Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism: The Comité Mondial des Femmes contre la Guerre et le Fascisme, 1934 – 1941

Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism provides a comprehensive history of the Comite mondial des femmes contre la guerre et le fascisme (CMF), an international women’s organisation concerned with confronting the impact of fascism on women and children across the globe. Women played an essential role in the international struggle against fascism during the interwar period, although a focus on the efforts of men and political figures by the historiography has largely overshadowed women’s interventions against right-wing dictatorships. Through an examination of the committee’s key figures, strategies, connections, and campaigns, this book offers a significant contribution to the histories of both women’s activism and anti-fascist activism by positioning the CMF as an important contributor to international political advocacy in the interwar period. Further, the group’s association with international communism and the burgeoning Popular Front movement placed the CMF at the forefront of global debates about the threat posed by fascism and imperialism. This book explores how the professional women activists and the working-class women who populated the organisation developed a committee which advocated for women on a global scale. It charts how the CMF utilised a variety of physical spaces and literary formats to co-ordinate anti-fascist actions through its expansive and ambitious campaigns. The author also demonstrates the close connections between the Communist International and the CMF as a communist front organisation, to provide context for the group’s decision-making and prioritisation of certain campaigns over others. This book will be of interest to scholars of anti-fascism, feminism, women’s history, communism, activism, internationalism, anti-imperialism, and French history.