(The following article is from the August 1-31,  2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the historic meeting which launched International Women's Day. On August 26-27, 2010, the Second International Conference of Socialist Women was held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

     The lively proceedings included the adoption of a resolution drafted by Clara Zetkin, the famous German revolutionary leader:

     "In agreement with the class-conscious, political and trade union organizations of the proletariat of their respective countries, the Socialist women of all countries will hold each year a Women's Day, whose foremost purpose it must be to aid the attainment of women's suffrage. This demand must be held in conjunction with the entire women's question according to Socialist precepts. The Women's Day must have an international character and is to be prepared carefully."

     The date of this Women's Day varied in early years, but soon it settled on March 8th.

     The First International Conference of Socialist Women had been held in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1907, when "the women's socialist movement was still in its infancy," as Russia's Alexandra Kollontai wrote some years later.

     Kollontai noted that "the growth of the women's proletarian movement over the last three years was noticeable at the opening of the Copenhagen Conference. In Stuttgart the delegates numbered 52, in Copenhagen they already numbered around 100 and represented 17 countries... Socialist parties and trade unions were represented, together with clubs, societies, and unions of women workers adopting a class position."

     The Copenhagen meeting naturally included discussions on ways to establish closer links between the growing numbers of organised socialist and trade union women from different countries.

     But two major issues were also on the agenda, avoiding what Kollontai described as the "sickly-sweet feminine flavour" of some other women's conferences.

     First was the campaign to achieve votes for women. As was often the case during this era, the debate revealed sharp political and tactical differences.

     On one side were the representatives of English workers' organisations who worked together with the suffragettes; this section called for "qualified electoral rights," a strategy of gradually extending the vote, starting with wealthier women. The British delegation won support from the Austrian social democrats.

     But the "battle" on the floor was completely unequal. Led by the more radical German delegates, the overwhelming majority of women in Copenhagen supported a resolution demanding universal suffrage. Their argument was that "qualified" suffrage meant abandoning the rights and interests of the overwhelming majority of working class women. The English were fighting for a lost cause, as Kollontai pointed out. Women's universal suffrage became a reality in most capitalist countries within a decade, with exceptions such as the racist practices of many U.S. states.

     Another critical set of issues at Copenhagen revolved around social security and protections for women and children. The conference adopted a set of demands largely developed by the German Social Democrats, including an 8-hour working day, the prohibition of female labour in dangerous industries, 16-week leave for expectant and nursing mothers, and the introduction of compulsory maternity insurance.

     But there were sharp differences over the question of so-called "legitimate and illegitimate" mothers.

     Alexandra Kollontai heaped scorn on those who supported such a division. "It is precisely such a fuddled mode of thinking that dominates in the West, sadly even among women socialists, that preference for legalised marital cohabitation, which made it desirable to debate this fundamental point more thoroughly," she wrote. "It was important to emphasise with all the authority of the conference that maternity is to be recognised as a social function independently of the marital and family forms it assumes..."

     A related battle erupted over a Danish proposal on night work. Introduced by women type-setters, this resolution pointed out that prohibiting night work for women but permitting it for men hindered the working woman in her struggle to gain access to better-paid jobs and better working conditions. The resolution was defeated by delegates who argued that "night work must be abolished simultaneously for both men and women, as it is equally harmful to both." But the debate illustrated the importance of developing a serious overall approach to the equalisation of labour conditions for women and men.

     Another resolution, put forward by the English, reminded women of their obligation to oppose chauvinism and bring up their children in a spirit of anti-militarism. The resolution was adopted with warm applause. Tragically, four years later the majority of Social Democratic and labour deputies in most European parliaments betrayed this promise, voting in favour of credits to allow their bourgeois governments to launch the First World War.

     "Whatever may have been the superficial failings of the second international socialist conference," wrote Kollontai, "its work will undoubtedly have a major and beneficial influence upon the further success of the workers' movement," including "the comprehensive emancipation of women."