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History of March 8
Alexandra Kollontai 1907-1916
International Socialist Conferences of Women Workers
Source: Alexandra Kollontai: Selected Articles and Speeches, Progress
Publishers, 1984;
First Published: International Socialist Conferences of Women Workers
1918, abridged;
Transcribed: Sally Ryan for marxists.org, 2000;
Proofed: and corrected by Chris Clayton 2006.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1907/is-conferences.htm
The First International Conference of Socialist Women - Stuttgart. 1907
A new danger is threatening the domination of the bourgeoisie – women
workers are resolutely adopting the path of international class
organisation. The downtrodden, submissive slaves humbly bowing before the
omnipotence of the modern Moloch of capital are, under the reviving
influence of socialist doctrine, lifting their heads and raising their
voices in defence of their interests as women and their common class
interests.
While the 'poison of socialist doctrine' had infected only one half of the
working class, while opposition was concentrated exclusively in the male
section of the proletariat, the capitalists could breathe freely; they
still had in their power an inexhaustible supply of compliant workers
always ready obediently and selflessly to enrich by their labour the happy
owners of the instruments of production. With unconscious calculation the
bourgeoisie availed itself of the advantage offered by this state of
affairs: it set one half of the proletariat against the other, shattered
its unity, compelled the women to appear as the menacing rivals of their
menfolk, sapping the class solidarity of the workers. With malicious
smugness it countered the resistance of united proletarians with the
indifference of the unconscious female elements, and the more ignorant and
dispersed the women remained, the more unsuccessful was the struggle waged
by the organised elements of the working class.
However, the class consciousness of the women workers, once aroused, was
sufficient to compel them to grasp the hand of friendship held out to them
by their male worker comrades and adopt the path of open and stubborn
resistance. The involvement of proletarian women in the common class
struggle, and their growing solidarity have shaken the usual
self-confidence of the bourgeoisie and spread alarm in place of its
previous tranquillity: the increasing organisation of the female
proletariat removes the last defenceless victim of capitalist
exploitation. The ground is disappearing from beneath the feet of the
bourgeoisie, and the light of the approaching social revolution glows ever
more brightly.
Is it therefore surprising that the bourgeoisie is doubly hostile to any
sign of protest among women workers, and to any attempt on their part to
defend their needs and interests as women and their common class interests
and needs? Even in the most democratic and advanced countries everything
possible is done to make it difficult for women to defend their labour
interests. To grant the woman worker the same rights as the man would be
to put in the hands of the working class a new and dangerous weapon, to
double the active army of the militant opponent; the bourgeoisie is too
intelligent to agree to such a dangerous experiment
The whole bourgeois world listened with unconcealed animosity to the
solemn and harmonious notes that rang out from Stuttgart in 1907, during
the International Socialist Congress. [1] But most of all it was angered
by the bold voices of the female proletariat. However radical were the
speeches pronounced by the men, whatever 'mad' resolutions they might
adopt, the bourgeoisie always consoled itself with the thought that it
still had one tested method at its disposal: break the resistance of the
'hotheads' by replacing them with submissive female workers. And now a new
surprise: from all over the world women representatives of the working
class are gathering in order to forge by their united efforts a new weapon
with which to fight the world hostile to the proletariat. [2] The daring
of women has exceeded all expectations: yesterday's silent slave is now a
courageous fighter for the liberation of the working class. Could one
imagine a more vexatious spectacle! Spiteful ridicule rained down upon the
heads of the women representatives of the working class, ridicule that
failed to conceal the genuine anxiety of the bourgeoisie.
The gentlemen of capital and property do now indeed have something to
ponder over, something to be depressed about: new successes are being
achieved in the organisation of the working class. And if, until only
recently, the bourgeoisie could draw comfort from the lack of unity in the
female section of the proletariat, now, after the Stuttgart Conference, it
has lost even this sweet solace.
On the basis of facts and figures these women representatives described
the growing awareness of the female proletariat and its organisational
successes, particularly in recent years. England has the largest number of
organised women workers: 150 thousand are members of trade unions; 30
thousand are politically organised in 'independent workers' parties and
women workers are also members of the Social-Democratic Federation. [3] In
Austria trade union organisations include 42 thousand women among their
members. In Germany the number of women who are trade union members is
also impressive – 120 thousand; despite all the police harassment, 10,500
women workers have joined the Social-Democratic Party, and the
distribution figure for the women workers magazine Die Gleichheit
(Equality) [4] is 70 thousand copies. In Finland the Social-Democratic
movement has 18,600 women. In Belgium 14 thousand women workers are trade
union members. In Hungary 15 thousand women workers are in trade union
organisations, etc.
The growing organisation of women workers and the specific social
objectives which it is mainly their task to carry through led to an
awareness of the need for greater solidarity and closer contact among the
organised women workers of the world.
The first women's international conference in Stuttgart set itself two
objectives: 1) to elaborate the basis for more uniform activity on the
part of the socialist movement (in various countries) in the struggle to
win voting rights for women workers; 2) to establish permanent and correct
relations between women's organisations throughout the world.
The main question discussed at the conference was, without any doubt, the
question of voting rights for women workers. Put forward for discussion by
the conference and introduced into the Social-Democratic congress as a
special resolution, this question is designed to meet the growing need
within the female proletariat to define the future tactics of
international Social-Democracy in the struggle for political rights for
women workers, and to transfer this principle from the sphere of
theoretical recognition to that of practical activity. With the growth of
its class consciousness and organisation, the female proletariat was
brought by its basic material needs to an acute awareness of its lack of
political rights, and learned to see in those rights not only a 'policy
principle' but also an urgent and immediate need.
Over recent years, the working class, in one country after the other, has
faced the question of achieving universal suffrage. It might have seemed
that the four-part election formula advanced by the Social-Democrats and
supplemented with a fifth section specifying 'without distinction of sex',
would have left no room for doubts and hesitations regarding the way the
party would act in such circumstances. However, it turned out, otherwise.
When it came to the defence of the fifth section, not only male
Social-Democrats, but even the women revealed their fundamental
instability, their vacillation, and by their compromising attitude to this
issue, so important to the working class, demonstrated that this
fundamental principle has not yet become an integral part of
Social-Democracy.
One after the other women from Belgium, Austria, Sweden, accepted the
removal from the agenda of the demand for political rights for women
workers and gave their support to an emasculated, abbreviated compromise
formula for electoral reform. However, most characteristic of all was the
fact that this opportunist policy was not condemned by consistent and
steadfast supporters of socialism but, on the contrary, won their sympathy
and approval and was even presented to proletarian women in other
countries as a model. The working women themselves cannot be blamed for
this compromise tactic – it is typical of less aware and less disciplined
party elements but the other, the male section of the proletariat, whose
spirit and consciousness has been tempered in battle, should not have
allowed itself to be drawn along the path of practical opportunism.
There are democratic principles which, for the sake of its own interests,
the working class must not sacrifice: there are slogans which the
proletariat cannot change without damaging itself, even though the change
is made in order to achieve the maximum results at any given moment.
If, in some politically backward country, the working class had had the
opportunity to attain universal, equal, secret but indirect rather than
direct voting rights, the position of the Social-Democrats in such a
situation would have been obvious: despite the risk of stalling a reform
that was otherwise certain to be adopted, the workers party would fight to
the last moment for the full formula... Perhaps the indirect electoral
system would be adopted despite the opposition of the Social-Democrats,
and no doubt they would have to reconcile themselves to this fact, but
their attitude to it would be perfectly clear: they could view it only as
a defeat.
The situation is different as regards the issue of voting rights for women
workers. The demand 'without distinction of sex' has not yet become an
integral part of the practice of proletarian struggle: awareness of the
importance of full and equal political rights for women workers in the
name of the interests of the whole class has not yet had time to take firm
root. It must not be forgotten that women began to work outside the home
only comparatively recently, and have only recently begun to play a role
in the proletarian movement. The ideological survivals of the
bourgeois-capitalist world affect the purity and clarity of proletarian
class consciousness in regard to women, and blur the distinct outlines of
a principle that would appear to be indisputable in the eyes of the
proletariat, namely the principle of equality of civil rights for all the
members of the world proletarian family.
The vacillating tactic of the party in the struggle for women's voting
rights obliged the Social-Democrats to devote particular attention to this
issue at the congress. The adoption of a resolution which would clearly
and precisely express the willingness of the working class to fight for
voting rights for women workers with the same unswerving determination
with which Social-Democracy pursues all its principles – this was the
slogan of the women's socialist conference, a slogan dictated by the
interests of women workers. Such a resolution appeared all the more
desirable in that it was fully in accord with the spirit of
Social-Democracy...
The resolution on voting rights for women put forward at the women's
conference and then introduced at the socialist congress was advanced with
a view to demanding the clear and precise recognition of the fifth section
of the election formula ('without distinction of sex') as being of equal
importance with the other four.
However, the resolution met with opposition. Two trends appeared within
the women's socialist movement: one orthodox, the other opportunist in the
spirit of unconscious feminism. The first trend was represented by the
women Social-Democrats from Germany, the second by those from Austria and
some from England.
The resolution put forward by the German delegates had two objectives: in
demanding that the socialist parties recognise the full extent of the
importance of a practical struggle to secure the political equality of
women, the resolution was also intended to draw a distinct line between
bourgeois feminism and the women's proletarian movement. This struck the
English socialists at their most vulnerable point. It is a well-known fact
that many of them work hand-in-glove with bourgeois champions of women's
rights, and in the heat of a sometimes selfless struggle in defence of
women's interests, they lose sight of class distinctions.
The struggle to achieve political equality for proletarian women is part
and parcel of the overall class struggle of the proletariat; when it
becomes an independent militant aim in itself it eclipses the class
objectives of women workers. The inventive bourgeoisie, who love to hide
their real desires behind a screen of splendid-sounding slogans, put the
world of women and its objectives in opposition to the class cause of
women workers. However, as soon as the women's cause is put above the
proletarian cause, as soon as women workers allow themselves to be seduced
by fine-sounding phrases about the community of women's interests
regardless of class divisions, they lose their living link with their own
class cause and thus betray their own particular interests. Bourgeois
women, according to their own assertion, are generously demanding rights
for 'all women', whereas women workers are only fighting for their class
interests. However, in practice the situation is precisely the reverse: in
winning political rights for themselves, women workers are also opening up
the way to the voting booth for women of other classes. In resolutely and
consistently defending the interests of the women of its own class,
Social-Democracy is putting into practice the principles of the fullest
form of democracy and promoting the success of the women's cause as a
whole.
Bourgeois hypocrisy also affected the English supporters of women's
political equality. English women workers are prepared to supportlimited,
qualified electoral rights for women – an unforgivable and despicable
betrayal of the proletarian cause. The representatives of the Independent
Labour Party and the Fabian Society [5] did not hesitate to defend this
clearly treacherous position before the whole socialist world, and only
the Social-Democratic Federation, together with the proletariat of other
countries, condemned such a solution to the problem and demanded electoral
rights for all citizens who had reached majority, regardless of sex.
This disagreement yet again clearly demonstrated the importance for the
socialists of working out a clearly defined tactical position on the
question of achieving political equality for women workers. However, such
a clearly defined formulation of the question was precisely what the
English wanted least... Together with the Austrian delegates they demanded
that each party be given the right to settle this question independently
in accord with the circumstances then obtaining; they declared a single
model of action compulsory for each country to be completely unnecessary.
The resolution put forward by the German Social-Democrats obliged the
English to do some painful thinking. It faced them with a question: are
they defending the interests of their class as a whole in its difficult
struggle to survive, passing through great trials today in the expectation
of equally great triumphs in the future, or are they merely fighting for
new privileges for those women who neither sow nor reap, but who gather
into the barns?
The Austrian delegates represented the opposite extreme. Furious opponents
of feminism, they were not, of course, prepared to work together with
bourgeois feminists in the defence of rights for 'all women'. However,
despite their sworn hostility towards feminism and its tactic of
adaptation, Austrian women socialists fell into the same error as the
English. In defending at the conference the position they had adopted
during the recent struggle in Austria to achieve universal suffrage, they
attempted to show that, in certain political conditions, it is permissible
to put aside the interests of one section of the proletariat - in this
case women workers - in order to achieve practical advantages for another
section. Instead of a categorical demand that the principle of political
equality for proletarian women be recognised on the same footing with all
other democratic demands by the proletariat, the Austrians introduced into
the resolution by means of an amendment a poorly-defined wish that the
moment and the very method of struggle for electoral rights for women be
determined by each country at its own discretion...
Every time the question of party tactics becomes a matter of urgency for
Social-Democracy, it has to return to the tested method of solving this
question: it must once more carefully and precisely determine to what
extent a given demand, a given principle is essential in order to achieve
the ultimate objective of the working class. If this principle is indeed
of considerable importance for the ultimate objective being pursued by the
workers, then there cannot be, must not be, any room for compromise in
policy even if such a compromise promises to bring immediate benefit.
Indeed, what would become of the class objectives of the proletariat if
Social-Democracy put away its basic policy principles every time it hoped
it might thereby acquire some 'practical advantage'? And what would then
distinguish its policy principles from hypocritical bourgeois diplomacy?
The principle of political equality for women is beyond dispute.
Social-Democracy long ago proclaimed in theory the importance of extending
voting rights to women workers. However, the tactic of 'concessions', the
tactic of 'step by step' is now seeking another solution to this problem
also. In place of the usual principled determination and steadfastness of
Social-Democracy, it proposes 'compliance' and 'moderation'. Fortunately
the proletariat is only too well aware that its 'modesty' has never reaped
any reward. The tractability and compliance of the proletariat are, in the
eyes of its enemy, proof positive of its 'impotence', and the more
moderate, the more 'reasonable' are its demands, the more miserly are the
concessions granted to it. The victory of one of the two warring sides is
decided not by the compliance of one of them, but by the 'actual balance
of forces'. The proletariat presses its demands waging a resolute and
consistent struggle to achieve them, but it can only achieve that which
corresponds to its actual influence and importance at any given moment.
The more resolute is Social-Democracy's adherence to its basic principles,
the further removed its tactic from concessions decided upon beforehand,
the more closely will the results of its struggle correspond to the actual
balance of power and forces between the warring sides.
All of the above constitutes a 'well-worn truth', but a truth that has to
be repeated every time a proposed compromise tactic postpones a new
victory by the proletariat and threatens to damage one of the basic tenets
of Social-Democracy. If the amendment introduced by the Austrian delegates
were accepted, such damage would be unavoidable. With their precautionary
'compliance' the Austrian delegates would not only postpone the extension
of voting rights to proletarian women but also, and more importantly,
violate one of the basic principles of socialism: preserving the unity of
the working class as the major guarantee of success in the proletarian
struggle.
'Naturally,' said Clara Zetkin, addressing the commission on women's
voting rights at the congress, 'we are not so politically uneducated as to
demand that the socialist parties of every country, in every struggle for
electoral reform and in all circumstances, make the demand for voting
rights for women the cornerstone, the deciding factor in their struggle.
That will depend on the level of historical development in individual
countries. We are criticising the tactic of 'abandoning in advance,
without a struggle, the demand for voting rights for women...' [6]
This precise and consistent class policy was also defended by German
Social-Democrats: Luise Zietz, Emma Ihrer, Ottilie Baader, Hilja Pärssinen,
woman deputy to the Finnish Seim, Csozi from Hungary, representatives from
Russia, Shaw from England and others. Those who supported this view
demanded that the international congress confirm the proposition that the
struggle for voting rights for women workers is not separate from the
class struggle, and that any concession in this area, any deviation from
principle, is a compromise that damages the whole cause of the working
class.
The defenders of the opportunist tactic came mainly from among the
Austrian delegates, and they received a measure of support from Viktor
Adler. Lily Braun was also on their side. However, this trend did not meet
support at the conference. All the arguments advanced by the Austrians to
the effect that the 'obstinacy' of the Social-Democrats only served to
make political gains by the proletariat more difficult to achieve, all the
arguments of the representatives of Catholic countries – Belgium and
France – that the influence of clericalism would allegedly increase with
the involvement of women in politics and would lead to a regrouping of
parliamentary representation to the disadvantage of the working class,
paled before the indisputable fact that the most impoverished, exploited
section of the proletariat women workers are still deprived of the
possibility of opposing the violation of their rights. It is to these
pariahs of contemporary society, these pale, worn slaves of capitalism,
that their comrades in misery, their comrades in the struggle for a
brighter future, preach resignation, patience and self-denial - the
cliched, pharisaical virtues of the bourgeoisie!...
The mood of the conference was not favourable to such trends. In contrast
to the usual 'respectful obedience' of women, the conference was marked by
a lively, bracing atmosphere quite distinct from the somewhat dry,
businesslike air of the socialist congress itself. The massive
organisational structure of the congress, the presence of almost 900
delegates and the need to observe a whole series of formalities cooled the
enthusiasm of the representatives of the socialist world, and only now and
again was this enthusiasm able to break through to the surface and affect
all those taking part. Here at the congress the most experienced 'masters
of the spoken word', skilled in all the finer points of parliamentary
battle, crossed verbal swords, but perhaps for this very reason many of
them sounded excessively 'cautious'...
At the women's conference, on the other hand, the living pulse of bold
faith and confidence beat without ceasing and one could sense that
courageous rejection of and revulsion towards compromise decisions which
are characteristic of organisations that are still young and have not yet
become set in fixed forms. The majority of the representatives of
proletarian women could not but realise what tragic consequences would
follow upon the adoption of the Austrian amendment...
By a majority of 47 votes to 11, the women's socialist conference adopted
the resolution put forward by the German delegation and placed it before
the socialist congress.
The living spirit of proletarian self-consciousness compelled the
representatives of the workers to support this resolution and confirm the
principle of the common interests of both sexes, their solidarity in the
struggle for political rights for the whole of the working class. This is
without doubt a major event in the' history of the workers' movement,
demonstrating yet again to the bourgeois world that, despite repeated
assertions about the 'death of Marxism', the true spirit of scientific
socialism is still alive and is continually inspiring the many millions
who make up international Social-Democracy.
The question of the formation of an international women's socialist
secretariat was second on the conference agenda. The German
Social-Democrats introduced a proposal to establish closer contacts among
representatives of the working class from different countries and to set
up for this purpose a secretariat which would gather information on the
women's proletarian movement everywhere. Although this question was purely
organisational, it provoked a lively exchange of opinions, and once more
revealed two heterogeneous trends within the women's section of
Social-Democracy.
The proposal to form an independent women's international secretariat was
put forward by the German delegates, and the Austrian delegates once again
introduced an amendment. Having declared themselves opposed to separating
proletarian women in any way whatsoever, they considered it unnecessary to
form a separate secretariat to ensure international communication among
women workers. In their opinion, comrades abroad could be kept informed on
the state of the women's proletarian movement in each country by
empowering a member of the party in each country to send reports on the
position of women workers' organisations and on successes achieved by the
movement to the central socialist organs of the other countries. This
amendment vividly illustrates the constant fear on the part of the
Austrians of discrediting themselves by a too clearly-marked defence of
'women's interests' which might earn them the label 'feminists'...
The German Social-Democrats, on the contrary, defended the idea that an
independent grouping of proletarian women within the party has clear
organisational advantages. Such an organisation would make it possible to
concentrate the attention of the party on the specific needs and
requirements of women workers, and would also make it easier to rally
around the party the generally less aware female members of the
proletarian class.
The involvement of women workers in the party is necessitated by practical
and urgent considerations. Up till now women workers remain the most
deprived section of the proletarian family, they are still oppressed
everywhere by 'special laws', and even in countries which have broad
democratic representation women alone remain without rights.
With every year that passes, involvement in the political life of their
country is becoming an increasingly urgent issue for the women of the
working class. However, among the broad masses of the male proletariat the
urgency of this demand is not as yet sufficiently recognised.
In order to defend this demand, in order to inculcate in their comrades
the proper attitude to the question of equal rights for women workers in
every sphere and draw them into the struggle to attain in practice equal
civil rights for women, women have only one course – to unite their forces
around the party. Women workers must set up a women's secretariat, a
commission, a bureau within the party, not in order to wage a separate
battle for political rights and defend their own interests by themselves
but in order to exert pressure on the party from within, in order to
compel their comrades to wage their struggle in the interests of the
female proletariat as well.
Thus greater party concern about the specific requirements of women
workers will increase the popularity of the party among the less
class-conscious female population, stimulating the flow of new forces into
the army of the fighting proletariat, while the unification of women
workers within the party will allow this homogeneous core, motivated by
the same requirements, to defend its specific requirements and needs more
resolutely within the party too. It was not only police obstacles that led
in Germany to special, separate propaganda work among women: this method
of work is gradually being adopted in other countries living under freer
political regimes.
The need to unite women's forces within the party is, of course, felt with
particular force in countries where it is only the women who remain
without political rights. In those cases where the question of the
struggle for the further democratisation of voting rights is to the fore,
the core of class-conscious women workers can only strive to ensure a more
steadfast attitude in the party towards the question of achieving voting
rights for women also...
The position of proletarian women in contemporary society, and the
specific needs which they experience in the field of social relations,
create a practical basis for conducting special work among the female
proletariat. However, such a grouping of proletarian women within the
party (the setting up of commissions, bureaus, sections, etc.) has, of
course, nothing in common with feminism. Whereas the feminists are
struggling to extend to the women of the bourgeois classes those
privileges which were hitherto enjoyed only by the men, women workers are
pursuing a solely proletarian, common class objective.
At the women's international conference, the victory went to the left,
that is, to that section which suggested the creation of an independent
international secretariat. [7] The editorial board of Die Gleichheit
(Equality) has been elected as the central organ of the international
movement of socialist women until the next international congress. There
can be no doubt that both this purely organisational decision and also the
congress resolution on tactics, a resolution which determines the attitude
of Social-Democracy to the question of votes for women, will have a
beneficial effect upon the further development of the Social-Democratic
movement among women workers, and will promote the more rapid growth of
the organised army of the female proletariat.
Only if they are firmly united amongst themselves and, at the same time,
one with their class party in the common class struggle, can women workers
cease to appear as a brake on the proletarian movement and march
confidently foreward, arm in arm with their male worker comrades to the
noble and cherished proletarian aim-towards a new, better and brighter
future.
THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S CONFERENCE IN COPENHAGEN, IN 1910
When the First International Conference of Socialist Women was held in
Stuttgart in 1907 on the initiative of the German socialists, the women's
socialist movement was still in its infancy everywhere except Germany. Its
shape was still hazy and unclear, and the conference itself was convened
not so much to review what had been already achieved as to give its
'blessing' to the movement and stimulate its further development.
Stuttgart was merely a symptom of the awakening of broad masses of
working-class women, but a symptom nonetheless significant, promising and
pregnant with consequences...
Three years have passed. During this short period of time the women's
proletarian movement has succeeded not only in increasing its numbers, but
also in becoming social force which cannot be ignored in the process of
the class struggle. Particularly rapid has been the success achieved by
Germany in the organisation of the female proletariat: according to the
data presented at the conference in Stuttgart, that is, in 1907 the
Social-Democratic Party had only some 10 thousand women members; by 1910
it already had more than 82 thousand, and the central socialist organ for
women workers Die Gleichheit (Equality) had a circulation of 80 thousand.
Similar giant strides have been taken by Austria in the organisation of
working-class women: in 1909 the party had only 7 thousand women members;
in 1910 it had more than 14 thousand, the trade union movement had around
44 thousand women members and the women's worker newspaper had a
circulation of 20 thousand. Finland, though small in population, was also
not left behind. Here women (more than 16 thousand) accounted for some 31
per cent of the membership of the workers' party. England can boast of
more than 200 thousand women trade union members. Everywhere – in Denmark,
Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Holland, Italy, the United States – the women
of the working class are awakening, attempting to create a women's
socialist movement and direct it along the path boldly marked out by the
energetic efforts of German women socialists.
According to the calculations made by the Swiss delegation, the numerical
relationship between the male and female sections of the organised working
class in various countries is as follows:
Finland: For every 1 organized woman worker there are 6 organized male
workers.
Denmark: For every 1 organized woman worker there are 8 organized male
workers.
Austria: For every 1 organized woman worker there are 10 organized male
workers.
England: For every 1 organized woman worker there are 11 organized male
workers.
Italy: For every 1 organized woman worker there are 12 organized male
workers.
Sweden & Norway: For every 1 organized woman worker there are 13 organized
male workers.
Germany: For every 1 organized woman worker there are 14 organized male
workers.
Switzerland: For every 1 organized woman worker there are 18 organized
male workers.
[Statistical Report to the Second International Conference of Socialist
Women, 1910, p. 26.]
Of course, if these figures are compared with the number of women workers
on the labour market and the growing number of women earning their own
living in every country, the scale of female participation in the workers
movement appears very modest even insignificant. However, in order to
assess the importance of the women's socialist movement accurately, two
things must be remembered: firstly, its short history – l5-20 years ago it
had never been heard of; secondly, the prospects opening up before it. The
question of the further democratisation of the electoral system, which is
now posing itself in one form or another in England and the United States,
in the federal states of Germany and the Scandinavian countries, must have
and will have its inevitable effect upon the further development and
success of the women's proletarian movement. The women's proletarian
movement has ceased to be merely a luxury and become a daily practical
necessity...
The growth of the women's proletarian movement over the last three years
was noticeable at the opening of the Copenhagen Conference. [8] In
Stuttgart the delegates numbered 52, in Copenhagen they already numbered
around 100 and represented 17 countries. This time only the French and the
Belgians were absent. Socialist parties and trade unions were represented,
together with clubs, societies, and unions of women workers adopting a
class position.
The conference agenda included, in addition to the organisational question
of establishing closer links between organised socialist women from
different countries, two major issues: 1) ways and means of achieving in
practice universal suffrage for women and 2) social security and
protection for mother and child. Despite these seemingly specifically
female topics, the conference in Copenhagen was free of that sickly-sweet
'feminine flavour' which provokes such irrepressible boredom in the
practical politician who is used to the 'cut and thrust' of real political
battle... The questions discussed at the conference were examined not only
from the point of view of the common tasks of proletarian class policy,
but were also, and inevitably, supplemented with more general demands. The
fate of Finland, a country with an extremely democratic system of popular
representation, the question of war, peace and the fight against
militarism, the struggle against domestic manufacture and night work,
compelled those taking part in the congress to move beyond the narrow
framework of feminine issues and, having become more familiar with
wide-ranging, urgent issues, to join in the active struggle being waged by
the many millions who compose the army of the organised working class.
However, while one cannot object to the position adopted by the conference
on the issues it debated, and while, indeed, one can note with
satisfaction that the 'women's worker army' is marching side by side with
the whole proletarian movement, it must be stated that, in terms of the
formal conduct of its conferences, the women representatives of
international socialism still have something to learn from their male
colleagues. The lack of familiarity with 'parliamentary practice' led to a
number of omissions, which gave rise to misunderstanding and
dissatisfaction: certain resolutions were not only not put to the vote,
but were not even debated: debates were bunched together, questions were
removed from the agenda on the decision of a questionable majority, etc.
All of these errors could have been avoided with greater experience...
The main topic discussed at the conference was, of course, that of voting
rights. The conflict between the left wing of the women's international,
led by the German delegation, and the representatives of those English
workers' organisations who work together with the suffragettes [9] and
thus support the slogan of qualified electoral rights, was inevitable. The
English produced as their 'trump card' the venerable and well-known
socialist and champion of the women's cause, Charlotte Despard, whose
personal attractiveness, noble bearing, grey hair and skilful, impressive
speech was intended to win sympathy and soften the severity of the
left-wing judgement. A 'furious battle' was expected. However, although
the discussion was lively, the expected 'battle' did not take place: from
the very beginning it was clear that the overwhelming majority at the
conference supported the 'left', and that the English were fighting for a
lost cause... The ease with which victory over the'right' was won is
explained in part by the fact that, with the exception of Despard, they
did not have one good orator on their side. The English defence lacked
spirit and imagination, their arguments in defence of their tactic were
naive, almost 'genteel' – the 'harmony' of women's interests, complaints
against the 'harshness' of class politics, against social injustice, which
also affected the bourgeois woman...
The conference, sharply criticising co-operation between English
socialists and the bourgeois suffragettes, adopted a resolution which,
however, failed to stress this aspect sufficiently. 'The women's socialist
movement in every country rejects qualified electoral rights,' runs the
resolution, as a falsification and as an insult to the very principle of
political equality for women. The movement is fighting for the only viable
and concrete expression of this principle: universal suffrage for all
women who have reached their majority, without qualifications of property,
tax, education or any other kind which hinder members of the working class
from availing themselves of their civil rights. The women's socialist
movement wages its struggle not together with the women's bourgeois
movement, but in close co-operation with socialist parties, who are
defending electoral rights for women as one of the basic and, in practice,
one of the most essential demands in the call for the full democratisation
of the electoral system. [10] The conciliatory note sounded by the
Austrian delegate, Adelheid Popp, in a speech intended to soften the
harshness of this judgement found no support, and the resolution was
passed by an overwhelming majority, with ten votes against.
On the issue of maternity insurance and protection, no serious differences
emerged, and it was only a formal oversight on the part of the presidium
that caused conflict with part of the English delegation, which them left
the conference hall. The resolution introduced by the German delegation on
this issue repeated in essence the basic demands of the Social-Democrats,
as developed and supplemented at the women's conference in Mannheim [11] :
the demand for an 8-hour working day, the prohibition of the use of female
labour in particularly unhealthy branches of production, 16-week leave for
expectant and nursing mothers, and the introduction of the principle of
compulsory maternity insurance, etc. Unfortunately this fundamental
question that affects directly the interests of every working woman was
accorded too little time, and the debates were hurried and abbreviated.
Resolutions introducing important addenda to the demands presented by the
German delegation were not put forward for debate nor put to the vote, and
this despite the fact that the Finnish resolution proposed by Pärssinen,
Aalle and Silänpäa and other deputies to the Seim, clearly emphasised a
point omitted in the German resolution – the extension of all forms of
maternity protection to include both legitimate and illegitimate mothers,
and a review of the laws on infanticide, committed mainly by mothers who
have been abandoned to their fate...
It should not be thought that all the measures demanded in the resolution
automatically covered both legitimate and illegitimate mothers. It is
precisely such a fuddled mode of thinking that dominates in the West,
sadly even among women socialists, that preference for legalised marital
cohabitation, which made it desirable to debate this fundamental point
more thoroughly. It was important to emphasise with all the authority of
the conference that maternity is to be recognised as a social function
independently of the marital and family forms it assumes... The question
of principle involved in maternity insurance and protection was, however,
submerged in a number of practical details.
Mention must also be made of yet another important omission in the
resolution adopted at the conference: it fails to point clearly and
precisely to the principle underlying maternal insurance. Is such
insurance an independent section of social insurance, or is it merely a
subsection of social insurance in case of illness? The formulation of the
resolution indicates that those who drew it up viewed maternity insurance
as one of the functions to be carried out by hospital bursaries. If this
proposition had been more clearly expressed, however, it would undoubtedly
have led to an elucidation of certain other propositions which require
closer examination. It would have raised the question of the grounds for
extending insurance to cover that large section of the female population
not gainfully employed (i.e. the wives of workers) that can still be found
in many countries. Is it possible, and is it acceptable to extend
insurance to them via their husbands? What is then to be done in the case
of 'non-legalised' cohabitation?
A 'simplification' of this complex question in order to avoid debates of
principle and heated feelings would scarcely be in the interests of the
cause. Despite the adoption of the resolution, the question of maternity
insurance cannot be considered as fully dealt with, and Social-Democracy
will undoubtedly have to return to it.
More impassioned debate was provoked by the Danish proposal on night work.
This resolution, introduced on the initiative of women type-setters,
pointed out that legislation prohibiting night work for women but
permitting it for men hindered the working woman in her struggle to earn
her living. It is only with enormous effort that women succeed in gaining
access to better-paid jobs and better working conditions (in printing, for
example), and the prohibition oil night work for women pushes them back
into the ranks of the unskilled workers, exposes them once more to all the
temptations of prostitution and the horrors of approaching destitution.
Night work must be abolished simultaneously for both men and women, as it
is equally harmful to both...
The 'over-simplified' way in which the Danish delegates presented the
question of night work meant that their resolution was unable to win
support. By a majority of 13 votes to 2 (voting was by country) the
resolution was rejected. An individual demand meeting the interests of
only one specific profession (night work in a skilled profession is found
mainly in the printing industry) could not override a demand corresponding
to the interests of the class as a whole. However, the conflict this
question provoked indicates the need for a serious approach to the
question raised by the Danish and Swedish delegations, namely the
simultaneous equalising of the conditions of male and female labour...
The resolution put forward by the chairwoman of the conference, Clara
Zetkin, expressing sympathy with Finland, and another resolution put
forward by the English, reminding women of their obligation to oppose
chauvinism and bring up their children in a spirit of anti-militarism were
both adopted without debate and were met with warm applause.[12]
The central women's international bureau remained as before in Stuttgart,
and Die Gleichheit (Equality) was again recognised as the organ of the
international socialist movement.
Whatever may have been the superficial failings, of the second
international socialist conference, its work will undoubtedly have a major
and beneficial influence upon the further success of the workers'
movement. There is every reason to hope that the women's socialist
movement, which is an integral part of the whole workers movement, will
assume larger and even more impressive dimensions before the next, the
third conference. It will also clearly and irrefutably demonstrate that
only special propaganda work among the female proletariat, work organised
within the party on the basis of technical independence, can supplement
the ranks of the organised workers with a 'second army', the army of women
workers fighting for the common workers' cause and for the comprehensive
emancipation of women.
SUMMARY
What is the women's socialist movement, and what are its objectives and
aims? What are the forms that it is taking? Is it not simply a branch of
bourgeois feminism, its 'left wing'? And if not, how is the existence of
separate women's newspapers and magazines, the convocation of meetings,
congresses and conferences to be explained? Why is the movement not
absorbed into the powerful current of the whole workers' movement?
These questions, which inevitably arise in connection with the women s
international socialist conference in Copenhagen in August 1910,
frequently cause bewilderment even among socialists, who are,
unfortunately, insufficiently familiar with the history of the women's
working-class movement in the West.
The history of this movement, however, is instructive and to a certain
extent provides the answer to such questions.
Today there is hardly a socialist who would openly dispute the importance
of the organisation of women workers and the desirability of creating a
broad women's socialist movement. Socialists now take pride in the size of
the 'women's army' and, when estimating the chances of success in the
process of class struggle, take into account this new and rapidly
increasing active force. However, there was a time, and not all that long
ago - about 25 years - when such a thing as a women's socialist movement
had never been heard of in any country, even if it had hundreds of
thousands, millions, of women workers.
When, 14 years ago, during the international congress held in London in
1896, 30 women delegates (from England. Germany, America, Holland, Belgium
and Poland) arranged for their own separate women's conference, only a
couple of countries (Germany, England) were making their first attempts to
set up a women's socialist movement. The workers' organisations in every
country did, it is true, include individual women in their ranks, but, on
entering the ranks of the party and taking part in the trade union
struggle, the majority of these women as it was renounced in advance their
work on behalf of the most deprived and legally unprotected section of the
working class – women workers. Virtually nothing was being done by the
party to raise the class consciousness of working women, for the
emancipation of women as housewives and mothers.
This was the situation in Germany until the beginning of the 1890s, in
England and other countries until the beginning of the 20th century, and
in Russia up to the revolutionary upheavals of 1905. In those countries
where organisations of working women assumed primarily a professional form
(for example, England and America), work was conducted in the main
together with the bourgeois feminists and under their direct leadership;
there was no question of a class struggle.
The first unofficial conference of women socialist delegates held in
London in 1896 concerned itself mainly with an examination of the
relationship between bourgeois feminism and the women's proletarian
movement. It was recognised as desirable to distinguish between the
women's bourgeois movement and the women's socialist movement, and
emphasis was placed upon the urgent need to intensify socialist propaganda
work among working women in order to involve them in the class struggle.
Eleven years have passed since then. Capitalism has continued its
successful progress, developing itself to the full and subordinating to
itself not only new branches of production, but also new countries. Female
labour has become a major social force within the national economy.
However it was precisely women workers, outside any organisation, not
linked to their class comrades by any obligations, dispersed and isolated
from one another, who were in effect dangerous and damaging rivals of the
male section of the working class, often undermining the successes the
latter had achieved by active demonstrations.
The question of organising women workers and of the ways and means of
involving them in the general movement became an urgent and immediate
issue. Feeling their way, adapting to the conditions in their country, the
worker organisations in different countries attempted, each using its own
methods, to solve this problem. The result was a variegated and motley
scene. The forms taken by the women's proletarian movement varied
according to local conditions. However, the most important thing was that
the movement of the women of the working class had been called into being
– it existed.
By 1907 the movement had assumed such a scale that it was possible to
convene the first international women's conference in Stuttgart. When the
representatives from the various countries revealed what they had achieved
in their own countries, the results, if not impressive of themselves, held
promise in terms of the possibilities opened up for the future. There now
emerged the question of the formation of an international women's bureau
to co-ordinate the women's socialist organisations in different countries.
The bureau was set up in Stuttgart, and the magazine Die Gleichheit
(Equality) was recognised as the central organ of the international
movement.
The conference held in Stuttgart was of decisive importance for the
socialist movement. It secured for the movement that independence which it
needed for the future success of its work. It became clear that the
women's proletarian movement was an integral part of the whole movement of
the working class. Nonetheless, the specific social and political position
of women in contemporary society requires that a particular approach be
adopted towards women, and puts before the party a number of special
objectives. These objectives, while they form part of the whole
working-class movement, while they form part of the common aim,
nonetheless affect specifically female interests more closely and are
therefore more properly pursued by the women representatives of the
working class themselves. This point of view has now prevailed, but its
elaboration nonetheless required great effort on the part of the women,
and provoked a sharp conflict of opinions...
The German party was the first to conduct independent propaganda work
among the female proletariat; other countries gradually followed its
example. The seeds sown by the first supporters of the women's socialist
movement led by Clara Zetkin are already taking root...
Over recent years efforts have been made everywhere to arouse the
awareness of working-class women by drawing them into the party.
Everywhere the movement is carrying out painstaking work to involve
working women in the broad current of the whole movement... The reports
made by different countries at the women's conference in Copenhagen is
proof of this tireless activity.
How this meeting of almost 100 representatives of the working class of 17
countries differed from the usual bourgeois congresses of suffragettes!...
After two days of animated and enthusiastic work, the delegates to the
second socialist women's conference left the hall of the hospitable
People's House imbued with the firm belief that by the third international
conference of socialist women, [13] the 'second army' of the working class
in every country will be able to swell its ranks with a fresh inflow of
new and active forces from among the women of the working class.
A. Kollontai.
Footnotes
1. This is a reference to the Seventh International Congress of the Second
International, held in Stuttgart on 18-24 August, 1907. The congress was
attended by delegates from 25 countries, including Argentina, Austria,
Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland,
Russia and the USA – 886 delegates in all. The Bolshevik delegation was
led by Lenin, who did a great deal of work to consolidate the left-wing
forces of international Social-Democracy. The congress adopted a
resolution committing socialists to oppose the approaching war.
2. In 1907, just before the opening of the International Socialist
Congress in Stuttgart, the First International Conference of Socialist
Women was held, attended by 58 women delegates from 14 countries. The main
aim of the conference was to formulate one united tactic for all the
Socialist parties in the campaign to win voting rights for women workers
as part of universal and equal voting rights for both sexes.
3. The Social-Democratic Federation – founded in England in 1884, declared
itself a socialist organisation, but did not recognise Marxism. It had no
contact with the workers and was extremely sectarian in nature. In 1907 it
was renamed the Social-Democratic Party.
4. Die Gleichheit (Equality) – a Social-Democratic bimonthly magazine
issued by the women's proletarian movement in Germany. It was published
from 1890 to 1925, and was edited by Clara Zetkin from 1892 to 1917.
5. The Independent Labour Party – founded in England in 1893. Its aims
were to secure the election of workers to Parliament in order to pursue
its own independent policies, to campaign for the nationalisation of land
and the means of production, and also to work within the trade unions. It
soon lost its militant spirit under the influence of bourgeois fellow-travellers,
and its leadership became opportunist.
The Fabian Society founded in England in 1884 by representatives of the
bourgeois intelligentsia. The Fabians rejected class struggle, and
proposed a programme of state or municipal 'socialism', hoping to
transform capitalist society into a socialist society by means of gradual
reform.
6. Cf. the speech delivered by Clara Zetkin at the Seventh International
Socialist Congress of the Second International in Stuttgart, August, 1907.
7. This is a reference to the creation during the Women's Conference at
Stuttgart of an International Women's Secretariat, headed by Clara Zetkin.
The work of the Secretariat was to include gathering information on
women's movements and on the leadership of the women's socialist movement.
8. The Second International Conference of Socialist Women was held on
26-27 August, 1910, prior to the opening of the Eighth International
Congress of the Second International in Copenhagen (28 August-3 September,
1910).
9. Suffragettes – members of a bourgeois women's movement seeking voting
rights for women. The suffragettes adopted a tactic of obstruction,
organised street demonstrations, and caused disruption of every kind. The
suffragettes did not seek the support of working women.
10. Cf. the resolutions adopted at the International Conference of
Socialist Women in Copenhagen, 25-26 August, 1910, and the Reports to the
international Socialist Congress.
11. A reference to the Fourth Socialist Conference of German Women, which
was held in Mannheim on 22-23 September, 1906, and attended by 50 women
delegates and 5 women socialists from other countries, including Alexandra
Kollontai. The agenda included: the campaign for voting rights for women,
propaganda work among rural women, involving domestic servants in the
women's movement, etc. On all these issues resolutions were adopted which
called for intensification of the struggle for women's rights and
satisfaction of their demands.
12. In addition to the resolutions listed above, the international women's
conference in Copenhagen also decided to declare 8 March the International
Day of Working Women, and to mark it every year as the day of
international solidarity among the female proletariat in their struggle
for equal economic and political rights. The first International Women's
Day was held in 1911 in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark under
the slogan 'Voting rights for women workers so as to unite forces in the
struggle for socialism'.
13. It had been planned to convene the third international women's
conference in 1914 in Vienna, but this was prevented by the outbreak of
the First World War.
bAYAN Chair Carol Araullo
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