Just how much progress was made in the fight for equality? Anne McShane focuses in particular on Central Asia. See also Part 2 of this study, Zhenotdel: Clubs, Cooperatives, and the Hujum.
Introduction by Mike Taber: Anne McShane is a Marxist activist from Britain and Ireland who writes regularly for Weekly Worker, the newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). McShane has developed these views in more detail in her PhD thesis, “Bringing the Revolution to the Women of the East: The Zhenotdel Experience in Soviet Central Asia through the Lens of Kommunistka.” McShane has begun work to edit her thesis up into a book.
The 2017 article below, which we are running in two parts, is reposted with permission from Weekly Worker.
Discussion of these questions has practical importance for the struggle for women’s liberation today. The Russian Revolution of 1917, and the early years of the Soviet Republic, blazed a revolutionary path for achieving women’s full rights and equality in society. By focusing on Soviet Central Asia, McShane enables readers to get a new appreciation of the profound impact of the Russian Revolution on this question.
Read more…Part 2 of a two-part series. For Part 1, see “Soviet Russia, Zhenotdel, and Women’s Emancipation, 1919-1930.” Reposted with permission from Weekly Worker.
By Anne McShane: Women’s clubs in central Asia could not by their very nature have the same direct relationship with Soviet organs as delegate meetings. There could not be internship schemes, at least initially, because of seclusion and the cultural barriers that prevented men and women working together. Instead women would become involved in economic activity, education and cultural activities through the club.
The April 1921 conference stated that the bureau itself would provide the link to the soviets. It pledged to lead a campaign within the party “to strengthen the struggle against prejudice toward women, which has deep roots among men in the population”. The Zhenotdel committed itself to “assist the party to educate the male proletariat and peasantry in the spirit of communism and an acknowledgement of the shared interests of men and women”.
With the crisis in the bureau following Kollontai’s removal and the slashing of funds to it resulting from the NEP, work in central Asia virtually collapsed. Then in 1923 Serafima Liubimova, a supporter of Kollontai, was appointed regional secretary and relaunched the organisation at a conference in March of that year. Delegates agreed to “organise women’s clubs within which there will be artels, trade schools, elementary schools, libraries, crèches and other facilities to support women”.
Read more…By Barry Sheppard: August’s Republican National Convention centred on two interrelated themes. One was the adulation of Donald Trump as the strong leader who can save the country, and who must hold onto power, come what may.
The other was the mobilisation of a blatant, racist assault on the Black Lives Matter movement. BLM activists were accused of being “violent thugs.” intent on physically destroying the country, and which Trump would crush in the streets.
Trump’s presence and speeches dominated each session, culminating in his long acceptance speech, with the White House as his backdrop.
“We must never allow mob rule,” he said. Read more…
From the Second World Congress to the March Action
See also Part 2: The Third World Congress and Its Outcome
Table of Contents
Part 1: From Second World Congress to ‘March Action’
Part 2: The Third World Congress and Its Outcome
Bibliography
Long Live the Communist International
The Third World Congress and Its Outcome
See also Part 1: “From Second World Congress to March Action“
Table of Contents
Part 1: From Second World Congress to ‘March Action’
Part 2: The Third World Congress and Its Outcome
Bibliography
Cuban doctors en route for South Africa
The Confederation for Democracy and Socialism, an alliance of five groups based in Senegal, has released the following call for an end to the 59-year-old blockade maintained by the United States against Cuba. Translation from the original French by Ameth Lô (GRILA).
“Cuba is a firm and reliable friend of Africa and Africans,” note the Senegalese socialists. “When the World Health Organization called for cooperation, Cuba, as always, was among the first countries to step forward.” Cuba has sent its specialized medical brigades to combat the Covid-19 virus in ten African countries.
For the original French text, see Afriques en Lutte. Read more…
Genocidal Apartheid and Anti-Colonial Resistance
Presentation to a Socialist Action (Canada) panel discussion, August 6, 2020. The other speakers were Peter Kulchyski, professor of Native studies, University of Manitoba and Maria Paez Victor of the Circulo bolivariano Louis Riel.
By John Riddell: Half a century ago, I helped in publication of Richard Fidler’s pamphlet Red Power in Canada, published in 1970 by the League for Socialist Action. It included the program of a visionary Indigenous group on the West Coast, the Native Alliance for Red Power, that called for Indigenous sovereignty and reparations.
Three years earlier, our rulers had organized celebrations of what they called “Confederation” – the formation of the state of Canada. This extravaganza was met by wide scepticism, and not only among First Nations. Masses of Quebeckers called Confederation “les cent ans d’injustice.” Socialists in the rest of Canada picked up on this, as in a “centennial issue” of Young Socialist Forum whose front cover declared, “One Hundred Years of Injustice.” Read more…
Mike Taber discusses the significance of the new book he has edited, Under the Socialist Banner: Resolutions of the Second International, 1889-1912, to be published next spring by Haymarket Books.
This article is based on a talk he gave to the August 2 Online Communist Forum organized by the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and Labour Party Marxists. The text was printed in the August 6 issue of Weekly Worker.
Second International congress in Amsterdam, 1904. Banner: Proletarians of all countries, unite!
By Mike Taber: First of all, thanks to the Online Communist Forum for inviting me to kick off the discussion here today. I hope participants will find it of interest.
I will be taking up five things:
- The conflicted appreciation of the Second International and its legacy.
- What the Second International was.
- Debates that took place within it.
- The book I have prepared on Second International resolutions from 1889 to 1912;
- The relevance of all this today.
Seven Comintern Texts from 1921-23: Part 1
MAY DAY 1920
By John Riddell: Although the united front is today likely the most-discussed policy of the Communist International, no single Comintern text fully lays out its scope and significance. Instead, early presentations of this controversial policy are found scattered through many texts written over a two-year period.
I am therefore posting here seven of the most important explanations, several of which not previously available online. Given the overall length of these texts (9000 words), and their character as interrelated original source material, I am publishing the seven items simultaneously in three interlinked posts:
- Part 1 contains the most rounded summary of the policy, written by Leon Trotsky in 1922.
- Part 2 presents two initial statements on this issue by the Comintern’s Executive Committee from late 1921–early 1922. They present the united front as a tactical policy linked to a specific conjuncture in the class struggle.
- Part 3 contains elaborations of the policy by Comintern leaders through mid-1923. Here, as in Trotsky’s overview, the policy is considered to be of general validity. In addition, it is extended to embrace the struggle for workers’ power.
The Comintern’s First Formulations 1921-23, Part 2
The Communist International’s early presentations of united front policy are scattered through many texts written over a two-year period. I am posting seven of the most important such explanations in three parts. Here is Part Two: “Introducing the Policy.”
CONTENTS
Part 1: Overview by Leon Trotsky
Part 2: Introducing the Policy
Item #2: “Theses on the United Front.” Adopted by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI), 18 December 1921. 3030 words.
Item #3: “A United Front Is Indispensable.” Excerpt from appeal by the Comintern Executive Committee, January 1, 1922. 850 words.
Part 3: Elaboration and Implementation
‘Theses on the United Front’
Adopted unanimously by the Executive Committee of the Communist International, 18 December 1921.
1. The international workers’ movement is at present going through an unusual transitional period, which poses important tactical problems for the Communist International as a whole as well as each of its sections. Read more…
‘Long Live the Communist International’
The Comintern’s Initial Formulations: Part 3
The Communist International’s early presentations of united front policy are scattered through many texts written over a two-year period. I am posting seven of the most important such explanations in three parts. Here is Part Three: “Elaboration and Application.”
CONTENTS
Part 1: Leon Trotsky’s Overview
Part 2: Introducing the Policy
Part 3: Elaboration and Implementation
- Unity in the Ranks and Leadership Negotiations, by Karl Radek, November 15, 1922. 1150 words.
- “Unite All Working-Class Forces Against Capitalism,” from the Fourth World Congress Theses on Tactics. 630 words.
- “For a Workers’ Government,” from the Fourth World Congress Theses on Tactics. 1030 words.
- The United Front Against Fascism, by Clara Zetkin. 770 words.
4. Leadership Negotiations and Unity in the Ranks
Speech to Fourth World Congress discussion of the Theses on Tactics, November 15, 1922.
By Karl Radek: … [T]he idea of a struggle for power is for the moment not present among the broadest worker masses. Rather the entire situation has forced them backwards, and the great majority of the working class feels powerless. Given these facts, the conquest of power is not on the agenda as an immediate task. That is a historical fact. And if Communists answer every question, even that of state administration of dentistry, by saying that only under the dictatorship of the proletariat will teeth be extracted without pain, (Laughter) well, repeating that may possibly have propagandistic value, but it does not alter the fact that our own comrades, Communist workers, are convinced that the struggle for power is not possible at this time – even though we know that, sooner than some suppose, many states will tremble before a struggle for proletarian dictatorship. Read more…
See also appendix, “Study Aids for the Second Congress”
By John Riddell: The Second Congress of the Communist International (Comintern), convened in Moscow precisely 100 years ago, on July 19, 1920. Its deliberations, spread over almost three weeks, represent the best single introduction to the thought and dynamics of global communism during Lenin’s lifetime.
The complete proceedings are available in a handsome recent 1,455-page printing from Pathfinder Press, edited by me.[1] The earlier Pathfinder printing of 1991, however, is the version generally found in libraries, and its pagination is different from the edition currently available from Pathfinder. Page references in the present text, therefore, are to the 1991 printing. Read more…
Appendix to “The Comintern’s Second Congress: A Centennial Introduction“
As noted in my introduction to the Communist International’s Second Congress, the online version of the Congress proceedings available on Marxists Internet Archive (MIA) is not complete. Sessions are enumerated inaccurately, and two sessions are left out entirely. The MIA version also omits the 21 appendices published in a 1934 Russian version, all of which are included in the Pathfinder edition.
The notes below offer a comparison of the list of congress sessions found in each of these editions, followed by a list of the appendices in the Pathfinder edition.
Comparison of List of Sessions
The following table indicates, in the first column, the list of congress sessions as given in the original German edition of 1921, the authoritative text issued by the Comintern itself and utilized by the Pathfinder Press edition (PP). The second column shows the session number as listed in Marxists Internet Archive (MIA). The third column gives the main topic of that session. Read more…
A Review of ‘The Communist Movement at a Crossroads’
The Communist Movement at a Crossroads: Plenums of the Communist International’s Executive Committee, 1922–1923, by Mike Taber, Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2018, 796 pp., US$50.
By John Riddell: The newest volume of the Comintern Publishing Project, The Communist Movement at a Crossroads, presents a wealth of documentation and debate portraying the world movement’s dynamics at a time of fateful choices concerning its future path.
1920: A Comintern congress in session. (Source: Archive Jules Humbert-Droz)
Three major conferences of the enlarged Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) were held in 1922-23, along with a major world congress – evidence of the world movement’s vitality and its culture of intense discussion. The Crossroads volume contains the full text of debate at the three ECCI gatherings, translated from transcripts of 25 days of deliberations. Read more…
A complete set of Socialist Voice, a Marxist publication based in Canada, has been posted by Marxists Internet Archive. The following text on the MIA site introduces a fully linked Socialist Voice table of contents.–JR
Introduction to ‘Socialist Voice’
A ‘Socialist Voice’ pamphlet by Suzanne Weiss.
Socialist Voice: Marxist Perspectives for the 21st Century was an online journal published in Canada from 2004 to 2011. During that time 475 articles were posted on the website SocialistVoice.ca; many were also distributed by email to subscribers. In addition, Socialist Voice published 17 pamphlets in both hard copy and pdf form.
The founding Editors of Socialist Voice were Roger Annis and John Riddell. They were subsequently joined by Ian Angus. Over time, contributing editors from Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Nicaragua, and the United States joined the project, and an online discussion forum, SV-Circle, was created for discussion among editors and readers. Read more…