1.
International Women's Day
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International Womens Day is celebrated on March 8 every year. It commemorates the movement for womens rights, the earliest Womens Day observance was held on February 28,1909 in New York and organized by the Socialist Party of America. On March 8,1917, in the capital of the Russian Empire, Petrograd and this was the beginning of the Russian Revolution. Seven days later, the Emperor of Russia Nicholas II abdicated, March 8 was declared a national holiday in Soviet Russia in 1917. The day was celebrated by the socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted in 1975 by the United Nations. The earliest Womens Day observance was held on February 28,1909 in New York and it was called National womans day. It has been claimed that the event was commemorating a strike, the story that the day originated in a protest by women garment workers in New York on March 8,1857, has been described as a myth. In August 1910, an International Womens Conference was organized to precede the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen, delegates agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights including suffrage for women. The following year on March 19,1911 IWD was marked for the first time, by over a people in Austria, Denmark, Germany. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire alone, there were 300 demonstrations, in Vienna, women paraded on the Ringstrasse and carried banners honouring the martyrs of the Paris Commune. Women demanded that they be given the right to vote and to public office. They also protested against employment sex discrimination, americans continued to celebrate National Womens Day on the last Sunday in February. In 1913 Russian women observed their first International Womens Day on the last Saturday in February, although there were some women-led strikes, marches, and other protests in the years leading up to 1914, none of them happened on March 8. In 1914 International Womens Day was held on March 8, possibly because that day was a Sunday, the 1914 observance of the Day in Germany was dedicated to womens right to vote, which German women did not win until 1918. In London there was a march from Bow to Trafalgar Square in support of womens suffrage on March 8,1914, sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square. In 1917 demonstrations marking International Womens Day in Petrograd, Russia, Women in Saint Petersburg went on strike that day for Bread and Peace – demanding the end of World War I, an end to Russian food shortages, and the end of czarism. Leon Trotsky wrote,23 February was International Womans Day and meetings, but we did not imagine that this Womens Day would inaugurate the revolution. Revolutionary actions were foreseen but without date, but in morning, despite the orders to the contrary, textile workers left their work in several factories and sent delegates to ask for support of the strike… which led to mass strike
2.
Women's International Democratic Federation
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Womens International Democratic Federation is an international organization working for womens rights. WIDF was founded in Paris in 1945 and its first president was Eugenie Cotton, and its founding members included Tsola Dragoycheva and Ana Pauker. Later leaders included the Australian Freda Brown, the WIDF was one of the largest and probably most influential international womens organizations of the post-1945 era. At various points in its history, the WIDF enjoyed consultative status with the Economic and it was at the initiation of representatives of the WIDF in the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations that the UN declared the International Womens Year in 1975. The main areas of concern identified by WIDF were anti-fascism, world peace, child welfare. During the Cold War years, it was described as Communist-leaning, the WIDF published a monthly magazine, Women of the Whole World, in English, French, Spanish, German, and Russian, with occasional issues in Arabic. The secretariat of the current WIDF is based in São Paulo, philippine Congresswoman, Liza Maza, is the regional coordinator of WIDF in Asia. During the Cold War, the Congress of American Women was the organization of the WIDF in the United States. In 1949, members of the Congress of American Women were targeted by the Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives, in HUACs report, the WIDF was named as a communist front organization, less interested in advanced womens rights than supporting Soviet foreign policy. The anti-communist smear campaign against the WIDF forced the organization to relocate from Paris to East Berlin, despite the Cold War context, the WIDF played an important role in supporting womens anti-colonial struggles in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Signs, Journal of Women in Culture & Society, winter2016, Vol.41 Issue 2, p305-331 Katherine McGregor, “Indonesian Women, The Womens International Democratic Federation and the Struggle for ‘Womens Rights’, 1946–1965. ”Jul2012, Vol.40 Issue 117, p193-208. Celia Donert, “Womens Rights in Cold War Europe, Disentangling Feminist Histories. ”May2013 Supplement, p178-202 Francisca de Haan, “A Brief Survey of Womens Rights from 1945 to 2009. ”2010, Vol.47 Issue 1, p56-59 Full text of the HUAC report on the Congress of American Women, including information about the founding of the WIDF in Paris in 1945
3.
International Socialist Congress, Stuttgart 1907
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The International Socialist Congress, Stuttgart 1907 was the Seventh Congress of the Second International. The gathering was held in Stuttgart, Germany from 18 to 24 August 1907 and was attended by nearly 900 delegates from around the globe, the 1907 Congress of the Second International was convened on Sunday,18 August 1907 at the Liederhalle of Stuttgart, Germany. The Congress was the seventh international conclave held by the Second International and the first since the Amsterdam Congress, which met three years earlier. Sunday night was occupied with a propaganda meeting, held at the Stuttgart Volksfestplatz. For two hours prior to the start of the meeting a mass of humanity streamed into this military drill grounds, the gathering was addressed by a series of leading orators of the international socialist movement and was held without incident. The formal work of the Congress began the morning of 19 August following another significant address, bebels keynote address dealt with a country-by-country report on the progress of the international socialist movement. The actual work of the Congress was conducted in five select committees, Militarism, Colonialism, Woman Suffrage, Immigration, each country had the right to seat four of its members on each committee. This resulted in a set of groups, likened by American delegate A. M. Simons to miniature Congresses, and made for a slow and methodical pace of work, each speech was delivered in three languages, German, French, and English — the original plus two translations. The main agenda item of the 1907 Congress was the construction of a policy to deal with what was seen as the growing menace of militarism. Debate on the matter was held for five days in the commission named to decide the question. This was the most hotly contested topic of discussion, called by one observer a royal battle, in the Militarism Commission there were three competing resolutions presented, including two by the French delegation and one by the German. This tense domestic situation faced by the SPD was accented by the expulsion of British delegate Harry Quelch by German authorities during the course of the Congress. Quelch, editor of the London socialist newspaper Justice, had referred to the 1907 Hague Peace Conference as a thieves supper during the course of debate in Stuttgart. The government had taken offense to the reference and had instructed Quelch to withdraw his statement or exit Germany within 8 hours. Faced with the choice, Quelch refused to accede to government pressure and he returned to London, after protracted debate suitable language was agreed upon for passage of a resolution by the Congress. War was declared to be the end product of the competition of capitalist nations in the world market, bolstered by national prejudices systematically cultivated in the interests of the ruling classes. In the event of imminent war, the class was mildly beseeched to do all they can to prevent the breaking out of this war
4.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
5.
Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization. The city is also the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, locks, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
6.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
7.
Independent Labour Party
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The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, the organisations three parliamentary representatives defected to the Labour Party in 1947 and the organisation rejoined the Labour Party as Independent Labour Publications in 1975. As the 19th century came to a close, working-class representation in political office became a concern for many Britons. Many who sought the election of working men and their advocates to the Parliament of the United Kingdom saw the Liberal Party as the vehicle for achieving this aim. As early as 1869 a Labour Representation League had been established to register, many trade unions themselves became concerned with gaining parliamentary representation to advance their legislative aims. From the 1870s a series of working-class candidates financially supported by unions were accepted and supported by the Liberal Party. The federation of British unions, the Trades Union Congress, formed its own electoral committee in 1886 to further advance its electoral goals, within two years of its foundation in 1884 the gradualist Fabian Society officially committed itself to a policy of permeation of the Liberal Party. A number of so-called Lib-Lab candidates were subsequently elected Members of Parliament by this alliance of trade unions, the idea of working with the middle-class Liberal Party to achieve working-class representation in parliament was not universally accepted, however. The orthodox British Marxists established their own party, the Social Democratic Federation in 1881, working with SDF members such as Henry Hyde Champion and Tom Mann he was instrumental in the foundation of the Scottish Labour Party in 1888. In 1890 the United States imposed a tariff on foreign cloth which led to a cut in wages throughout the British textile industry. This initiative was replicated by others in Colne Valley, Slaithwaite, such developments showed that working-class support for separation from the Liberal Party was growing in strength. Further arguments for the formation of a new party were to be found in Robert Blatchfords newspaper The Clarion, founded in 1891, the latter collected some 3500 names of those in favour of creating a party of labour independent from the existing political organisations. Hardie owed nothing to the Liberal Party for his election, at a TUC meeting in September 1892 a call was issued for a meeting of advocates of independent labour organisation. An arrangements committee was established and a called for the following January. This conference was chaired by William Henry Drew and was held in Bradford 14–16 January 1893 and it proved to be the foundation conference of the Independent Labour Party and MP Keir Hardie was elected its first chairman. German Socialist leader Edward Bernstein was briefly permitted to address the gathering to pass along the best wishes for success from the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the conference also established the basic organisational structure of the new party. Annual Conferences, composed of delegates from each unit of the organisation, were declared the supreme. A Secretary was to be elected, to serve under the control of a central body known as the National Administrative Committee
8.
Great Britain
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Great Britain, also known as Britain, is a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2, Great Britain is the largest European island, in 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people, making it the worlds third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island of Ireland is situated to the west of it, the island is dominated by a maritime climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, the island is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island. The term Great Britain often extends to surrounding islands that form part of England, Scotland, and Wales. A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England, the archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years, the term British Isles derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, the oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle, or possibly by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, There are two large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and Ierne. The name Britain descends from the Latin name for Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Breoten, Bryten, Breten, Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together. It is derived from the writings of the Pytheas around 320 BC. Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the group as αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι. The peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Πρεττανοί, Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, Britain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland. The latter were later called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans, the Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. The name Albion appears to have out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain. After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a term only. It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself King of Great Brittaine, France, Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination
9.
Social Democratic Federation
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The Social Democratic Federation was established as Britains first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Connolly, however, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marxs long-term collaborator, refused to support Hyndmans venture. Many of its leading members had previously been active in the Manhood Suffrage League. The British Marxist movement effectively began in 1880 when a businessman named Henry M. Hyndman read Karl Marxs magnum opus Capital in French translation while crossing to America, upon his return to London, Hyndman sought out Marx, then an exile living not far from his home. In preparation for the convention, Hyndman circulated among the delegates his book England for All, Marx took great offence and broke off personal relations with his English epigone. The Federation was strongly opposed to the Liberal Party which then claimed to represent the movement in parliament. The party attracted to its banner a number of Britains leading radicals, including William Morris, Edward Aveling and his partner Eleanor Marx, Henry Hyndman dominated the SDF from the beginning. One key to his personal authority lay in his purse, which paid the bulk of its administrative expenses, some in the Federation were unhappy, regarding Hyndman as domineering in personal relations and sectarian in political thinking. Hyndmans detractors considered him politically ambitious and lacking in principle, and their ill will, for more detail, see Socialist League. Hyndman gathered his supporters for his defense, while his opponents, who included William Morris, Belfort Bax, Eleanor Marx. After protracted debate, on 27 December a motion of censure on Hyndman was adopted, after which the majority of the Council, freshly victorious and they considered Hyndman opportunistic and obsessed with parliamentary politics to the detriment of trade union organisation. Hyndman retained the party publications Justice and To-Day and the 500 or so members of the SDF chose sides as one small organisation became two smaller ones, the SDFs foray into electoral politics had proven to be both controversial and wholly ineffective. In the winter of 1885/86 the SDF made its first appreciable advance in the public eye, the SDF agitated for the Right to Work and made demands for the establishment of state-directed co-operative colonies on underutilised lands. The police forced the SDF-led demonstration out of the Square, john Burns led the protesters down Pall Mall en route to Hyde Park bearing a red flag. Along the way the marchers scuffled with jeering onlookers and a riot ensued, with smashed windows, the party claimed a big boost in membership in the aftermath, with its official organ, Justice, selling 4,000 copies of each issue. The next autumn a protest of socialists and radicals was called for Trafalgar Square for 13 November 1887. This body of police and military forces used horses, batons, some 200 demonstrators were taken to the hospital,150 of whom needed surgical treatment. Three hundred demonstrators were arrested and 112 police officers injured and this demonstration and its forcible suppression became known as Bloody Sunday to a generation
10.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
11.
Social Democratic Party of Finland
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The Social Democratic Party of Finland is one of the four major political parties in Finland, along with the National Coalition Party, The Finns Party and the Centre Party. Antti Rinne is the current chair. The party has represented in the Finnish cabinet for long periods. The party is currently in the opposition, the partys ideology is social democracy. The SDP has a relationship with the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, and is a member of the Socialist International. In the early 20th century, the SDP commanded some 40% of the vote, after that, the SDP has usually commanded 20–29% of the total votes in those elections that Communists or their fronts have been allowed to contest. There was an uninterrupted 30-year period of social democratic presidents between 1982 and 2012, in the 2007 parliamentary election, SDP received 21.4 percent of the vote and lost 8 seats. In the 2008 municipal elections, the party continued its decline with the largest drop since 1960, in the latest parliamentary election, in 2011, the party received 19.1 percent of the vote and lost another three seats, giving it 42 seats. This was the partys worst result in parliamentary elections in terms of popular support, despite the fact that the word sosiaali in modern Finnish has a long a, the name of this party is officially spelt in an old-fashioned way with a short a, for historical reasons. The party calls itself a modern, centre left party with progressive ideals, the first value that the party uses to describe itself is a fair society. The party states that A society without fairness, is a society without meaning, success, opportunity and freedom must be open to all people, and society should reward hard work and fair-play – not greed, status or chance. The measure of people should be their respect for others, not their wealth and background or characteristics such as race, the second value that the party uses to describe itself is a supportive state. The party states that States should not decide how people live their lives, the state should not be an authority above citizens, but a solid base below them - on which they can build their lives with the services and security they need to pursue their dreams. The third value that the party uses to describe itself is a sustainable future, the party states that We cannot ignore the great problems of tomorrow, for the small benefits of today. Environmental damage, reckless economic activity and a weakening of social care all pose threats to the future of our country, an active state and international cooperation must be the tools with which we build a sustainable future. The party has supported bans on Sunday shopping, in the 2015 parliamentary election, 91% of SDP candidates opposed NATO membership - only the Left Alliance was more opposed to NATO membership. The SDP has long advocated policies to prevent foreigners from working in Finland, in the 2015 parliamentary election, only the Finns Party had a higher share of candidates opposed to easing of work-based immigration. The party opposed economic reforms in the 2011 parliamentary election and in the subsequent government program negotiations, the party maintains close relationship with trade union leaders
12.
Women's Trade Union
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The Womens Trade Union was a trade union in Sweden organizing female workers between 1902 and 1909. Its members were generally seamstresses, but the also had a presence in other women-dominated sectors. In the year of its foundation, the union had 642 members, as of 1906, the union had 32 sections with a combined membership of 1,037. In 1897 a Committee for Womens Agitation had been formed by Stockholms allmänna kvinnoklubb, the committee was reorganized as the Womens Trade Union in 1902. At that time women were not allowed to join the Swedish Tailoring Workers Union, the Womens Trade Union was intended as a transitional organizational, organizing union clubs that were unable to join established unions. At the founding of the union a board was elected, including Anna Sterky, Anna Johansson-Visborg, the Womens Trade Union joined the Swedish Trade Union Confederation in 1904. A womens club had formed at the LM Ericsson in Stockholm, after visits from Anna Sterky. The LM Ericsson womens club affiliated itself to the Womens Trade Union in 1905, the proposal was, however, not approved by the congress. After the decision of the Swedish Tailoring Workers Union to allow women to become members, in 1909 the Womens Trade Union was disbanded, and twelve of its sections joined the Swedish Tailoring Workers Union. In 1904 the Womens Trade Union began publishing Morgonbris and it was initially a quarterly, but was converted into a bimonthly in 1906. After the disbanding of the Womens Trade Union, the publication was taken over by the Social Democratic Womens Congress, in 1904 the union obtained its own banner. The banner was designed by Selma Sandberg and it was made of wool, with embroided text
13.
Clara Zetkin
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Clara Zetkin was a German Marxist theorist, activist, and advocate for womens rights. The eldest of three children, Clara Zetkin was born Clara Josephine Eissner in Wiederau, a peasant village in Saxony, having studied to become a teacher, Zetkin developed connections with the womens movement and the labour movement in Germany from 1874. In 1878 she joined the Socialist Workers Party and this party had been founded in 1875 by merging two previous parties, the ADAV formed by Ferdinand Lassalle and the SDAP of August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht. In 1890 its name was changed to its modern version Social Democratic Party of Germany, because of the ban placed on socialist activity in Germany by Bismarck in 1878, Zetkin left for Zurich in 1882 then went into exile in Paris. During her time in Paris she played an important role in the foundation of the Socialist International group and she also adopted the name of her lover, the Russian-Jewish leftist Ossip Zetkin, with whom she had two sons, Kostantin and Maxim. Later, Zetkin was married to the artist Georg Friedrich Zundel, eighteen years her junior, in the SPD, Zetkin, along with Rosa Luxemburg, her close friend and confidante, was one of the main figures of the far-left wing of the party. In the debate on Revisionism at the turn of the 20th century they jointly attacked the reformist theses of Eduard Bernstein, Zetkin was very interested in womens politics, including the fight for equal opportunities and womens suffrage. She developed the social-democratic womens movement in Germany, from 1891 to 1917 she edited the SPD womens newspaper Die Gleichheit, in 1907 she became the leader of the newly founded Womens Office at the SPD. She also contributed to International Womens Day, in August 1910, an International Womens Conference was organized to precede the general meeting of the Socialist Second International in Copenhagen, Denmark. Delegates agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights including suffrage for women, the following year on March 19,1911, IWD was marked for the first time, by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. However, Zetkin was deeply opposed to the concept of bourgeois feminism, during the First World War Zetkin, along with Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Luise Kähler and other influential SPD politicians, rejected the partys policy of Burgfrieden. Among other anti-war activities, Zetkin organised an international socialist womens anti-war conference in Berlin in 1915, because of her anti-war opinions, she was arrested several times during the war, and in 1916 taken into protective custody. In January 1919, after the German Revolution in November of the previous year and she interviewed Lenin on The Womens Question in 1920. Until 1924 Zetkin was a member of the KPDs central office and she was also a member of the executive committee of the Communist International from 1921 to 1933. In 1925 she was elected president of the German left-wing solidarity organisation Rote Hilfe, in August 1932, as the chairwoman of the Reichstag by seniority, she was entitled to give the opening address, and used it to call for workers to unite in the struggle against fascism. She was a recipient of the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner, when Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party took over power, the Communist Party of Germany was banned, following the Reichstag fire in 1933. Zetkin went into exile for the last time, this time to the Soviet Union and she died there, at Arkhangelskoye, near Moscow, in 1933, aged nearly 76. Her ashes were placed in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, by the Moscow Kremlin Wall, after 1949, Zetkin became a much-celebrated heroine in the German Democratic Republic, and every major city had a street named after her
14.
Die Gleichheit
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Die Gleichheit was a Social Democratic bimonthly magazine issued by the womens proletarian movement in Germany from 1892 to 1923. For many years it was the organ of the international womens socialist movement. Die Gleichheit had appeared in early 1890 as Die Arbeiterin, a successor to the short-lived Die Staatsbürgerin founded by Gertrud Guillaume-Schack, Die Arbeiterin was published by the Social Democrat Emma Ihrer in Velten for more than a year from 1890–91 with little success. In January 1892 it was placed in the hands of Clara Zetkin by the SPD-affiliated Dietz-Verlag when the sheet was facing financial ruin, Zetkin renamed the paper Die Gleichheit when she took over. Zetkin edited the paper until 1917, at the First International Conference of Socialist Women in Stuttgart,1907 it was reported that the magazine had a distribution of 70,000 copies. The editorial board of Die Gleichheit was elected as the organ of the international movement of socialist women until the next international congress. By 1910 Die Gleichheit, the central socialist organ for women workers, had a circulation on 80,000, at the Second International Womens Conference in Copenhagen in 1910 Die Gleichheit was once again recognized as the official organ of the international womens socialist movement. From 1919 to 1922 the paper was edited by Clara Bohm-Schuch, the paper ceased publication in 1923
15.
Tsar
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Tsar /zɑːr/ or /tsɑːr/, also spelled tzar, csar, or czar, is a title used to designate certain Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, occasionally, the word could be used to designate other secular supreme rulers. Simeon II, the last Tsar of Bulgaria, is the last person to have borne the title Tsar, the title Tsar is derived from the Latin title for the Roman emperors, Caesar. In the history of the Greek language, basileus had originally meant something like potentate and it gradually approached the meaning of king in the Hellenistic Period, and it came to designate emperor after the inception in the Roman Empire. Thus, tsar was not only used as an equivalent of Latin imperator but was used to refer to Biblical rulers. From this ambiguity, the development has moved in different directions in the different Slavic languages, thus, the Bulgarian language and Russian language no longer use tsar as an equivalent of the term emperor/imperator as it exists in the West European tradition. Currently, the term refers to native sovereigns, ancient and Biblical rulers, as well as monarchs in fairy tales. The title of king is sometimes perceived as alien and is by some Russian-speakers reserved for European royalty, foreign monarchs of imperial status, both inside and outside of Europe, ancient as well as modern, are generally called imperator, rather than tsar. Biblical rulers in Serbian are called цар and in Croatian kralj, in the Polish language however tsar is always used as imperator, never as king. The term tsar is very used to refer to the Russian rulers after Peter the Great. In 705 Emperor Justinian II named Tervel of Bulgaria Caesar, the first foreigner to receive this title, the sainted Boris I is sometimes retrospectively referred to as tsar, because at his time Bulgaria was converted to Christianity. However, the tsar was actually adopted and used for the first time by his son Simeon I. Since in Byzantine political theory there was place for two emperors, Eastern and Western, the Bulgarian ruler was crowned basileus as a spiritual son of the Byzantian basileus. In Latin sources the Emperor of Bulgaria is sometimes designated Emperor of Zagora, various additional epithets and descriptions apart, the official style read Emperor and autocrat of all Bulgarians and Greeks. During the five-century period of Ottoman rule in Bulgaria, the sultan was referred to as tsar. This may be related to the fact that he had claimed the legacy of the Byzantine Empire or to the fact that the sultan was called Basileus in medieval Greek, after Bulgarias liberation from the Ottomans in 1878, its new monarchs were at first autonomous prince. With the declaration of independence, Ferdinand I of Bulgaria adopted the traditional title tsar in 1908. However, these titles were not generally perceived as equivalents of emperor any longer, in the Bulgarian as in the Greek vernacular, the meaning of the title had shifted
16.
Grand Duchy of Finland
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The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed between 1809 and 1917 as an part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian Emperor as Grand Duke. The new title Grand Duke of Finland did not result in any Finnish autonomy, during the next two centuries, the title was used by some of Johns successors on the throne, but not all. Usually it was just a title of the king, used only on very formal occasions. The title Grand Duke of Finland was added to the long list of titles of the Russian Tsar, after his return to Finland in 1812, the Finnish-born Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt became counsellor to the Russian emperor. The formation of the Grand Duchy stems from the Treaty of Tilsit between Czar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon Bonaparte of France, the treaty mediated peace between Russia and France and allied the two countries against Napoleons remaining threats, Great Britain and Sweden. Russia invaded Finland in February of 1808, claimed as an effort to impose sanctions against Sweden, but not a war of conquest. The oath also dubbed anyone person who gave aid to the Swedish or Finnish armies a rebel, the Finns complied, bitter over Sweden abandoning the country for their war against Denmark and France, and begrudgingly embraced Russian conquest. The Diet of Finland was now to only meet whenever requested, further on, Alexander I requested a deputation of the four Finnish estates, as he expressed concern over continued Finnish resistance. The deputation refused to act without the Diet, to which Alexander agreed with, by 1809, all of Finland had been conquered and The Diet was summoned in March. Finland was then united through Russia via crown, and Finland was able to keep the majority of its own laws, the earlier years of the Grand Duchy can be seen as uneventful. In 1812, the area of Old Finland, known as the Viipuri Province was returned to Finland after being annexed by Russia in the Great Northern War, despite the outcry, the borders remained set until 1940. Moreover, Alexander moved the capital from Turku to Helsinki, a fortified town protected by Suomenlinna. Finlands main university also transferred to Helsinki after a fire out in Turku. Alexander went a step further to demand a Finnish House of Nobles, the house was designed to register all noble families in Finland, so that the highest Finnish estate would be representative of the next Finnish diet. As for Sweden, the majority did not think too much about Finlands conquest, as Sweden itself annexed Norway from Denmark in 1814, despite this, Alexander I ceased to give in to Finnish affairs and returned to governing Russia. In 1823, Arseny Zakrevsky was made general of Finland and quickly became unpopular by the Finns. Zakrevsky abolished the Committee for Finnish Affairs and managed to obtain the right to submit Finnish affairs to the Czar, bypassing the Finnish Secretary of State
17.
Women's suffrage
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Womens suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Limited voting rights were gained by women in Finland, Iceland, Sweden and some Australian colonies, National and international organizations formed to coordinate efforts to gain voting rights, especially the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, and also worked for equal civil rights for women. In 1881, the Isle of Man gave women who owned property the right to vote, in 1893, the British colony of New Zealand, granted women the right to vote. The colony of South Australia, did the same in 1894 and women were able to vote in the next election, South Australia also permitted women to stand for election alongside men. In 1899 Western Australia enacted full womens suffrage, enabling women to vote in the referendum of 31 July 1900. In 1902 women in the four colonies also acquired the right to vote. Discriminatory restrictions against Aboriginal people, including women, voting in elections, were not completely removed until 1962. Norway followed, granting full womens suffrage in 1913, most independent countries enacted womens suffrage in the interwar era, including Canada in 1917, Britain in 1918 and the United States in 1920. If women could work in factories, it seemed both ungrateful and illogical to deny them a place in the polling booth. But the vote was more than simply a reward for war work. Late adopters in Europe included Spain in 1931, France in 1944, Italy in 1946, Greece in 1952, Switzerland in 1971, the United States gave women equal voting rights in all states with the Nineteenth Amendment ratified in 1920. Canada and a few Latin American nations passed womens suffrage before World War II while the vast majority of Latin American nations established womens suffrage in the 1940s, the last Latin American country to give women the right to vote was Paraguay in 1961. In December 2015, women were first allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia, extended political campaigns by women and their supporters have generally been necessary to gain legislation or constitutional amendments for womens suffrage. In many countries, limited suffrage for women was granted before universal suffrage for men, for instance, in ancient Athens, often cited as the birthplace of democracy, only adult, male citizens who owned land were permitted to vote. Through subsequent centuries, Europe was generally ruled by monarchs, though forms of parliament arose at different times. Their Protestant successors enjoyed the same privilege almost into modern times and they make decisions there like the men, and it is they who even delegated the first ambassadors to discuss peace. The Iroquois, like many First Nations peoples in North America, had a kinship system. Property and descent were passed through the female line, Women elders voted on hereditary male chiefs and could depose them
18.
Universal suffrage
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The concept of universal suffrage, also known as general suffrage or common suffrage, consists of the right to vote of all except a small number of adult citizens. As minors are excluded, the concept is frequently described as universal adult suffrage. Many countries make an exception for small numbers of adults that are considered incapable of voting. Other countries also exclude people convicted of crimes or people in jail. In some countries, including the United States, it is very difficult, in any case, where universal suffrage exists, the right to vote is not restricted by race, sex, belief, wealth, or social status. The term active suffrage is sometimes used for the right to vote, passive suffrage for the right to run for office, the equivalent term when talking about both genders would then be universal full suffrage, or full universal suffrage. Greece recognized full male suffrage in 1830 and France and Switzerland have continuously done so since the 1848 Revolution, the German Empire implemented full male suffrage in 1871. In 1893, the self-governing colony New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant active universal suffrage by giving women the right to vote and it did not grant universal full suffrage until 1919. In 1902 Australia become the first country to grant full suffrage for women, however, universal suffrage was not implemented, as aboriginals didnt get the right to vote until 1962. It also elected the worlds first female members of parliament the following year, in most countries, universal suffrage followed about a generation after universal male suffrage. Notable exceptions in Europe were France, where women could not vote until 1944, Greece and it is worth noting that countries that took a long time to adopt womens suffrage had previously often been pioneers in granting universal male suffrage. In the first modern democracies, governments restricted the vote to those with property and wealth, in some jurisdictions, other restrictions existed, such as requiring voters to practice a given religion. In all modern democracies, the number of people who could vote has increased progressively with time, in the 19th century in Europe, Great Britain and North America, there were movements advocating universal suffrage. The democratic movement of the late 19th century, unifying liberals and social democrats, particularly in northern Europe, used the slogan Equal, the concept of universal suffrage requires the right to vote to be granted to all its residents. All countries, however, do not allow certain categories of citizens to vote, saudi Arabia was the last major country that did not allow women to vote, but admitted women both to voting and candidacy in the 2015 municipal elections. France, under the 1793 Jacobin constitution, was the first major country to enact suffrage for all adult males, the Second French Republic did institute adult male suffrage after the revolution of 1848. In 1867, Germany enacted suffrage for all adult males, in the United States following the American Civil War, slaves were freed and granted rights of citizens, including suffrage for adult males. Several European nations that had enacted universal suffrage had their legal process, or their status as an independent nation, interrupted during
19.
May Day
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May Day is a public holiday usually celebrated on May 1. It is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the celebrations that the day includes, in the late 19th century, May Day was chosen as the date for International Workers Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago. International Workers Day may also be referred to as May Day and it is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane, most commonly held on April 30. The day was a summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of spring, May 1 was the first day of summer, hence, as Europe became Christianised, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and May Day changed into a popular secular celebration. A significant celebration of May Day occurs in Germany where it is one of days on which St. Walburga. The secular versions of May Day, observed in Europe and America, may be best known for their traditions of dancing around the maypole and crowning the Queen of May. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of May baskets, small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours doorsteps. May 1 is also one of two feast days of the Catholic patron saint of workers St Joseph the Worker, a carpenter, husband to Mother Mary, and surrogate father of Jesus. Replacing another feast to St. Joseph, this date was chosen by Pope Pius XII in 1955 as a counterpoint to the communist International Workers Day celebrations on May Day. In the late 20th century, many neopagans began reconstructing traditions, traditional English May Day rites and celebrations include crowning a May Queen and celebrations involving a maypole. Historically, Morris dancing has been linked to May Day celebrations, much of this tradition derives from the pagan Anglo-Saxon customs held during Þrimilci-mōnaþ along with many Celtic traditions. May Day has been a day of festivities throughout the centuries. May Day is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with village fetes, seeding has been completed by this date and it was convenient to give farm labourers a day off. Perhaps the most significant of the traditions is the maypole, around which traditional dancers circle with ribbons, the spring bank holiday on the first Monday in May was created in 1978, May Day itself – May 1 – is not a public holiday in England. Unlike the other Bank Holidays and common law holidays, the first Monday in May is taken off from schools by itself and this is because it has no Christian significance and does not otherwise fit into the usual school holiday pattern. May Day was abolished and its celebration banned by Puritan parliaments during the Interregnum, may 1,1707, was the day the Act of Union came into effect, joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain
20.
Rabotnitsa
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Rabotnitsa is a womens journal, published in the Soviet Union and Russia and one of the oldest Russian magazines for women and families. Founded in 1914, and first published on Womens Day, it is the first socialist womens journal, while the journals beginnings are attributed to Lenin and several women who were close to him, he did not contribute to the first seven issues. Later that year, its editors organized the First Conference of Working Women of the Petrograd Region, from the start of the Russian Revolution of 1917, Rabotnitsa served as the official womens publication under the Communist Party in Russia. The journal Rabotnitsa was established in 1914 in St. Petersburg, while some state it was initiated by Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenins wife, the idea is credited to Konkordiia Samoilova. Inessa Armand, a friend of Lenin, was instrumental in actualizing the magazine. Anna Yelizarova-Ulyanova, one of Lenins sisters, found a willing to print two issues per month. The first editor was a male, Felix Vasilievich Martsinkevich, while the publisher was a female, petrovskaia, the wife of a Bolshevik Duma deputy. Its editorial board was composed of Armand and Samoilova, as well as A. I, Yelizarova-Ulyanova, N. K. Krupskaya, P. F. Kudelli, L. R. Menzhinskaya, Y. F. Rozmirovich, and L. N. Stal. It prospered at the encouragement and support provided by Lenin and it was published by Izdatelstvo Pressa in the Russian language. The money needed to support the publication was collected from women workers, the first issue was published on International Womens Day,23 February 1914, with 12,000 copies. It lacked a cover, illustrations and an issuing body and it was a quarterly journal for the period 24 February to June 1914. In its first year, its circulation was 12,000, initially, there were seven issues of which three were confiscated by the police as there was strict censorship by the Communist Party. The magazine ceased its publication after the seven issues due to the associated with World War I. The journal restarted on 10 May,1917, its cover announcing that it was now a part of the central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party, following the October 1917 Revolution, the magazine created a citywide awareness of the revolution. This was followed by the First All-Russian Congress of Women Workers in 1918 after which the tsarist government closed the magazine and its publication was resumed in Moscow in January 1923. In 1926, the published articles about a perceived male resistance to women entering metal and machine-tool work jobs. In 1933, Joseph Stalin complemented the magazine with a personal greeting, a 1935 issue was on the topic of motherhood, in 1936, that was an article on narcotics easing labour pain, and in 1946, there was an article on new fabrics. Rabotnitsa is one of the oldest Russian language magazines exclusively devoted to women, the magazines basic theme is to advocate proletarian internationalism and international labor solidarity as a means to checkmate imperialism
21.
Margaret Bondfield
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Margaret Grace Bondfield CH PC was a British Labour politician, trades unionist and womens rights activist. She became the first female minister, and the first woman to be a privy counsellor in the UK. She had earlier become the first woman to chair the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, Bondfield was born in humble circumstances and received limited formal education. After serving an apprenticeship to an embroidress she worked as a assistant in Brighton and London. She was shocked by the conditions of shop staff, particularly within the living-in system. She began to move in socialist circles, and in 1898 was appointed assistant secretary of the National Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen, and Clerks. She was later prominent in several womens socialist movements, she helped to found the Womens Labour League in 1906, after leaving her union post in 1908 Bondfield worked as organising secretary for the WLL and later as womens officer for the National Union of General and Municipal Workers. She was elected to the TUC Council in 1918, and became its chairman in 1923, in the short-lived minority Labour government of 1924 she served as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Labour. Her term of office in 1929–31 was marked by the economic crises that beset the second Labour government. Bondfield remained active in NUGMW affairs until 1938, and during the Second World War carried out investigations for the Womens Group on Public Welfare. She died in 1953, despite her years of service to party and union, according to a later female cabinet minister, Barbara Castle, Bondfields actions in office had brought her close to betrayal of the movement. Margaret Bondfield, known in life as Maggie, was born on 17 March 1873 in the Somerset town of Chard. She was the tenth of eleven children, and third of four born to William Bondfield and his wife Ann, née Taylor. William Bondfield worked as a lacemaker, and had a history of political activism, as a young man he had been secretary of the Chard Political Union, a centre of local radicalism that the authorities had on occasion suppressed by military force. He had also been active in the Anti-Corn Law League of the 1840s, while Margaret was still an infant, William lost his job and was unable to find regular work. The family suffered hardship, with the threat of the workhouse a constant fear, nevertheless, William and Ann did their best to ensure that their children were educated and prepared for life. Margaret was a child, whose skills at reciting poetry or playing piano pieces were often displayed at town events. Until the age of 13 she attended the elementary school
22.
Ada Salter
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Ada Salter, née Brown was an English social reformer, environmentalist, pacifist and Quaker, President of the Womens Labour League and President of the National Gardens Guild. She was one of the first women councillors in London, the first woman mayor in London, the Sisters were run by Katherine Hughes, an inspirational Christian Socialist, but in 1897 Ada transferred to the Bermondsey Settlement. There she met Dr Alfred Salter, agnostic and socialist, a resident engaged in research into infectious diseases on a farm in Sudbury. Under her influence Alfred converted to Christianity and joined the Liberal Party and they both committed to the Society of Friends and started to attend the Deptford Meeting. They were married in Raunds on 22 August 1900, Ada had always insisted on living in the slums, among the poor, ever since arriving in London. Now she was equally insistent on staying in Bermondsey, a place she had fallen in love with despite its drab poverty, Alfred, who was such a brilliant doctor he could have made a fortune as a consultant, therefore set up a GPs medical practice in Jamaica Road. He charged poorer patients only a small sum and the poorest nothing at all, Ada continued as a social worker at Bermondsey Settlement, where she already had a high reputation for the clubs she ran, especially those for the roughest and toughest of the teenage girls. In 1902 she temporarily gave up work when the only child. The ILP was the party most favourable to the rights of women and wanted to stand women candidates, including Ada. This put Alfred, a Liberal councillor on the London County Council, in 1908 therefore he also left the Liberals, to found an ILP branch in Bermondsey. Once again it was Ada who had blazed the trail for him to follow, however, in 1910, personal tragedy struck when the Salters daughter, Joyce, only eight years old, died of scarlet fever in one of the periodic epidemics that swept through the slums. Ada responded by throwing herself into the work of the Womens Labour League and she rose to be first its National Treasurer and then in 1914 its National President, the leader of all the Labour Party women in Britain. To expedite demolition, she and her WLL comrades called for a Green Belt around London, Ada followed John Ruskin in believing that fresh air and contact with nature improved people not only physically but mentally and morally. She became a proponent of urban gardening, and a pioneer of organised campaigning against air pollution in London, what brought her the greatest renown before 1914 was, however, the Bermondsey Uprising of 1911. She had in 1910 started to recruit women in the factories to a womens trade union organisation. At first the results were disappointing but suddenly in August 1911,14,000 women walked out on strike in protest against terrible working conditions, Ada had always since her youth opposed war and becoming a Quaker had fortified her commitment to peace. For her, therefore,1914 was a catastrophe and she was a founding member of the Womens International League for Peace and Freedom and from 1916 she also worked with Alfred for the No Conscription Fellowship. There she came up against Lenin, who was determined to get the conference to vote for armed revolution, Ada and the WLL delegate, Margaret Bondfield, stood their ground and Lenin was defeated
23.
Mensheviks
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The dispute originated at the Second Congress of the RSDLP, ostensibly over minor issues of party organization. Neither side held a consistent majority over the course of the congress, Lenins formulation required the party member to be a member of one of the partys organizations, whereas Martovs only stated that he should work under the guidance of a party organization. Martovs proposal was accepted by the majority of the delegates and that was also the reason behind the naming of the factions. Despite the outcome of the congress, the years saw the Mensheviks gathering considerable support among regular Social Democrats. In 1906, at the 4th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, on the other hand, numerous disagreements about alliances and strategy emerged. The two factions kept their separate structures and continued to operate separately, both believed that the working class had to contribute to this revolution. In the event of a revolution, this was meant to lead to a dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry, the Mensheviks came to argue for predominantly legal methods and trade union work, while the Bolsheviks favoured armed violence. Some Mensheviks left the party after the defeat of 1905 and joined legal opposition organisations, after a while, Lenins patience wore out with their compromising and in 1908 he called these Mensheviks liquidationists. The Menshevik faction split further in 1914 at the beginning of World War I, most Mensheviks opposed the war, but a vocal minority supported it in terms of national defense. They called for a revolution and transfer of all power to the Soviets. In March–April 1917, the Menshevik leadership conditionally supported the newly formed liberal Russian Provisional Government, from then on, the Mensheviks had at least one representative in the Provisional Government until it was overthrown by the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution of 1917. With Mensheviks and Bolsheviks diverging, Mensheviks and non-factional social democrats returning from exile in Europe, others, like Alexandra Kollontai, joined the Bolsheviks. A significant number, including Leon Trotsky and Adolf Joffe, joined the non-factional Petrograd-based anti-war group called Mezhraiontsy, a small but influential group of social democrats associated with Maxim Gorkys newspaper Novaya Zhizn refused to join either party. The Mensheviks got just 3. 3% of the national vote,41. 7% of their support came from the Transcaucasus. In Georgia about 75% voted for them, the right wing of the Menshevik party supported actions against the Bolsheviks, while the left wing, the majority of the Mensheviks at that point, supported the Left in the ensuing Russian Civil War. However, Martovs leftist Menshevik faction refused to break with the wing of the party, resulting in their press being sometimes banned. The Mensheviks opposed war communism, and in 1919 suggested an alternative programme, during World War I, some anti-war Mensheviks had formed a group called Menshevik-Internationalists. They were active around the newspaper Novaya Zhizn and took part in the Mezhraiontsy formation. After July 1917 events in Russia, they broke with the Menshevik majority that supported continued war with Germany, the Mensheviks-Internationalists became the hub of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party
24.
Angelica Balabanoff
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Angelica Balabanoff was a Russian-Jewish-Italian communist and social democratic activist. She served as secretary of the Comintern and later became a party leader in Italy. Balabanoff was born into a family in Chernihiv, Russian Empire. While attending the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium, after her graduation with degrees in philosophy and literature, she settled in Rome and began to organize immigrant workers in the textile industry, joining the Partito Socialista Italiano in 1900. She became closely associated with Antonio Labriola, Giacinto Menotti Serrati, Benito Mussolini and she moved further to the left during the First World War, becoming active in the Zimmerwald Movement. When the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917, Balabanoff joined the Bolshevik Party, according to Emma Goldman, she became disillusioned with the style of socialism in Russia and had become rooted in the soil of Italy. Balabanoff told Goldman of her discomfort about temporarily living in the Narishkin Palace and she became secretary of the Communist Third International in 1919 and worked alongside Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev, and Emma Goldman, as well as many others. She became a critic of Bolshevism and left Russia in 1922, travelling back to Italy. She moved to Paris, then in New York City at the outbreak of the Second World War, when the war ended, she returned to Italy and joined the Socialist Workers Party, which became the Italian Democratic Socialist Party. Balabanoff is a character in the 1993 RAI Italian language production Il Giovane Mussolini. Balabanoff is memorialized in Judy Chicagos The Dinner Party, Il vostro Dovere in tempo di Elezioni, Alle Proletarie. Ot rabstva k svobode, Obiazannosti i prava kommunistov v pervoi trudovoi respublike, erziehung der Massen zum Marxismus, Psychologisch-pädagogische Betrachtungen. Marx und Engels als Freidenker in ihren Schriften, caduti per noi, caduti per voi. New York, Edizione La Fiaccola, c, traitor, Benito Mussolini and his Conquest of Power. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press,1964
25.
Inessa Armand
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Inessa Fyodorovna Armand was a French-Russian communist politician, member of the Bolsheviks and feminist who spent most of her life in Russia. Her mother, Nathalie Wild, was a comedian of half-French and half-English descent and her father died when she was five and she was brought up by her aunt and grandmother living in Moscow, both teachers. At the age of nineteen she married Alexander Armand, the son of a wealthy Russian textile manufacturer, Inessa and her husband opened a school for peasant children outside of Moscow. She also joined a group dedicated to helping the citys destitute women. In 1902, she left her husband, with whom she had a marriage, to marry his younger brother Vladimir, who shared her radical political views. In 1903, she joined the illegal Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, Armand distributed illegal propaganda, after her arrest in June 1907 she was sentenced to two years internal exile in Mezen in Northern Russia. In November 1908 Armand managed to escape from Mezen and eventually left Russia to settle in Paris, in 1911 Armand became secretary for the Committee of Foreign Organisations established to coordinate all Bolshevik groups in Western Europe. Armand returned to Russia in July 1912, Lenin needed her to pass on the resolution of the Prague Conference, to help organise the Bolshevik campaign to get its supporters elected to the Duma, and find out what was going on in Prada. Rappaport notes that Lenin knew her entry into Russia would invite immediate arrest, yet he made light of it, two months later she was arrested and imprisoned, only to be released against bail in March 1913, thanks to Alexanders generous support. Once again illegally leaving Russia, she went to live with Vladimir Lenin and she also began work editing Rabotnitsa. Krupskaya, with admiration, noted that exhausted as Armand was, Lenin wrote to her and trusted her more than anyone else in his circles. The Okhrana considered Armand to be the hand of Lenin. Armand was upset that many socialists in Europe chose not to fight against the war effort during World War I and she joined Lenin in helping to distribute propaganda that urged Allied troops to turn their rifles against their officers and to start a socialist revolution. Lenin appointed her as the Bolshevik representative to the International Socialist Bureau conference in Brussels in July 1914, wolfe remarked, He was sending her to meet and do battle with such large figures as Kautsky, Vandervelde, Huysmans, Luxemburg, Plekhanov, Trotsky and Martov. He counted on her mastery of all the languages of the International, her devotion to him and his views. In March 1915 Armand went to Switzerland where she organised the anti-war International Conference of Socialist Women, on 2 March 1917 Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, leaving the Provisional Government in control of the country, which declared the Russian Republic. The Bolsheviks in exile became desperate to return to Russia to help shape the future of the country, after the October Revolution, Armand headed the Moscow Economic Council and served as an executive member of the Moscow Soviet. She became a critic of the Soviet governments decision to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
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Nadezhda Krupskaya
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Nadezhda Konstantinovna Nadya Krupskaya was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, politician, and the wife of Vladimir Lenin from 1898 until his death in 1924. She served as the Soviet Unions Deputy Minister of Education from 1929 until her death in 1939, Nadezhda Krupskaya was born to an upper-class but impoverished family. Her father, Konstantin Ignatevich Krupski, was a Russian military officer and he was educated and given a commission as an infantry officer in the Russian Army. Just before leaving for his assignment in Poland, he married Krupskayas mother, after six years of service, Krupski lost favor with his supervisors and was charged with un-Russian activities. He may have suspected of being involved with revolutionaries. Following this time he worked in factories or wherever he could find work, just before his death, he was recommissioned as an officer. Krupskayas mother, Elizaveta Vasilyevna Tistrova, was the daughter of landless Russian nobles, elizavetas parents died when she was young and she was enrolled in the Bestuzhev Courses, the highest formal education available to women in Russia at the time. After earning her degree, Elizaveta worked as a governess for noble families until she married Krupski, from her very childhood Krupskaya was inspired with the spirit of protest against the ugly life around her. She briefly attended two different secondary schools before finding the perfect fit with Prince A. A, obolenskys Female Gymnasium, a distinguished private girls secondary school in Petersburg. This education was more liberal than most other gymnasiums since it was noted that some of the staff were former revolutionaries. After her fathers death, Krupskaya and her mother gave lessons as a source of income, Krupskaya had expressed an interest in entering the education field from a young age. She was particularly drawn to Leo Tolstoys theories on education, which were instead of structured. They focused on the development of each individual student and centered on the importance of the teacher-student relationship. This led Krupskaya to study many of Tolstoys works, including his theories of reformation and these were peaceful, law-abiding ideas, which focused on people abstaining from unneeded luxuries and being self-dependent instead of hiring someone else to tend their house, etc. Tolstoy made an impression on Krupskaya, it was said that she had a special contempt for stylish clothes. She was always modest in dress, as were her furnishings in her home, as a devoted, lifelong student, Krupskaya began to participate in several discussion circles. These groups got together to study and discuss topics for the benefit of everyone involved. It was later, in one of these circles, that Krupskaya was first introduced to the theories of Marx and this piqued her interest as a potential way of making life better for her people
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Alexandra Kollontai
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Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai was a Russian Communist revolutionary, first as a member of the Mensheviks, then from 1914 on as a Bolshevik. In 1923, Kollontai was appointed Soviet Ambassador to Norway, one of the first women to such a post. Alexandra Mikhailovna Domontovich was born on 31 March 1872 in St. Petersburg and her father, General Mikhail Alekseevich Domontovich, descended from a Ukrainian Cossack family that traced its ancestry back to the 13th century. He served as a officer in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Russian opera singer Yevgeniya Mravina was Kollontais half-sister via her mother, the saga of her parents long and difficult struggle to be together in spite of the norms of society would color and inform Alexandra Kollontais own views of relationships, sex, and marriage. Alexandra Mikhailovna – or Shura as she was called growing up – was close to her father, with whom she shared an analytical bent and her relationship with her mother, for whom she was named, was more complex. She later recalled, My mother and the English nanny who reared me were demanding. There was order in everything, to tidy up toys myself, to lay my underwear on a chair at night, to wash neatly, to study my lessons on time. Alexandra was a good student growing up, sharing her fathers interest in history and she spoke French with her mother and sisters, English with her nanny, Finnish with the peasants at a family estate inherited from her maternal grandfather in Kuusa, and was a student of German. Instead, Alexandra was to be allowed to take an exam to gain certification as a teacher before making her way into society to find a husband. In 1890 or 1891, Alexandra, aged around 19, met her husband, Vladimir Ludvigovich Kollontai. Alexandras mother objected bitterly to the union since the young man was so poor. Her mother bitterly scoffed at the notion, You work and you, who cant even make up your own bed to look neat and tidy. You, who never picked up a needle and you, who go marching through the house like a princess and never help the servants with their work. You, who are just like your father, going around dreaming and leaving your books on every chair, Alexandra became pregnant soon after her marriage and bore a son, Mikhail, in 1894. She devoted her time to reading radical populist and Marxist political literature, while Kollontai was initially drawn to the populist ideas of a restructuring of society based upon the Mir, effective advocates of such theories in the last decade of the 19th century were few. Through this library Kollontai met Elena Stasova, an activist in the budding Marxist movement in St. Petersburg, Stasova began to use Kollontai as a courier, transporting parcels of illegal writings to unknown individuals, which were delivered upon utterance of a password. Years later, she wrote about her marriage, We separated although we were in love because I felt trapped, I was detached, because of the revolutionary upsettings rooted in Russia
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Vladimir Lenin
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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin, was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as head of government of the Russian Republic from 1917 to 1918, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1924, under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party socialist state governed by the Russian Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as Leninism, born to a wealthy middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin embraced revolutionary socialist politics following his brothers execution in 1887. Expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in protests against the Russian Empires Tsarist regime and he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1893 and became a senior figure in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1897, he was arrested for sedition and exiled to Shushenskoye for three years, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya, after his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent party theorist through his publications. In 1903, he took a key role in a RSDLP ideological split, Lenins government was led by the Bolsheviks—now renamed the Communist Party—with some powers initially also held by elected soviets. It redistributed land among the peasantry and nationalised banks and large-scale industry, opponents were suppressed in the Red Terror, a violent campaign orchestrated by the state security services, tens of thousands were killed and others interned in concentration camps. Anti-Bolshevik armies, established by both right and left-wing groups, were defeated in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922, responding to wartime devastation, famine, and popular uprisings, in 1921 Lenin promoted economic growth through a mixed economic system. Seeking to promote world revolution, Lenins government created the Communist International, waged the Polish–Soviet War, in increasingly poor health, Lenin expressed opposition to the growing power of his successor, Joseph Stalin, before dying at his Gorki mansion. He became a figurehead behind Marxism-Leninism and thus a prominent influence over the international communist movement. Lenins father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, was from a family of serfs, his origins remain unclear, with suggestions being made that he was Russian, Chuvash, Mordvin. Despite this lower-class background he had risen to middle-class status, studying physics and mathematics at Kazan Imperial University before teaching at the Penza Institute for the Nobility, Ilya married Maria Alexandrovna Blank in mid-1863. Well educated and from a prosperous background, she was the daughter of a German–Swedish woman. Soon after their wedding, Ilya obtained a job in Nizhny Novgorod, five years after that, he was promoted to Director of Public Schools for the province, overseeing the foundation of over 450 schools as a part of the governments plans for modernisation. His dedication to education earned him the Order of St. Vladimir, the couple had two children, Anna and Alexander, before Lenin—who would gain the childhood nickname of Volodya—was born in Simbirsk on 10 April 1870, and baptised several days later. They were followed by three children, Olga, Dmitry, and Maria. Two later siblings died in infancy, Ilya was a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church and baptised his children into it, although Maria – a Lutheran – was largely indifferent to Christianity, a view that influenced her children. Every summer they holidayed at a manor in Kokushkino
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Karl Radek
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Radek was born in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary, as Karol Sobelsohn, to a Litvak family, his father, Bernhard, worked in the post office and died whilst Karl was young. He took the name Radek from a character, Andrzej Radek. In 1907, after his arrest in Poland and his escape from custody, Radek moved to Leipzig in Germany and joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany, working on the Partys Leipziger Volkszeitung. He re-located to Bremen, where he worked for Bremer Bürgerzeitung, in 1911, in September 1910, Radek was accused by members of the Polish Socialist Party of stealing books, clothes and money from party comrades, as part of an anti-semitic campaign against the SDKPiL. On this occasion, he was defended by the SDKPiL leaders, Rosa Luxemburg. Wanting to make an example of Radek, Jogiches revived the charges of theft and he dissolved the commission in July 1912, after it had failed to come to any conclusion, and in August pushed a decision through the party court expelling Radek. In their written finding, they broke his alias, making it - he claimed - dangerous for him to stay in Russian occupied Poland. In 1912 August Thalheimer invited Radek to go to Goppingen to temporarily replace him in control of the local SPD party newspaper Freie Volkszeitung, Radek accused the local party leadership in Württemberg of assisting the revisionists to strangle the newspaper due to the papers hostility to them. He took part in the Zimmerwald Conference in 1915, siding with the left, in 1917 Radek was one of the passengers on the sealed train that carried Lenin and other Russian revolutionaries through Germany after the February Revolution in Russia. During the discussions around signing the treaty, Radek was one of the advocates of a revolutionary war, Radek was arrested after the Spartacist uprising on 12 February 1919 and held in Moabit prison until his release in January 1920. While he was in Moabit, the attitude of the German authorities towards the Bolsheviks changed, on his return to Russia Radek became the Secretary of the Comintern, taking the main responsibility for German issues. In mid-1923, Radek made his controversial speech Leo Schlageter, The Wanderer into the Void at a session of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. Although Radek was not at Chemnitz when the decision to cancel the uprising in November 1923 took place at the KPD Zentrale, he approved the decision. Radek was part of the Left Opposition from 1923, writing his famed article Leon Trotsky, later in the year at the Thirteenth Party Congress Radek was removed from the Central Committee. Radek was sacked from his post at Sun Yat-Sen University in May 1927, Radek was expelled from the Party in 1927 after helping to organise an independent demonstration on the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution with Grigory Zinoviev in Leningrad. In early 1928, when prominent oppositionists were deported to remote locations within the Soviet Union, Radek was sent to Tobolsk. In that speech, he denounced Marcel Proust and James Joyce and he was sentenced to 10 years of penal labor. He was reportedly killed in a camp in a fight with another inmate
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Nationalism
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Nationalism is a complex, multidimensional concept involving a shared communal identification with ones nation. It is contrasted by Anti-nationalism as a political ideology oriented towards gaining and maintaining self-governance, or full sovereignty, Nationalism therefore holds that a nation should govern itself, free from unwanted outside interference, and is linked to the concept of self-determination. Nationalism therefore seeks to preserve the nations culture and it often also involves a sense of pride in the nations achievements, and is closely linked to the concept of patriotism. In these terms, nationalism can be considered positive or negative, from a political or sociological outlook, there are three main paradigms for understanding the origins and basis of nationalism. The first, known as Primordialism or Perennialism, sees nationalism as a natural phenomenon and it holds that although the concept nationhood may be recent, nations have always existed. The third, and most dominant paradigm is Modernism, which sees nationalism as a recent phenomenon that needs the structural conditions of society in order to exist. There are various definitions for what constitutes a nation, however and this anomie results in a society or societies reinterpreting identity, retaining elements that are deemed acceptable and removing elements deemed unacceptable, in order to create a unified community. Nationalism means devotion for the nation and it is a sentiment that binds the people together. National symbols and flags, national anthems, national languages, national myths, Nationalism is a newer word, in English the term dates from 1844, although the concept is older. It became important in the 19th century, the term increasingly became negative in its connotations after 1914. Glenda Sluga notes that The twentieth century, a time of disillusionment with nationalism, was also the great age of globalism. Nationalism is the term used to characterize the modern sense of national political autonomy. For example, German nationalism emerged as a reaction against Napoleonic control of Germany as the Confederation of the Rhine around 1805–14, linda Colley in Britons, Forging the Nation 1707–1837 explores how the role of nationalism emerged about 1700 and developed in Britain reaching full form in the 1830s. The early emergence of a popular patriotic nationalism took place in the mid-18th century, National symbols, anthems, myths, flags and narratives were assiduously constructed by nationalists and widely adopted. The Union Jack was adopted in 1801 as the national one, Thomas Arne composed the patriotic song Rule, Britannia. in 1740, and the cartoonist John Arbuthnot invented the character of John Bull as the personification of the English national spirit in 1712. The political convulsions of the late 18th century associated with the American, the Prussian scholar Johann Gottfried Herder originated the term in 1772 in his Essay on the Origins of Language. Stressing the role of a common language, the political development of nationalism and the push for popular sovereignty culminated with the ethnic/national revolutions of Europe. During the 19th century nationalism became one of the most significant political and social forces in history, napoleons conquests of the German and Italian states around 1800–06 played a major role in stimulating nationalism and the demands for national unity
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Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
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The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of left wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the organization attempted to chart a centrist course between electorally oriented revisionism on the one hand and bolshevism on the other. The organization was terminated in 1931 through merger with the Socialist Workers Party of Germany, to avoid confusion, the existing SPD was typically called the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany from then on. Luise Zietz was one of the agitators in favor of a split in the party in 1917. She became a leader in the creation of the USPDs womens movement, at the same time, the Spartakusbund, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, separated from the USPD again as well to merge with other left wing groups and form the KPD. In 1920, four delegates from the USPD attended the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern, Ernst Däumig, Arthur Crispien, Walter Stoecker, the USPD split up in the process, with both groups seeing themselves as the rightful USPD and the other one as being outcast. The USPD was instrumental in the creation of the 2½ International in 1921, the party got 20,275 votes in the 1928 Reichstag election, but won no seats. Eric D. Weitz, Creating German Communism, 1890-1990, From Popular Protests to Socialist State, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press,1997 David Priestand, Red Flag, A History of Communism, New York, Grove Press,2009
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Censorship
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Governments, private organizations and individuals may engage in censorship. When an individual such as an author or other creator engages in censorship of their own works or speech, Censorship could be direct or indirect, in which case it is referred to as soft censorship. Direct censorship may or may not be legal, depending on the type, location, there are no laws against self-censorship. In 399 BC, Greek philosopher, Socrates, defied attempts by the Greek state to censor his philosophical teachings and was sentenced to death by drinking a poison, hemlock. Socrates student, Plato, is said to have advocated censorship in his essay on The Republic, in contrast to Plato, Greek playwright Euripides defended the true liberty of freeborn men, including the right to speak freely. In 1766, Sweden became the first country to abolish censorship by law, the rationale for censorship is different for various types of information censored, Moral censorship is the removal of materials that are obscene or otherwise considered morally questionable. Pornography, for example, is often censored under this rationale, especially child pornography, Military censorship is the process of keeping military intelligence and tactics confidential and away from the enemy. This is used to counter espionage, which is the process of gleaning military information, political censorship occurs when governments hold back information from their citizens. This is often done to control over the populace and prevent free expression that might foment rebellion. Religious censorship is the means by which any material considered objectionable by a religion is removed. This often involves a dominant religion forcing limitations on less prevalent ones, alternatively, one religion may shun the works of another when they believe the content is not appropriate for their religion. Strict censorship existed in the Eastern Bloc, throughout the bloc, the various ministries of culture held a tight rein on their writers. Cultural products there reflected the needs of the state. Party-approved censors exercised strict control in the early years, in the Stalinist period, even the weather forecasts were changed if they suggested that the sun might not shine on May Day. Under Nicolae Ceauşescu in Romania, weather reports were doctored so that the temperatures were not seen to rise above or fall below the levels which dictated that work must stop. Independent journalism did not exist in the Soviet Union until Mikhail Gorbachev became its leader, pravda, the predominant newspaper in the Soviet Union, had a monopoly. Foreign newspapers were available if they were published by Communist Parties sympathetic to the Soviet Union. Possession and use of copying machines was tightly controlled in order to hinder production and distribution of samizdat, illegal self-published books, possession of even a single samizdat manuscript such as a book by Andrei Sinyavsky was a serious crime which might involve a visit from the KGB
