Socialist Women and the Great War, 1914-21: Protest, Revolution and Commemoration

273 Pages·2022·3.541 MB·English

by  Ingrid Sharp, Matthew Stibbe, Corinne Painter

Socialist Women and the
Great War, 1914–21
i
ii
Socialist Women and the
Great War, 1914–21
Protest, Revolution and Commemoration
Edited by
Corinne Painter, Ingrid Sharp and Matthew Stibbe
iii
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Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Glossary and Abbreviations viii
Notes on Contributors x
Preface xiii
1 Socialist Women and the Great War, 1914–21: Protest,
Revolution and Commemoration M atthew Stibbe,
Ingrid Sharp, Clotilde Faas, Veronika Helfert, Mary McAuliff e
and Corinne Painter 1
2 Socialist Women and ‘Urban Space’: Protest, Strikes and
Anti-Militarism, 1914–18 Matthew Stibbe, Anna Hammerin,
Katharina Hermann and Ali Ronan 31
3 Socialist Women and Revolutionary Violence, 1918–21
Veronika Helfert, Clotilde Faas, Tiina Lintunen
and Mary McAuliff e 65
4 Suff rage, Democracy and Citizenship Ingrid Sharp,
Manca G. Renko, Ali Ronan and Judith Szapor 99
5 Life Trajectories: Making Revolution and Breaking
Boundaries C orinne Painter, Veronika Helfert,
Manca G. Renko and Judith Szapor 133
6 Commemorating Revolution, Commemorating
Women M ary McAuliff e, Ingrid Sharp, Clotilde Faas,
Tiina Lintunen and Ali Ronan 169
Notes 201
Further Reading 251
Index 253
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Illustrations
1.1 Photograph of a group of women campaigners for the ten-hour day
in Crimmitschau, Saxony, taken on the fi nal day of the twenty-two-
week textile workers’ strike of August 1903 to January 1904. 3
1.2 Members of the Irish Women Workers’ Union on the steps of Liberty
Hall, Dublin, during the lock-out strike of 1913–14. 20
2.1 Anti-war demonstration on the Quaibr ü cke in Zurich, March 1915.
Willi M ü nzenberg (wearing a fl at cap) is standing directly in front
of the banner which reads: ‘Girls! Boys! Join the Free Youth’. 36
2.2 Women working in an arms factory, c. 1917, place unknown,
Germany. 38
2.3 Women and children queuing for bread in First World War Vienna,
exact date unknown. 40
2.4 Th e women’s hunger protest in S ö derhamn, Sweden, on 11 April
1917. 53
2.5 Women’s 6,000-strong hunger march, here passing along Vasagatan,
one of Stockholm’s central thoroughfares, en route to the Milk
Central, 26 April 1917. 54
2.6 Th e events of 17 June 1918 in Zurich, when Rosa Bloch-Bollag led a
delegation to the canton council, as presented in the S chweizer
Illustrierte Zeitung , No. 26, 29 June 1918, 322. 55
2.7 British delegation at the second international conference held by the
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Zurich, May
1919. 61
3.1 Propaganda poster against the Munich Republic of Councils, 1919. 71
3.2 Finnish Red female soldiers Tyyne Backman and Rauha Sinisalo,
photographed in a studio on 20 April 1918. Sinisalo (on the right)
was executed ten days later. 77
3.3 Still image of Irish woman May Connelly aft er she was punished
by the British by having her hair forcibly cropped, 25 November
1920. 84
3.4 Cartoon mocking Red female soldiers in the Finnish satirical paper
Nya Fyren , no. 5–7 (1918). 91
vi
Illustrations vii
3.5 ‘Wen wähle ich?’ (‘Who do I vote for?’). German propaganda poster,
1919, promoting the Majority Social Democrats while warning
against the dangers of the Spartacist movement represented by a
dishevelled and armed woman in the front row. 92
3.6 Cartoon ‘Kommunismus’ in the Austrian satirical paper Die Muskete ,
13 March 1919, equating the socialization of property with free
sexuality and/or women with property. 94
3.7 Irish socialist and revolutionary Margaret Skinnider, 1915. 97
4.1 Ive Š ubic: ‘Slovenian woman, you are free and you will vote for the
fi rst time’, poster, 1944. 109
4.2 Clara Zetkin (1857–1933) with Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919), 1910. 112
4.3 Election of the Budapest Councils, April 1919. Th e second woman
from the left in the back row is Jol á n Kelen. 118
4.4 Clara Zetkin (1857–1933) with Lore Agnes (1876–1953) (left ) and
Mathilde Wurm (1874–1935) (right). 128
4.5 Ellen Wilkinson (1891–1947), MP, speaking at Labour’s London May
Day Celebration in Hyde Park, 1939. Wilkinson was Labour Party
MP for Middlesbrough East (1924–31) and Jarrow (1935–47) and
Minister of Education (1945–7). 130
5.1 A woman addresses a communist demonstration in Vienna, 1929. 139
5.2 K ä the Leichter (1895–1942). 149
5.3 Angela Vode (1892–1985). 158
5.4 Idrija in 1934. 161
6.1 Boleslaw von Szankowski’s portrait of Countess Constance
Markievicz, 1901. 179
6.2 ‘Th e Ripening Tide’ poster, 1976. 179
6.3 Girls 1918 . 182
6.4 Fellman’s Field (in Finnish F ellmanin pelto ). 183
6.5 Peace Crusade Choir, 2018. 184
6.6 Rehearsal image from Women of Aktion by Bent Architect, 2018. 187
6.7 Revolutionary women of Easter 1916, Dublin, autumn 1916. 194
6.8 Th e ‘77 women’ of 1916 quilt, Richmond Barracks Exhibition, 2016. 194
Glossary and Abbreviations
AHRC Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK)
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
BDF Ö Federation of Democratic Women (post-1945
Austria)
CO Conscientious objector/objection (to military
service)
CPGB Communist Party of Great Britain
Cumann na mBan (Republican) Council of Women (Ireland)
Decade of Centenaries Period of commemoration of the centenary of
several important events in Irish history between
1912 and 1923/2012 and 2023
EFF Election Fighting Fund (UK)
FRSI Federation of Revolutionary Socialists International
HLF Heritage Lottery Fund (UK)
IAW International Alliance of Women (successor to the
IWSA)
ICW International Council of Women
ILP Independent Labour Party (UK)
Inghinidhe na h É ireann Daughters of Ireland
IRA Irish Republican Army
ISK Militant International Socialist League
ITGWU Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union
IWFL Irish Women’s Franchise League
IWM Imperial War Museum (UK)
IWSA International Women’s Suff rage Alliance
IWWU Irish Women Workers’ Union
JSDS Yugoslav Social Democratic Party
KPD German Communist Party
KP Ö Austrian Communist Party
MI5 Th e Security Service (UK)
NCAS National Council for Adult Suff rage (UK)
NCF No-Conscription Fellowship (UK)
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Glossary and Abbreviations ix
NMI National Museum of Ireland
NUWSS National Union of Women’s Suff rage Societies (UK)
SDAP Austrian Social Democratic Party
SPD German Social Democratic Party
SWI Socialist Women’s International
USPD Independent Social Democratic Party (Germany)
WHAI Women’s History Association of Ireland
WIDF Women’s International Democratic Federation
WIL Women’s International League (UK)
WILPF Women’s International League for Peace and
Freedom
WPC Women’s Peace Crusade (UK)
WSPU Women’s Social and Political Union (UK)