The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-19
We Cannot Go Forward
Without the Women

ACb HlbAAA INV VI Viz 10 No htldb
placed women in a subordinate po-
sition. I am now speaking of those
laws that took particular advantage
of the weaker position Of women.
that deprived her Of equal rights
with men, and that were often de-
grading, as, for instance, the divorce
laws, those relating to children born
out of wedlock and to the right Of
a woman to sue the father Of her
child for the child's support"
Even only two years after the Boil
shevik Revolution it was possible
for Lenin to report with pride and
without any eXaggerationn that the
Soviet power had realized democracy
by the very fact that not single
trace Of inequality for women was
left in its laws.
Laws alone, of course, were not
sufficient to bring about the COM
plete equality of women. Along
with legislation in the workers state
there went the building of model in
stitutions, dining rooms and nurs-
cries, for the purpose Of liberating
the woman from household eco
Monty" This work of construction
Lenin predicted would last for many
years to come. It could not be ex-
pected Immediately to show quick
results, nor brilliant effects" But
each year in the Soviet Union finds
increasing numbers of women freed
from drugery to take part in bull
ing Socialism.
No Intoxicstion Needed
AS part of the woman question.
Lenin criticized strongly any ten
dency toward "dissoluteness in sex
ual life" He saw the resolution as
demanding concentration, increase
Of forces, clarity, clarity and again
clarity This ideal is inconsistent
with any intoxication whether of sex
or Of alcohol:
"DissoJuteness in sexual life is
bourgeois, is a phenomenon OF decay.
The proletariat is q rising class. It
doesn't need intoxication as a mar
cotic or a stimulus. Intoxication as
little by sexual exaggeration as by
alcohol.
And so repeat, no weakening,
no waste, no destruction of forces.
Self-control. self discipline is not
slavery, not even in love-"
You Must Find a Way"
Nothing can be allowed to stand
in the way Of reaching the millions
of women, as yet Unorganized, Lenin
declared. His statements on this
point, as set forth in Clara zetkin's
pamphlet, Lenin on the Woman
| Question, international Publishers,
cents, should be required reading
for every class in every workers
school.
Zone must be enthusiastic to &C
complish great things he said, and
| proceeded to ask Clara Zetkin what
would arouse the enthusiasm of Ger
man working women. How could
they and the millions Of women
workers in other countries be made
/ enthusiastic for the revolution?
There can be no real mass move
/ ment without women"
"Of course we shan't put for
ward our demands for women as
though We were mechanically count
ing our beads"
-. We cannot go forward with
out the women
So, we must set to work, and that
hard" he said, to reach the women
masses. Women must come forward
Not lispingly, like kind aunties, but
speaking cut loudly as fighters,
! speaking clearly"
And again. The women masses,
so. You must find q way Of
/ reaching the women who have been
thrust by capitalism into friqhtful
misery. You must. must find It.
That necessity cannot be evaded."