Issues absorb Women's World Meet (WIDF Copenhagen Congress)

=== [PDF page 1] === The Worker, Sunday, June 7, 1953 — Page 4 The week in world affairs [fragment from adjacent columns, not reconstructed:] Other articles on the same page, printed in interleaved columns: "Taft Crowd Pushes for Conquest of All Asia" (by Bernard Burton, on Sen. Robert A. Taft's Cincinnati speech, Admiral Radford, Eisenhower and Dulles; continued in the last row of the page), "Coronation Circus, UK Style" and "Nairobi Procession Stealthy" (on the coronation of Elizabeth II and the procession in Kenya), and "Italy Vote Worries Dulles" (on the Italian general election, the Schuman Plan, EDC and Korea armistice talks). [Unreadable] Issues Absorb Women's World Meet WOMEN made last week's news. Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of England. Mrs. Clare Boothe Luce, the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, violated diplomatic protocol by taking the lead in campaigning for A. DeGasperi's governing coalition in tomorrow's general election. The publication in the United States of a French woman's study of women ("The Second Sex") set off a new round of Freudian patter in middle class parlors. But the week's biggest news about women failed to rate a headline in the dollar-press. It was the opening Friday in Copenhagen of the World Congress of Women, a massive assembly of women from 80 [Unreadable] of every religious and political grouping, women of world eminence or special [Unreadable] Women performing the "obscure" day-to-day work of laborers, nurses, teachers, seamstresses, writers, mothers. The culmination of months of preparation, the Congress is perhaps the most important single event in the lives of women that has occurred since the end of the war. Volumes could be written of the sacrifices and individual acts of heroism and selflessness which went into its making. More volumes could be written about the lives of the women present: one could well be a who's who of the world's leading women of today. And undoubtedly the reports of these women will make other volumes of data on the two burning questions before the Congress: • How To Win and Defend the Rights of Women Today? • How To Protect the Children of Today in the Face of War and the Threat of World War? TO FIND ANSWERS to these two burning questions, many more women's organizations than the 65 national bodies of the sponsoring body, the Women's International Democratic Federation, sent delegates to Copenhagen. Many distinguished women leaders were chosen by their respective national organizations. The World YWCA sent a member of its secretariat, Mlle. Alice Arnold. The International Cooperative Women's Guild sent Mrs. Yexlew of Denmark. India's delegation included several women deputies of various political parties. The Italian and French delegations brought draft "Charters of Women's Rights" in their respective countries. The Finnish delegation brought a book on their struggle for women's rights. The delegates brought varied and rich stories of their efforts to attend the Congress. The Viet Nam delegates reported traveling on foot for several months in order to reach the place from which a plane brought them to the Congress. In Spain, under the Franco terror, women defied the police to organize a delegation. Naturally, the delegations from the Soviet Union, China and People's Democracies—where the Congress had the support of the governments—are larger than those from countries where women had to fight to attend. Nevertheless, there were seven delegates from Greece, two from Chile, four from Burma, four from Brazil, one from British Guiana, 13 from Japan, four from Israel, one from Pakistan, one from Jamaica. And there were delegations from many countries of Africa. FROM THE UNITED STATES came a representative delegation also. And in addition, many greetings for the success of the Congress. Such as the one from the Federation of Women's Auxiliaries of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, signed by its president, Mrs. Valerie Taylor. "We will continue to work until we have achieved a peace in a world in which our children can grow up and live normal lives," said the ILWU auxiliaries. "Our organization asks for an end to the armament race. We believe in peaceful co-existence of all nations in the world despite differing social systems and governmental forms, and we urge the development of trade in peacetime goods between all nations. "We believe no American boy's life should be given to support the French in Indo-China, Chiang Kai-shek in China, the British in Malaya, the Dutch in Indonesia, or the Philippine landlords in the Philippines. We have called for a cease-fire in Korea with negotiations by all parties involved for a Far Eastern peace and the removal of all foreign troops and the rebuilding of devastated Korea." As the Congress began deliberation on its two urgent problems, many Americans were awaiting the biggest news about women in the world. Some, with strong radios, were arranging to listen to "The Voice of the Women of the World" next Tuesday, over 31 and 49 meter wave lengths, at 7:45 and 11:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Daylight Saving Time. (Continued on Page 13) [fragment from adjacent column:] Many of the war plotters, however, see more possibilities in the Far East. The way they look at it is something like this: Only $3.7 billion of military aid has been poured into the Far East up to now compared to the $30 billion in Europe, and there's more to show for it. There are bases from which to operate to Japan, the Philippines and Formosa, where compliant governments seek to carry out orders from U.S. brass. Using Chiang's troops and a remilitarized Japan a large supply of cannon fodder can be employed, especially if this supply is backed up with U.S. air and naval power. [Unreadable] however [Unreadable] the tremendous world-wide peace movement and especially the indomitable struggle of the Asian peoples for true independence. To the Asia-Firsters, these independence struggles represent the first target which must be downed in bombs and [Unreadable] victory over imperialist exploitation, represents [Unreadable] and inspiration of the [Unreadable] the Asian countries. That is why, in their propaganda jargon, every [Unreadable] independence [Unreadable]