The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-03-08
Form Special Organizations
TO Teach USSR Women Labor

throughout the OOVleC Union. IN
late years, there has been devel-
oped in the large industrial centers
the organization of public dining
rooms and factory kitchens catering
for tens of thousands of workers.
The realization of the general tasks
of the country's industrialization,
and the technical progress, will en-
sure the further unfolding of the
activity for the emancipation of the
toiling women, and for the reorgan-
ization of the whole of our living
conditions.
Need Education.
A handicap to the greater at
traction of toiling women to the
building of socialism is presented
by the continued backward level of
her cultural development, by semi
literacy and illiteracy. Lenin at
tached great Importance to the work
Of doing away with illiteracy among
the working women. He said that
an illiterate person stands outside
of politics.
1t is true that during the ten
years of the revolutionary period
about three million adult women
have been taught to read and write;
nevertheless, among a total of ten
million illiterates throughout the
country the women still constitute
62.9 per cent. Therefore, our prac-
tical watchword on the tenth ami
versary of the first congress of
working and peasant women should
be: to do away with illiteracy, and
to raise the cultural level of women
upon mass scale.
The backwardness and conservat-
ism of considerable masses of the
population hinders the complete en-
actment of the existing Soviet legis-
lation concerning the women, not
only in rural districts, but partly
also in the towns. Particular diff
culties in the enforcement of legis-
lation concerning the women are
encountered in the economically and
culturally backward republics and
regions of the Soviet East. The
Party's slogan for the complete
qualification of the eastern women
with the men has met with stub
born resistance on the part of the
kulaks, big landowners, and the
clergy, which has created further
difficulties in bringing about the
actual enfranchisement of the
women.
During the ten years which have
elapsed since the first congress we
may register great results in this
respect: 1000 eastern women have
been promoted to take part in pub
lie work. There is a steady growth
in the number of literates among
eastern women, whilst new relations
are being developed that are based
upon considering the woman as a
comrade.
For Acknowledgement.
In late years the Party's work
among the eastern women has been
connected with a particularly per-
sistent campaign for the actual en-
reimbursement of the women, and
vigorous campaign against the Sc
clusion of women in the east. In
Uzbekistan the discarding of the veil
by women has assumed a mass
character. Tens of thousands of
women have thrown off the veil of
bondage to become participants in
the life of freedom. This has met
with huge resistance on the part of
the reactionary elements of the
population. In some eastern vii
lagos there were cases of murder
and violence over women who I'M
yelled themselves.
Rules were issued by the Central
Executive Committee of the Socialist
Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan and
by the local Soviets to protect the
women who unveil themselves, and
to provide relief for the families of
workers and peasants Chiefly of
working and peasant women) who
have suffered for taking an active
part in the struggle for the emanci-
patton of the women. At the present
time there is a growing movement
among the masses Of the toilers in
the national border countries in ia
vor of special decree prohibiting
the wearing of the veil by women.
A vast amount of work has to be
accomplished by the Party in order
to Undue the advanced element of
the working women with confidence
in their own powers, and with the
understanding of the need to take
active part in the building of social
ism. Great achievements may be
recorded in this respect. In many