Second International Conference of Communist Women, Moscow, June 9th-15th, 1921. Text from «Moscow», English edition of the daily organ of the Third Congress of the Communist International (Press Bureau of the Communist International, Moscow, 1921; scans on marxists.org): the greetings to the imprisoned communists (No. 15, June 11th, 1921, p. 3) and the appeal to the working women of all countries (No. 41, July 14th, 1921, pp. 1 and 4). The resolutions were adopted in German and Russian; the contemporary English edition is the only free one. The two resolutions of the conference included by the Comintern among the documents of its Third Congress, and the theses prepared by the conference for that congress, are given in German on the page of the congress. Traducción al español
The report of the sessions printed in «Moscow» is given in Second International Conference of Communist Women. Report of the Sessions.
Greetings to the Imprisoned Communists
Carried at the opening session, June 9th, 1921. «Moscow», No. 15, June 11th, 1921, p. 3, in the report of the session; the heading is ours.
“The Second International Conference of Women Communists sends hearty fraternal greetings to the communist men and women in all countries who are languishing in prison. The hearts and minds of the members of the conference on this solemn day are with you, Sylvia Pankhurst, Brandler and Muna, and many other thousands of comrades. The bourgeoisie are endeavouring in vain to hang on to power, and by means of the bloody reaction attempt to postpone their doom. Capitalism has entered a cul de sac. It has no room for the development of productive forces. Only communism can save humanity from starvation ad degeneration, only communism guarantees the women of the working class emancipation from their age-long enslavement. Over the heads of your torturers we call to you, comrades working men and working women of all countries, to overthrow the power of the capitalists and unfurl over the world the sacred bauner of emancipation of the whole of suffering and propertyless humanity. Long live the struggle of the working men and working women of all countries for the dictatorship of the proletariat!”
Resolution on the International Relations of Communist Women and the International Communist Women's Secretariat
Adopted at the session of June 11th, 1921. Not printed in «Moscow». The German text of the Comintern edition is given on the page of the Third Congress: Resolution über die internationale Verbindung der Kommunistinnen und das Internationale Kommunistische Frauensekretariat.
Resolution on the Forms and Methods of Communist Work among Women
Adopted at the session of June 11th, 1921, and afterwards by the Third Congress (July 8th). An English version was printed in «Moscow» in the report of the session (No. 17, June 14th, 1921, pp. 3-4). The German text of the Comintern edition is given on the page of the Third Congress: Resolution über die Formen und Methoden der kommunistischen Arbeit unter den Frauen.
Theses on the Methods and Forms of Work of the Communist Parties among Women
Prepared by the conference and adopted by the Third Congress of the Communist International on July 8th, 1921. The German text is given on the page of the Third Congress: Thesen über die Methoden und Formen der Arbeit unter den Frauen der Kommunistischen Parteien.
Appeal to the Working Women of All Countries
«Moscow», No. 41, July 14th, 1921, pp. 1 and 4, under the heading «Communist Women».
Sisters. The 82 delegates from 28 countries, including those from the Far East of Asia, who met at the Second International Congress of Communist Women in Moscow in June, send you greetings. We have seen the Republic of the Workers and Peasants, and their life, with our own eyes. We realise the tremendous revolutionary struggle by which the proletarian Russians defend their lives. We admire their gigantic construtive work especially among the mothers and children.
Maternity and Children's Homes.
We have seen the summer villas of the rich in the pine woods outside Moscow turned into sunny, cheerful children's homes, which are filled with happy, healthy, self confident children of the working class in Moscow. We have seen the hospitals and maternity homes, convalescent and rest homes for the workers, and other institutions, in what used to be royal palaces and the mansions of the luxurious wealthy exploiters of labour, before the workers took the government into their own hands. We have assisted at meetings of the soviets where the women are really on an equality with men and take their share in the government of the country. These are some of the things that the workers' revolution has brought to the Russian working women.
Women in Capitalist Countries.
Comrades, proletarian women!
We in the capitalist countries are still slaves of the employers. We starve that they may live in luxury. We have our wages reduced to give them greater profits, We live in miserable crowded hovels, while they live in well-built large houses. Our husbands and sons are forced to fight against their fellow-workers in foreign countries so that the capitalists at home may make more money: at home they must shoot upon their fathers and mothers to protect the coffers and the power of the capitalists. We live in constant dread of unemployment, which means starvation for us and for our children. We suffer all these things to no purpose. There is no brighter future to look forward to. Our children will have to live the same lives we have lived, unless we follow the example of our Russian comrades and throw our oppressors off our backs by the social revolution.
We must follow in the footsteps of the Russian workers. Their constructive work is still only in its infancy, but it is going forward. We have also seen hunger and want there, the result of 7 years of war, the result of the blockade by the capitalist countries, the legacy of a corrupt capitalist system. The amount and duration of the sufferings of the Russian workers depend upon the rapidity with which the exploited and oppressed workers of the capitalist countries settle accounts with their masters and tormentors. In spite of all its sufferings the Russian proletariat stands firmly by the Revolution and by the Soviet Government. Under the old system they were starved and enslaved. Now they are free and they realize it. They never wish to return to the old yoke. They suffer because they wish to remain free. They appeal to the oppressed and exploited of the world: Follow us, fight! You must be free too!’
Working women in the factories have asked us to rouse you to help them They say: “When are the workers in your countries going to make their revolution? We cannot go on unless you help us! “If the Soviet Government goes down, your chance of freedom is put back for many years”.
Working women of the world! The Russian workers have shown us how the establish a communist commonwealth, let us not be behind in winning our freedom; there is only one way to achieve it, and that is not the way of the Labour Party and the Reformists, but by courageously making an end of the system which oppresses and enslaves us, by the revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Do not let us be afraid of the sacrifices we shall have to make; they are less than those we make every day to no purpose. The sacrifices we make for the revolution will be for the welfare of our children and the future generations.
Only by a courageous struggle under the Red Revolutionary Banner of the Communist International will the hour of deliverance, the victory of the proletariat, the abolition of the hateful bourgeois class society be hastened.
Long live the revolutionary struggle of all working, exploited, oppressed men and women of the world! The revolutionary struggle for the establishment of the proletarian dictatorship!
Long live the land of the hope of the world's proletariat, of Soviet Russia!
Long live the Third International of struggle and of action, which by communism sets the women free!
The International Women's Secretariat: CLARA ZETKIN, ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI and H. ROLAND HOLST.
Herta Sturm (Germany), Pauline Winogradskaya (Russia), Maierotti Rit (Italy), Lucie Colliar (France), Rosa Bloch (Switzerland), Nora Smythe (England), Ruth Emmons (America), Hilda Wertheim (Austria), Anna Kronova (Tchecho-Slovakia), Tschirtsh (Hungary), Anna Maymikowa (Bulgaria), Milkitsch (Southern Slavonia), Anna Bodulesku (Rumania), Herta Linderut (Sweden), Geannet Olsen (Norway), Kniskinen (Finland), Wolda (Holland), Marie Reisser (White Russia), Schillevka (Lithuania), Janess (Esthonia), Nazarbekowa (Armenia), Zulnkidee (Georgia), Mussabekowa (Azerbeidian), Nan Mentchum (Korea), Duevad Sade (Persia).