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  SOVIET WOMEN-EQUAL BUILDERS OF THE SOCIALIST SOCIETY

Women in the Land of Socialism
N. Popova
 

VII. Soviet Women in the Vanguard of the Struggle Waged by Women in All Countries for Peace and Democracy Against the Instigators of War

At the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union Comrade Stalin appealed to all Soviet people to rise to repulse the hated enemy. His appeal met with the fervent and unanimous response of all patriots of the socialist homeland.

With the insight of genius Stalin expressed the firm conviction that the peoples of Europe, enslaved by the German fascists, as well as the freedom-loving peoples of the whole world, would unite to fight the German invaders until the latter were completely defeated.

During the war, when the splendid daughters of the socialist country, together with the whole people, were self-sacrificingly defending the honour and independence of their homeland, Soviet women began to work for the organization of international cooperation of democratic women throughout the world for the struggle against fascism.

Mothers, wives and sisters of soldiers fighting at the front against the inhuman fascist hordes, famed women factory and transport workers, authors, actresses, and scientists, attended anti-fascist meetings at which they spoke of the heroism displayed by Soviet women in the defence of their country, and called upon freedom-loving women the world over to fight against the common enemy.

On behalf of millions of Soviet women they appealed to the women of England, America, France, to the women of the enslaved and oppressed Slav countries of Europe which were groaning under the iron heel of Hitlerism, to join forces in the fight against fascism.

“The time has come when we must all unite in order to destroy bloodthirsty fascism utterly,” wrote Soviet women. They urged women the world over to enlist in the holy war.

It was necessary to make women of all countries understand how much they could accomplish if they fought against fascism actively, to make them realize that by helping the Soviet people in their war against fascism they would be helping themselves and their own countries, they would be defending the honour and independence of their own peoples, would be fighting for culture, for civilization, for the dignity of women and the rights of mothers and children, for the happiness of their children.

To the women in the German-occupied countries of Europe Soviet women said:

“Don’t lose heart! Fight, fan the flames of the popular war of liberation! Justice is on our side! Victory will be ours!... Sabotage Hitler’s war orders!... Prevent troop trains from getting through to Russia!...”

The heroic efforts of the Soviet women and their appeal to freedom-loving women throughout the world met with warm response abroad.

Women of other countries regarded the fight Soviet people were waging with hope; it heartened them and gave them strength.

Soviet women took the lead in the struggle women all over the world were waging for democracy and progress. And that was natural, because they were citizens of our wonderful, free country, brought up by the Soviet socialist system, by our Communist Party, by our great and wise leader Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.

In every country, especially in the fascist-occupied states of Europe, women, inspired by the heroism of the Soviet Army and of Soviet women, joined forces and rose against the common enemy. Guided by the Communist Parties, the women’s underground resistance movement grew and gained in strength along with the entire front of the enslaved people’s national-liberation movement. It was in the underground, in the resistance movement against fascism, that new women’s organizations were formed and proved their vitality and vigour.

The broad democratic movement of women during the war was not limited to Europe and America. It extended to the colonial and semi-colonial countries.

The selfless heroism, courage and grit of Soviet patriotic women fascinated millions of freedom-loving women all over the world, lent them strength and showed them how one should defend and love one’s country.

The fight of the freedom-loving peoples against Hitlerism, cemented as it was by common sacrifice and common victory, was bound to draw the forces of democracy close together, was bound also to bring about closer unity of freedom-loving women within the various countries and on an international scale.

Unity of the democratic forces was all the more necessary because even before the end of the war the reactionary forces in England and the U.S.A. became increasingly busy, and their efforts were directed primarily against the Soviet Union – the bulwark of democracy and the decisive force in the war against Hitler Germany. The reactionaries were anxious to save the fascist aggressors from utter destruction.

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Before the war no mass women’s organizations existed either on an international scale or in any single country. There were about a dozen or so international feminist organizations of various kinds, most of them reactionary and built on professional or religious lines, like the Union of Christian Temperance, Catholic Leagues, Young Women’s Association, League of Country Women, University Women’s Association. The membership of these organizations was small, and they used demagogic slogans in order to divert working women from the real fight for their equality and democratic rights. No wonder all these associations speedily collapsed when confronted with a formidable war danger. The “Women’s International Organizations Contact Committee,” which was connected with the League of Nations, disappeared together with the latter. The extremely conservative and reactionary “International Alliance of Women Voters” was not heard of during the war. In some countries members of the Alliance supported the fascists. The collapse of this type of women’s organization was inevitable in the period of great trials which fell to the lot of hundreds of millions of people, for they did not have the support of the masses of working women; their interests and needs were alien to them. The moral and political influence of these organizations was negligible.

* * *

After the enemy was defeated the conditions were ripe for the establishment of an organization to keep alive the wartime unity of democratic women of different countries and enable them to take part in solving the new, post-war problems facing the peoples of the world.

In June 1945 an Initiative Committee was formed to prepare for and convoke a Women’s World Congress. It consisted of representatives of the U.S.S.R., France, Spain, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Italy, China and England.

Soviet women, whose efforts on behalf of democratic women’s unity date back to the days of the war, when they issued their fervent appeals to women the world over to unite for the joint struggle against fascism, took a most active part in the work of the Initiative Committee for a World Women’s Congress.

The World Women’s Congress met in Paris on November 26, 1945, and was attended by 850 delegates and guests representing 181 women’s organizations in 42 countries in all parts of the world.

The Congress discussed such questions as how to preserve and extend the democratic gains of the peoples, how to rally all forces to consolidate the victory by establishing lasting and just peace among the nations, how to work to extirpate fascism, how to fight for democratic rights in general and for women in particular, how to achieve genuine, not merely formal, equality, and how to help the oppressed and enslaved women of the colonies.

The Congress established a new international democratic organization, the Women’s International Democratic Federation, which joined the serried ranks of the democratic front of the peoples of the world.

The Congress elected executive bodies: a Council, Executive Committee, Secretariat and Auditing Committee. The U.S.S.R. has five members and three alternate members in the Council, which is made up of representatives of all the countries that were represented at the Congress. The Congress reviewed what democratic women had done to bring about the defeat of fascism during the war, and adopted a Constitution and a Program for the Women’s International Democratic Federation.

The women’s international organization set itself the task of drawing millions and millions of women into the fight for the complete annihilation of fascism and of the fascist ideology, for the establishment of a just, stable and lasting peace among nations and for the prevention of new aggression, for political, economic and other social rights for women of all races and nationalities in all countries of the world, bearing in mind that there can be no real democracy in a country in which women do not enjoy full political and economic equality.

The Congress stressed the necessity for strengthening the unity of the peoples of democratic countries, the unity which arose during World War II and brought the United Nations victory over the enemies of humanity, the German fascists and Japanese imperialists.

The decisions of the Paris Congress were and remain powerful means of rallying and uniting the democratic forces in the international women’s movement.

The Congress issued an appeal to women all over the world and adopted the following oath:

“Before returning to our countries and to our families, we solemnly vow to facilitate the development of this powerful women’s organization, which came into being after the termination of the second world war.

“We solemnly vow to defend the economic, juridical and social rights of women.

“We solemnly vow to fight for the creation of conditions necessary for the happy and harmonious development of our children and future generations.

“We solemnly vow to fight untiringly for the complete destruction of fascism in all its manifestations, and for the establishment of a real democracy throughout the world.

“We solemnly vow to fight untiringly to secure a lasting peace throughout the world – the only guarantee of the happiness of our hearths and homes and of the well-being of our children.”

After the Congress the Federation proceeded to put into effect its resolutions, to live up to its historic mission – that of heading the struggle for peace and democracy carried on by the various national women’s organizations.

Women of the Soviet Union are in the vanguard of the struggle of women all over the world for the lofty and noble aims proclaimed by the Women’s World Congress. They take the lead in the efforts to strengthen cooperation among women of all freedom-loving nations.

The WIDF has become one of the biggest mass organizations which comprise the democratic front of the peoples of the world. The Federation enjoys increasing influence and prestige among the masses of women, for it concerns itself with problems of vital interest to all democratic women, problems resulting from the complicated and tense international situation which has developed since the end of the war.

The Federation’s Executive Committee and Council have discussed at their meetings the ways and means of rallying women of all countries to fight for peace and democracy, against the survivals of fascism and fascist ideology, and against aggressive reaction.

The overshadowing fact characterizing this post-war period is that while the general crisis of the capitalist system, which is growing ever more acute, is undermining and weakening the forces of the reactionary, imperialist camp, the forces of the democratic, anti-imperialist camp are growing stronger. As a result of the second world war the relation of forces in the political arena is developing in favour of Socialism.

World War I gave rise to conditions favourable to the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, which, for the first time in the history of mankind, established Socialism on one-sixth of the earth. A quarter of a century later, in consequence of World War II, more links were broken in the chain of capitalist countries. A number of states of Central and Southeastern Europe dropped out of the imperialist system. New, people’s democratic regimes arose in Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Albania. In a surprisingly short period these countries have carried out bold progressive social and economic reforms and taken firm steps towards Socialism. These accomplishments were possible because they were wholeheartedly backed by the masses of the people.

The capitalist world has altered substantially. Of the six imperialist Great Powers, as they were called, Germany, Japan and Italy no longer count. France has been greatly weakened and lost her former importance. The United States of America and Great Britain are the only imperialist Great Powers left, and Britain’s position has been seriously undermined. She is falling more and more under the sway of her trans-Atlantic rival and competitor.

The American monopolists, the real rulers of America today, grew fabulously rich during the war and are striving to take advantage of the military and economic might of the U.S.A. to extend their rule to the whole world.

“In the post-war conditions the imperialists of the U.S.A. are bidding for the role of world gendarme, for the role of suppressor of the freedom and independence of nations. “The rapacious imperialism of the Americans,” as Lenin called it, is out to gain world supremacy, to enslave and subjugate all the countries of the world. The American imperialists are clearly aiming to take the place of fascist Germany and Japan and are preparing for a new imperialist war,” said Comrade Suslov in his speech at the memorial meeting in Moscow on the 24th anniversary of Lenin’s death. The warmongers are openly calling for an attack upon peaceable countries, in the first place upon the Soviet Union. With the aim, as they say, of “combating Communism,” American imperialists are organizing armed intervention against the freedom-loving peoples of Greece, China, Indonesia, and are interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. They resort to blackmail, threats, economic and political pressure in order to achieve their aggressive aims.

It is now becoming ever clearer to all the peoples that the notorious “Truman Doctrine” and the Marshall Plan, which is a variety of it, were prompted by the American imperialists’ desire to delay the threat of imminent economic crisis, which the Wall Street bosses fear so much, and at the same time to extend the power of the dollar to many countries of the world, to throw their noose over the peoples of Europe and Asia.

It is due to the assistance of the American reactionaries that Franco’s fascist regime still exists in Spain, that a fascist regime is being forced on Greece, that civil war rages in China, that fascist elements are becoming more and more active in Britain, France, Italy. The American imperialists are preserving Germany’s industrial war potential. In pursuit of their imperialist aims the U.S.A. reactionary government circles are violating the Allied agreements on Germany, preventing Germany’s demilitarization and democratic reconstruction and the formation of a central democratic government for the whole of Germany. They are dismembering that country by forming dwarf German states entirely dependent on the American monopolies.

To consolidate the victory won over fascism and to achieve security and peace throughout the world on the basis of unity and mutual cooperation – that is the immediate task facing the freedom-loving nations, the democratic forces of the world.

The anti-imperialist democratic camp is closing its ranks in the fight against the American imperialists, their agents and accomplices.

All the peoples want peace. None of them want a repetition of the horrors of war. They are becoming more and more aware of the necessity of carrying on an organized, united struggle to preserve the national independence and sovereignty of their countries, in defence of their rights and of the cause of peace against the instigators of a new war. The Communist Parties, steeled and tested in the fire of hard battles against fascism and trusted by the broad masses of the people, are in the van of the struggle against imperialism. The offensive of the People’s Liberation Army of China against the reactionary Kuomintang forces, the formation of a provisional democratic government in Greece, the Popular Front in Italy, the wave of strikes and mass demonstrations that swept France and Italy, and many other events are eloquent evidence of the strengthening of the democratic and anti-imperialist camp all over the world.

This camp derives most of its strength from the great Soviet Union which constitutes its vanguard, and also from the New Democracies. The increasing resistance offered by the democratic anti-imperialist camp to the schemes of the aggressors and warmongers has a powerful support in the great Soviet Union and in its foreign policy. The Soviet Union is a true and consistent champion of the freedom and independence of nations, big and small, it stands guard over the interests of humanity and civilization.

Soviet women clearly see what their task is at the present juncture, when reaction is on the offensive and fascist elements are growing more active, when the elementary democratic liberties are being violated and progressive organizations and people persecuted, when attempts are being made to split the forces of democracy and to weaken the democratic front of freedom-loving peoples of the world. They are working hard to extend and strengthen the ranks of the Federation, to make it and its national sections a growing factor in the struggle for peace, for democratic gains, against the instigators of a new war, against international reaction.

Our representatives who take part in the work of the WIDF, who attend its Congresses and Executive Committee meetings and engage in the daily work of its governing bodies, are guided by the mandate of Soviet women enjoining them to base their activities on the Stalin foreign policy of the Soviet State, which is directed against the warmongers and upholds peace and democracy.

The women’s democratic movement headed by the Federation is an integral part of the general democratic movement of the whole world. The Federation and its affiliated organizations, together with the international democratic trade union and youth organizations, conducted a mass anti-Franco campaign. Together with the International Association of Democratic Jurists the Secretariat of the Federation sent a commission of lawyers to Spain to investigate the condition of political prisoners held in Franco prisons.

In 1946, as a result of the protest voiced by the WIDF and its affiliated organizations, a protest which had the support of world public opinion, the death sentence of three Spanish anti-fascist women was reversed. In order better to organize the fight against Franco, the national sections of the Federation in Poland, Hungary, France, Finland and other countries formed relief committees for the Spanish democrats and have made arrangements to help Spanish women political prisoners. These committees have collected large sums of money to assist Spanish anti-fascists.

Women determined to fight for the extirpation of the remnants of fascism and fascist ideology demand of their governments, those which still maintain diplomatic relations with Franco, that they break with Franco Spain and enforce an economic boycott against it.

The WIDF is conducting a campaign in defence of the heroic Greek people who are fighting against the monarcho-fascist regime. Protests against foreign intervention in Greece were sent to the Greek ambassador in Paris and to the governments of the U.S.A. and Great Britain.

The Federation initiated a movement against the suppression of the freedom and independence of the peoples of Indonesia and Viet-Nam.

The Federation and its national organizations are conducting a campaign demanding the unconditional fulfilment of the United Nations decisions on armaments reduction and on the prohibition of the atomic weapon and of war propaganda.

Inasmuch as the fate of peace in the post-war world depends to a great extent on the correct solution of the problem of Germany, the Federation, on behalf of its millions of members, demands the implementation of the Potsdam decisions, effective demilitarization and denazification of Germany, the formation of a single central German government and the establishment of four-power control of the Ruhr industry. Twice the WIDF sent a commission to Germany, which investigated the condition of German women and the development of the democratic women’s movement in the Soviet and French zones of occupation. It also visited the American and British sectors of Berlin. Despite the Federation’s repeated requests, the Anglo-American occupation authorities refused to permit the commission to visit their zones.

The commission found that in the American, British and French occupation zones the position as regards denazification and democratic reconstruction is very unsatisfactory, that, in line with the wishes of the American imperialists and with their plans for a new war, the occupation authorities hinder the democratic development of Germany and persecute the democratic organizations of the German people. They have been interfering with and hindering the activities of women’s anti-fascist committees and the democratic union of women, at the same time encouraging and supporting reactionary women’s organizations.

The same commission visited the Soviet zone of occupation and found that genuine democratic changes had been accomplished there, that the Soviet occupation authorities were carrying out in practice the provisions for denazification and for the democratic reconstruction of Germany, and that in the Soviet zone the conditions had been created for the development of democratic organizations, including women’s organizations.

The U.S S.R. is a country of genuine popular government. It is therefore deeply interested in the triumph of democracy in Germany and is doing everything in its power for the establishment of a democratic system in all of Germany.

In the Soviet zone of occupation of Germany the anti-fascist committees of German women started a movement to unite all women’s democratic forces. In March 1947, a congress of German women was held in Berlin, at which the Union of Democratic Women of Germany was founded.

In a Manifesto to German women the Union states:

“The Union wants to preserve peace, to defeat fascism, militarism and reaction; it wants to work for the unity of Germany by taking an active part in the political life of the country; to help towards rehabilitation and to reduce poverty, to settle legal, economic and social problems concerning women on the basis of equal rights and obligations; to lay the foundation for a healthy and cultured family life.”

995 delegates from the Soviet zone and 114 from the western zones attended the congress. Most of the delegates from the western zones had to travel to the congress secretly in order to elude the police of the Anglo-American occupation authorities which refused them permission to go.

The delegates all spoke of the democratic measures of the Soviet military administration. They acclaimed the organization of the Union and demanded unity in the women’s movement.

Since its foundation the Union of Democratic Women of Germany has grown considerably. Its membership runs into hundreds of thousands and it has its representatives in almost all the German central organs of administration in the Soviet zone. Members of the Union also work on housing and food committees and are active in the fight against profiteering.

The most immediate political task the Union sets itself is the fight to preserve peace and achieve the unity of Germany, to prevent the splitting of Germany, which is being pushed by the U.S.A. imperialists and their agents, the Right-wing Socialists.

Convinced that the character and trend of the women’s democratic movement in Germany is of vital importance to the peace-loving nations, Soviet women, through their representatives in the WIDF, are doing all they can to direct this movement into the proper channel and make it an integral part of the united anti-imperialist and democratic camp, of the camp which is fighting against the aggressive plans of American imperialism, against its designs to destroy the freedom and sovereignty of nations.

Acting in accordance with the wishes of all Soviet women, the Soviet delegation in the Federation exposes the warmongers and explains to the broad masses of the women in foreign countries that the war scare created by the American militarists and the war propaganda they are conducting may bring mankind new disasters.

At the Stockholm session of the WIDF Executive Committee in September 1947 the Soviet delegation declared that all war propaganda, whatever its form, must be condemned as a menace to society, and that those who carryon war propaganda should be brought to trial and punished severely as criminals. The ideological weapons of war, our delegation said, must be put under a ban as effective as the ban mankind is demanding for the atomic weapon.

These demands which our representatives formulated at the session of the WIDF Executive Committee were fully in line with the Soviet Government’s foreign policy. Just then the Soviet delegation at the UN General Assembly submitted comprehensive material exposing the warmongers and demanded that warmongering should be made a criminal offence. All progressive mankind, the common people the world over, were grateful to the Soviet delegation for its declaration.

During the war the example of the heroic deeds of Soviet women and their fervent appeals roused millions of women in the fascist-enslaved countries to join the fight. Similarly, Soviet women in the WIDF are in the vanguard of the fight for the achievement of the Federation’s task. Soviet women play a leading part in the world democratic women’s movement, for the Soviet Union is the base and bulwark of the anti-imperialist democratic camp. The weight and influence of the Soviet Union in international affairs and the high moral and political prestige it enjoys among the freedom-loving peoples of the whole world are the principal reasons for the success of Soviet women in their activities in the international arena and for the sincere affection which women the world over feel for our countrywomen.

The Soviet women’s delegations which took part in the work of the Paris Congress, the Executive Committee and Council have worked persistently to strengthen the Federation and augment its ranks, to make its national sections into a powerful factor in the struggle for peace, for democratic achievements, for the social and economic rights of millions of women in capitalist countries. The Soviet Women’s Anti-Fascist Committee, which was formed during the Great Patriotic War, plays an important part in this work.

Thanks to the contacts Soviet women maintain with women’s organizations abroad, they have been able to exercise considerable influence on the development of the international democratic women’s movement. Through the extensive activities of their Anti-Fascist Committee Soviet women bring to the women in foreign countries knowledge of the advantages of the Soviet system, of the achievements of Soviet women, their part in the political and economic life of the country, and expose the slander and lies disseminated about the Soviet Union abroad.

The Committee receives letters and telegrams from women abroad, and all of them express their affection for the Soviet people and their desire to continue and to strengthen their friendship with Soviet women.

Here, for instance, is a message sent by French women on the first anniversary of Victory Day:

“We greet Soviet women and your entire people whose share in the destruction of fascism was so great. French women thank you for having contributed so much to the fight against fascism and for having helped us. Our two nations are joined by friendship, and in the future this friendship will grow still stronger.”

A representative of women’s organizations of India wrote:

“We must strengthen the connections and extend the exchange of information between the women of U.S.S.R. and the women of India. This will help the women of India in their struggle for the right to live.”

Jeanette S. Turner, Vice-President of the Congress of American Women, made the following statement to the press when she was leaving the U.S.S.R. at the end of October 1947:

“My visit has permitted me to see and observe the great strides the U.S.S.R. has made toward post-war recovery – I have met and spoken with trade unionists, farmers, intellectuals of all professions and I have gained an insight into that which has made the Soviet Union great – namely, the deep love the Soviet peoples have for their land – their undying patriotism, their faith and trust in the leadership of Joseph Stalin; the manner in which they cherish the socialist ideals – the Soviet State.” This statement exposes the lies and slander spread about our country by reactionaries.

The bonds between Soviet women and the women of the People’s Democracies are especially extensive.

Women’s democratic organizations of these countries are extremely interested in the experience Soviet women have had working in factories and on collective farm fields; they strive to emulate the work of our women; they introduce labour emulation and shock work in industry, form women’s building brigades for the rehabilitation of towns and villages destroyed during the war, organize children’s institutions modelled on Soviet children’s institutions.

The women’s organizations of Mongolia and Korea requested Soviet women’s sponsorship in joining the Women’s International Democratic Federation. Many women ask for invitations to the Soviet Union and invite Soviet women’s delegations to visit their countries.

Visits of foreign women’s delegations to the U.S.S.R. and of Soviet women to foreign countries have helped to strengthen the friendly relations, and working contacts between Soviet and foreign women’s democratic organizations. They have enabled women of all countries to see for themselves the advantages of the Soviet system, and this has helped to explode the slanderous, anti-Soviet lies invented by the enemies of democracy.

The magnificent historic achievements and rights gained by the working people of the first Socialist State in the world serve as an inspiring example to the masses of women in capitalist countries.

Since the struggle between the imperialist and anti-democratic camp on the one hand and the anti-imperialist and democratic camp on the other is growing ever more acute, Soviet women halve been demanding that the Federation should combat the intrigues of the reactionaries with still greater perseverance and determination, that it should expose the warmongers before the millions of women all over the world, and should actively and consistently cooperate with other democratic organizations. Soviet women demand that the Federation should fight more resolutely to augment and consolidate the ranks of democracy, that it should imbue the champions of peace and democracy with faith in their own strength.

Democratically-minded women are aware that unity is a most important condition for success in the fight for peace and for their political and economic rights. It is by no means fortuitous that the forces of reaction are intriguing against the unity of the women’s democratic movement.

The progress of the preparations for the First WIDF Congress, held in November 1945, showed that the democratic women’s movement was rapidly gaining in scope. And reactionary elements did their best even then to hinder the formation of an international democratic organization of women or at least to delay its formation. Thus, British delegates on the Initiative Committee insisted that the program of the international women’s organization be restricted to economic matters. They even proposed to eliminate so burning a question as that of the fight against fascism, on the pretext that it might give the whole organization a Communist character. The British delegates asserted that in their country fascism never existed and never would. But these assertions are clearly at variance with the steadily increasing activities of fascists on the British Isles. Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British fascists, does not confine himself to fascist propaganda, as everyone knows. His toughs organize anti-Jewish pogroms in various towns of England and fight workers’ organizations.

The representatives of Britain on the Initiative Committee advised against haste in calling the congress and persisted in trying to get it postponed. In this manner they hoped to hinder the formation of the WIDF.

At the congress, too, the British delegation strove importunately to form blocs of representatives of various countries which would push through their proposals and thus dictate their will to the congress, but these manoeuvres did not succeed. It is a fact that from its very birth adversaries and enemies of the WIDF began to undermine it. But the various democratic women’s associations worked energetically for its growth and progress.

The growing unity and mutual understanding of the members of the WIDF shows that this organization possesses vitality and vigour. Ever larger masses of women are joining it, and not only national but international government and social organizations are beginning to recognize it. The future in the women’s movement definitely belongs to the WIDF.

Reactionary elements have been increasing their efforts to undermine the WIDF. The centre of these activities has now shifted from London to Washington.

The reactionaries foam with rage as they watch the growth of the forces of world democracy, and of the WIDF, which is one of its detachments. They are trying to destroy the democratic women’s movement, to stop its development by undermining it from within. They want to use the women’s movement for their own ends and therefore encourage the activities of reactionary feminist organizations. The forces of reaction in Britain, U.S.A., France and other capitalist countries are working hard to divert women from the struggle for the aims and tasks which most closely concern them.

In the woman’s movement of the U.S.A. and Britain reactionary elements prevail. They keep on attempting to form new international organizations, demagogically using the slogans of peace and democracy in order to attract the attention of women and divert them from the fight for genuine peace and genuine democracy.

Repeated attempts have been made to form a new international women’s organization of a reactionary bent, in which the Anglo-American bloc would play the leading role and which would speak in the UN in the name of “world womanhood.”

Reactionary Catholic forces, the Vatican especially, are likewise working to gain influence on the masses of women.

In 1947 the Vatican convoked two “international women’s congresses”: the International Council of Catholic Girls and the International Union of Women’s Catholic Leagues. The keynote of those meetings was “glorification” of motherhood and the appeal to women to stay home and take no part in public and political affairs. The Pope spoke at the congresses, and his speeches were as reactionary as might be expected from the highest church dignitary.

Hundreds of millions of men and women all over the world are astir today. They have become active in the political struggle. And it is no wonder the reactionary forces, including the Catholic church and the Pope in Rome, have taken fright, no wonder they are trying to divert women from public activity and to limit their interests to the home.

Obedient to the will of their imperialist masters, the Right-wing Socialists are doing everything they can to break up the unity of the working class and undermine the foundations of the international democratic front of the peoples of the world. The Right-wing Socialists, the most dangerous agents of imperialism in the labour movement and traitors to the interests of their countries, are trying to revive the Second International, defunct since the first world war, and to split the World Federation of Trade Unions. They are also trying to form an international organization of Socialist women for the purpose of splitting the democratic women’s movement and the WIDF, which is leading this movement. With this aim in view a conference of Socialist women was held in Zurich in the summer of 1947, and later another one was held in Antwerp, at which it was decided to form an international women’s Socialist organization. A provisional executive committee of this future organization was set up.

It is now clear to the whole world that the Right-wing Socialists of France, headed by Leon Blum, have sold themselves lock, stock and barrel to the American monopolists, that they are working as agents of American imperialism in Europe, primarily in France itself. And that is why the Right-wing Socialist women of France are waging so furious a battle against the democratic women’s organizations of France.

In their attempts to divert women from public activity and from the democratic movement the reactionary elements in the various countries, primarily in the U.S.A., Britain, France and Italy, urge women at their congresses and conferences, and also through the press, radio and theatre, to return to hearth and home.

The reactionaries aim to weaken the influence of the WIDF and to lure women away from the active struggle against the instigators of a new war, from the fight for political rights and for the betterment of the economic position of millions of working women and mothers throughout the world.

However, these attempts are doomed to failure. The prestige and influence of the Women’s International Democratic Federation is growing steadily. This can be seen from the increased activity of the affiliated national organizations, from the fight they are waging for peace. In November 1948 mass meetings were held throughout France in support of the Soviet delegation’s proposals at the third session of the UN General Assembly. The Italian women’s organization sent to the UN a petition calling for peace, signed by three million women. Petitions supporting the Soviet proposals for the prohibition of the atomic weapon and for a reduction of armaments were signed by 2,500,000 Czechoslovakian women, 2,110,000 Bulgarian women, 5,000,000 German women. Signatures were also obtained in England, Belgium, New Zealand, Holland and other countries.

The women of fighting Greece constantly feel the support of the Federation’s national organizations, which systematically send medicines, food and clothing for Greek women and children. The Federation tirelessly exposes before the whole world the crimes being committed by the Anglo-American imperialists against democratic Greece and other freedom-loving peoples of the world. Women’s organizations in France and Holland have held meetings of protest against the bloodshed perpetrated by the French and Dutch governments in their efforts to suppress the freedom-loving peoples of Viet-Nam and Indonesia.

The women of France, England, Italy, Austria and other countries protest strongly against the “Marshall Plan” which is ruining and enslaving their countries, destroying their national industries, their freedom and sovereignty, and transforming them into bridgeheads for new war adventures.

The Second Congress of the WIDF, held in Budapest at the end of 1948, played an important part in mustering the forces of women in the struggle for peace.

The speeches delivered at the congress by delegates from various countries of Europe, Asia and America, from Republican Spain, Australia, Cuba, Korea and Iran showed that the masses everywhere are offering increasing resistance to the offensive of the monopolists and the intrigues of the warmongers.

Delegates from many countries in all parts of the globe spoke with deep gratitude of the Soviet Government’s peace policy, of the great Soviet Union which is consistently leading all the progressive forces of mankind in the defence of peace, tirelessly exposing the instigators of a new war, strengthening the ties of friendship among nations and states.

Jeanette Vermerche, representative of the Union of French women, expressed the feelings of millions of democratic women when she said at the Congress:

“We believe in the Soviet Union, the strongest force for peace, for we know that the people in power cannot want war.... We also know from experience that if the Soviet Union is attacked it will fight with the courage of a lion unto victory, instilling courage in the hearts of all who are fighting for the common cause of the peoples.”

As she concluded her speech she unfurled the banner which the French women sent to the women of the Soviet Union. The inscription read: “French mothers will never give their sons for a war against the Soviet Union.”

The congress enthusiastically applauded the words of the Chairman of the WIDF, Eugenie Cotton, words which expressed the love of millions of common people for the great homeland of Socialism.

“The fact that the countries of Central and Southeastern Europe have a feeling of attachment for the Soviet Union,” she said, “is not the result of pressure from Moscow, as the reactionaries try to make the peoples of the world believe; it is the result of deep gratitude to the country which gave the blood of millions of its people for the common victory over fascism. It is the expression of gratitude of millions of men and women to the great people who made the revolution in 1917, who were the first to begin the fight to ensure that the power really belongs to the people. To the countries to which England and France brought “Munich.” the Soviet Union brought liberation. The U.S.S.R. is the country where the great dream of Socialism which lives in the hearts of all workers of the world – men and women – has been translated into reality.”

“Women of all countries!” says the Manifesto issued by the congress. “We have a great responsibility to our children, to our peoples, to mankind and to history. And if all of us women – and we are half of mankind – close our ranks and fight the warmongers, there will be no war.”

The Manifesto calls upon the women of capitalist countries to defend their democratic gains, for without democracy there can be no peace. The Manifesto calls upon the women of colonial and dependent countries to continue the fight against imperialism, for the national independence of their countries.

On behalf of 56 countries the delegates to the Second World Women’s Congress declared that the 80,000,000 women they represent “will fight even harder and more staunchly for peace, for democracy, for the security and independence of the nations.”

The decisions of the Second World Women’s Congress and the work to carry out these decisions will further consolidate the ranks of progressive women the world over and contribute to the common struggle of the democratic forces for peace and democracy, against the instigators of a new war.

Soviet women play the leading part in strengthening the whole international women’s front, in uniting the efforts of democratic women the world over in their struggle for peace.

Soviet women believe it is more important now than ever before for the Federation to multiply its efforts in the struggle against the imperialist forces, in the struggle for a lasting peace, for democratic liberties and women’s rights. Only in this way can the Federation justify the hopes put in it by millions of democratic women. Democratic women’s organizations must wage an even more determined struggle against the main forces of the imperialist camp, against American imperialism and its British and French allies.

Mothers and wives the world over, all the national organizations of the Federation must make it their task to expose the warmongers’ machinations, the increasing activities of fascist organizations and the offensive of reaction against the democratic achievements of the working people and their organizations.

In its daily work the WIDF must bear in mind that it is absolutely necessary for the cause of peace, democracy and progress, in the interests of all the nations, further to strengthen the democratic movement.

In all their activities, in all their work to strengthen the democratic movement, Soviet women always and forcibly stress that the Federation and its affiliated organizations must not at present confine themselves to lodging protests. There must be more action in their struggle against the forces of reaction, and they must take the offensive more often. They must work more energetically to rally the democratic forces in every country, to expose the lying inventions of the reactionary press about the Soviet Union and the New Democracies – sentinels of peace and defenders of the national independence and sovereignty of all peoples and countries, big and small. They must rouse hundreds of millions of women for the struggle against the instigators of a new world war.

The WIDF was founded because millions of women willed it and many millions of women have rallied to its standard. Not all women’s organizations, however, are members of the Federation yet. As heretofore, the Federation is faced with the task of working with might and main to unite women’s organizations within the various countries and to draw ever broader strata of democratically-minded women into its own ranks.

There is a vast amount of work for the Federation to do in the women’s movement in the colonial and semi-colonial countries. It must consolidate that movement and help it to take an active part in the struggle for the independence and sovereignty of the colonial peoples and for their social and economic progress. The upsurge of the national-liberation movement in these countries augments the forces of the anti-imperialist and democratic camp in the post-war world.

The WIDF exists and is growing stronger despite the attempts to undermine it from within, or to substitute for it a reactionary international women’s organization. It has been founded to work for the realization of the aspirations of hundreds of millions of women all over the world, and it is performing this task.

It is strong not only by virtue of its numbers but by virtue of the fact that it has in its ranks women who travelled the glorious path of struggle against fascism in the years of hard trials and who are now taking an active part in solving post-war problems. The Federation’s main source of strength is the fact that it has inscribed lofty aims on its banner, and that the fight for the realization of these aims will help to ensure peace among the nations and a happy future for coming generations.

It is vital to the interests of peace, democracy, progress, to the interests of all the peoples, that the international women’s democratic movement be further strengthened. Referring to the unprecedented rise in the activity of the masses and of their striving for peace, Comrade Zhdanov said in his address on the Twenty-Ninth Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution:

“Millions of working people are organizing in order to defend the cause of peace in all countries. I am referring to the significance of the World Federation of Trade Unions, which is conducting an active policy of international cooperation among the workers, the Women’s International Democratic Federation and the World Federation of Democratic youth.... The forces of democracy are growing, and that is the guarantee that the cause of peace will triumph.”

Backed by the growing forces of democracy, by the joint actions of freedom-loving women of the world, of the organized working class and democratic youth, and by the sympathy and support of many millions of women, the Federation must in future too hold firmly the banner of struggle for the lofty aims for which it was formed.

Soviet women are fully confident that the WIDF will take the lead in the democratic women’s movement of resistance to the imperialist aggressors, and that it will rally and unite the forces of freedom-loving women all over the world under its banner. It will not yield to threats and will adhere resolutely to its anti-imperialist, democratic stand in the defence of peace and democracy, of national sovereignty, of freedom and independence for the peace-loving countries.

The forces of democracy are great. The peoples are eager to work together, they want unity and the establishment of a democratic peace. They want freedom and social justice. These ideals of progressive mankind are expressed most fully and defended most consistently by the great Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union is a staunch and consistent defender of peace, democracy, freedom and the independence of all the nations of the world, just as it was before the war. Comrade Zhdanov said: “As the embodiment of a new and superior social system, the Soviet Union reflects in its foreign policy the aspirations of progressive mankind, which desires enduring peace and has nothing to gain from a new war hatched by capitalism. The Soviet Union is a staunch champion of the liberty and independence of all nations, and a foe of national and racial oppression and colonial exploitation in any shape or form.”48 And that is why the most malicious attacks of American and all other reactionaries are directed primarily against the Soviet Union, the country which stands guard over peace and confidently counters the attempts of the U.S.A. to achieve world supremacy.

All men and women who value the democratic liberties and peace among nations, the vital interests of their people and their country, regardless of their position in society, political affiliations, nationality or race, must wage a most energetic and determined fight against the reactionaries who slander the U.S.S.R., against those who provoke quarrels and sow suspicion among nations, against those who advocate fresh bloodshed and are feverishly preparing for a new war.

The stronger the democratic front the less chance reaction has to destroy the democratic gains and start a new war.

The declaration of the conference of nine Communist Parties of European countries pointed out that the only correct and certain way of struggle for the toilers and all other democratically-minded people is for them to unite all their forces against the warmongers, against the imperialist enslavement of nations, for the freedom and independence of all the countries of the world. Soviet women are convinced that this program, which accords with the vital interests of all freedom-loving peoples of the world, is the foundation for a consistent, firm and resolute struggle of democratic women the world over.

Citizens of the most democratic and peace-loving country in the world which consistently and steadfastly opposes the aggressive foreign policy of the imperialist circles in capitalist countries and the instigators of a new world war, the women of the great Soviet Union have a special part to perform in strengthening the international women’s democratic movement.

Dolores Ibarruri said of the Soviet women:

“Soviet women are our pride, the pride of their people, the pride and model of women the world over,”

True daughters of our great victorious people, reared by the Communist Party and the great Stalin, Soviet women are the most consistent fighters in the ranks of the Federation for peace and democracy, for freedom and the independence of the peoples. They fight courageously and resolutely against reaction, against the imperialist warmongers, bearing in mind that the union and solidarity of all women fighting for democracy and peace is a powerful blow to the imperialist and anti-democratic camp.