Angel Pestaña. Women’s Movement in Spain (1920)

That's one of the articles of Angel Pestana, which was write when he came to Moscow to the Second congress of Comintern. And which was published in Moscow bolshevik's newspaper "Pravda".

Submitted by ASyndicalist on May 2, 2020

If feminism is understood as the complete political and economic emancipation of a women, giving them full freedom and the opportunity to use their abilities in various fields of public life, if we talk about the women’s movement, which aims itself the task of completely social liberation of women from the fetters of the capitalist system, then Spain has a wide female movement. But if feminism means a movement that aims to gain the right to vote or other political rights, then such a movement is very weak in Spain; it is developed mainly among the representatives of the petty-bourgeois class and aristocrats, who have made a kind of sport out of the women’s movement.
This is the position of the women’s movement in Spain.
As for the general situation of women in Spain, it has recently undergone significant changes. When you recall how enormous religion plays in the life of a Spanish woman, how it subjugates her to itself, how it destroys in her every desire and hope for liberation from male custody, one must admit that a great deal has already been done to free women from all the prejudices and shackles that oppress her life. But this is still completely insufficient. There is still a lot of effort ahead. But, in any case, the case has begun.
Especially much has been done in this area by trade unions. In Barcelona, for example, syndicalists have shown a lot of energy in work among women. The most important industry in this city is the textile, and it employs 100 thousand women and children. There are 25,000 organized textile workers in the trade unions of Barcelona. In other industries, such as clothing, there are also tens of thousands of organized women workers.
A great deal is being done by trade unions to educate women, to break them out of the bondage of ignorance and submission in which they are languishing, and the results of this work are very significant.
It can be said without exaggeration that every day the ranks of women fighters are expanding, who are embarking on the path of active struggle for their social liberation. The hour is at hand when a woman in Spain will take up the front lines of the struggling proletariat, a place which her heroic efforts have well earned.

Pravda. Moscow. 22.07.1920. №160.

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