Militant Women: A History of Working Class Struggle

By HB

“Women’s Day’ is a link in the long, solid chain of the women’s proletarian movement”

Alexandra Kollontai, ‘Women’s Day’, February 1913”

A week after the sadly liberalised International Women’s Day 2020, the Australian Communist Party Melbourne Cell held its first major event, a night of speeches celebrating militant women in Australian working class history. We commemorated the true history of International Working Women’s Day – a history steeped in red and bound in the struggles and victories of millions of working class women around the world[1]. In Australia, International Working Women’s Day was first celebrated in 1928, when a rally in Sydney’s Domain was organised by the Militant Women’s Group of the Communist Party[2].  Celebration of International Working Women’s Day remained primarily a Communist Party initiative until the 1970s, when the broader women’s liberation movement bloomed.

In 2020 the Australian Communist Party strives to restore the red roots of International Working Women’s Day and pay homage to the millions of militant women comrades who paved the way before us. ACP candidate member Rose began the night with the call to remember, and to not allow our rich and precious history to be scrubbed by liberalism. She lamented the modern day dominance of bourgeois liberal feminism, with its focus on individual empowerment that limits our potential to that of gaining more for ourselves at the expense of other working class women and men across the world. Likewise, she sounded the alarm about the rise of a reactionary portion of the third wave, which seeks to bind us only through an idea of biological essence, extinguishing the class basis that is our greatest form of power and solidarity as women. Finally, she stressed that although we were there to remember several inspiring individual women in the movement we do not see change as coming through any individual but through the power of the people organising together as a class.

Speeches were given by several women members of the ACP and guest speaker Shirley, a member of the CPA-ML. We learned about how Indigenous activist Gladys O’Shane, after leaving school at age 12 to become a domestic servant, honed her public speaking skills at Party summer schools and used them to fight relentlessly for the rights of her Indigenous brothers and sisters[3]. Another great model for working class women was Florence Cluff who became one of the first women elected secretary of a union, and was instrumental in radicalising her fellow trade unionists and fighting for equal pay for women[4].

We learned about Dulcie Steffanou and her resolute commitment to developing practice based on thorough Marxist knowledge, enabling her to become a crucial mentor to those around her. We learned of the Jewish atheist Eva Bacon who at a young age joined the Social Democratic Worker’s Party of Austria’s youth organisation and courageously continued distributing its publications and participating in its study groups after it was declared illegal. She later joined the Communist Party in Australia which was also illegal at the time![5] Finally, we heard how Bertha Walker, who had already begun her communist education by the age of eight, devoted most of her life to fighting for the rights of poor and working people on multiple continents, and left today’s comrades with an invaluable resource in her book, Solidarity Forever[6].

“All of these militant, working-class women were members of the Communist Party. They were prominent in the trade union movement, they were dedicated to studying Marxist theory for the betterment of their practice, and they were unrelenting in their commitment to the proletarian struggle”

They developed their skills through action and education and used their abilities and strengths for the benefit of all. They supported, and were supported by, their comrades throughout their lives. While we honor each of them for their incredible individual achievements we also celebrate the class solidarity and mass struggle that galvanised them.

Militant Women: A History of Working Class Struggle provided us an opportunity to come together and commemorate a history that is powerful and essential. We each played an important role in making the night a success, and used this as an opportunity to further our bonds as a cadre and develop our skills and practice – taking inspiration from the women we were there to learn about. We assert that their struggles are not forgotten or irrelevant ones, they guide us and inspire us, and we are resolved to continue their work together.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] www.auscp.org.au/international-working-womens-day-2020

[2] www.sydney.edu.au/arts/news-and-events/news/2019/03/08/title-international-womens-day-origins-past-and-present.html

[3] www.auscp.org.au/gladys-oshane

[4] www.auscp.org.au/florence-cluff

[5] www.auscp.org.au/eva-bacon

[6] www.auscp.org.au/bertha-walker