1. INTRODUCTION We are printing below some extracts from Klara Zetkin's Reminiscences of Lenin(1) and from the proceedings of the family against Lenin's suspicions. Lenin Third Comintern Congress of 1921(2). Both deal with the question of women's liberation. Now that there are signs that a Women's Liberation Movement is on the move in Britain, it is instructive to look back at the position that both Lenin and the Communist International took on the question of women's oppression. Three theses stand out most clearlv: 1) the liberation of women is an inseparable part of the revolutionary process; 2) the communist party, as an organisation, draws no distinction between men and women members; 3) there is, however, a need for a separate women. A woman Communist is a mass movement of women and for a specific propaganda effort in order to politicise women and bring them into the revolutionary struggle.
There is, all the same, an uncertainty about how specific the women's movement really is. This is shown in the first conversation that Zetkin had with Lenin on this subject, during the course of which Lenin said: *There are not a few points of contact between women's and youth movements. Our women comrades must work systematically with the youth. That is a continuation, extension and exaltation of motherliness from the individual to the social sphere. " Lenin is wrong here and this must be said, particularly when one looks at the legal system of the "socialist" countries where psychology of these women, their women are consistently lumped together with vouth. There is, however, no doubt that Lenin's Russia went further than any other society in liberating women rom oppression by the state and th family. 'he property basis of marriage was abolished and marriage became a purely individual affair. Men and women divorced at ease (a postcard to the Registry being often sufficient), monogamity was made unofficial, there was no legal differentiation between legitimate and illegitimate children. Tremendous effort was put into political work among women and into liberating them from household drudgery for productive work. And this in a country where 80% of the population were peasants.
2. LENIN AND WOMEN'S LIBERATION of affording equal rights to men and The first conversation on women between Zetkin and Lenin occurred in autumn 1920. Communist work among women was in its infancy. The 1920 Second Comintern Congress had been supposed to issue some directives but this had not happened. Zetkin told Lenin circumstances adduded by Lenin, were what great importance Luxembourg had attached to this question, and how she had urged the newly-formed German Communist Party(3) to publish a woman's paper. She also defended their theoretical work on sexuality and the was ready to be persuaded all the propaganda was based on a correct ideological basis. This talk resulted in Zetkin being entrusted with the task of drawingap proposals for Communist work among women. Lenin's doing what is correct and necessary, we position is clearly shown in the following might as well become Indian Stylites. extracts:
To Arouse the Masses of Women Workers pillar." *There can be no real mass movement without women. Our ideological conceptions give rise to the principles of organisation. No special organisation for member of the Party just as a man Communist. With equal rights and duties. such a mass movement is an important There can be no difference of opinion on that score. Nevertheless, we must not close our eyes to the fact that the Party must have bodies, working groups. commissions, committees, bureaux or whatever you like, whose particular duty is to arouse the masses of women workers, to bring them into contact with the Party, and keep them under its influence. I am thinking not only of proletarian women, whether they work in factories or at home. The poor peasant women, the petty bourgeoise they, too, are the prey of capitalism, and more so than ever since the war. The unpolitical, unsocial, backward isolated sphere of activity, the entire manner of their life-these are facts. It would be absurd to overlook them, absolutely absurd. We need appropriate bodies to carry on work among them, special methods of agitation and forms of organisation. That is not feminism, that is practical, revolutionary expediency.
Feminism?
Zetkin told Lenin that his words had encouraged her greatly. and good comrades at that, strongly have special bodies for systematic work among women. They "taboo" it as feminism, and a return to social democratic traditions. They contend that stale, their hearts beating slowly, their the Communist Parties, on the principle women, should work as a whole among the working masses as a whole. without differentiation. Women have to be included the same as men, and under the same conditions. Any attention, in agitation or organisation, paid to the characterised as opportunist, as surrender the opposition to it from the German and treachery by the upholders of the other point of view. Why So Few Women in the Partv? "That is neither new nor proof," said Lenin. "You must not be misled by that. Why have we never had as many women as men in the Party not at any time in Soviet Russia? Why is the number of women workers organised in trade unions so small? Facts give food for thought. The rejection of the necessity for separate bodies for our work among the masses is a conception allied to those of our highly principled and most radical friends of the Communist Labour Party(4), According to them there must be only one form of organisation. workers' unions. I know them. Manv revolutionary but confused minds appeal to principle whenever ideas are lacking. That is, when the mind is closed to the sober facts, which must be considered. How do such guardians of "pure principle" square their ideas with the necessity of the revolutionary policy historically forced upon us? All that sort of talk breaks down before inexorable necessity. Unless millions of women are with us we cannot exercise the proletarian dictatorship, cannot construct on Communist lines. We must find our way to them, we must study and try to find this way.
Lenin and Opportunism Zetkin warned Lenin at this point that -provided that his views might be seen as opportunistic said Lenin, almost badtemperedly. "that danger is present in everything that we do and say. If we were to be deterred by fear of that from Don't move, don't move, we can contemplate our principles from a high ..."Our national sections still lack a correct understanding of this matter. They are still idling by while there is this task of creating a mass movement of working women under Communist leadership. They do not understand that the development and management of part of our entire Party activity, indeed, a half of general Party work. Their occasional recognition of the necessity and value of a powerful, clear-headed Communist women's movement is a platonic verbal recognition, not constant care and obligation of the Party.
Scratch a Communist... "Agitation and propaganda work among "The second o women, their awakening and revolutionisation, is regarded as an incidental matter, as an affair which only concerns women comrades. They alone are reproached because work in that direction does not proceed more quickly and more vigorously. That is wrong, quite wrong! Real separatism and feminism a la rebours, as the French say. feminism upside-down. What is at the basis of the incorrect attitude of our national sections? In the final analysis it is nothing but an under-estimation of woman and her work. Yes, indeed! Unfortunately it is still true to say of many of our comrades: scratch a Communist and find a philistine. Of course, you must scratch the sensitive spot, their mentality as regards women. "Many comrades, Could there be a more damning proof of this than the calm acquiescence of combatted the idea that the Party should men who see how women grow worn out in petty, monotonous household work, their strength and time dissipated and wasted, their minds growing narrow and will weakened?"
International Women's Congress Zetkin's idea was to set up a non-Party International Women's Congress, which would deal with the social, economic and legal aspects of women's exploitation. This plan, however, in spite of Lenin's support, did not materialise because of and Bulgarian women communists, who, at that time, had the best Communist Women's Movement outside Russia.
3. THE THIRD CONGRESS THESES ON WOMEN AND COMMUNISM The Third Congress of the Communist International voted, for the first time, a whole series of theses supporting the need for special forms of organisation and propaganda among women. The Congress, which was held in June 1921 in Moscow, decided to set up a Central Women's Section, an international body, with the International Women's Secretariat as its ruling council. The following are extracts from the Congress's Theses for Propaganda Work Among Women-General Principles:
"Starting from the premise that the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat is on the agenda in all capitalist countries and that the construction of communism is the immediate task in the countries where the dictatorship is already in the hands of the workers, the Third Congress of the Communist International declares that neither the conquest of power by the proletariat nor the achievement of communism in countries where the bourgeois oppression has already been overthrown can be accomplished without the active support of the mass of proletarian and semi-proletarian women."
"On the other hand the Congress once again draws the attention of women to the fact that without the help of the Communist Parties, attempts to liberate women or to realise their complete personal equality and proper emancipation cannot succeed."
"At this time, the interest of the working class demands with particular force that women should enter the organised ranks of the proletariat in its fight for communism; it demands this because world economic ruin is becoming ever more intense and intolerable for the poor, because the working masses of the bourgeois countries are faced with the inevitable imposition of a social revolution, while on the other hand, the task of reconstructing the national orna Quen lesse economy on a new communist basis faces the working people of Soviet Russia.
looks like she'd make a good secretary. These two tasks would be much more easily accomplished if women were to take a more active, conscious and voluntary part in them."
*Whenever the conquest of power presents itself in a direct way, communist parties should be aware of the danger to the revolution which is presented by the inert masses of female employees and peasants unemancipated from bourgeois ideas, or from the Church, and not aligned in any way with the great liberation movement which is communism. Both in the East and in the West, the masses of women outside the movement must inevitably constitute a support for the bourgeoisie and an consciousness of the female masses THE RICH played such a sad role, should serve as a warning to the proletariat of the backTo ABORTE ward countries entering the process of social revolution."
ANY AFF "Experience in the Soviet Republic has shown how essential it is in practice that female workers and peasants should articipate, whether in defence of the Republic during civil war or in all the areas of Soviet organisation. Their role in the organisation of defence, as reinforcements in the rear, in the struggle against desertion and all forms of counter-revolution, sabotage, etc. is well known."
"Other countries should learn from the experience of the Soviet Republic and make use of it."
"From all we have said above it follows that the immediate task of Communist Parties is to spread the influence of the Party and communism among the vast layers of the female population in their countries by means of a special body functioning within the Party and by special methods suited for propaganda aimed at combatting among women the influence of bourgeois ideas and the actions of the coalitionist parties and in this way at turning them into fighters for the total emancipation of tomen."
"By entrusting the Communist Parties of East and West with the immediate task of strengthening the work of the Party among the female proletariat, the Third Congress of the Communist International shows to the workers of the world that their emancipation from centuries of injustice, enslavement and inequality cannot be realised except by the victory of communism."
*The right to vote does not abolish the primary cause of the enslavement of women in the family and in society and Reat mo mary omit in thy are.
impossible except under a system where working class woman becomes the mistress of the means of production and administration and carrying the same obligations of work under the same conditions as all working members of society; in other words, this equality cannot be realised until capitalisr has been overthrown and replaced by the communist form of economy."
"What communism offers to women cannot be provided by the bourgeois feminist movement. As long as the domination of capital and private property exist, the emancipation of women is impossible."
"Only communism will create a state of affairs where the natural function of women, maternity, will not be in conflict with social obligations and will not hinder their productive work for the collective benefit. But communism is at the same time the final aim of the proletariat. Therefore working men and women should, in the interests of both, struggle inseparably together towards that common aim.
Branka Magas Footnotes (1/ Klara Zetkin: Reminiscences of Lenin, Modern Books Ltd., London 1929 12) Les Quatre Premiers Congres Mondiaux de 'Internationale Communiste 1919-1923, Maspero, Paris 1969. (3) The KPD was formed in Berlin on 1st January 1919. (4) The Communist Labour Party (KAPD)
was a German workers' party affiliated to the Third International. Formed b a split to the left from the KPD, it soon declined in strength.
members of the Special Branch of the British army who are trying to integrate themselves They have tried in the last six and a half