The Anti-Imperialism of Women's Activism(S)

Global

histories a student journal

East-South Women’s Encounters in the Global History of the Cold War: The Anti- Imperialism of Women’s Activism(s) Clara Fechtner

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/GHSJ.2021.359

Source: Global Histories, Vol. 6, No. 2 (January 2021), pp. 46-70. ISSN: 2366-780X

License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publisher information: ‘Global Histories: A Student Journal’ is an open-access bi-annual journal founded in 2015 by students of the M.A. program Global History at Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. ‘Global Histories’ is published by an editorial board of Global History students in association with the Freie Universität Berlin.

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Contact information: For more information, please consult our website www.globalhistories.com or contact the editor at: [email protected]. East-South Women’s Encounters in the Global History of the Cold War: The Anti-Imperialism of Women’s Activism(s)

by CLARA FECHTNER

46 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 C l a r F e c h t n ABSTRACT

This article investigates East-South women’s solidarity networks

| during the second half of the twentieth century. The paper E a s t - S o u h W focuses on the communist East German Democratic Women’s League and its transnational relationships with women’s organizations from the decolonizing world within and beyond the Women’s International Democratic Federation, the largest transnational women’s organization in the post-1945 period. o m e n

In so doing, this article reveals not only how women’s rights ’ s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W became an important marker in the broader interactions between the socialist camp and the ‘Third World’, but it also exposes how the concept of women’s rights and its translation into practices at different socio-spatial levels gave rise to a transnational configuration of social practices, common symbols, and artefacts. a r

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Clara Fechtner holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Philipps-University of Marburg. In 2019, she obtained an Erasmus Mundus Master’s degree in Global Studies from Leipzig University and Ghent University in Belgium. Her research interests include encounters between the socialist camp and the decolonizing world in the post- 1945 period, as well as gender perspectives in entangled Cold War and decolonization processes.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 47 a r SETTING THE SCENE: EAST- of the whole world aware of the SOUTH WOMEN’S ENCOUNTERS situation of women under state IN THE GLOBAL HISTORY OF socialism”4, turning the GDR into an THE COLD WAR international showcase for gender equality and cultural advancement. In its 1959 yearbook, Forging links with the East German women’s organizations in the (post-)colonial organization, known as the world, the transnational activism of Democratic Women’s League the DFD forms part of the academic (DFD) listed its “demonstrations debate on the Global History of solidarity” with women in the of the Cold War, namely that of decolonizing world. By providing East-South connections following financial aid, material donations, Stalin’s death in 1953.5 Scrutinizing s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W ’ and exchanging delegations historical accounts that divide the with women’s organizations from global landscape of the Cold War o m e n Southern countries, the DFD claimed into superpowers and proxies, to support materially and morally actors from the decolonizing world the “just struggle for freedom of are increasingly brought to the all oppressed peoples”.1 Indeed, scene as agents within the global E a s t - S o u h W | by 1963 the DFD had established contacts with no less than 22 African, 15 Asian, and 11 South American 4 2 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/392 women’s organizations. Fourteen Dokumentarische Darstellung, fol. 4. C l a r F e c h t n years later these numbers had almost 5 James Mark, Artemy M. Kalinovsky, and doubled with regard to African and Steffi Marung, Alternative Globalizations. 3 Eastern Europe and the Postcolonial Asian organizations. Under the World (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University banner of anti-imperialist solidarity, Press, 2020), 3; James Mark and Quinn the DFD embarked on a journey to Slobodian, “Eastern Europe in the Global History of Decolonization”, in The Oxford “make young nation states, national Handbook of the Ends of Empire, ed. liberation movements, and women Martin Thomas and Andrew S. Thompson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). The term ‘Third World’ is used following Vijay Prashad and Laura Bier, defining it 1 Foundation Archive of the Parties and “not as a place on a map but as a project, Mass Organizations of the GDR in the as a political imaginary” (Laura Bier, Federal Archives (Stiftung Archiv der Revolutionary Womanhood. Feminisms, Parteien und Massenorganisationen modernity, and the state in Nasser’s Egypt der DDR im Bundesarchiv, henceforth (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, SAPMO-BArch), DY31/1358, “Zur 2011), 156)) that linked colonized and Vorbereitung des Jahrbuches 1959 (Inhalt formerly colonized countries in a common 1958) kurze Angaben über unsere Arbeit”, struggle for freedom and anti-imperialism. 08.01.1959, fol. 36. As a political project, the ‘Third World’ 2 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1358, Kontakte des encompasses “the hopes and institutions DFD zu Organisationen und Frauen in der created to carry them [peoples of Asia, ganzen Welt, 27.5.1963, fol. 48 ff. Africa, and Latin America] forward” (Vijay 3 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1358, Beziehungen Prashad, The Darker Nations: A People’s des DFD zu Frauenorganisationenm History of the Third World (New York: The Anfang 1977, fol. 178. New Press, 2007), xv)).

48 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 C l a r F e c h t n configuration now recognized as a educational or military sojourns of multipolar conflict.6 Scholars, for one, actors from the (post-)colonial world explore transnational circulations in countries of the socialist camp are

across the ‘Iron Curtain’ and the nothing new to scholarship, these E a s t - S o u h W ‘First’, ‘Second’, and ‘Third’ world exchanges are usually not brought – spatial constructs of dividedness into context with transnational that conventionally prevailed in Cold women’s rights activism. An in-depth

War historiography. For another, analysis of interactions between o m e n by building upon concrete cases ‘Second’ and ‘Third World’ women’s ’ of exchange between actors from organizations, however, reveals s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W the socialist camp and countries their significance in shaping and of the Global South, scholars contributing to a globalizing women’s bring to the fore the multifaceted rights discourse in the post-1945 entanglements between the Cold period.9 What is more, this paper War and decolonization processes. In argues, from the mid-1950s onwards doing so, they also identify particular when the countries of the socialist ideas of modernization and affiliated camp increasingly turned towards programs of development assistance the decolonizing world, interactions provided by countries of the socialist between respective women’s camp and the ‘West’ to newly organizations transformed into an independent countries.7 important marker in these emerging Yet what remains fairly relationships.

understudied in this vibrant field of a r research – as is so often the case – is the role of women and their CROSSING BORDERS AND transnational interactions.8 While BLURRING LINES

Building off of previous

6 David Engerman, “The Second World’s studies, this research aims at Third World”, Kritika: Explorations in contributing to the historiography of Russian and Eurasian History 12, no. East-South encounters by integrating 1 (2011), 183, https://muse.jhu.edu/ article/411667; Mark, Kalinovsky, and into the global history of the Cold War Marung, Alternative Globalizations, 3. what Kristen Ghodsee labels “Second 7 See most prominently Odd Arne Westad, World-Third World alliances in the The Global Cold War. Third World 10 Interventions and the Making of our Times international women’s movement”. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 200); see also Young-Sun Hong, Cold War Germany, the Third World, and the Global Humanitarian Regime (Cambridge: 9 Celia Donert, “Women’s Rights in Cold War Cambridge University Press, 2015). Europe: Disentangling Feminist Histories”, 8 Except for the work by Kristen Ghodsee. Past and Present, 218 (supplement 8), See Kristen Ghodsee, Second World, (2013), https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gts040. Second Sex: Socialist Women’s Activism 10 Kristen Ghodsee, “Research note: The and Global Solidarity during the Cold War historiographical challenges of exploring (Durham and London: Duke University Second World-Third World alliances in Press, 2019). international women’s movement”, Global

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 49 a r By empirically focusing on the DFD processes such as the creation of the and its foreign relationships with North Atlantic Treaty Organization in what were considered to be ‘peace- 1949 and the Warsaw Pact in 1955 loving’ women’s organizations informed these perceptions. These from the decolonizing world, the new understandings also do not aim of this paper is to investigate argue that bipolar representations whether these interactions gave of the period are incorrect, nor rise to a new anti-imperialist that rivalries between the USA and transnational space. Examining the the Soviet Union were of minor extent to which this space not only importance. Rather, their aim is to enabled women’s mobility across bring to the fore other spatial formats Cold War oppositions but also that existed next to or emerged in entailed a circulation of women’s reaction to bipolar formations. In s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W ’ rights discourses, the transnational this sense, this research adds to perspective in this paper is to be alternative readings of the Cold o m e n understood as both methodological War by highlighting the constructed tool and spatial approach in the character of conceptualizations of broader framework of global space. Through the exchange of history, rather than juxtaposing the delegations and common political E a s t - S o u h W | latter with transnational history.11 initiatives, transnational women’s The perspective of transnational interactions crossed and blurred spaces complicates dominant spatial boundaries, making it worthwhile to imaginaries informing our historical consider the existence and relevance C l a r F e c h t n understanding of the period. Built of ‘Cold War spatialities’ other than upon notions of bipolarity, separated nation states, ‘blocs’, and ‘worlds’. ‘blocs’ with contrasting ideologies, A significant part of the DFD’s and ‘worlds’ beyond these blocs, international history was, as we will the narrative of dividedness and see, closely linked with the Women’s rivalry has been materialized and (re-) International Democratic Federation produced through forms as diverse (WIDF), the largest transnational as mapping, media, and scholarship. women’s organization in the post- 12 To be sure, concrete spatialization 1945 period. Embracing leftist and socialist women’s organizations from all over the world, the DFD became Social Policy 14, no. 2 (2014), 244-264, one of the WIDF’s communist https://doi.org/10.1177/1468018114527100. affiliates in 1948. The transnational 11 Davide Rodogno, Bernhard Struck, and activism of the DFD within and Jakob Volgek, Shaping the Transnational Sphere: Experts, networks, and issues beyond the WIDF is unquestionably from the 1840s to the 1930s (New York: only one among many (hi-)stories Berghahn Books, 2014), 574. 12 Steffi Marung, “Emerging Topics – Insights from “Behind the Scenes””, Interview, Collaborative Research Centre 1199 research.uni-leipzig.de/~sfb1199/ Processes of Spatialization under the publications/247-sfb_blog_marung/. Global Condition, May 2018, https://

50 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 C l a r F e c h t n of women’s encounters throughout the UN Charter the first international the period. As this article is based document to interpret gender on archival sources from the DFD equality as an universal right, the

section in the Foundation Archive of historical moment also signaled a turn E a s t - S o u h W the Parties and Mass Organizations in transnational women’s organizing of the GDR in the German in that it gave rise to what can be Federal Archives, the Feminist described as a new form of “feminist

Documentation and Information internationalism whose roots lay in o m e n Centre in Berlin, and the WIDF opposition to fascism in Europe and ’ section in the International Institute of colonialism abroad“.14 This feminist s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W Social History in Amsterdam, it must internationalist project united left be taken into account that it tells the wing, socialist, anti-fascist, and anti- story from the ‘European’ perspective imperialist women from all over the rather than from women in India, world in a struggle that presumed Mozambique, or Egypt. By shedding women’s rights as inextricably linked light on the foreign activities of the with broader political, economic, East German women’s committee, and cultural dimensions. Such a this paper is thus intended to movement found its most drastic contribute to a broader and more expression in the 1945 creation systematic research on East-South of the WIDF in the presence of women’s interactions during the era some 850 representatives from 41 of decolonization and the Global countries in Paris.15 In contrast to

Cold War. older organizations, characterized a r

ORIGINS AND DYNAMICS Study of Women and Gender: Faculty OF EAST-SOUTH WOMEN’S Publications. 1. (2016), 305-331, https://doi. INTERACTIONS org/10.1086/682921; For information on older transnational women’s organizations and their (orientalist) boundaries, see Leila Historically, the end of the Rupp, Worlds of Women: The Making Second World War heralded a of an International Women’s Movement (Princeton: Princeton University Press, watershed moment in transnational 1997), i.e. the chapter ‘Who’s in, Who’s women’s activism, with the Out’. established ‘Western’-dominated 14 Rashmi Varma, “Anti-Imperialism”, in The Bloomsbury Handbook of 21st- organizations becoming increasingly Century Feminist Theory, ed. Robin Truth challenged by anti-colonial solidarity Goodman (London: Bloomsbury, 2019), projects among women from the 464. 15 13 Francisca de Haan, “The Women’s decolonizing world. Not only was International Democratic Federation (WIDF): History, Main Agenda, and Contributions, 1945-1991, Women and Social Movements (WASI) Online 13 See Elisabeth Armstrong, “Before Archive, ed. Thomas Dublin and Kathryn Bandung: The Anti-Imperialist Women’s Kish Sklar, http://alexanderstreet.com/ Movement in Asia and the Women’s products/women-and-social-movements- International Democratic Federation“, international.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 51 a r by a predominantly Euro-American women’s committees from eight member- and leadership, the WIDF Eastern European countries, the was marked by a firm participation Soviet Union, and organizations from of non-‘Western’ women.16 By 1953, China, Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, and 23% of all member organizations Cuba.20 were from countries of the Global The WIDF’s principle aim was South, counting a total of 68 national to fight for “equal rights of women affiliates among which included at all levels of political, economic, organizations from 16 Asian, 14 legal, cultural and social life”.21 Its Latin American, and six African statutes set forth as main objectives countries.17 By 1987, numbers had (1) the active participation in the shifted in favor of 73 % non-‘Western’ fight for the ultimate annihilation members, embracing 27 Asian, 28 of fascism to secure lasting peace; s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W ’ Latin American and Caribbean, and (2) the collective mobilization of 35 African organizations among women from all over to world to o m e n member organizations from a total defend their rights; (3) the protection of 123 countries.18 Concurrently, of public health i.e. concerning the WIDF represented the “primary children; and (4) strengthening international voice for women friendship and unity among all E a s t - S o u h W | in Eastern Europe since 1945”19, women in the world.22 In doing so, counting some 14 members from the WIDF acknowledged that equal the socialist camp by 1987, including rights of women required more than legal concessions, advocating for C l a r F e c h t n the creation of socio-political and 16 Rupp, “Worlds of Women”, 63; Fransica economic circumstances that would de Haan, “Eugénie Cotton, Pak Chong- ae, and Claudia Jones: Rethinking allow “all women in all continents to Transnational Feminism and International gracefully master their three main Politics“, Journal of Women’s History 25 tasks: to be mothers, workers and no. 4 (2013), 179-180, http://doi.org/10.1353/ 23 jowh.2013.0055. citizens”. To this end, the WIDF 17 IISH Int 1994/156, Ein geeinter Wille nach Gleichbereichtigung, p. 261 ff.; Countries from the Middle East were counted as Asian. It further embraced members 20 FFBIZ SOZ Int 48, Dokumentation from 26 European countries, and the US, und Information: IX. Kongress der Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Internationalen Demokratischen 18 Frauenforschungs-, Bildungs-, und Frauenföderarion, Moskau, UdSSR, 28-39 Dokumentationszentrum Berlin Juni 1987, p. 35-40. (FFBIZ) SOZ Int 48, Dokumentation 21 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1351, Resolution über und Information: IX. Kongress der die wirtschaftliche, rechtliche, und soziale Internationalen Demokratischen Lage der Frauen, fol. 18. Frauenföderarion, Moskau, UdSSR, 28-39 22 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1351, Statuten Juni 1987, p. 35-40. der Internationalen Demokratischen 19 Deborah Stienstra, Women’s Movements Frauenföderation, fol. 1. and International Organizations (London: 23 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1353, Presse Palgrave Macmillan, 1994), 87; other Kommuniqué , 1 June 1958, Nr. 4, fol. transnational women’s organizations 5; See also Melanie Ilic, “Contesting had little or no membership from Eastern Inequality. Khrushchev and the Revival of European countries. the ‘Woman Question”, in De-Stalinization

52 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 C l a r F e c h t n considered nuclear disarmament After a conflict with the and national self-determination French government sparked by as prerequisites for world peace a campaign denouncing French

24 |

and women’s emancipation. aggression in Vietnam, the WIDF was E a s t - S o u h W Colonialism was principally seen forced to relocate its headquarters as an impediment to women’s from Paris to East Berlin in 1951.28 As rights, as it structurally restricted the first international organization

women’s political, social, and based in the GDR, the WIDF helped o m e n economic status.25 Acknowledging to increase the political significance ’ links between colonial oppression of its host organization, the DFD, vis- s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W and women’s oppression, the WIDF à-vis the SED-regime. On the part of became the first transnational the DFD, the relocation to Berlin was women’s organization outspokenly presented as a great success whose condemning colonialism and political weight was particularly due launching anti-colonial campaigns.26 to the fact that the WIDF publicly Older established women’s supported the GDR’s claim for a organizations, for their part, kept on unified socialist Germany29. While declaring political neutrality towards the DFD had been founded in 1947 anti-colonialism, not only preserving first and foremost as a means to win a detachedness of the international women as workforce in an economy women’s movement from anti- shattered by war30, it gradually colonial struggles, but at times

even actively fostering imperialist a r and Orientalist logics of ‘Western’ International Women’s Organizations, superiority vis-à-vis ‘the backward 1888-1945”, NWSA Journal 8, no.1 (1996), 8, 10, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4316421; colonial woman’ whom to offer a Leila Rupp, “Worlds of Women”; Francisca helping hand.27 de Haan, “Continuing Cold War Paradigms in Western Historiography of Transnational Women’s Organisations: the case of the Women’s International Democratic Reconsidered: Persistence and Change Federation (WIDF)”, Women’s History in the Soviet Union, ed. Thomas M. Bohn, Review 19, no. 4 (2010), 549-551, https:// Rayk Einax and Michel Abeßer (Frankfurt/ doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2010.502399. New York: Campus, 2014), 157-174. 28 Francisca de Haan, “Hoffnungen auf 24 Melanie Ilic, “Soviet Women, cultural eine bessere Welt: Die frühen Jahre exchange and the Women’s International der Internationalen Demokratischen Democratic Federation”, in Reassessing Frauenföderation (IDFF/WIDF) (1945- Cold War Europe, ed. Sari Autio-Sarasmo 1950)“, Feministisch Studien (2009), and Katalin Miklóssi (London and New 254-255, https://doi.org/10.1515/fs-2009- York: Routledge, 2011), 161. 0207; SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1351, Berliner 25 Katharine McGregor, “Opposing Zeitung, „Die Deutsche Hauptstadt – Colonialism: The Women’s International neuer Sitz der IDFF“, 8 March 1951. Democratic Federation and decolonisation 29 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1376, Bericht des struggles in Vietnam and Algeria 1945– DFD an die Exekutive der IDFF vom 1965“, Women’s History Review (2016), 6, 1.12.1948-1.7.1949, fol. 61. 14, https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2015. 30 Donna Harsch, “Approach/avoidance: 1083246. Communists and women in East 26 McGregor, “Opposing Colonialism”, 2. Germany, 1945-1949”, Social History 27 Leila Rupp, “ Challenging Imperialism in 25, no. 2 (2000), 158, https://doi.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 53 a r transformed into a valuable means its anti-colonial stance and broad for the GDR’s foreign policies. The membership, some scholars consider latter were curtailed by the Hallstein the WIDF as reversing “Western Doctrine, proclaimed by the West enlightened charity models”35, German government shortly after the arguing that members from countries GDR had joined the Warsaw Pact in of the Global South had the capacity 1955. The doctrine stipulated that to actively shape the political the Federal Republic represented agenda and structural conditions.36 A the sole legitimate German state somewhat different picture, however, and determined that the they is drawn by Yulia Gradskova, who would end diplomatic relations with claims that Southern representatives any state, except for the Soviet rarely obtained leading positions Union, that recognized the GDR’s in the central bodies and were

s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W 31 ’ sovereignty. Caught in diplomatic therefore faced with constraints when isolation, the SED-regime thus had it came to asserting their interests.37 o m e n to find ways to “build bridges to Investigating WIDF and DFD the newly independent countries documents, this research found of the Third World”32 and the DFD that – despite all claims of equity certainly became such a bridge, – they not uncommonly revealed E a s t - S o u h W | using its WIDF membership and its patronizing positions when it came to bilateral relationships for promoting conceptualizations of women’s rights. the diplomatic recognition of the For one thing, they included recurring GDR, at times even articulating it representations of religion, most C l a r F e c h t n as an ‘objective criterion’ for the notably that of Islam, as ‘backward relationships themselves.33 traditions’. For example, the liberation Even though the WIDF had narrative spun around the Soviet- a strong affinity with Soviet politics run unveiling campaigns in Central and was characterized by a broad Asia served as one expression of the membership of party-affiliated or inequitable nature of representations. otherwise socialist groups, it always According to DFD chairwoman included non-communist and Ilse Thiele, these campaigns were independent women’s organizations emancipating women from being from African, Asian, and Latin American countries.34 Drawing upon Paradigms”, 555. 35 Armstrong, “Before Bandung”, 328. org/10.1080/030710200363186. 36 See e.g. de Haan, “Eugénie Cotton, Pak 31 Young-Sun Hong, “Cold War Germany”, Chong-ae, and Claudia Jones”; Armstrong, 36. “Before Bandung”, McGregor, “Opposing 32 Ibid. Colonialism”. 33 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1573, SAPMO- 37 Yulia Gradskova, “Women’s intenational BArch DY 31/1573, Bericht über die Democratic Federation, the ‘Third World’ Delegationsreise zur Teilnahme am 7. and the Global Cold War from the late- Kongress der Nationalen Föderation der 1950s to the mid-1960s”, Women’s History Indischen Frauen, 1970/1971, fol. 5. Review 29, no. 2 (2020), 270-288, https:// 34 de Haan, “Continuing Cold War doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2019.1652440.

54 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 C l a r F e c h t n “nothing more than illiterate slaves At a meeting of the WIDF bureau in who were forced to veil their bodies 1988, just to name one example, the and remained excluded from public Soviet delegate Alewtina Fedulowa

38 |

life”. In addition, the vast majority conceded that one had to ‘critically E a s t - S o u h W of the sources disclosed a supposed and self-critically admit’ that the preeminence and pioneering role principle of ideological openness was of socialist states when it came to not consistently realized, considering

advancing the status of women. that the acceptance of new o m e n Even though the recurring notion organizations was often predicated ’ of ‘progress’ was never explicitly on their ideological foundations.40 s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W defined, it constituted one of the Notwithstanding the need WIDF’s founding and repeatedly for further research on the WIDF’s occurring principles, and was clearly internal power structures, the key informed by socialist perspectives point here is that the WIDF was the on development. Capitalist states only organization that did open up and ‘developing countries’ were a space for East-South women’s for differing reasons considered encounters already in the direct restrictive for women’s rights. aftermath of the Second World By contrast, WIDF accounts War. For the political leaders in repeatedly claimed that socialist the Soviet Union, the GDR, and states recognized equal rights Eastern European countries, the of men and women in legislation post-1945 years constituted a

as well as in practice. According period in which the concern of a r to the brochures, this fact was domestic reconstruction exceeded empirically evidenced by women’s the significance of the vast employment rates, their professional transformations proceeding in the training, and their participation in colonial empires.41 It was only eleven political, social, and cultural life.39 years after the foundational congress Consequently, despite the WIDF’s of the WIDF that Khrushchev’s Secret objective to unite women irrespective Speech at the 20th congress of the of their political worldview, socialist conceptualizations of modernity and ‘progress’ clearly not only informed 40 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/906, Alewtina its political agenda but also impaired Fedulowa am 15.4.1988 auf der Bürotagung der IDFF, fol.14 ff; IISH, its ideal of ideological inclusiveness. WIDF Collection, Folder 2, Women’s International Democratic Federation: Published for the 40th anniversary of the founding of the WIDF, p. 14-17. 38 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1484, 41 Constantin Katsakioris, “The Soviet-South Vorbereitungen des Weltkongresses der Encounter: Tensions in the Friendship Frauen im Jahr 1953 in Kopenhagen, Rede with Afro-Asian Partners, 1945-1965”, in Ilse Thiele, fol. 32. Cold War Crossings: International Travel 39 IISH, WIDF Collection, Folder 2, Women’s and Exchange across the Soviet Bloc, International Democratic Federation: 1940s-1960s, ed. Patryk Babiracki and Published for the 40th anniversary of the Kenyon Zimmer (Arlington, TX: Texas founding of the WIDF, p. 17. University Press, 2014), 136.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 55 a r Communist Party of the Soviet Union emergence of an anti-imperialist in 1956 heralded a turning point in transnational space, Ludger Pries’ the socialist camp’s policies towards definition of transnational spaces the decolonizing world. Breaking will be utilized. Pries desfines these with Stalinist Eurocentrism and spaces as “dense and durable integrating the ‘Third World’ into a configurations of transnational social globalized vision of socialism, the practices, symbols and artefacts”.44 Soviet Union and Eastern European Here, space is considered to be states began to act and portray constructed through interactions themselves as “champions of Third between actors. In other words, the World aspirations”.42 With delegates concept relies on the assumption that from both the socialist camp and all social interactions go hand in hand the decolonizing world, however, with processes of spatialization.45 s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W ’ WIDF events had been fostering Transnational spaces thus arise from transnational interactions between entanglements across bounded o m e n actors from both ‘worlds’ already geographical spaces and can be years before this political shift. thought of as “dense economic, Likewise, the WIDF’s foundation had political and cultural relationships given birth to the only transnational between individuals and collectives E a s t - S o u h W | women’s organization outspokenly that transcend the borders of condemning colonialism and sovereign states [and] connect acknowledging imperialism as a people, networks and organizations ‘women’s issue’.43 in several places across national C l a r F e c h t n borders”.46

ANTI-IMPERIALIST WOMEN’S I. INTENSIVE AND STABLE SOCIAL ACTIVISM: ENGENDERING A PRACTICES ‘TRANS-NATIONAL SPACE’? According to Pries’ definition, In order to investigate the dimension of social practice whether relationships between the relates to the “active and intervening DFD and ‘Southern’ women both under the auspices of the WIDF and on a bilateral level gave rise to the 44 Ludger Pries, “Transnational Societal Spaces: Which Units of Analysis, Reference, and Measurement?”, in Rethinking Transnationalism. The Meso- link of organizations, ed. Ludger Pries 42 Constantin Katsakioris, “Burden or Allies? (London: Routledge, 2008), 3. Third World Students and Internationalist 45 Matthias Middell, “Raumformate Duty through Soviet Eyes”, Kritika: – Bausteine in Prozesse der Explorations in Russian and Eurasian Neuverräumlichung”, Working Paper History 18, no. 3 (2017), 540, http://doi. Series SFB 1199, no. 14, (2019), 3-4. org/10.1353/kri.2017.0035; Westad, “The 46 Thomas Faist, Transstaatliche Räume: Global Cold War”, 68. Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur in und 43 Armstrong, “Before Bandung”, 320; zwischen Deutschland und der Türkei Varma, “Anti-Imperialism”, 46. (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2000), 10.

56 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 C l a r F e c h t n side of human life entanglements”.47 the SED, the educational mandate of Regarding the interactions under the initiative committee consisted in investigation, this dimension reaching out to the largest possible

becomes visible not only with number of women, conveying E a s t - S o u h W respect to the circulation of actors, that gender equality in the GDR knowledge, and ideas, but also finds was already guaranteed by the expression in congresses, donations, Constitution and contrasting the

solidarity campaigns, and personal situation of East German women with o m e n friendships. the devastating situation of women ’ in ‘capitalist, colonial, and oppressed s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W WORLD CONGRESSES countries’.49 In 1972, WIDF delegates When examining the successfully suggested to make 1975 transnational social practices of the an ‘International Women’s Year’ at WIDF, its World Congresses certainly a meeting of the UN Commission played a crucial role. In the period on the Status of Women.50 In her between 1945 and 1991, it organized revealing work, Ghodsee provides a total of seven World Congresses, insights into how “Second World- which all lasted three to five days.48 Third World coalitions”51, existing These were preceded by intensive throughout the Women’s Decade preparations of the national member following the International Women’s organizations, transforming the Year, were able to “isolate and 52 former into frameworks for local antagonize Western feminists” a r practices. Upcoming congresses on the basis of shared political were often used as inducement for perspectives i.e. when it comes local campaigns to raise awareness to anti-imperialism.53 Accordingly, for international women’s rights the East German Foreign Ministry issues. Likewise, as in the case of the DFD, international women’s congresses could figure in domestic 49 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1484, Plan des politics as a means to propagate Demokratischen Frauenbundes Deutschlands Zur Vorbereitung des the merits of socialism for women. Weltkongresses der Frauen, 2 March In preparation for the 1953 World 1953, fol. 1-2. Congress in Copenhagen, the DFD 50 Celia Donert, “Whose Utopia? Gender, Ideology, and Human Rights at the established an initiative committee, 1975 World Congress of Women”, in charged with ‘educational work’ The Breakthrough: Human Rights in among German women. As a the 1970s, ed. Jan Eckel and Samuel Moyn (Philadelphia, PA: University of mass-based organization strongly Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 74; At the first corresponding to the party line of conference of the International Women’s Year held Mexico City, the ‘United Nations Decade for Women’ was decided upon, lasting until 1985. 47 Pries, “Transnational Societal Spaces”, 13. 51 Ghodsee, “Research Note”, 244. 48 FFBIZ, Sammlung DFB, Soz Int 50, IDFF: 52 Ibid. Gegründet am 1. Dezember 1945, p. 4 ff. 53 Ibid, 256.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 57 a r promoted the final declaration Plan. The report, however, positively adopted at the first Women’s emphasized that some of the non- Conference in Mexico in 1975 as aligned countries were showing the outcome of close cooperation a firm interest in the historical between non-aligned and socialist experiences of socialist states.57 In countries.54 Following this, Thiele addition to the Mexico Conference claimed that any positive results of under the auspices of the UN, the the upcoming conference in Nairobi WIDF had already in 1974 decided to were dependent on a “consistent organize a second congress in East and coordinated demeanor of the Berlin in October 1975. This decision delegation from the socialist states was based upon the claim that the in joint action with the progressive International Year of Women should non-aligned countries”.55 These not remain an exclusive affair of

s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W 58 ’ coalitions, however, were not always the UN. As the World Congress in running smoothly. A DFD report on East Berlin has already extensively o m e n a consultative committee meeting been studied by Celia Donert59, this prior to the Mexico Conference, article will thus focus only on some composed by representatives from interesting points with respect to 36 countries from all continents and East-South women’s relationships. E a s t - S o u h W | devoted to revising the draft Action Welcoming delegations Plan of the conference, bemoaned from over 139 countries, the that “representatives of the USSR, World Congress constituted a the GDR, and Romania were the only major platform for transnational C l a r F e c h t n ones […] to call for the […] principle encounters.60 Hosting an event of of maintaining and safeguarding this size not only represented a great peace and détente as a precondition success for the DFD, but certainly for the equality of women and the also carried political weight for the close links between social and SED-regime, taking place three economic changes and the equality years after the latter had gained its of women”.56 Representatives long-awaited diplomatic recognition of the ‘developing countries’, by and several months after the contrast, supposedly “showed conclusion of the Helsinki Accords.61 little interest in a stronger political The official objectives of the World discussion”, aiming at preventing any ‘ideologization’ of the Action 57 Ibid. 4. 58 SAPMO-BArch DY 311392 Dokumentarische Darstellung der 54 Donert, “Whose Utopia”, 76. Entwicklung des Gedankens zur 55 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1513, Einleitung der Durchführung des Internationalen Jahres Schulungsveranstaltung zur Vorbereitung der Frau und des Weltkongresses der Nairobi, 28 June 1985, fol. 8. Frauen im Jahr 1975, fol. 2-4. 56 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/637, Bericht über 59 Donert, “Whose Utopia”. die Tagung des Konsultativkommittees 60 SAPMO-BArch Dy 31/1405, zur Weltkonferenz der UNO zum Teilnehmerlisten, fol. 83 ff. Internationalen Jahr der Frau, fol. 3. 61 Donert, “Whose Utopia”, 70.

58 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 C l a r F e c h t n Congress were to discuss “openly imperialism, and (neo-)colonialism.65 and frankly all questions concerning However, the congress also opened the implementation of the equality up space for friction. Women’s

of women, their active participation organizations from the socialist camp E a s t - S o u h W in the economic, social, and cultural took a more quantitative approach development of their countries, the to women’s emancipation, assessing establishment of friendly relations the latter on the basis of employment

between all peoples, and the rates, numbers of educational o m e n consolidation of world peace”.62 degrees, and mothers’ protection as ’ Characterized by one of the highest workers. However, this perspective s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W rates of female employment in the was challenged by African world, the GDR portrayed itself representatives, who claimed that as a role model for gender in this women’s rights should not be ‘alms’ respect.63 At the congress opening, legally provided by male authorities. the chairman of the Council of Rather, claims for dignity and liberty Ministers promised the visitors that were women’s fundamental rights the insights they would gain during and had to be defended against their their stay would demonstrate to them ‘selfish brothers’.66 Suggesting that that the realization of gender equality women were subject to a qualitatively was ‘one of the greatest and noblest different kind of exploitation achievements in the development of than their male counterparts, the the socialist state’.64 delegates from Guinea-Bissau,

Between the plenary Somalia, and Congo hence implicitly a r sessions, the congress consisted of questioned the kind of women’s thematic commissions, each attended rights endorsed by communist by some 200 delegates and devoted women’s organizations.67 to themes such as women’s access to education and their role in industry PHYSICAL MOBILITY AND THE and agriculture. As described by COMPLEXITY OF NARRATIVES a British delegate, similar to what has been reported on the Mexico From its foundation onward, conference, unanimity between the WIDF not only organized communist women and delegates congresses and study trips but also from (post-)colonial countries fostered bilateral exchanges between was especially reached over the its national affiliates, enabling actors condemnation of ‘Zionism’, racism,

65 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/645, Feministische Fragen fehlten auf der Berliner 62 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1405, Tel. 2109161, Frauenkonferenz, Sarah Benton, fol. 233. fol. 48. 66 Ibid. 63 Donert, “Whose Utopia”, 77. 67 Ibid. Sarah Benton describes the 64 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1405, Ministerrat der speeches of the African delegates Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, der therefore as yielding an “unspoken Vorsitzende, 20.10.1975, fol. 75. feminism“.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 59 a r to become – albeit in a politically East, and Asia “fit in well with regulated setting – acquainted Bulgaria’s foreign policy and its vision with the local circumstances in of itself as a postcolonial country […] the countries of sojourn.68 De- play[ing] up its own colonial past and Stalinization also helped to ease how socialism […] had transformed these exchanges of delegations. the country from a rural, agricultural Following the 1953 World Congress backwater to a modern, industrialized of Women in Copenhagen, nation-state“.71 While the end of representatives from Indonesia, empire in Eastern Europe after the Burma, China, Vietnam, Korea, and First World War served as a basis for Southern American countries visited these regimes to foster a narrative Berlin, representing the first women’s of historical analogies between their delegations from Asia and Latin own trajectories and the transition

s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W 69 ’ America in the GDR. Between its from colonialism to independence foundation in 1947 and March 1972, in the colonial empires72, the o m e n the DFD hosted a total number of promotion of this narrative proved to 382 women from African, Asian, be more difficult for the SED-regime and Latin American countries while and the DFD, citizens of a country dispatching 56 representatives to with a colonial and fascist past. E a s t - S o u h W | these countries in the same period.70 Notwithstanding the DFD’s constant Delegations were likewise exchanged emphasis on international friendship, between women’s organizations from the historical context of its foundation ‘Southern’ countries and Bulgaria, in the aftermath of the Second World C l a r F e c h t n Romania, Czechoslovakia, the War should not be forgotten. In fact, Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and other its very accession to the WIDF in 1948 countries of Eastern Europe. at the Second World Conference in In her research on the Budapest was followed by debates Committee of the Bulgarian Women’s and opposition from women who Movement (CBWM), Ghodsee found had suffered from the atrocities that its activism among women’s committed by Germany during the organizations in Africa, the Middle Second World War. As reported by the German delegate Maria Rentmeister, “the representative of Israel pointed out in very bitter words 68 IISH, WIDF Collection, Folder 2, Published for the 40th anniversary of the founding of that all her relatives had gone to the the WIDF, p. 23 ff. gas chambers, asking whether all this 69 SAPMPO-BArch DY 31/1358, Delegationen should be forgotten” by the act of aus dem Ausland, die während 73 des Weltkongresses der Frauen in accepting the DFD to the WIDF. Kopenhagen im Juni 1953 in Berlin weilten, fol. 15-17. 70 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1358, Dokumentation über die wichtigsten internationalen 71 Ghodsee, “Research Note”, 255-256. Beziehungen und Aktionen des DFD seit 72 Mark and Slobodian, “Eastern Europe in der Gründung des DFD am 8.3.1947 bis the Global History of Decolonization”, 351. 8.3.1972, fol. 134. 73 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1566, Bericht über

60 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 C l a r F e c h t n In October 1970, DFD THE CIRCULATION OF KNOWLEDGE delegates attended the second AND CULTURAL PERFORMANCE national women’s congress in

Sierra Leone. In her speech, the Fostered by the physical E a s t - S o u h W German representative drew mobility of its members, the WIDF parallels between the historical concurrently entailed a circulation experiences of both countries, of ideas and served as a platform of

comparing the ‘possibilities’ that knowledge production when it comes o m e n arose through the ‘defeat of Hitler- to women’s rights and women’s ’ Fascism’ with the opportunities lived realities all over the world. At s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W opened up by the end of colonialism international and regional meetings, and advocating socialism as the representatives gave speeches and only way to ‘ultimately break the submitted reports on socio-political rule of Imperialism’.74 Even though and economic circumstances in their we do not know the reactions of countries and the position of women the Sierra Leonean comrades, this therein. Moreover, the WIDF released poor comparison is particularly a broad range of educational revealing. For one thing, it illustrates materials such as its widely the tightrope act the German distributed brochure entitled Meeting representatives had to perform with Egyptian Women, published against the backdrop of their fascist after a study trip to Egypt in 1957 and colonial past when trying to which had investigated the situation

champion an anti-colonial self- of women and children following the a r conception. On the other hand, it also Suez Crisis.75 reveals the contradictory dynamics at Likewise, WIDF congresses play when advocating ‘international opened up a space for performative solidarity’ on the basis of patronizing encounters, with representatives attitudes and by educational engaging in song and dance inspired means, which for their part strongly by their respective cultural contexts.76 resembled imperialist structures. Returning from the World Congress of women in Budapest in 1948, the DFD delegate portrayed the congress as “the face of the world”, raving about the “picturesque picture of the women of India, China, Indonesia, and Korea” .77 Claiming to come

die Pressekonferenz am 10 Dezember 75 IISH Int 1546/40 fol, Zusammenkunft mit 1958, fol. 11. ägyptischen Frauen. 74 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1426, Teilnahme 76 IISH Int 1534/33 fol, The fourth congress in einer Delegation des DFD am 2. Kongress pictures, WIDF, 1.-5.6.1958, p. 18. des Nationalkongresses der Frauen 77 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1566, Bericht über von Sierra Leone am 7 Oktober 1970 in die Pressekonferenz am 10. Dezember Freetown, Ansprache, fol. 6 ff. 1948, fol. 9.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 61 a r from a “monotonous Europe”, the somewhat less clearly - in the context congress thus offered the German of relationships between the DFD representatives the opportunity to and ‘Third World’ organizations. While discover “the strength of the peace DFD representatives expressed forces in the world”78 only three admiration for the beauty and years after the end of the Second strength of women fighting in anti- World War. For them, like many colonial struggles, they were similarly others, WIDF events provided a way convinced that these women were in to evade travel restrictions imposed need of their advice when it comes by their regimes and contributed to structuring their organizations and to increasing their usually curtailed overcoming ‘backward traditions’ contacts with foreigners.79 Even – most notably ‘Islamic belief’ – in though the GDR, just as the Soviet favor of ‘more progressive’ social

s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W 82 ’ Union and other socialist countries, structures. was characterized by the presence o m e n of foreign contract workers and SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGNS international students, scholars have exposed how personal contacts WIDF’s social practices were regulated or even suppressed further included broad solidarity E a s t - S o u h W | by political authorities.80 In the campaigns, channeled through same vein, scholars have not only publications, requests at the UN, accounted for discrimination and solidarity letters to individual xenophobia faced by foreign actors women’s organizations, and local C l a r F e c h t n in countries of the socialist camp, events. Solidarity expressions are but also for paternalistic and at times abundant in WIDF and DFD archival even Orientalist discourses in the sources and were mostly directed East-South friendship campaigns.81 A towards women suffering from similar dynamic played out - perhaps armed conflict. A considerable part of solidarity manifestations consisted of letters expressing German 78 Ibid. women’s solidarity in light of the 79 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/825, Bd. 7, Berichte über die Arbeit des DFD, fol. 29. hardships women in countries of the 80 Damian Man Con Uladh, “Studium bei Global South were experiencing as Freunden. Ausländische Studierende in mothers and workers, or sending der DDR bis 1970”, in Ankunft – Alltag – Ausreise. Migration und interkulturelle congratulations on the occasions Begegnung in der DDR Gesellschaft, of anniversaries of independence.83 ed. Christian Müller and Patrice Poutrus Likewise, the DFD, like other mass (Potsdam: Zentrum für zeithistorische Forschung, 2005), 202. 81 Nikolay R. Karkov and Zhivka Valiavicharska, “Rethinking East-European 82 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1573 Bericht über die Socialism: Notes Toward an Anti-Capitalist Reise einer Delegation des DFD vom 19.- Decolonial Methodology“, Interventions 31.3.1972 nach Bangladesch und Indien, 20, no. 6 (2018), 807, https://doi.org/10.10 fol. 22. 80/1369801X.2018.1515647; Katsakioris, 83 SAPMO-BArch 31/1358, Zur Vorbereitung “The Soviet-South Encounter”, 148-149. des Jahrbuches 1959, 8.1.1959, fol. 38.

62 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 C l a r F e c h t n socialist organizations, organized most important manifestations of solidarity initiatives including solidarity with the ‘Third World’.87 material donations and recreational As educational training evolved

stays of leading women activists or into a highly politicized tenet in the E a s t - S o u h W politicians from the (post-)colonial relationships between socialist states world. Material consignments ranged, and newly independent countries, just to name a few examples, from the socialist camp began not only

sewing machines to Guinea-Bissau to provide scholarships, but they o m e n for an orphanage run by the women’s also established new institutions for ’ section of the national liberation this purpose.88 For the SED-regime, s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W movement PAIGC, to less typical the training of foreign students objects such as fashion magazines and contacts with governments of to Cuba.84 In 1965, the total sum the sending countries represented of the DFD’s ‘solidarity budget’ another means by which to amounted to 173,000 German mark, counteract diplomatic isolation. In of which around a quarter was used March 1955, the State Secretariat for material donations to women’s for Higher Education sent a letter organizations in Vietnam and several to all higher education institutions, African countries.85 These campaigns emphasizing the enhancement of fit into the wider institutionalized the GDR’s scientific reputation as practice of international solidarity important aspect in strengthening in the GDR, which was since 1960 friendly relations with other countries

channeled through the Solidarity and in achieving political and a r Committee, structurally resembling diplomatic recognition of the GDR.89 committees in other socialist According to the DFD, between 1965 countries.86 and 1975 more than 10,000 students Besides a range of other from developing countries had activities, the Solidarity Committee spent an educational sojourn in the was responsible for the provision of GDR, among whom were reportedly scholarships for educational training “numerous women”.90 While women’s in the GDR, constituting one of its

87 van der Heyden, “GDR International Development Policy Involvement”, 73. 84 For Guinea-Bissau: SAPMO-BArch 88 Constantin Katsakioris, “The Lumumba DY 31/1432, Schreiben an den University in Moscow: higher education Bundesvorstand des DFD, 26.3.1968, fol. for a Soviet-Third World alliance, 1960- 2; For Cuba: SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1331, 1991”, Journal of Global History 14, no. 2 Brief an Federaçion Mujeres Cubanas, (2019), 281-282, https://doi.org/10.1017/ 7.2.1974, fol. 135. S174002281900007X. 85 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1592, Plansumme für 89 SAPMO-BArch DR 3/986, Statistische die Soli-Aktionen des DFD 1965, fol. 86. Übersicht über das Studium von 86 Ulrich van der Heyden, GDR International ausländischen Bürgern an den Development Policy Involvement: Doctrine Hochschulen von 1951-1963, An die and Strategies between Illusions and Herren Rektoren der Universitäten und Reality, 1960-1990, The example (South) Hochschulen, 16 März 1955. Africa (Münster: Lit Verlag, 2013), 72. 90 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/638, Arbeitsmaterial

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 63 a r organizations in the Soviet Union, signaled the beginning of growing Bulgaria, and Cuba provided bilateral relationships, but also scholarships for female students became increasingly informed by from newly independent countries, diplomatic relations and foreign the DFD was not authorized to policy agendas of their national do so.91 Although repeatedly governments. Social practices of receiving requests for educational ‘international friendship’ among scholarships, the DFD had to reject women thus often served political them in all cases.92 Apart from that, purposes with women’s organizations although educational cooperation did from both the socialist camp and include female students, this part of the (post-)colonial world conveying East-South relationships remained messages and transporting policies a predominantly male story. While from their governments into the area s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W ’ statistics of the GDR Ministry of of women’s activism. For more than Higher Education do not specify the a decade, the Soviet Union, Eastern o m e n gender distribution of study places, it European regimes (including the can be assumed that a vast majority GDR), China, and Cuba provided were male students, given the fact military and logistical support to that in 1969-1970 only 11.3% of all national liberation movements in E a s t - S o u h W | ‘Third World’ students in the Soviet southern Africa while the US, despite Union were female.93 a rhetorical endorsement of national self-determination, remained allies WOMEN’S RELATIONSHIPS AT THE with the colonial powers and the C l a r F e c h t n INTERFACE OF COLD WAR AND South-African regime.94 Against DECOLONIZATION this backdrop, the DFD, like other socialist women’s organizations, While interactions between forged links with women’s sections women’s organizations from the of national liberation movements in ‘Second’ and the ‘Third World’ had the Lusophone colonies in Africa, initially been taking place almost most notably the PAICG in Guinea- exclusively under the umbrella of Bissau and the women’s section of the WIDF, the mid-1950s not only the FRELIMO in Mozambique. In 1971, the All-African Women’s Conference had organized a seminar in Dar-es- für die Kommission III, fol. 111. Salaam in cooperation with the WIDF, 91 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1458, Brief an bringing together African women Botschafler Schulze in der VR Angola, activists and members of socialist 20.02.1986, fol. 3; for Bulgaria, see Ghodsee (2014), 257; for Soviet women, see IISH 198/92, Frauen in Aktion, 26. 92 See e.g. SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1637, 94 Chris Saunders and Sue Onslow, “The Aktenvermerk über eine Besprechung mit Cold War and southern Africa, 1976-1998”, Vorsitzendem der K.A.N.U. am 6.8.1972, in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, fol. 1. ed. Melvyn Leffler and Odd Arne Westad, 93 Katsakioris, “The Lumumba University in Volume 3, (Cambridge: Cambridge Moscow”, 287. University Press, 2010), 222.

64 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 C l a r F e c h t n women’s committees.95 The DFD In July 1974, only some months was represented by two delegates after the Carnation Revolution that who had received a list with precise had laid the basis for Mozambican

instructions by its federal board, independence in 1975, DFD E a s t - S o u h W determining their appearance and representatives were received by political stance to be presented at the FRELIMO leadership and officials the congress. The directive set forth of the ‘Organization of Mozambican

that they should convey the African Women’ (OMM), the movement’s o m e n delegates an ‘understanding of the women’s section. Propagated as ’ foreign policy of the SED-regime’ and an act of anti-imperialist solidarity, s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W describe the ‘successful experiences the SED-regime had been providing of the GDR in the implementation military assistance to FRELIMO of equal rights for women’96, since 1967 while contacts between revealing how the propagation the DFD and Mozambican women of socialist gender models were were firstly instigated in 1972.99 In used as instruments of cultural 1973, the two organizations had diplomacy, intended at “wooing concluded a friendship treaty that women from postcolonial countries stipulated solidarity donations of with information about the apparent 10,000 German marks to the OMM. success of the communist model”.97 As high-ranking officials, including At times, the dispatch of Samora Machel, president of the delegations openly served political FRELIMO and later president of the

ends. On the occasion of the first country attended the 1974 meeting, a r anniversary of Bangladesh in 1972, it was of great symbolic and political a DFD delegation was received by significance not only for the DFD but, the Bangladeshi president, several in view of Mozambique’s expected ministers, and representatives of independence, also with regard to the women’s section of the Awami future diplomatic relations between League. Prior to the meeting, Thiele the two countries. had been commissioned to ‘pave the way’ for diplomatic relations between the GDR and the young nation state, which she described as ‘extraordinary political success’ upon her return.98

95 Ghodsee, “Second World, Second Sex”, 126. 99 Klaus Storkmann, “Fighting the Cold War 96 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1579, Politische in Southern Africa? East German military Direktive für die Reise der Delegation des support to FRELIMO”, Portuguese Journal Bundesvorstandes des DFD nach Dar- of Social Science 9, no. 2 (2010), 154- es-Salaam, 19. Juli bis 6. August 1972, fol. 155, https://doi.org/10.1386/pjss.9.2.151_1; 18-19. SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1460, Programm für 97 Donert, “Whose Utopia”, 72. den Studienaufenthalt einer Delegation 98 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1573 Bericht über die der Frauenabteilung der FRELIMO in der Reise der Delegation, fol. 16-17. DDR, Juli 1972, fol. 1.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 65 a r II. SYSTEMS OF SYMBOLS and nuclear disarmament of which the Soviet Union was considered Together with social a driving force.103 These motives practices, transnational spaces were embedded within discursively are created through ‘systems of created ‘universalist bonds’ between symbols’, understood as “complex women all over the world, such sign[s] […] represent[ing] a mode as equating womanhood with of giving sense to social practice motherhood, thus framing the and of structuring social practice political agenda of the WIDF as by meaningful behavior”.100 In the representing the interests of all context of this research, symbols mothers alias every woman,104 gain importance especially when it Symbolic mobilization also comes to a common peace rhetoric, found expression in the annual s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W ’ figurative representations of women, celebration of the International and the International Women’s Day. Women’s Day by WIDF affiliates o m e n Moreover, logos used by the WIDF all over the world. In 1922 Lenin in its publications, its invitations, had, supported by Clara Zetkin, and on its conference banners were established the International always symbols of peace. Its official Women’s Day as a communist E a s t - S o u h W | logo was a dove with an olive branch holiday.105 Advocated by the WIDF that was flying in front of a globe and celebrated by leftist and represented through latitudes and communist women’s organizations all longitudes101, embodying the sought- over the world, it thus represented an C l a r F e c h t n for world peace and friendship important marker in the globalization among nations. Logos with a similar of socialist claims of women’s message were also employed by its rights while, concurrently, being national affiliates, with the DFD using translated into varying local contexts. the symbol of a globe with three Descriptions of the latter were again women from different continents circulated through WIDF publications, holding hands.102 Yet, a symbolism of depicting how celebrations took peace was not only imparted through shape in different local-cultural images, but also by the means of emotionally charged motives and a certain rhetoric, recurrently referring 103 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1352, Bericht Mme. Cotton, fol. 42. to Khrushchev’s peaceful coexistence 104 Jadwiga Pieper Mooney, “Fighting fascism and forging new political activism: The Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) in the Cold War”, in 100 Pries, “Transnational Societal Spaces”, 13. De-Centering Cold War History: Local and 101 Vera Mackie, “From Hiroshima to Global Change, ed. Jadwiga E. Pieper Lausanne: the World Congress of Mothers Mooney and Fabio Lanza (London and and the Hahaoya Taikai in the 1950s“, New York: Routledge, 2013), 62. Women’s History Review (2016), 4, https:// 105 Temma Kaplan, “On the Socialist Origins doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2015.1114317. of the International Women’s Day”, 102 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1351, Freie Pressee Feminist Studies 11, no. 1 (1985), 170, www. Zwickau, 1949, Vier Jahre IDFF, fol. 167. jstor.org/stable/3180144.

66 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 C l a r F e c h t n settings.106 Likewise, 8th March was (FMC) with the ‘socialist states’ framed as an occasion for delegation while stressing its good relations visits. In 1971, DFD delegates traveled with African countries.109 The FMC

to Cuba to attend the festivities. thus constituted one of the WIDF’s E a s t - S o u h W Visiting a cultural event reserved only ‘orthodox’ communist affiliates for women from socialist countries, while it concurrently incorporated the East German delegate found, other ‘Third World’ women’s

presumably with some surprise, that organizations into the spatial concept o m e n African representatives were counted of the ‘socialist system of countries’. ’ among the socialist delegations,107 Including newly independent s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W This small example is countries into the socialist camp interesting with regard to the by acknowledging the existence of puzzling character of spatial varying models of state socialism, it conceptualizations, or notions was therefore women’s organizations such as the socialist world system. like the FMC blurring the lines For example, Cuba had been between the supposed ‘worlds’ – the playing an important role in the socialist, capitalist, and the young formation of the ‘Third World’ nation states – which representatives project, not least since hosting the of the DFD were holding on to in their 1966 Tricontinental Conference. conceptualizations of ‘socialist global Representing an important actor in space’. the advancement of anti-imperialist

claims on behalf of the Non-Aligned- III. ARTEFACTS a r Movement while at the same time sustaining close ties with the socialist The third element in the camp, Cuba constituted a “trans- generation of transnational spaces continental hub”108 between Eastern is “the production and use of Europe and the ‘Third World’. This artefacts” including all “objectified perspective was also reflected in results stemming from human DFD representations, emphasizing action”.110 Regarding women’s the ‘friendly relationships’ between transnational relationships, the most the Federation of Cuban Women significant artefacts were certainly a range of publications which can be seen as “materializations of the 111 106 SAPMO-Barch DY 31/1354, Anhang zum transnational” serving as a means Bulletin Nr. 8, 3 Juni 1957, Information über of transnational communication. The die Feiern zum 8 März, fol. 152-154. WIDF’s farthest reaching publication 107 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1331, Einschätzung der Delegation anlässlich ihres Besuches nach Kuba vom 26.2.-17.3.1971, fol. 38. 108 Berthold Unfried, “A Cuban Cycle of 109 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1331, Einschätzung Developmental Socialism? Cubans and der Delegation anlässlich ihres Besuches East Germans in the Socialist World nach Kuba vom 26.2.-17.3.1971, fol. 36. System”, Journal für Entwicklungspolitik, 110 Pries, “Transnational Societal Spaces”, 13. XXXIII (2017), 69, https://doi.org/10.20446/ 111 Rodogno et.al., “Shaping the Transnational JEP-2414-3197-33-3-69. Sphere”, 2.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 67 a r was a magazine called Women of CONCLUDING THOUGHTS the Whole World, appearing in six languages.112 According to de Haan, From the following study, it the journal served to create an can be concluded that encounters “imagined community of progressive between the DFD and women’s women worldwide”113, constituting organizations from the (post-)colonial not only a source of information world both under the umbrella of the about the organization but also about WIDF and beyond can be interpreted broader political developments and as giving rise to a transnational women’s issues in the whole world. space of cross-border relationships. Moreover, the Federation frequently These connections generated a issued the ‘Information Bulletin’ with complex configuration of intensive news about the organization and and stable social practices, systems s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W ’ studies on different topics. Besides of symbols, and artefacts and evolved these two, there were many other into a “social-spatial reference of o m e n forms of publications such as topic- the everyday life world”116 for the specific brochures, special bulletins, actors involved. Through frequent conventions, recommendations, and interactions, at times characterized resolutions to the UN.114 Artefacts by disagreement, these women E a s t - S o u h W | resulting from the DFD’s international developed, invoked, and negotiated relationships were manifold and a political agenda that tied together could have different shapes, often women’s rights, global peace, and with several actors involved. In national liberation in a broader C l a r F e c h t n 1965, to name only one example, framework of anti-imperialism. the Ghanaian women’s organization This agenda was translated into in joint action with the DFD and the forms of activism at different socio- Free German Youth, the official youth spatial levels, transforming ideas organization of the GDR, established of women’s rights into particular a public sewing room, which was political and cultural programs. The supposed to serve as a culture extent to which imperialism, however, center.115 referred to mechanisms of colonial suppression or rather to attempts by ‘Western’ powers to exercise global hegemony remained fluid. Speeches given by representatives revealed the often blurred lines and diverging understandings between notions 112 de Haan, “The Women’s International Democratic Federation”, 14. 113 Ibid. 114 FFBIZ, Sammlung DFB, Soz Int 50, IDFF: Gegründet am 1. Dezember 1945, 21 116 Ludger Pries, Transnationalisierung: 115 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1636 Theorie und Empirie Maßnahmenplan für die Entwicklung grenzüberschreitender der Beziehungen des DFD mit der Vergesellschaftung (Wiesbaden: Verlag Frauenorganisation Ghanas, 15.7.1965, fol. 3. für Sozialwissenschaften, 2010), 30.

68 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 C l a r F e c h t n of imperialism, colonialism, and national self-determination, and fascism.117 economic dependencies, however, While the WIDF at times was rooted in educational attitudes

proved to be a space of contention and narratives of ‘advice’ and E a s t - S o u h W when it came to challenging attempts ‘help’ which, paradoxically enough, by communist women to universalize structurally resembled the patronizing socialist conceptualizations of and imperialist boundaries they were

women’s rights, this seems less actually directed against. o m e n the case - at least from what is This latter dynamic is related ’ reported in DFD accounts - in the to the recurring notion of ‘progress’, s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W context of bilateral relationships of considered as contrasting with the the DFD. Part of these imbalances ‘barbarity of war’.119 Even though was certainly owed to the fact that ‘progress’ was never explicitly material transfers were exclusively defined and certainly meant different flowing from the GDR to ‘Third things to members, WIDF and DFD World’ organizations. Under the documents however suggest that its flagship of international solidarity, substance ties in with what Nikolay German representatives portrayed R. Karkov and Zhivka Valiavicharska themselves as being in a further describe as “evolutionary stage of a path that women in newly developmentalism” characterized independent countries were just by ‘socialist frameworks of about to take. A significant part of modernization, social progress, and 120 the DFD’s communication in fact liberation’. Principles of women’s a r consisted in pushing assertions that rights, embracing dimensions of socialism had not only eradicated peace, nuclear disarmament, and inequalities between the sexes, but economic modernization, and any forms of racial discrimination.118 their advocacy in the context of Its claim to be different from transnational congresses, local ‘Western imperialists’ when it campaigns, and at the UN were came to oppressive relationships, thus framed in a universalist model of socialist development; forming part of what has recently entered 117 See e.g. SAPMO-BArch DY 31/1352 the scholarly debate as alternative Diskussionsbeitrag von Mamia Chentouf, globalizations during the Cold War.121 Delegierte der Nationalen Befreiungsfront Algeriens in Vertretung der algerischen Consequently, even though women Frauen, IV Kongress der IDFF in Wien, from the (post-)colonial world were 1-5.6.1958, fol. 122-123. In her speech, the actively involved in shaping the Algerian women’s rights activist Mamia Chentouf linked colonial oppression with fascism, framing the war in Algeria as waged by ‘the fascists of the world’ who 119 FFBIZ, Sammlung DFB, Soz Int 50, IDFF: were ‘posing a threat to world peace’. Gegründet am 1. Dezember 1945, p. 1. 118 SAPMO-BArch DY 31/905, Information der 120 Karkov and Valiavicharska, “Rethinking DDR: zur Verwirklichung der Konvention East-European Socialism”, 804. über die Beseitigung aller Formen der 121 Mark, Kalinovsky, and Marung, “Alternative Diskriminierung der Frauen, 2.3.1982, fol. 1. Globalizations”, Introduction.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2020 69 a r women’s rights agenda underlying the relationships, the latter was rooted in a development paradigm that automatically placed women from the socialist camp in a position of ‘further’ development. Women’s organizations, their transnational relationships, and gender structures more broadly should therefore not be excluded from scholarship on global modernization projects throughout the Global Cold War. s E n c o u t e r i h G l b a H y f C d W ’ o m e n E a s t - S o u h W |

C l a r F e c h t n

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