Third Congress of the Communist International

Resolution on Strengthening International Contact and on the Tasks of the Comintern’s International Secretariat on Work among Women.


Source: Theses Resolutions and Manifestos of the First Four Congress of the Third International, translated by Alix Holt and Barbara Holland. Ink Links 1980;
Transcribed: by Andy Blunden.


8 July 1921

1 The Second International Conference of Communist women proposes that all the Communist Parties in both Western and Eastern countries, in accordance with the positions of the III Communist International, authorise their women’s departments to appoint responsible Communist women as international correspondents.

2 It is the duty of the correspondents of the individual national Communist Parties to maintain as far as possible constant exchange of information with the Secretariat in Moscow, which is attached to the Executive Committee of the III Communist International and is responsible for work amongst women.

3 The appointed correspondents can only do their job if they make wide use of all technical and other resources of the Communist Parties of each country, which these Parties are bound to place at their disposal.

4 The International Women’s Secretariat organises regular meetings for correspondents twice a year, or more frequently, if necessary.

5 The IWS in Moscow is closely connected organisationally with the Executive Committee of the Third Communist International and works under its direct leadership and in close contact with the correspondents of all Western and Eastern countries. The IWS pays particular attention to 1) the activity of departments for work among proletarian women in the Communist Parties where insufficient work is being carried out and the basic principles and positions of the III International are being disregarded, 2) giving the women’s Communist movement of all countries a single direction and 3) organising working women’s campaigns on an international scale that can draw the revolutionary movement of the whole proletariat into the struggle for its dictatorship.

6 To achieve the closest contact between working women in different countries and co-ordinate their work, the IWS is setting up a West European auxiliary-technical body, whose task is to undertake preparatory work and carry out the resolutions of the IWS in accordance with the directives of the Secretariat, and also of the Executive Committee of the III Communist International.

7 A representative of the IWS shall be included on the West European auxiliary body.

8 The Executive Committee of the Communist International in conjunction with the IWS decides the composition, the basic tasks, and the scope of activity of the West European auxiliary body.