The Activity of the International Secretariat of Communist Women
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Author : Alexandra Kollontai

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The Activity of the International Secretariat of Communist Women

(15 November 1921)

From International Press Correspondence, Vol. I No. 8, 15 November
1921, p. 67.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2019). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

The task of the International Secretariat of Communist Women
consists of awakening the working woman from her age-long passivity,
of giving her confidence in herself, of drawing her into the
revolutionary movement and of obtaining her entrance into the
Communist International.

The International Secretariat is at present composed of the
following comrades: Klara Zetkin, Hertha Sturm (Germany), Lucie
Colliard (France) and three Russian secretaries attached to the
Executive of the Communist International, comrades Lilina, Kasparowa
and Kollontay. The latter is a member of the Executive as well. One
of the secretaries has charge of liaison with the Red Trade-Union
International.

At the present time the International Secretariat is devoting
itself to two campaigns: Firstly, relief for Russia, and as most
important, aid for mothers and children; and secondly a protest
against the aggressive policy of the bourgeois states against Soviet
Russia. In August the International Secretariat through its Berlin
representatives addressed an appeal to the working women of the world
for the famine-stricken in Russia – an appeal which found an
immediate response in several countries The Women’s Section of
the Swedish Communist Party has taken over the maintenance of a
children’s home in the famished provinces. Collections and
conferences have taken place in Germany.

Besides the measures demanded by the Executive for relief to the
famine-stricken, the International Secretariat has drawn the
attention of women in all countries to the necessity of rescuing the
children victims of the famine.

The International Secretariat has decided against the sending of
starving children from the famished regions to foreign countries for
political and economic as well as purely practical reasons. It
invites on the other hand, the Women Communist Sections of various
countries to assume the care and maintenance of all the children of a
province, of a region or of a children’s’ asylum,
according to their resources. When the French or English working
women know that the lives and well-being of all the children in a
given locality depend upon their activity, it is not to be doubted
that the intensity of their work will be increased ten fold.

Such acts will have an undeniably beneficial influence upon
international solidarity. But in order that they assume tangible
shape the foreign sections must send their representatives into
Russia and the International Secretariat must establish a permanent
connection between those supported and foreign countries. The second
measure under consideration in the struggle against the famine is the
international relief of children by children. The initiative
of proletarian children ought to be able to show itself in such acts
of solidarity which will strengthen the bonds of international
brotherhood in the coming generation. In this respect the simplest
gestures of assistance, such as gifts of school notebooks, pencils
and slates for the suffering children, are of material as well as
moral aid.

The International Secretariat is also occupied with the
organization of Communist Saturdays for the benefit of the famishing.
They can be devoted to the salvaging of old clothes in the making of
children’s clothing, etc. The Secretariat is also devoting its
attention to the question of unemployment of women. Its organ is the
Working Women’s International. published in German at
Berlin, started last April. The International Secretariat has sent an
organizer into the Far East, and is making preparations for the first
conference of the women of the Near East.

In general, we may derive the greatest satisfaction from the
progress made by the International Secretariat of Communist Women. It
may be said that it has, in one year of activity, succeeded in
establishing itself on a solid foundation in the feminine proletariat
and that it is to-day able to effectively collaborate in the work of
the Communist International.


     From : Marxists.org

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     The Activity of the International Secretariat of Communist Women -- Added : March 04, 2021

     The Activity of the International Secretariat of Communist Women -- Updated : January 09, 2022

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