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Northumbria Research Link Northumbria Research Link Citation: Calver, Jasmine (2019) The Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme: Anti-Fascist, Feminist, and Communist Activism in the 1930s. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University. This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/42071/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. 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The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html The Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme: Anti-Fascist, Feminist, and Communist Activism in the 1930s J CALVER PhD 2019 The Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme: Anti-Fascist, Feminist, and Communist Activism in the 1930s Jasmine Calver This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle Research undertaken in the school of History in the faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences November 2019 Abstract This thesis examines the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (CMF), a communist front organisation which operated from 1934 until 1940, with particular focus on how different forms of activism (feminist, communist, and anti- fascist) were represented in its work. It argues that the CMF was an example of an organisation based on Popular Front ideals of socialist unity before it became the official policy of the Comintern, which facilitated the organisation of women from across the left side of the political spectrum against the growing threat fascism and war. The group was primarily intended to mount an organised female resistance to fascism, as well as serving as a means of creating propaganda aimed at non- communist women in the west. The first chapter of this thesis discusses early examples of Popular Front activism in response to the rise of the Nazi party from which the CMF drew inspiration to understand the origins of the movement, particularly the Amsterdam-Pleyel movement. The second chapter examines the backgrounds of four prominent women in the committee to understand its orientation: Bernadette Cattanéo, Gabrielle Duchêne, Maria Rabaté and Charlotte Haldane. The third chapter covers the proceedings of CMF congresses in the context of other international women’s congresses of the interwar period, emphasising these as the site of complex activist meetings, particularly through the diverse nature of the participants. The fourth chapter discusses the relationship between CMF women and Soviet women in terms of correspondence and political tourism in the Soviet Union. The fifth part of this thesis explores three major CMF campaigns around specific world events: the Spanish Civil War, the rise of Nazi fascism, and the Second Sino-Japanese War. The final chapter discusses how the CMF presented various issues relating to women in their journals, Woman To-Day and Femmes dans l’action mondiale. The main goal of this thesis is to establish the CMF’s role as a Popular Front organisation before the concept was officially adopted by the Comintern. Because of its status as a front organisation, the committee was able to operate with a level of freedom to pursue these ideas of socialist unity. Also important is that this thesis places the CMF in the wider historiography of international women’s organisations; it argues that the CMF was unique in the history of these movements however, because of its open utilisation of communist, anti-fascist, anti-militarist and feminist principles in conjunction with its Popular Front character and relationship with the Comintern. i Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................... i Table of Abbreviations ............................................................................... vi Table of Figures ........................................................................................ viii Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 Historiography of the CMF ................................................................................... 6 Transnationalism .................................................................................................. 8 Interwar Women’s Movements ........................................................................... 12 International Communism and Socialism............................................................ 15 Anti-Militarism and Anti-Fascism ........................................................................ 19 Archival Material ................................................................................................. 23 Chapter One - The Communist International, Fascism, and the Amsterdam-Pleyel Movement ................................................................... 29 Communist Reactions to Italian Fascism ............................................................ 29 Social Fascism and the Shifting Policy of the Comintern .................................... 32 The Amsterdam-Pleyel Movement ..................................................................... 34 Historiography of the Amsterdam-Pleyel movement ........................................... 42 Chapter Two - The Leaders of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme ................................................................................. 46 Early Activism and Interactions with Communism .............................................. 49 Anti-Fascism ...................................................................................................... 58 National and International Connections .............................................................. 60 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 71 Chapter Three - The Congresses of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme ................................................................. 78 Congress Appeals .............................................................................................. 80 Delegate Composition ........................................................................................ 89 The Communist Character of the Congress ..................................................... 100 Speeches ......................................................................................................... 106 ii Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 115 Chapter Four - The Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme, the Soviet Union, and the Comintern .................................... 119 The Development of a Popular Front Strategy and France ............................... 121 The CMF and Soviet Women ........................................................................... 125 CMF Women in the Soviet Union ..................................................................... 134 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 146 Chapter Five - The Campaigns of the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme ........................................................................... 148 Mujeres and Milicianas: The Spanish Civil War Campaign ............................... 149 ‘The Return of the Housewife’: Campaigns against the Nazi Party’s Policies on Women ............................................................................................................ 163 ‘To-day China is near us and so are her people’: Response to the Humanitarian Crises of the Second Sino-Japanese War ........................................................ 177 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 190 Chapter Six - The Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme’s Periodicals: Woman To-day and Femmes dans l’action mondiale ................................................................................................... 193 Universal Suffrage in France ............................................................................ 195 Women’s Right to Work .................................................................................... 201 Advice for the Self ............................................................................................ 211 Advice for Women as Mothers ......................................................................... 224 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 231 Conclusion ..............................................................................................
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