Comintern appeal for funds goes over the top

‘A project of utmost importance’

By Mike Taber: The fund drive appeal for The Communist Women’s Movement, 1920-1922 has received an overwhelming response.

The new volume will tell the story of how the Communist Women’s Movement (CWM), under the leadership of Clara Zetkin, Alexandra Kollontai, and others, set out to build something new in history: an international movement to fight for women’s emancipation and to draw masses of women into the worldwide revolutionary struggle.

At the heart of this 750-page volume will be the proceedings and resolutions of the CWM’s 1920 and 1921 international conferences. Most of the material has never appeared in English, with much of it never published in any language. The book will be co-edited by Mike Taber and Daria Dyakonova,

More than 50 individuals contributed to the effort, going significantly over the original goal of $3,000. Those contributing to the drive were convinced that learning the history of revolutionary struggles is essential for successfully waging the battles of today and tomorrow.

To all who donated to this drive or helped to spread the word, hearty congratulations!

Below are some of the comments passed along by contributors:

• “The Comintern publishing project is of utmost importance for the worldwide workers movement.”
• “This looks like an important project that will help all of us fighting for women’s rights to preserve some of the continuity with the original feminists.”
• “The period before the Stalinization of the Communist Movement was an exciting one for Marxist feminism (although the term “feminism” was not used and considered bourgeois at the time). The critique of the working-class family in the publications of the CP-linked Women’s Labour League in Canada in the 1920s was inspired by Alexandra Kollontai’s work. I will be interested to see if any of this is reflected in the Comintern proceedings.”
• “This whole series is an invaluable resource for all those seeking to learn about this heroic chapter, and join the fight for a new world for working people.”
• “It’s good to have these historical documents available in book for so today’s activists can study from them, and, hopefully, learn something, too.”
• “Getting our history in print is an investment in the future.”
• “Thanks for doing this important work.”
• “Great work!”
• “Keep up this important work”
• “Best of luck with this important book!”
• “Great to get historical information on the early Communist women’s movement.”
• “Thank you for working on this!”
• “There was a request, and the work is very needed.”
• “What a wonderful contribution to the history of our class. A big thank you to the authors.”

The record of fund drive appeal can be viewed here.

Volumes of the Communist International Publishing Project

• Lenin’s Struggle for a Revolutionary International
  Documents, 1907-1916 The Preparatory Years.
  New York: Pathfinder, 1984, 604 pages.
• The German Revolution and the Debate on Soviet Power
  Documents, 1918-1919: Preparing the Founding Congress
  New York: Pathfinder, 1986, 687 pages.
• Founding the Communist International
  Proceedings and Documents of the First Congress, March 1919
  New York: Pathfinder, 1987, 503 pages.
• Workers of the World and Oppressed Peoples, Unite! (Volume 1)
  Proceedings and Documents of the Second Congress of the Communist International, 1920
  New York: Pathfinder, 1991, 632 pages.
• Workers of the World and Oppressed Peoples, Unite! (Volume 2)
  Proceedings and Documents of the Second Congress of the Communist International, 1920
  New York: Pathfinder, 1991, 592 pages.
• To See the Dawn!
  Baku, 1920 First Congress of the Peoples of the East
  New York: Pathfinder, 1993, 368 pages.
• Toward the United Front
  Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922
  Leiden: Brill, 2012; Chicago: Haymarket, 2013, 1310 pages.
• To the Masses
  Proceedings of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 1921
  Leiden: Brill, 2015; Chicago: Haymarket, 2016, 1299 pages.
• The Communist Movement at a Crossroads
  Plenums of the Communist International’s Executive Committee, 1922-1923
  Leiden: Brill, 2018; Chicago: Haymarket, 2019. 796 pages.