The organization of women into Germany’s Red Front Fighters.

‘The Proletarian Self-Defence Organisation of the German Working Women on the Red Class Front’ by Vera Stein’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 10 No. 9. February 20, 1930.

The Red Women’s Union is a self-defence organisation of the German proletarian women. It has set itself a special task the organisation of the working women’s mass for the struggle against bourgeois women’s organisations, against imperialist wars which are being prepared for the active defence of the U.S.S.R. The special methods of work which the Red Women’s Union had to use for carrying out this task consists of demonstrative united actions of the mass of the members. For this aim a special uniform was introduced a grey blouse and cap. These united and energetic actions of the Red Women’s Union in all demonstrations of the revolutionary working class developed and consolidated amongst the women workers confidence in their own strength and capability gradually to overcome the petty bourgeois reactionary prejudices which exist even among the advanced part of the working class concerning the women’s question. Meetings of the women’s masses are called, with speeches, discussions. Questions and answers: concerts and entertainments are organised. In this way women obtain a weapon which helps them to carry out their revolutionary day in the everyday work of the factory, at home and in the street. The Red Women’s Union is especially active every year during the International Women’s Week, during the campaign against war and on the anniversary of the victorious Russian Revolution. Besides this, the Red Women’s Union independently carried out special campaigns, for instance, for obtaining subscribers for the journal “Frauenwacht”. The Red Women’s Union took part in the district meet of the Red Front Fighters, in the campaign against the abortion laws, in the campaign against bourgeois women’s organisations and carried on a recruiting campaign for the Union. From time to time meetings of activists were called, courses for preparing functionaries and improving their qualification were arranged in the evenings and at weekends. However, in spite of the work they had carried on, one cannot say that the Red Women’s Union has been up to the task which lie before it. The reason of this is in the first place the fact that the character of the Red Women’s Union as a self-defence organisation was not sufficiently recognised. The second defect consisted of the fac that the Union did not base its work on the factory. Members were recruited chiefly from the circles of proletarian house wives and least of all from amongst the women workers of factories. Demonstrations and manifestations, which were practised during the first years, were gradually dropped, which contributed towards isolating the Union from the women workers masses which were continually moving Leftwards. A further reason was the passivity and the Right mistakes of some of the functionaries of the Union.

The III Congress of the Red Women’s Union in August 1929 demanded that a decisive turn should be made in the direction of mass work. The centre of attention was focused on the question of the defensive powers of working women and proletarian housewives. The question of getting points support in the most important factories was put forward as the pre-requisite of successful work. The recognition that every factory with a large number of women must become a fortress for us this is the basis of systematic and consistent everyday work. A beginning has already been made, and in a number of districts distinct successes have been achieved, for instance in Berlin, Wasserkant, Silesia, Halle-Merseburg. The factory groups must become organs of the Red Women’s Union for the organisation of the struggle of the women workers in the place where they are standing face to face with the foe, i.e., in the factory.

The growth of fascist women’s organisations, the terror against the fighting proletariat which is becoming more and more intensive, compels the women workers also to realize the necessity of developing their defensive powers. The active participation of women in the bloody struggles of the recent period, their enthusiasm and loyalty to the proletariat, have shown all proletarians what a great role is now played by women workers in the revolutionary class struggle. The work of the R.W.U. with regard to training and education is being assisted at the present time by the practical work of the mass of members in a number of circles, for instance, in the workers ambulance service, participation in the courses organised by proletarian target shooting societies, in excursions with games and sports. In this sphere we must more than ever before make use of our experience and at the same time more closely study the methods of our opponents. We know that hundreds of thousands of women in fascist organisations are receiving at the present time an all-round military training. Since these anti-worker organisations are endeavouring to make women capable of defence in a fascist spirit, to give them physical training, the R.W.U. must try with all its forces to keep working women away from participation in these organisations, must attract them to the Red class front. and must make them capable of defence in the proletarian meaning of this word. Physical training helps to carry out this task, it steels the will for class struggles, trains them in perseverance and revolutionary persistence.

The patronage of the Chemical Defence Society over the Red Women’s Union has a special political importance. The Chemical Defence Society is an organisation of the proletariat of the U.S.S.R. which has set itself the task of defending the proletarian fatherland. The Russian women workers at the present time share in the proletarian government, and their rights are absolutely equal to the rights of men. In case of war against the U.S.S.R., just as in the years of civil war, they will defend the proletarian dictatorship in the ranks of the Red Army. In close contact with the Chemical Defence Society, the Red Women’s Union will concentrate all its strength so that, in the coming great political struggles. it will be able to form women’s battalions which will be in a position to overturn the accursed capitalist system in a united front with the whole of the revolutionary proletariat, and to create a Soviet Germany.

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/1930/v10n09-feb-20-1930-inprecor-Virginia.pdf