Half the World, A Century of Communist Women’s Writing, edited by Bennett Shoop, is an important contribution to the historiography of women in struggle and of Communists working out a dynamic, scientific understanding of women’s struggles, including those of African American, Chicano, Indigenous, and white women who have contributed to and lead that effort. Published by International Publishers in 2024, Half the World is already in its second printing. “The selections in this book,” Shoop suggests, “are representative of both central figures in the Communist Party’s history, and key ideas and narratives.”

Bennett Shoop is a historian. Their training shifted from queer and feminist theory to radical historiography after encountering Marxist friends and colleagues and reading Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left by Emily K. Hobson.

Half the World’s chronological structure highlights the developing scientific understanding of women’s issues that is a part of the analytical method of the Communist Party USA, which was founded in 1919 and recently celebrated its 105th year of struggle. The selections included span from Jeanette D. Pearl’s 1922 Call to Revolutionary Women to Elisabeth Armstrong’s 2023 The Economics of War and Peace.

Separated into periods of struggle, there are seven parts:

1. Communist Women During the First Decade (1922–1929)
2. The Third Period (1930–1935)
3. Women in the Popular Front (1936–1940)
4. Redefining the “Women Question” (1947–1962)
5. Communist Women in the Era of Women’s Liberation (1968–1977)
6. Communist Women at the End of the Century (1979–1998)
7. The Twenty-First Century (2002–2023)

This review will not summarize those parts, nor develop a consistent narrative. It highlights some of the essays, chosen almost randomly, among the gems in this collection. Readers should understand that, while women in the Party often wrote about issues especially impacting women, their contributions were in the context of democratic Marxist scientific trends in the Party, and together touch on a wide variety of aspects of the political challenges at the time their essays were written.

In their preface to Part 1: “Communist Women During the First Decade,” Shoop suggests that “Rather than toeing the Party’s line, women like Anna Damon voiced their criticisms in the Party press, accusing their male comrades of ignoring women’s work, leaving the struggle to women alone.” That the women’s criticisms were published in the Party’s press suggests an organizational openness to the discussion. The outspoken women Communists of the time were vocal in their criticisms and their support for the struggle for socialism and for the Communist Party USA.

The Russian Revolution was triumphant in 1917. White women in the United States won the right to vote in 1920. Capturing the working class hopes of the moment, writing in 1922, Jeannette D. Pearl drafted a “Call to Revolutionary Women.” She found the “stage is being set for a clean sweep by the Communists of the world. A new order is being ushered in, an order that will make human life sacred and the enjoyment of happiness a reality, not a ‘pursuit.’”

Pearl was a member of the Woman’s Bureau of the Party, created to “devise and develop methods of education, agitation and organization to meet the special needs of women to make them class conscious and to draw them into active co-operation in the labor struggle.” Later in the same year, Pearl said in “Women and the Revolutionary Vanguard,” that the “restrictions civilization imposed upon women together with the handicap imposed by nature in maternal functions and the illusions anticipated that marriage offers a haven of shelter, have all aided in retarding the progressive development of women as a whole. It is much more difficult to win women to a revolutionary cause than it is to win men. … Women trained in Communism are needed not only for active participation in party work, but also to penetrate every existing organization of working women in order to draw women into the revolutionary movement.” How to address that difficulty, and whether that difficulty remains a concrete reality, are underlying themes in many of the essays.

Women in industry

By 1926, the concerns about the conditions of women’s lives had expanded beyond a focus on labor struggles to a critique of the “housewife” role. Margaret Cowl suggested, in “Win the Women for Communism,” there “are still quite a number of comrades, specially women comrades active in the trade unions who have not gotten rid of the ‘housewife character’ of work among women. Even now, when we are attempting to build the party apparatus for women’s work, in almost every instance it is necessary to explain to the comrades that women’s work is a part of the general work and that the most important part of Communist work among women is the work among the women in the factories and trade unions as the more important section of working class women, therefore women’s work is not to be limited to the women comrades who do not work in the factories for a wage.” This article, focusing on what would be a growing population of women in labor, also starts to question the culturally defined roles that workers are assigned under capitalism, a discussion carried forward by the LGBTQ+ community and others.

Grace Lamb, in 1929, contributed “Negro Women in Industry Are Facing Many Tasks,” surveying the penetration of African American women into industrial labor work and the challenges arising from a disappearing peasant environment. The experience of African American women, and all African Americans, takes place in the dynamic and changing economic context of the struggle to survive in their time. The working conditions of African American women were dismal, with the majority working more than 9 hours a day in unhealthy conditions. Lamb concludes that, above all, “they must join the party which leads the struggle of the working class for better conditions, the Communist Party U.S.A.” The solution to the brutality of capitalist exploitation could only be found in the revolutionary transformation of U.S. society. This is a theme that also runs through many of the articles collected.

In 1928, the Sixth World Congress of the Communist International marked, Shoop found, “the beginning of the so-called ‘Third Period.’ It was theorized that after the first period of revolutionary uprisings in the aftermath of the first World War and the second period of capitalist expansion, there would be a monumental period of crisis in global capitalism, inevitably leading to its end. The Communist Party USA saw this crisis in the form of the Great Depression. … American Communists during this time expected a fast-approaching revolution and responded by orienting their agitation to advocate for the imminent overthrow of the capitalist system.” In this context, attention to African American women also became more pronounced.

“Of all workers under capitalism, [Black] women are the most exploited.”

Grace Hutchins’ 1930 article, “Negro Women Workers Fight Against Conditions of Slavery,” asserted, “Of all workers under capitalism, Negro women are the most exploited. Slaving longest hours at lowest pay, nearly 2,000,000 unorganized Negro women workers call out to fellow workers for help through organization.” Hutchins went on to explore where these women work and what they did, ending “Negro women workers, Organize!”

Fannie Austin, also in 1930, in “The Negro Working Women,” suggests that “Negro working women in the United States must play a very important and revolutionary role in the class struggle against miserable and inhuman slaving conditions which are now existing … Negro working women! You are handled by the exploiting parasites as if you are sold to them. They hire and fire you any time they feel like it. Are you going to let those fat-bellied bosses fool and enslave you forever? Are you going to be pressed down and stepped upon forever — or are you going to unite with your white working women sisters in struggle, in battle against the capitalist oppressive system — against the wage slave lynching system?” Unity of African American and white workers is moving toward the center of the discussion on women’s struggles.

This growing concern with the struggles of African American women is continued in 1931 with Maude White’s “Against White Chauvinism in the Philadelphia Needle Trades.” “Our revolutionary trade union movement must never fail to utilize every possible means to win the sympathy and support of the Negro workers and toiling masses. There is no better way of doing this than by actually fighting for them.” White continues to describe a concrete case of white workers holding a dance but refusing admission to Negro workers. Our “comrades failed to take a decisive stand,” White said. “They had to think whether to lose these Custom Tailors [the white workers] by admitting the Negro workers, or keep them in one union by refusing admission to them. They could not foresee the effect a correct and decisive stand in this matter would have on all Negro workers and the benefits gained by the entire revolutionary movement.” The tension between white chauvinism and principles of Communist anti-racist and anti-sexist unity were clearly displayed in this article. Party leader Losovsky said, “I hold that an incident like this is simply a crying disgrace and a blot upon the revolutionary labor movement. And members of revolutionary unions or Communists of that type, if there happen to be Communists amongst them, should be thrown out neck and crop.” [emphasis in the original]

The fight for equality is the cornerstone of working class unity.

The CPUSA today recognizes that all workers carry within them assumptions and behaviors that reflect the ideologies of the ruling bourgeois class. Today, the Party’s Constitution says, “Communists prioritize the fight for equality as the cornerstone of the working class unity essential to the advancement of our common interests. It shall be the obligation of all Party members to struggle against all racist ideologies and practices.” The Constitution also says, “Comrades should assist each other to overcome weaknesses and shortcomings as much as possible and prior to taking any actions.”

The concerns about African American women’s oppression were expanded to include women of all races and ethnicities. Grace Hutchins found, “Capitalism aims to keep women subordinate. Especially is this true of women’s labor power so widely used by the employing class to beat down the prices of men’s labor power.” Casting her eye to African American women’s struggles, Hutchins wrote, “With about two million Negro women ‘gainfully occupied’ in the United States, their position in industry is of particular importance to the entire working class. They are especially oppressed.” This oppression of women is not limited to the workplace, but includes the work of helping a family thrive. “Capitalism provides no free day nurseries or nursery schools, no rest periods for nursing the young babies, no factory kitchens. … These demands,” which go beyond the workplace demands common in labor negotiations, “should be included with the basic demand for shortening the working day.”

One can see that the dialog around women’s struggles was expanding, and would continue to expand, maybe not smoothly, to take in more of the whole impact of capitalism, systemic racism, white chauvinism, and male chauvinism on women’s lives and ability to thrive.

One of the most moving articles in this section is “Southern Terror” by Louise Thompson, describing her arrest at the hands of racists. Thompson quotes threats made to her. “What about turning this gal over to the Ku Klux Klan? I reckon they know how to handle her kind,” for example. Yet Thompson persevered, finding, “it is impossible to take one step in the direction of winning for the Negro people their elementary rights that is not revolutionary. Capitalism developed in America upon the super exploitation of the Negro people and through the division created between white and Negro labor. Any attempt to end this super-exploitation, to destroy the enmity and to unite Negro and white labor is a blow at American capitalism.” The same is true of building anti-fascist unity between working women and men today, which demands a resolute struggle against male chauvinism and white chauvinism.

Women in the popular front

Starting in 1935, following on the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International, Shoop said in Half the World, Part Three: “Women in the Popular Front” that the Communist Party “shifted its framework of class against class and impending revolution and turned towards the work of broad anti-fascism.” Anti-fascist work was vital in the period leading up to WWII during which there were active fascist states, such as in Spain and Italy, and a fascist movement in the United States. The objective conditions of struggle demanded, as they demand today, a resolute focus on building a popular front against fascism. Women played a leading role in that effort, and addressed weaknesses where they were found. Clara Bodian wrote in her 1936 essay “Awakening American Women to the Dangers of War and Fascism” about the 1,100 women who attended the August 1932 World Congress Against War and Fascism. “The objective of the Congress was to lay a basis for building a mass united front movement on an international scale — against Hunger, War and Fascism.”

Examining the follow up two years later, Bodian comments, “Despite the constant emphasis in Party resolutions on the importance of work among women there still exists a serious underestimation of this work. On the other hand, our enemies are not asleep. The various reactionary organizations are aware of the importance of organizing women under their influence. Right now the Republican and Democratic Parties are busy gathering their forces to rally the women’s vote. Little do these women realize that they are being utilized against their own interests.” Women were placing important questions before the Party regarding putting meat on the bones of spoken commitments to the equality of women regardless of their race or ethnicity.

“The Mexican people’s movement in the Southwest will constitute one more important and powerful link in the growing movement for the democratic front.” – Emma Tenayuca

In “The Mexican Question in the Southwest” by Emma Tenayuca (with Homer Brooks) (1939), the “treatment meted out to the Mexicans as a whole” is addressed, concluding “The Mexican people’s movement in the Southwest will constitute one more important and powerful link in the growing movement for the democratic front in the United States. The achievement of its objectives will be a decisive step toward the national unification of the American people.” Today, this fight for unity is under attack from the Trump–MAGA administration as they attempt to pit African Americans against migrants, and to separate white women from African American women to weaken the resistance.

Half the World documents the contributions of women to significant debates taking place in the Communist Party USA from the inception of the Party until today. These contributions show the diversity of interests that have drawn women’s attention, including the role of women in the labor force, the impact of domestic work, the triple oppression of African American women, broad issues of anti-fascist and united front work, national questions, and the struggle for peace.

Women in the fight for peace

In the final article in the book, Elisabeth Armstrong comments in “Women’s Equality: The Economics of War and Peace,” suggesting that in “the Communist Party (USA) we fight for equality extended to all historically disenfranchised people, including working-class women. … When we seek women’s equality, we, as Marxists, hold this complexity of paid, productive and unpaid, reproductive labor in our aspirations. In this sense, women’s equality has legal, cultural, political, and social components — but it also has an economics. … Like women’s equality, peace and war also have an economics. … The ‘economics of peace’ refers to creating a social fabric of relationships around the world that reinforce our shared, indeed mutual, needs for food, clothing, shelter, education, rest, creativity, joy, and well-being. … To create an economy that supports the lives of working-class women, working-class men, and working-class young people, we must shift our current war economy to a peace economy. … Since we, as socialists, value all peoples’ lives, we know the solution lies in redistributing federal resources for the largest number of people to create a world where everyone can thrive. A people’s peace economy supports women’s rights at work and in their communities to live in a world made strong through peace, with full rights and bodily autonomy.

Essays by women collected in Half the World: A Century of Communist Women’s Writing add historical context to today’s struggles for women’s equality, to end systemic racism, for peace, and for socialism. Some of the articles bring the personal bravery to light of women standing strong in the face of fascist violence, unwavering when confronted by the KKK and other fascistic forces. Other contributions raise theoretical questions, some of which remain under discussion today. The tension between the ongoing effort to build unity among workers and the impact of fascist violence and capitalist ideologies remains as true today as it was in 1919, and the Communist Party USA, applying dynamic and scientific analysis to understanding both what is consistent and what is new, continues to struggle for women’s equality, for a peace economy, for working class power to influence social policy on their class’ behalf, and for socialism today.

To end, the following is taken from “She Who Would Be Free — Resistance” by Maude White Katz (1962): “the Negro woman has had enough. Her hope now, as in the past, lies in resistance. She will oppose the ideas and customs of the slave plantation that have set the pattern for her inferior status in the social, economic, political, legal, and cultural life of the nation. That in substance, is the goal of her activities.” Let’s all, women and men, stand with African American women, and all working and oppressed peoples, in reaching that goal, which will contribute fundamentally to the liberation of all peoples globally from capitalist enslavement. Resist!

The opinions of the author do not necessarily reflect the positions of the CPUSA.

Images: CPUSA, International Publishers; SEIU 721 members at SFV Pride by SEIU 721 (X); Rosie the Riveter by Alfred T. Palmer / Library of Congress, Wikipedia (public domain); CLUW members at an AFL-CIO event by CLUW (X);