ever before, having emancipated ourselves from the false traditions of separating the women in special organisations.

Comrade Suzanne (France):

We are not yet able to give any extensive report on the success of our work. We have however made considerable progress since the congress at Lyons. The necessity of energetic work among the women has been recognised by the whole Party. The last Party conference dealt exhaustively with this question, and the men comrades took part in the discussion. New faces were seen at both the Party conference and the women’s conference. Hitherto the women attending the conferences and meetings were chiefly the wives of the men comrades, but this time the women were workers from the factories, delegated by the district conference. This is the first result of the reorganisation of the Party on the factory nucleus basis. In France, even among the working class, there is still a tendency to cling to the tradition that woman is the “soul” of the home, the “house fairy”, and should not trouble about politics. The factory cells are now enabling us to come into direct contact with the working women.

In Paris we have a commission for work among the women in almost every district. There are also such commissions in the Departements Nord, Lyons, Pas de Calais, and Basse Seine, etc. In every nucleus one comrade is entrusted with the work among the women. There is scarcely a factory nucleus newspaper without at least one article on questions relating to the women workers.

We have a Central Women’s Agitation Commission for the whole country, and a women’s secretariat. This consists of a secretary, an editor, and a shorthand writer. These three woman comrades are employed by the Party. Besides this, the Paris federation has appointed an additional secretary for work among the women. In the other federations the work is done by the comrades without payment.

Besides the national women’s conference, district women’s conferences have also been held for the Paris and Nord federations. The national women’s conference appointed two commissions, one for drawing up the demands of the working women, and one for the housewives. A commission composed of members of the parliamentary fraction, physicians, lawyers, and representatives of the women’s commission, is engaged in drawing up bills to be submitted to the Chamber by our Party fraction. The first bill is one for the protection of mother and child.

The cadres of active women comrades are still very weak. We are endeavoring to bring forward fresh forces. In the central Leninist Party school there were five women comrades out of 50 participants. In Paris we have now arranged for a special course of instruction for schooling active women comrades. This is held twice weekly, and is attended regularly by 60 women comrades, frequently by more.

The Seine federation has worked out a definite working plan for factory nucleus work among the women.

In the trade unions there is a much closer connection than formerly between the Party and the labour C.G.T.U. The new secretary for women’s work, appointed by the C.G.T.U. in agreement with the Party, is a working woman from a large factory. Besides this, a special woman secretary is employed for the trade unions of the Paris federations. The end of the “stabilisation”, the ever rising prices, and the failure to maintain the eight hour day, afford excellent opportunities of appealing to the masses of working women.

No work has been done yet among the women peasantry.

The Party carried on an effective campaign during the strike of the sardine workers in Douarnenez. It is now carrying on an extensive campaign for women’s suffrage. At the municipal elections the Party placed women candidates on the lists in places where they were secure of election. The great feminist organisations, at one time standing so energetically for women’s suffrage, are now silent. They will soon be obliged to confess their true colors, for or against, as soon as the attempt is made to set aside woman’s vote.

The press carrying on propaganda among the women has suffered from two main defects up to now. It has been more feminist than communist, and has appealed more to the housewife than to the factory worker.

The propaganda periodical has now become more accessible to the working women. Its distribution is organised by the nuclei. It has thus been possible to increase its circulation from 3000 to 7500 since January. The paper is now being distributed by the provincial federations as well, especially in the Nord and Lyons.

The periodical “L’Ouvrière” is now publishing the letters of working women correspondents.

The daily press now publishes women’s pages daily. The “Humanité” was the first to publish half a page weekly, and the provincial papers have since followed this example. On the occasion of the International Women’s Conference the “Humanité” devoted two pages of one number to the working women, one page of another number to the peasant woman.

The growing influence of the Party on the masses of women workers could be plainly observed at the International Women’s Day, held in Paris on 18. March at the same time as the anniversary celebrations for the Commune. Of the 6000 participants in the mass meeting in Paris, 2000 were women, a greater proportion than has ever before been the case.

In France the homeworkers play a very important role. The Party has however not yet begun work among these workers. The district conferences, attended by women Party members only, are informatory and instructive in character. The subject here chiefly discussed are plans and methods for work among the women. Besides these conferences, we hold others of a more agitatory character, attended by women sympathising with our movement.

Comrade Suchardova (Mährisch-Ostrau, Czecho-Slovakia):

In Czecho-Slovakia the women’s movement was at one time a women’s rights party. Large masses of women were organised in the old Social Democratic Party, forming the Left wing of this. In 1920, at the time of the split and founding of the Communist Party, the great majority of the women decided for the Third International. The C.P. of Czecho-Slovakia counts 25% women among its members, the majority of these being housewives.

The Party central includes a National Women’s Agitation Commission. Its decisions are submitted to the Executive Committee for confirmation. Every district has its District Women’s Agitation Commission, and a member of the political leadership is responsible for the work among the women. The local groups do not yet all possess Women’s Commissions.

The cadres of active women members are composed chiefly of housewives. The women have worked with great energy, especially during strikes and in the high prices campaign, many women’s meetings and demonstrations being held in the market places and at the exchange. The women comrades have also worked zealously for the International Worker’s Relief and have induced non-party women to join them in this. Their work has also been of great value among the children and in the Group of Ten service.

We have done but little work in the shops and factories. This work is bound up with the general Party work. In every place where factory nuclei exist, work is being done among the working women. The women comrades working in the nuclei have also to take part in the sessions of the Women’s Agitation Commission.

In the trade unions the work is very much split up. Almost every party has its own trade union. Women comrades are delegated to the meetings of the Red Trade Unions, in which many women are organised, for the purpose of raising the question of work among the women.

Among the women peasants and women agricultural labourers work has developed greatly. There are but few country places in which there is no local group of the C.P. of Czecho-Slovakia. These groups include women everywhere. The women cottagers attend all our meetings in the country. The peasants’ communist newspaper has one page for the peasant women.

In the C.P. of Czecho-Slovakia it will be difficult to organise the delegates’ meetings. The conditions are exceptional in Czecho-Slovakia, and almost all women are politically organised in some manner. There are practically no non-partisans.

We have carried out a very successful recruiting campaign for the trade unions.

The homeworkers’ industries are highly developed in Czecho-Slovakia. We are preparing the formation of women home-workers’ committees.

We have three political and one trade unionist women’s periodicals. The “Kommunistka” (Czech) publishes an edition of 10,000. Women worker correspondents contribute to this paper. The “Kommunistin” (German) has a circulation of about 2000, the “Proletarka” (Slovakian) of 1300 and the “Delnice” (Czech), the organ of the Red Trade Unions, of 18,000. On special occasions, as for instance the International Women’s Conference special numbers of these periodicals are issued. The daily Party papers have women’s supplements. Besides this, pamphlets are issued for the agitation among the women.

The International Women’s Day will be conducted on a larger scale this year than last. In 1924 there were 190 meetings, attended on an average by 50 persons. For this 300 meetings have already been arranged.

Our sole representative in Parliament is the woman comrade Mala. This comrade has collected much material on the position of women, and has drawn up various bills to be submitted to Parliament. At the present time a motherhood law is being proposed by us. It is our endeavour to combine the presentations of our motions in Parliament with mass actions, and we organise great propaganda meetings at which these questions are dealt with.

We have been reproached with imparting a petty bourgeois character to the women’s movement. We are however exerting our utmost endeavour to revolutionise the women. This is evidenced by the demonstrations at the magistracy, etc. during the  campaign against high prices.

We have arranged courses of instruction for women comrades in Prague and in various districts.

The central apparatus for work among the women is exceedingly weak. In Prague we have a woman secretary, three women editors for the three women’s periodicals, a woman secretary in Brünn, and another in Carpatho-Russia.

A National Conference of Women Communists was held in connection with the Party Conference, and this elected the Women’s Agitation Commission afterwards confirmed by the Party Conference. At the same time women’s conferences were arranged in the various districts. The elections made at District Agitation Conferences must however invariably be confirmed by the District Executive Committees or by the District Conferences.

Comrade Viola (Italy):

I can only report on a beginning of our work. Between 1923 and the V. World Congress the Party accomplished nothing in the sphere of work among women. The whole forces of the Party were concentrated on the defence of the organisations apparatus and on the fight against Fascism. After the V. World Congress a woman comrade was appointed as secretary, exclusively for work among the women. This comrade is at the same time a member of the central.

The two first tasks undertaken by the women’s secretary were the re-issue of the woman’s periodical the “Compagna”, which had been suppressed under Fascism, and the organisation of a national conference of women communists for the reorganisation of the whole work.

The “Compagna” published an edition of 3000 copies. It proved however impossible to hold the national conference. It is now intended to convocate it in connection with the next Party congress.

In Italy powerful traditions still exist, even among some of our own comrades, against the participation of women in politics. We have in consequence only a small percentage of women members.

The periodical cannot appear regularly. When it was suppressed, it was substituted by an illegal paper, the “Proletaria”. We are trying to form a firm body of women correspondents in the Party centres. Letters from the working women themselves have appeared in the latest numbers. The paper has now attained a circulation of 6000. Besides this, the Party has issued small elementary pamphlets for the agitation among women. The general press is also according much attention to the women’s question.

The decisions of the Third International Conference of Women Communists have caused instructions to be sent to all Party organisations with reference to the reorganisation of work among the women.

In the districts we have arranged for small conferences among the women comrades, in order to give instructions for the work. Such conferences have been held in Turin, Milan, Florence, and Rome. A decision of the Turin conference led to the appointment of a central women’s committee to aid the women’s secretary. This committee is composed of six women comrades from the most important districts of the country, as for instance Turin, Florence, Milan, Como, and Rome. There are several working women among the members of this committee. Other committees of three to five women comrades have been formed in 34 districts. In the remaining district one man or woman comrade is entrusted with the work.

An important part of the work is that performed by the factory nucleus. Working women are members of many of these nuclei. Nucleus work induces numbers of women to join the Party, especially in the industrial centres. One of the main slogans is for the return of the working women into the trade unions.

Before the Fascist coup d’etat we had clubs of women sympathisers in the main centres for carrying on work among the housewives. The Party is now beginning to reorganise these groups. The situation is favourable, mainly owing to the high prices. In Southern Italy there has been much unrest on account of the rising prices, and the working women have demonstrated in the streets. In Naples, Bari and Lecce the women stormed the bakers’ shops.

Work among the peasant women is extremely difficult. As a rule we possess no Party organisation in the small villages.

An extensive campaign was organised on the occasion of the International Women’s Day. In our situation it is not possible for us to arrange the great meetings and demonstrations which can be held in other countries. We organised meetings at the factory gates when the workers were coming out, and small semi-legal meetings both in town and country. A special number of the “Compagna” was published.

The women Party members have proved reliable and useful even during the periods in which the Party laboured under the greatest disabilities. They have rendered excellent service in keeping up communications. In matters relating to the housing and high prices questions the women comrades have also given much energetic aid.

In the Trade Unions, women are represented in the largest number in the textile workers’ union, 80% of whose members are women. As a rule the trade union leaders are reformists. The work being done by the Social Democrats (Unitarians) among the women is retrogressing. Their organ for women’s agitation: “Difesa della Lavoratrice” (Defence of the working woman) has died out for lack of readers.

The session here adjourned till Monday.

2. Session, Monday 6. April 1925.

Comrade Kornblum suggested that the further reports from the sections should be combined with the debate on the resolution submitted.

The most important point of the resolution is its reference to work among the masses, and to the organisatory means of reaching these masses. The part of the resolution dealing with the inner Party organisation of work among the women is for the most part taken from the organisation statutes of the Organisation Conference, and already well known in substance to the Sections. The question of the organisatory means of reaching the masses is however new, and should be specially debated. Above all, the possibility of employing the Russian forms of work, the formation of women workers’ circles and delegates’ meetings, should be discussed.

Comrade Kornblum then opened the debate.

Comrade Brown (Great Britain):

I am in agreement with the resolution on the whole. In the C.P. of Great Britain there has been a great danger of isolating the work among the women from the general work of the Party. Thus for instance at the last Women’s Conference, held simultaneously with the Party Conference, no attempt was made at politically combining the work of the two conferences.

The most important point of the resolution appears to me to be the work of the factory nuclei among the women, and the work in the trade unions, to be carried on in closest connection with the Minority Movement.

The 5. Party Conference and the Women’s Conference being held at the same time are confronted by three main tasks. In the first place the whole Party must be thoroughly permeated with the realisation that work among the women is not merely the affair of the women communists, but has to be carried on by the whole Party by means of the Party apparatus.

In the second place groups of working women must be formed around the Party nuclei and the committees of the trade union Minority Movement, in order to reach and lead the working women. This applies especially to the textile industry, which employs 500,000 women workers. It is precisely in the textile centres that we suffered the severest defeats in the parliamentary elections, for the working women voted for the Conservatives. The crisis now impending in the textile industry, a consequence of the supercapitalisation following on the conditions induced by the war, will lead to an aggravated exploitation of the working class. We must make use of this. A staff of 20 to 30 women comrades, upon whom the Party can rely, should be trained for working among these women.

In the third place the Communist fractions in the co- operatives, and in the women’s sections of the Labour Party, should be developed. It is precisely the women’s sections in the Labour Party which form the fulcrum of Macdonald’s policy, as we saw in the elections. Here again a left wing should be formed.

A new question is the development of the housewives’ guilds, especially in Sheffield, Dundee, Greenock and Bradford. The members of these belong to the Labour Party, but are in opposition to Macdonald’s policy, and are now showing a tendency to desert the general movement. It is our task to bring these women, individually or collectively, in connection with the women’s sections of the Labour Party.

The press is a weak spot. We need: firstly a periodical for the masses of working women, dealing in the plainest manner with the daily questions of women’s struggles, and secondly a number of similar leaflets dealing with separate questions and calculated to counteract the influence of the Labour Party and the Independent Labour Party.

Comrade Mitzkevitch (Org. Depart. of the E.C.C.I.):

The question of the extension of our influence over the non-party masses of women is the really essential question to be dealt with here. The Third International Women’s Conference discussed this subject, but only in general. Nothing definite could be stated, for the necessary experience was lacking. The facts here adduced show that it is possible to utilise for the West, in some form or another, the methods of work employed by the Russian C.P. Today, now that we are forming factory nuclei everywhere, and are building up the Party on this basis, it is possible to convocate factory meetings and special women’s meetings. Perhaps in forms similar to those adopted in Russia in 1908/09.

In 1923, when the movement took its uplift in the West, control commissions sprang into being for combatting the high prices. At the present time, in the midst of a standstill, we must ask ourselves whether it is possible to form a control commission or a delegates’ meeting. To me it appears impossible to do this today without preparation. The experience gained in Russia must be applied, but not in the abstract form of delegates’ meetings, but in the ways and means of reaching this point. This is expressed in the resolution submitted to us.

The delegates’ meetings developed systematically out of the small circles and gatherings first organised. We become fully conscious of developing from similar beginnings, when we look our difficulties fairly in the face. If we do not do this, we shall not reach our goal. During a fighting period even the most backward masses can be gathered around certain slogans. But at the present juncture it is not so easy to proceed to delegates’ meetings in the strict sense of the term. We can begin with a circle, and not on a scale embracing the whole country, but proceeding from one department to another, from one factory to another, etc. This is the sole basis upon which it is possible to arrive at the delegates’ meeting.

What is new in our resolution as compared with the resolution passed by the Third International Women’s Conference? On that occasion the question was raised generally, here it is defined. It may be that even yet we do not define it sufficiently. But this is a task which may be performed later by the International Women’s Secretariat or by a special commission.

Comrade Suzanne (France):

The formulation of the resolution on the formation of delegates’ meetings is not forceful enough. We read: “Should the masses evidence interest in any political or economic question, the attempt must be made to form delegates’ meetings” Under such conditions it should be made the duty of the Party. And in any case the circles and groups must be organised among the working women.

In the section on “Trade union work” another paragraph should be added on the co-operation of the trade union women organisers in the factories with the organisations of such trade unions as are affiliated to the R.I.L.U. Another necessary additional paragraph is one on women homeworkers, especially a demand for their organisation in trade unions.

Comrade Ullrich (Germany):

I share the opinion expressed by comrade Mitzkevitch, that it is not possible to simply introduce the delegate system. The way must first be prepared. But to do this it is not necessary to wait for conflicts. What this leads to may be seen in the developments of the control committee movement in Germany. The crisis of 1923 left us no time to build a firm foundation; we were obliged to pass at once to the election of control committees organisations corresponding to the delegate system. When the stabilisation came, the control committees fell to pieces.

We must therefore steer definitely and determinedly toward one goal: The delegate system must absolutely be actualised. But in preparing the way for it, value must be laid on the circles, the bases of the delegate system. We need not wait for conflicts, for they are always there.

The resolution should contain no formulations containing the word “attempt”; the decisive mode of expression of the earlier draft should be restored.

Comrade Kornblum (Secretariat of the E.C.C.I.):

The new formulation gives the impression that the whole delegate system is not to be accepted. It looks like a compromise proposal. This was however certainly not the intention of the writer of this paragraph. The formulation does not express that we are to endeavour to organise the delegates’ meetings. We must not set up various conditions as prerequisite for this organisation, as for instance the influence exercised by the communists, the interest taken by women, and the like.

Comrade Hansen (Norway):

In our Party we still find many of the old social democratic conceptions of the women’s movement. Before the split our Party resembled the English Labour Party in its organisatory structure. This makes it difficult to adjust work into the right lines. We have still no contact with the masses, and no factory nuclei. We have commenced of late to form these, but they have not yet been activised. We have on the other hand already appointed organisers for the work among the masses of women.

Recently we conducted an extensive campaign against the bourgeois women, who had joined to form a united front in defence of the so-called “women’s interests”. The non-party women’s organisations under our leadership in Bergen 500 to 600 members deal with all the leading questions of the day. Besides the Party schools, attended by numerous women comrades, we have women’s groups for schooling those women members who are still backward. The development of the factory nuclei, and the transition to the incorporation of specifically women’s work in the general work of the Party, will enable these women’s groups to disappear gradually.

I am in perfect agreement with the resolution. The new formulation on the delegates’ meetings appears to me too to be exceedingly weak.

Comrade Clara Zetkin:

The contested passage must be better formulated, and made to express our idea more clearly and definitely. Shall we exert our utmost endeavours to put the delegate system into actual practice? The opinion has been expressed that this is only possible during especially acute conflicts between the classes. This opinion has

been influenced onesidedly by the origin of the committees of control and action in Germany. In a capitalist state of society every day and every hour supply the premises for unrest and fermentation among the proletarian and working women. These premises are given by the class antagonism between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, affecting the working and living conditions of the working women.

Is it possible to form a system of representatives? History itself has replied to this question, long before this session was held, and even long before our Russian women comrades put or answered the question. In England the suffragettes, trade unions, women’s cooperatives, etc. have been forming institutions. for many decades, the Joint Committees, fulfilling the tasks of the delegate system in another form. The English example shows that we can create a system of elected women representatives of the interests of broad masses of women at any time, without acute conflicts being the necessary premise.

That which is possible in capitalist England must be equally possible in capitalist Germany, France, and other capitalist states, but in forms and under conditions corresponding to the given situation. The importance of the requisite preparatory work has been delineated by comrade Nikolayeva in the most convincing manner. In the highly developed capitalist countries the organisation of women workers’ and delegates’ meetings in the factories is for instance rendered very difficult, or even impossible, by the system upon which production is organised, and by the rule of the employer. But where good preparatory work has been accomplished with the aid of circles and nuclei, it becomes possible to hold such meetings outside of the shops and factories.

The delegate system is one of the very best methods of mobilising great masses of working women, housewives, women homeworkers, and women of the petty bourgeoisie, holding the most varying social views, and of bringing them into contact with the Communist Party. The housewives are frequently home-workers at the same time. It is our endeavour to organise the women home workers in the trade unions, with their fellow workers from the factories. This organisation is made difficult by the scattered dwellings of the homeworkers, and their isolated work. The delegate system facilitates their co-operation for campaigns in defence of their common interests. As a general rule this system enables the intelligent, energetic, and capable personalities to emerge from the broad masses, and to be trained for common work for a community, for their class, for social work not in a bourgeois sense, but in a revolutionary sense. The delegate system educates women leaders for the economic and political class struggles of the proletariat, valuable forces for constructive communist work. It trains the women, enabling them to devote thorough study and suitable treatment to the definite questions arising, to form a judgment on these questions in their general social connections, and to defend their standpoint against the united forces of bourgeois society, social democracy, and trade union bureaucracy. The reports made by the delegates to their electors form another educative factor. The delegate system thus forms a high school for training women leaders for the work of bringing the women of the proletariat to communism. The prerequisite for the attainment of this goal is closest association with the Communist Party. The system itself, with the aid of other institutions, forms one of the best means of establishing this connection on a firm organisatory and ideological basis a connection which cannot be broken off by changes in the economic or political situation, but is permanent.

Comrade Arboré-Ralli (Eastern Dpt. of the I.W.S.):

The question of the women homeworkers is to be taken into account in the resolution.

The paragraph dealing with the winning over of the peasant women is to be worked out in further detail. Above all, the question of the peasants, parties and unions has been omitted.

Comrade Nikolayeva (Concluding Speech):

The lively debate shows these questions to be vital ones, and that we need definite directions as to the forms and methods of work among the women. The so-called circles and groups formed among the women have been referred to here as connecting links between the Party and the non-partisans. These circles and delegates’ meetings must make it their leading  endeavour to form a group around the Party, one upon which the Party can rely. The delegates’ meetings must always have a definite programme. This is concrete, states a number of political tasks which have imperatively to be carried out, and takes all the practical demands of the day into account. Besides this, we are given the possibility of inducing the delegates to participate in the practical work. For instance, in the case of strikes the women are allotted certain definite tasks, they have to take part in drawing up certain definite demands, etc.

Secondly, many of our women comrades have spoken here of the work they are doing in Parliament. I am of the opinion that here the groups must first consider their standpoint, the members of the groups drawing up the demands for instance, and these then being submitted to Parliament.

Thirdly, the delegates’ meetings afford the opportunity of not only attracting the broad masses to the Party, but of discovering the capable and intelligent minds among the great masses of women.

How should such a circle work? Each group Each group has its periodical meetings, at which it settles a definite number of questions. Every working woman belonging to the circle has to discuss in her own branch or department the questions raised in the circle. She must report on the decisions arrived at by the circle. This is a means by which the masses in the factories can be interested and induced to participate. In places where the Party, and even the circle, have to work illegally, it is a means towards the training of the members.

With reference to comrade Ullrich’s words: This will not be the last time that we discuss the possible forms of work. Later on our experience will likely permit us to impart more exact instructions. It is of course preferable to substitute “endeavour” for “attempt” in the paragraph referring to the formation of delegates’ meetings.

With regard to the women of whom the delegates’ meetings are to be composed, it need not be said that we cannot take these from the backward masses only, but that some of the women must be already revolutionised. In Russia a woman delegate has become quite another person after a year’s activity, is thoroughly trained, steeled for the struggle and the work.

‘Organization Conference on Communist Work Among Women: Discussion’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 5 No. 56. July 15, 1925.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecor” 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. Inprecor’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 Inprecor, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1925/v05n56-jul-15-1925-inprecor.pdf