Fig 1: Demonstration of The Comité Mondial Des Femmes Contre la Guerre et le Fascisme demanding female vote
By Dr Jasmine Calver
Political discourse over the last few years has been dominated by discussions and warnings about extremism, particularly the rise of the new extreme right across the globe. How and why modern extremism attracts certain women and how these women are consequently deployed to encourage more women to join have also been consistently debated in discourse about the rise of the radical right. Parallels have been drawn with earlier far-right movements, particularly interwar European fascism.
As activists and commentators alike continue to consider solutions to the extremist threat of the present day, inspiration can be sought in the anti-fascist movements that worked to confront the violence and chauvinism of German and Italian fascism in the 1930s. With growing infringement on the civil liberties of women spurred by the rise of the radical right (such as the June 2022 overturn of the Roe v. Wade ruling in the United States) becoming a greater and greater concern, it is integral that we recall the long tradition of women’s opposition to fascist movements. One such organisation was the Comité mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (the Women’s World Committee against War and Fascism, CMF). The CMF was an international organisation that worked to highlight the specific issues faced by women under fascist dictatorships and to advocate for the extension of women’s rights internationally.
My recent book, Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism examines this group and its activism between 1934 and 1941. Founded at a congress held in Paris in August 1934, the CMF believed that ‘a great mobilisation of all female forces on as large a basis as possible’ should be mounted against war, fascism, and attacks on the ‘women’s material and moral conditions of existence’.[1] Women from all social and political backgrounds discussed the progress of women’s emancipation since the end of the First World War in 1918 and expressed their concern with fascist policies towards women. The CMF was, inherently, an international endeavour. Although the majority of the sections were concentrated in western Europe and Scandinavia, it had global reach. The Uruguayan section was particularly active. It published journals in Australia, China, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay as well as in France, Spain, Belgium, and Britain (and others in Western Europe).
The committee’s internationalism was demonstrated most clearly in its campaigns, though. It directed humanitarian activism and attempted to affect political change in a variety of geographical spaces and political contexts. The CMF was deeply involved with formulating and implementing aid strategies targeted towards women in particular. They solicited material, moral, and financial aid for Spanish civilians following the outbreak of the Civil War (1936 – 1939). It was a cause that galvanised CMF members across the globe: CMF women in Egypt and the Netherlands organised their own convoys of packages to aid Spanish women and children and the French section sent 4-500 kilos of goods to Spain in 1936 alone. Refugees from Fascist Italy also contributed to this humanitarian activism, including a highly symbolic campaign of receiving wedding rings from women still in Italy who were then sent to support the Spanish Republican cause.[2] The Committee also waged campaigns of a similar magnitude in response to the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937 – 1945), the Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935 – 1936), and the Nazi party’s policies towards women.
The CMF’s support of the Soviet Union was integral to formulating its anti-fascist principles and broader activist strategies. As a communist front organisation, the CMF utilised its anti-fascist appeal to deploy communist propaganda and encourage communist conversion amongst its members. Communist influence on the Committee was clear from the very beginning: one of the slogans at the 1934 congress was ‘Support the peace policy of the USSR, country of the liberated woman’ and communist symbols (like ‘spontaneous’ singing of the Internationale) permeated proceedings.
The CMF’s clear affinity for communist politics often brought it into conflict with other women activists. Several members of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom complained about the ‘communist character’ of CMF meetings and some argued that the CMF leadership (especially President Gabrielle Duchȇne) were increasingly authoritarian in their methods.[3] The CMF’s contradictions went beyond its complex relationship with Soviet communism. The language used throughout its campaigns often invoked traditional depictions of women and non-Western peoples to construct effective humanitarian campaigns while simultaneously supporting feminist and anti-imperialist causes.
Despite its complexities and controversies, the CMF was an important women’s organisation that organised campaigns on various issues that affected women. It was an ambitious project which ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions in the face of the circumstances surrounding the outbreak of World War Two, beginning with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in August 1939. Organisations like the CMF give historians and activists alike an insight into how women have historically implemented anti-fascist strategies against infringements on their basic rights. There is much to learn from the example of the CMF, from its successes and failures, in the development of effective modern activist and humanitarian strategies, as well as the formulation of responses to contemporary reactionary populist movements. Unique, complex, and often contradictory, the gendered anti-fascism of the CMF is increasingly relevant to the current political atmosphere.
Dr Jasmine Calver is an independent scholar who researches the international activism of women during the interwar period, with a focus on communist and anti-fascist protest. She has written on humanitarian activism associated with these ideologies, including fundraising strategies and child sponsorship initiatives launched by the CMF. Her first book, Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism is released on 4th November 2022.
[1] ‘Rassemblement Mondial des Femmes! Contre la guerre et le fascisme: Compte rendu des travaux du congrès’ (1934), Bernadette Cattanéo Archives, 1-BC-2(A), p. 4, Centre d’histoire sociale du XXème siècle, p. 2.
[2] Jasmine Calver, Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism: The Comité Mondial des Femmes contre la Guerre et le Fascisme, 1934 – 1941 (London: Routledge, 2022), pp. 100 – 102.
[3] To the Vice Presidents from Cor Ramondt-Hirschmann (20 July 1934), WILPF Microfilm, reel 20: 1981.
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