Soviet Woman, 1953: 'We Are Stronger Than Ever' (WIDF dan Kongres Kopenhagen)

=== [PDF page 1] === FOR P E A C E F U L S E T T L E M E N T OF I N T E R N A T I O N A L P R O B L E M S DECLARATION OF THE WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION The Women's International Democratic Federation in the name of 140 million women from 66 countries gives its full support to the resolution of the Bureau of the World Peace Council with regard to the campaign launched on June 20th to urge the peoples to demand that their governments negotiate and reach agreement. By their actions, together with all the peoples, women have helped to impose the armistice in Korea. We are now intensifying our efforts to ensure that the terms of the armistice be carried out. Women want peace to be guaranteed in Malaya and Viet Nam. They believe that it is necessary and just that the People’s Republic of China which represents one-fifth of the population of the world and is one of the Big Five should be called to take its seat in the U.N.O. and at any meeting where peace will be discussed. The women demand that real negotiations without conditions imposed in advance should be undertaken between the govern ments, negotiations which would result in the peaceful settlement of all international differences. They refuse to see the world exposed to the risk of a new war by the forces which are opposed to the peaceful settlement of international problems and support and encourage the criminal revengist policy of Adenauer, openly stated once more after the elections in West Germany. They don’t want to live in constant fear for the lives of their children and husbands, for the existence of their homes and countries, threatened with total destruction by such weapons of annihilation as the H-bomb. They don’t want to live in the distress imposed on the world by ever-increasing war budgets which are bringing poverty to millions of homes. Women throughout the world give their full support to the campaign of the World Peace Council because they want nego tiations to replace solutions by force and the riches of the world and the genius of man to be used only for the happiness of mankind. IN D E F E N C E OF W O M E N ’S R IG H T S STATEMENT BY EUGENIE COTTON, PRESIDENT OF THE WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION The Declaration on the Rights of Women adopted by the World Congress of Women which was held in Copenhagen has ex pressed the just aspirations of the women and mothers of the whole world. It is enthusiastically welcomed wherever it is made known. In many countries, campaigns have been undertaken around the demands of the Declaration; meetings and national confer ences are being organized, uniting women of varied opinions and walks of life for the defence of their most urgent common demands; committees for the defence of women's rights are being formed; deputations are being taken to the governments; petition and signature campaigns conducted; numerous and varied actions on issues of vital concern to women depending on the specific situation in their countries and localities are being undertaken. FOR O UR SACRED RIGHTS! The Declaration on the Rights of Women adopted by the World Congress of Women in Copenhagen has become the programme of action of all the women in the capitalist, coloni al and dependent countries in the struggle for their rights, for the life of their children and for happy homes Drawing by P PINKISEVICH The W.I.D.F. greets these initiatives and urges all women to work for the further extension of united action to make the Dec laration on the Rights of Women serve as a great weapon in their struggles. To co-ordinate these efforts throughout the world, the W.I.D.F. is launching a great campaign for the defence of women’s rights. We have a great and just cause to defend; the cause of equal ity between all human beings whether they be men or women and it is only through solidarity in action that women will suc ceed in winning full rights. An initial review of the results achieved will be presented in every country on March 8th, 1954, so that the International Women’s Day of 1954 will be the day on which women through out the world re-affirm their will for peace, for the happiness of their children and to win their just demands as mothers, workers and citizens. Women, mothers, women’s organizations! The Declaration on the Rights of Women is your Declaration. Make it live in your country, community, factory, street and village. Organize women around these issues and demands. Let us unite our efforts in this common struggle. Unity is the condition of victory. 49 === [PDF page 2] === WE ARE STRONGER THAN EVER MARIE-CLAUDE V A I LL A N T - C O U TU R I E R General Secretary, W omen's International Democratic Federation "The W orld Congress calls upon the women of the whole w orld to cooperate closely in organized and persistent action for their rights as mothers, workers and citizens. "Let us unite our efforts in this common struggle. Unity is the condition of v icto ry." These are the closing words of the Declaration on the Rights of Women which the W orld Congress of W om en held in Copenhagen and attended by the delegates of seventy countries adopted. The nearly 2,000 women who gathered at this great assembly: vow ed to one another and to the hundreds of millions of toiling women they represented to carry on the struggle for their rights to the vic to rious finish. In the nearly six months that has passed since then the dem ocratic women's organizations have done a great deal to make the inter national women's movement stronger than ever. On their return home, the delegates to the W o rld Congress set to w ork with enthusiasm. Their initial task was to inform all women of its work and acquainf them w ith the A ppeal and Decla ration it adopted. M any of the delegates have had to carry on this w ork in difficult conditions, but hardships have not deterred them. The Argentine delegates, for instance, have conducted from four teen to sixty meetings each in spite of the utter lack of freedom they have to contend with. In India the National Coordination Committee, which sent a delegation to Copenhagen, has endorsed the Congress decisions and sponsored public reports by the delegates and press confer ences in order to bring these decisions to the broad masses of women. The Punjab provincial women's com m ittee was not rep re sented at the Congress, but if has also given the A ppeal and Declaration an enthusiastic reception and decided to translate these documents info Punjabi. National women's conferences were held in the Argentine, Sweden, Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, Denmark and Canada in Septem ber and O ctober. In France women's conferences w ill be held in November, one to take up the defence of the women's press and another to deal with organizational questions. The Indonesian women's union, the GERWIS, w ill hold its congress in December. In India, Austria, and Norway national women's conferences w ill be held in the beginning of next year. The women of France have been highly active. "D ay in and day out and in all trade unions the working women are fighting in the most diverse ways to defend the rights they have already won, and despite all the machinations of the employers and the govern ment, the unity of the workers irrespective of the union they may belong to is grow ing stronger," Berthe Adam, secretary of the textile workers' union and one of the French delegates, said at the W orld Congress. Shortly after the Congress this unity was vivid ly demonstrated in the great strikes that swept France last August, embracing four million industrial and office workers. Never before had the women of France taken part in strike movements in such numbers and with such unanimity. Sixty thousand women workers of the textile industry, 20,000 women em ployed in the health services in Paris, and 85 per cent of the women w orking in the field of public utilities and communications joined with the men to fight for their right to a better life. The working women and strikers' wives carried on the fight for three weeks with remarkable staunchness. Throughout they enjoyed the support of the French W omen's Union committees. Hundreds of thousands of leaflets were circulated calling upon the public to support the strikers, and thousands of women's delegations were 50 sent to employers and the authorities. A sweeping movement of solidarity with the strikers' families developed. M ore than 100,000 letters were sent to the head of the government, Laniel. A great many women signed these letters to voice their protest against the policy of po verty and war. The French strikes have ended but- the struggle goes on. The class consciousness of the w orking pe op le is grow ing, and the women's unity too is being cemented. This is w ell evidenced by hundreds of letters which the French W omen's Union has received. Typical of these letters is one from a m other of five children who asks for 100 membership cards because she wants to organize a new com m ittee among railwaymen's wives w ho actively supported their husbands when they were out on strike. Such committees with the object of carrying on the figh t for the w orking people's demands are being set up everyw here in France. A broad women's mass movement against the policy of the governm ent and ils em ergency decrees is coming into being. In Italy, where there now are over tw o m illion unem ployed, the Italian W omen's Union is waging an active struggle against the closing down of factories. Last M ay the Union sponsored together with the W om en's Commission of the Italian General Confederation of Labour a national convention of members of iron and steel workers' families. The rally was attended by 3,000 delegates from fifteen provinces. In July a w ell-attended conference of the mem bers of the families of workers discharged from the M agona W orks was held in Piombino. It went on record for the setting up of a regional committee to resist the closing of factories and protect the economy of the region. The Italian W om en's Union is rallying thousands of women to fight for their rights. If also works to win the support of prom inent women for the Declaration on the Rights of W omen. Those whom it has already enlisted in the fight for the realization of the Decla ration include Adela Pertici Bacci, the chairman of the federation of women who have been aw arded decorations, Sibilla Alerano, the poetess, and Bice Crova, a member of the federation of women graduates of universities. The women's movement is grow ing in other countries as well. As part of the preparations fo r the forthcom ing congress of the Austrian Democratic W om en's Union, this organization has circulated a questionnaire on the position of wom en in Austria. If has issued tens of thousands of attractive postcards which women are asked to mail in to register their demands. Special committees are being organized to carry on the fight for these demands. The Finnish Democratic W om en's Federation is continuing to circulate its "B ook of W om en's Rights" setting forth the basic de mands of women: peace, the right to w ork, the right to decent living conditions and social security. The Book has already been signed by 33,000 women. The Federation is concentrating its at tention on strengthening unify among women, and w ith this in view it is popularizing the decisions of the Copenhagen Congress among professional and women's organizations. The women of Denmark, w ho d id so much to make the W o rld Congress a success, are also showing increasing activity. A t a re cent meeting of sixty women delegates of the iron and steel worker's union, one of them said: "Some of us say that when we hear of p e op le dying of starva tion in India or of five-ye ar-old children w orking in Iran, our own hardships seem insignificant. But I believe that we to o have a good many issues that must be taken up: the ever more vicious speed up, industrial accidents, unem ploym ent, low wages, the housing === [PDF page 3] === shortage. O r it you have to undergo an operation or are laid up on account of illness for a few days, there is no social security benefit coming to you. Then the taxes are steadily increasing. W e do not want to pay taxes that go for war preparations. I was not a member of the women's organization before the Congress, but now I want to fight against injustice together with you." The w atchw ord "equal pay for equal w o rk " w ill strike the key note of the women's rights conference to be held in the G othen burg area, Sweden's biggest textile centre. Called by the women's organization, the conference will be attended also by delegates of trade unions. In most countries women are striving for close cooperation with the trade unions. For instance in Guatemala the women gave strong support to a conference sponsored by the trade unions against the high cost of living. The A rgentine W omen's Union was the initiator of the convocation of a conference of women em ployed at the biggest factories of Buenos Aires province to discuss wages and amendments to the law pertaining to mothers' rights. A committee consisting of both w orking women and women doctors and lawyers interested in problem s of social legislation was set up to study these questions. In Colom bia thousands of women are now putting their signatures to a memorandum to the State Legislative Com mission demanding that they be granted the rights set forth in the United Nations Charter. The fight for these rights has now devel oped into a truly mass movement. The decisions of the Copenhagen Congress are of exceedingly great significance to the women of the colonies. The Congress gave them an op po rtu nity once more to declare their resolution to fight for human conditions of life and national independence, and initiated where it did not exist a movement that is bound to grow steadily. This is the message of a letter received by the Executive Com mittee of the W.I.D.F. from the delegate from British Guiana, for instance. As for the Moslem women of A lgeria, they welcom ed the Declaration on the Rights of W omen wholeheartedly. Young Bedouins. These girls have never seen a school H OW C H I L D R E N L I V E IN T U N I S I A A delegate from the G old Coast who was prevented from fak ing part in the Congress has w ritten the Federation to announce that she w ill do her utmost to popularize the Congress decisions. In Nigeria, a conference of the W omen's M ovem ent of that country has dem anded that women be granted the right to take pari in the discussion of all legislation and to send their representatives to the Legislative Assembly, that all children be given the right to acquire an education, and that courses be opened for adult women, over 90 per cent of whom are illiterate in Nigeria. The solidarity of women which made itself so strongly felt at the W o rld Congress w ill be further cemented in the course of fhe women's struggle led by the W.I.D.F. The women of the Soviet Union, great China and the People's Democracies serve as an example to the women of the rest of the w orld. Endorsing fhe decisions of the W o rld Congress, they 3re w orking with still greater enthusiasm in order to be w orthy of the rights they have won, in order to strengthen w o rld peace. W ar preparations are imposing new hardships on fhe women of the capitalist and colonial countries. Hence the movement for women's rights is inseparably bound up with the fight for Peace. The warmongers deny women their rights, they are steadily en croaching on the rights already won. Because of this all national and local women's rights conferences, and all committees fighting for demands such as equal pay for equal work, social security and legal protection for mothers, must carry on a steadfast struggle for the reduction of war budgets. Together with all partisans of peace fhe women responded eagerly to the call issued by the W o rld Peace Council to launch a broad campaign for the peaceful settlement of international issues. The women of the w hole w o rld demand that war budgets be replaced by budgets of life, budgets of health, culture and happi ness. By ELI SE FRAYSSE Photos by courtesy of the author The persecution to which the colonialists are subjecting fighters for peace and the freedom of peoples made it impossible for Tunisian women to attend the World Congress of Women and speak from its rostrum about their hard lot and the struggle they are so courageously waging. But the women of the world do not forget their Tunisian sisters, and are deeply disturbed over the 'conditions of Tunisian children. The French writer Elise Fraysse visited that country last year. The following article describes what she saw there. Women, wherever they may go, always give their first attention to the conditions under which children live. Out of all the women who have had the good fortune to visit the Soviet Union I have never met one who has not been delighted with the splendid life which children live in that country. In sunny Tunisia, too, one’s attention is at once attracted by the children, but here tears rise at the sight of their appalling misery. Ragged children wander the streets looking for something to eat. Children work as boot-blacks, they sell cigarettes or simply beg. They rummage through the garbage heaps. At the age of seven or eight, they already know the grim, day-by-day struggle against poverty. IT W AS SPRINGTIME It was springtime, one of those lovely springs that Tunis knows. In the European quarter the sunshine poured down on magnificent buildings. The mimosa was in flower, and orange trees bent under the weight of fruit. Olive groves stretched into the distance. Imagine such wealth cheek by jowl with such terri ble poverty! Many is the time I have remembered the words of one woman. She had borne twelve children, but six were dead. “Look at our children,” she said, “and think of what it means to a mother. They are in rags. They are hungry. They steal a 51 === [PDF page 4] === crust of bread and get sent to prison. Roundups of children are frequent. You can't even imagine how cruel that is.” Thousands of people in the vicinity of Tunis live huddled to gether in cramped, evil-smelling dugouts or huts made of branches. Everywhere there is the same terrible picture of grind ing poverty. There is not a family in which half the children do not die. Foul water standing in the ditches poisons the air. A child runs away at the sight of us. He is about three years old, his dirty bare legs are still unsteady. He gnaws at a piece of orange peel picked up from the ground and looks at us with eyes that hold nothing childlike. ‘‘Think of what it means to a mother...” What has become of that child with the sorrowful eyes? Is he still alive, or has he died in some dark mud hut, on a ragged quilt, with his unhappy mother looking on unable to help him? Statistics collected by a doctor in- a Tunis hospital showed that 446 children out of 1,000 die before reaching the age of two. only 13 per cent of Tunisian children attended school. In these schools tuition is in French—the native language of the popula tion is ignored. The textbooks are those used in France. They reflect nothing of the Tunisian tradition, the national character istics, climate, natural wealth, culture. This is a means for stupefying the people in order more easily to enslave them economically. But the courageous struggle which the people of Tunisia are waging after over seventy years of occupation shows that the colonialists’ hopes are groundless. The spirit of the people was well expressed by one young teacher, who said to us: “In the schools we hear the words ‘liberty, equality, fraternity.’ But when we grow up, we realize that we are oppressed and humiliated. We’ve had enough of it. We’re going to fight, and we’ve made up our minds to fight on to the end, even if it means all dying together.” W HY IS THERE SUCH POVERTY! SEVEN HOSPITALS FOR THE W HO LE COUNTRY Fifteen per cent of the local population die of tuberculosis. Half suffer from trachoma. In the south, this terrible contagious dis ease infects from 80 to 100 per cent of the people. How many little children we saw with pus oozing from their eyes! With no medical treatment to save them, people gradually lose their sight, as was the case with Selma ben Selem, the mother of four children, whom we met in Tunis. Recent statistics show that in the whole country there are only seven hospitals with a total of 3,950 beds. Most of the doc tors and nurses are round about the capital—the district where Europeans live. In many parts of the country there is only one hospital bed for every 2,000 people, and one doctor for every 15,000. 87% OF THE CHILDREN DO NOT ATTEND SCH O O L Why is there such poverty in a land that is in itself rich, in the era of electricity and atomic energy? This question inevitably rises when one looks at the people’s suffering. It is because the country has been under the ruthless heel of men whose only object is to wring the maximum profit out of it. Eleven foreign companies exploit nearly all the natural resources of phosphate, iron ore, lead, zinc and salt. The colonizers have seized all the richest land, and the Tunisian peasants have to toil on miserable patches in the centre and the south. The terrible periodical famines force destitute people to leave their homes in search of food. The colonial authorities display an unconcealed contempt for the very idea of culture for the population. This is seen especially clearly in the sphere of education. In the 1950-51 school year, Rarely is even a copper coin dropped into his outstretched hand W HO IS TO BLAME! Who are the men to blame for all this? One of them is Baron de Nervo, the honorary president of the Gafsa phosphate and railway company of Tunisia, president and general director of the magnetic iron ore company in Mokta el Hadib, Algeria, and manager of the Tadla and Ouarzemine mines in Morocco. For seventy years the de Nervos have handed down their wealth from father to son. And for seventy years the Tunisians have handed down from father to son poverty and oppression. But the heritage of the generations of Tunisian working people also holds hatred for the exploiters, a growing anger, a harden ing will to put an end to this regime and win a free life for the people and independence for their country. IF THEY KNEW THE HEART O F A MOTHER Tunisian women closing the eyes of children dying in foul huts shed tears not only of grief but also of anger. Thanks to the Union of Tunisian Women, affiliated to the Women’s International Democratic Federation, they are gradually coming to understand why their children die. They are realizing that this hopeless life will not last forever. They are learning that throughout the world the peoples are rising against those who are to blame for their poverty, those who are ready to hurl us into another war in order to preserve their privileges and make fresh profits. The women of Tunisia have no rights. They and their families are subjected to harsh repressions as soon as they begin to demand the most elementary rights for the people, and first and foremost, the right to order their own lives and the life of their country. But repression is a weapon dangerous for those who wield it. If the imperialists knew the heart of a mother, they would realize that they can never subdue the Tunisian people fighting for freedom and independence, 52