This Handbook addresses the role of women in communism as a global, social and political movement for the first time, exploring their lives, forms of activism, political strategies and transnational networks. Comprising twenty-five chapters, based on new and primary research, the book presents the lives of self-identified communist women from a truly international perspective and outlines their struggles against fascism and colonialism, and for women’s emancipation and national liberation. By using the lens of transnational political biography, the chapters capture the broader picture of these women’s lives, unpacking the links between the so-called public and private, the power structures and inequalities of their societies, the formal networks and politics in which they were involved, and the informal connections and friendships that supported their activism both at the national and international level. Challenging androcentric and Eurocentric narratives about communism, this Handbook reveals the active and significant roles of women in nineteenth- and twentieth-century communist movements and regimes, and highlights the importance of communist women in shaping the agenda for women’s rights worldwide.
Author(s): Francisca de Haan
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 704
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
1 Introduction: Toward a Global History of Communist Women
Part I: The Three Foremothers—Zetkin, Kollontai, Jones
Part II: Three Other Protagonists
Part III: A Few Notes on the Recent Historiography
Part IV: Their Contributions to Socialism and Communism—Why, What, and How
Why
What They Did and Contributed
How—Reasons Why They (Partially) Succeeded
Part V: This Handbook
Notes
Part I Global Foremothers
2 Clara Zetkin (1857–1933): A Rebel Building the Socialist and Communist International Women’s Movements
Part 1: Life
Wiederau. Childhood in an Enlightened Home, 1857–1872
Paris. Exile and Apprenticeship, 1882–1891
Stuttgart/Sillenbuch. Editor of Die Gleichheit, SPD Politician 1891–1917
Birkenwerder/Berlin–Moscow, Arkhangelskoye. Communist, Antifascist, Internationalist, 1918–1933
Part 2: Work
Zetkin’s Theory of Women’s Liberation
Gainful Employment as a Prerequisite for the Emancipation of Women
Politics and Women’s Suffrage
Self-Determination
Education and Culture
Against War and Fascism
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
3 Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952): Communism as the Only Way Toward Women’s Liberation
Formative Years (1872–1898)
Toward the Revolution (1898–1917)
Work in the Government and Diplomatic Service (1917–1952)
Appendix: Brief Reflections on Archival Sources, Scholarly Biographies and Kollontai Fan Fiction
Notes
Bibliography
4 A Right to Be Radical: Claudia Jones (1915–1964) and the “Super-Exploitation of the Black Woman”
Claudia Jones: Communism, Origins, and Work in the CPUSA
Claudia’s Communism and The Super-Exploitation of the Black Woman Thesis
The Impact of Anti-Communism on Her Life and Work and the Right to be Radical
Trends in Recent Scholarship
Claudia Jones from Political Prisoner to International Figure
Notes
Bibliography
Part II Europe
5 Helen Crawfurd (1877–1954): Scottish Suffragette and International Communist
Crawfurd’s Life in a Nutshell
The Making of a Scottish Suffragette
Red Clydeside: Ethical Socialism and the Anti-War Effort
Communist Internationalism
International Workers’ Relief
Antifascist Organizing
Conclusion
Autobiography and Archival Material
Notes
Bibliography
6 Ana Pauker (1893–1960): The Infamous Romanian Woman Communist Leader
How to Become a Revolutionary?
A Career of Activism Still Insufficiently Known (1921–1934)
The Birth of the Ana Pauker Myth (1934–1944)
Ana Pauker in Power (1944–1952)
Pauker’s Fall from Power and Her Legacy
Notes
Bibliography
7 Dolores Ibárruri, Pasionaria (1895–1989): Communist Woman of Steel, Global Icon
A Woman in a Men’s Party
The Second Spanish Republic and the Spanish Civil War: From Devoted Activist to Antifascist Icon
Exile and the “Women’s Cold War”
Mater Dolorosa: An Icon with No Real Power?
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
8 Teresa Noce (1900–1980): A Communist “Professional Revolutionary” in Twentieth-Century Italy
Noce’s Political Apprenticeship: From Her Childhood in Turin to the Foundation of the Communist Party of Italy
Noce’s Antifascist Activities and the International Communist Movement: French, Soviet, and Spanish Experiences
Resistance Across Borders and the Concentration Camps Experiences
Noce in the Italian Parliament: Fighting for Women’s Rights in Post-War Years
A Communist Trade Unionist in the Cold War: Promoting Working Women’s Rights in Italy and Beyond
Public and Private Life: The Communist Moral in Teresa Noce’s Political Story
Remembering Teresa Noce in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
Notes
Bibliography
9 Edwarda Orłowska (1906–1977): A Story of Communist Activism in Poland Told in Words and Silences
Professional Revolutionary
Comrade Orłowska
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
10 Nina Vasilievna Popova (1908–1994): “Woman in the Land of Socialism”
Introduction1
Biography
Popova’s Views on Women’s Emancipation
Nina Popova’s Work in the Domain of Women’s Rights
The Tactics Behind Popova’s Achievements
Continuing in the Footsteps of Bolshevik Feminism
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Part III Asia
11 Deng Yingchao (1904–1992): A Feminist Leader in the Chinese Communist Party
A Young Feminist Joined the Communist Party
Feminist Efforts in the Communist Revolution
Functioning as a Socialist State Feminist in the Early PRC
Retreat and Resurgence
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
12 Pak Chŏng-ae (1907-?): From Red Labor Unions to the Korean Democratic Women’s Union
Japanese Imperialism and Red Labor Unions
Women’s International Democratic Federation and the World Peace Council
Women in Socialist Construction
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
13 Iijima Aiko (1932–2005): A Feminist’s Fight Against Discrimination in Japan
Iijima Aiko, Ōta Ryū, and Communist Activism
Gender, Race, Discriminations
Iijima Aiko and the Committee of Asian Women Who Fight Aggression = Discrimination
Gender-Based Discrimination vs. Global Power Structure
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
14 Nguyễn Thị Bình (b. 1927): “The Flower and Fire of the Revolution”
Introduction
Childhood and Teenage Years
Transition into Adulthood and August Revolution
Formative Experience—Anti-French Resistance
Formative Experience: Arrest and Imprisonment
After the 1954 Geneva Conference
Madame Bình Enters the World Stage
Paris Peace Negotiations: 1968–1973
After Paris and the End of War
Minister of Education
Return to Diplomacy
Vice Presidency and Retirement
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
15 Umi Sardjono (1923–2011) and the Quest to Build a New Society for Indonesian Women
Introduction
The Making of a Political Activist
The Founding of Gerwis/Gerwani and Sardjono’s Views on Women’s Emancipation
Struggling for a New Marriage Law as a Means to Achieve Gender Equality
The 1965–1968 Anti-Communist Repression and the End of Gerwani
Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography
16 Behice Boran (1910–1987): A Committed Communist Woman in Cold War Turkey
Introduction
Early Years Between Bursa, Istanbul, and Ann Arbor (1910–1938)
From a Marxist Scholar to a Communist Activist (1939–1945)
The Post-World War Two Years and the Beginning of the Cold War in Turkey: Fighting for Peace (1945–1961)
A Woman to Lead Socialists in Turkey (1962–1974)
The Last Years of a Life That Revolutionized Women’s Lives (1975–1987)
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Part IV Africa and the Middle East
17 Naziha al-Dulaimi (1923–2007) and the Anticolonial Struggle in Iraq
Life and Activism Under the Hashemite Monarchy
Contextualizing Al-Dulaimi’s Critique
Unveiling the British Legacy for Iraqi Women
Shaping a New Gender Order
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
18 “Not Only the Country’s Independence, Mine Too!” Arlette Bourgel, an Algerian Jewish Communist (b. 1928)
A Jewish Youth in French Algeria (1928–1945)
Indigenous, Jew, French? A Family’s Identity Trajectory
Politics at Home (1): Frenchness as a Shield
Politics at Home (2): Friends and Enemies
“The Algerian People Deserve Something Else:” The Roads of Commitment (1945–1954)
Teaching Algerian Children
From Informal Political Socialization to Communist Activism
“My Independence!” Gender and Politics
“The Value of Violence:” Struggling for a New Algeria (1954–1965)
A Hope for Peace: Fighting Publicly with the “Liberals” Against the War in Bône (1955–1956)
Staying Alive in the Hell of War: Underground Activism and Clandestine Love in Algiers (October 1956–February 1957)
“It Was Almost a Utopia.” Fleeing, Coming Back Home, and Leaving (1957–1965)
Notes
Bibliography
19 Aoua Keita (1912–1980): Anti-Colonial Activist, Nationalist Politician, and Feminist in Mali (West Africa)
From the Colonial School
To Political Struggle as a “Communist Midwife”
Between Unionism and Politics, the Beginnings of an International Career
In Independent Mali: A Nationalist and/or a Feminist?
Pan-Africanism and Socialist Internationalism
From the Socialist Revolution to Exile
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Part V Oceania
20 “A Key Person Internationally”: Freda Brown (1919–2009), Australian Activist
Early Years, 1919
Working for the Party, 1936
The New Housewives Association, 1946
The Union of Australian Women, 1950
The Women’s International Democratic Federation, 1964
Never Retiring, 1991
“Freda Was a Key Person Internationally”
Notes
Bibliography
21 Dancing for the Revolution: Rona Bailey, New Zealand Artist Activist (1914–2005)
Left-Wing Theatre, Equal Pay, the New Dance Group, and the Communist Party, 1939–1948
Cold War Redbaiting, the 1951 Lockout, and the Sino-Soviet Split
Anti-Vietnam War Movement, 1965–1972
Anti-Apartheid Movement, 1972–1982
Project Waitangi: Bringing Anti-Racism Work Home
Notes
Bibliography
Part VI The Americas
22 Jeanne Corbin (1906–1944): A Canadian Communist Militant in a Man’s World
A Militant in Edmonton, Toronto, and Montreal
Timmins and the Rouyn Lumbermen Strike
A Woman in a Man’s Party
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
23 Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890–1964): Mortal Enemy of Capitalism
Early Life and Family Background
Industrial Workers of the World
World War I Red Scare and Labor Defense
Entrance into the Communist Party
World War II and the Women’s International Democratic Federation
Post-World War II Red Scare
Indictment and Incarceration
Final Battles
Conclusion
A Note on Historiography and Archives
Notes
Bibliography
24 Gachita Amador (1891–1961), Between Two Loves: Communist Action and Guignol Theater
Introduction
Sources and Approach
Childhood, Youth, and First Marriage
Humiliating the Pride of the Wicked Rich
Making Revolution in Jalisco
Transmitting Revolutionary Consciousness
Devoted to the Children of the Proletariat
Her Marital Break-Up and Abandonment of Militancy
Gachita’s Musical and Puppeteering Activities
A Final Note
Notes
Bibliography
25 Vilma Espín (1930–2007): Forging a New Woman Within the Cuban Revolution
Introduction
Vilma, the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), and the Revolution in Power: 1959–1990
New Men, New Women, New Families
Mothers of the Revolution
The House and the Street: Vilma Espín, the FMC, and the Sexual Division of Domestic Labor
Incorporation into “Production”
Vilma Espín as a Global Figure: Bridging Women’s Movements in the “Second” and “Third” Worlds
Continuity and Change in Post-Soviet Cuba
Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography
26 “When My Life Goes Out …” Biography of the Argentinian Communist Activist Fanny Edelman (1911–2011)
Becoming a Communist
Becoming Fanny Edelman
Fanny Edelman, a Comrade of the World
The 1980s: Between Revolutionary Upheavals and the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
