Montana news., 1907-08-01
international
Socialist woman's Movement In Ger.


August Bebe, In his Woman, Past
Present and Future, says: "It was
no accident that the motor laws of
modern society were discovered and
socialism scientifically demonstrated to
be the social form Of the future by
Germans Neither is it an accident that
the German socialist movement is the
greatest and most important in the
world, surprising that Of all other ma
tions."
With this fact in view, no one need
be surprised that the German socialist
women have brought into existence a
woman's movement for the abolition
of the profit system, and Of sex dom
ination, which threatens to surpass
that of other German women's move
ments in short while, and to lead the
proletarian women Of the world. And
this in spite of the fact that the So
clialist women's organization is the
newest of the German women's move
ments. That the socialist women should
have been the last to organize is due
to local conditions, and to traditions
which had long existed in the social
democratic party, which looked with
disfavor upon separate organizations
founded upon sex lines. There came
in time, however, the recognition
among German women socialists of a
need peculiar to their sex, which re-
quird especial attention, and especial
propaganda. That is the propagan-
ia of the proletariat, at such, with
something added for women.
Helen Stocker. writing in The In
dependent on "The Woman g Move
ment in Germany" gives as a reason
for women s movements in general an
argument that might well have come
from socialist. She says, ITO be-
lieve that the woman's movement is
the outcome Of cleverly arranged agi-
tation is merely to betray a certain
naive ignorance Of historical and psy-
Geological events and conditions which
have brought the woman's movement
into existence. Were it not for the
revolutionary changes brought about
by the invention and introduction Of
machinery, we would have stayed prac-
tically where we were at the beginning
Of the nineteenth century"
That is, the machine made Of the
house slave a factory slave. But the
latter condition gave a broader bias
to the slave woman's mind, and with
this broader contact with life, she came
to see that she was a subject of sex
tyranny as well as poorly paid pro-
ducer, and so came her organization,
asking relief from double bondage.
The socialist woman recognizes that
her double emancipation is to come
through the adoption Of revolutionary
tenets. Women Of the various other
uoNeheutS iooh W hofo fciof"o iVi
their freedom.
1t is significant that the first wom-
ans society in Germany should have
followed close upon the formation Of
workmen's associations, the first wo-
man q club coming two years after La
sale had organized the workingmen.
These, early, and even the later or.
CARNATIONS of women, while feeling
the chains that fetterei them, failed to
recognize the reason or the cure foI
their condition. They succeeded, new
ertheless, in engaging multitudes Of
women in their activities, and here
the social democrats saw the neces-
sity of organizing in self-defense. SO
long as the masses Of proletarian wo.
men were led astray by half-backed
reforms, there would exist reaction.
ary element that would at some time
defeat the true proletarian movement
And it was to get these women into
their ranks, as much as any other
cause, that they formed their organiza.
tion.
The Social Democratic Woman's Or.
ganization Of Germany, represented by
ottilie Baader, of Berlin, is working
among other things, for the democrat.
izing Of the ballot, with the view to
securing suffrage for the proletariau
woman. In an address supporting q
motion to the effect that the aganda
Of the international Socialist Congress
to be held in Stuttgart this summer
be added tho article: "The struggle
Of the proletariat for the complete de
mocratizing Of the suffrage" ottilit
Bsader says: "The German Socialist
women feel that reasons based both
on principle and tactics make II i'm
perative for the socialists of all lands
in the fight for the equality Of the
female sex-as for the equality Of any