World Committee Against War and Fascism
During this period Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, Italy invaded Ethiopia and the Spanish Civil War broke out.
Although some of the women involved were Communists whose priority was preventing attacks on the Soviet Union, many prominent pacifists with different ideologies were members or supporters of the committee.
The Women's branches were particularly active and included feminist leaders such as Gabrielle Duchêne of France, Sylvia Pankhurst of Britain and Dolores Ibárruri of Spain.
Japan conquered Manchuria in 1932 and support for the Nazis was growing in Germany that year, making the Soviet Union fear encirclement and attack by the capitalist powers.
In addition to Barbusse, Rolland and Gorky the members included Albert Einstein, Heinrich Mann, Bertrand Russell, Havelock Ellis, Theodore Dreiser, John Dos Passos, Upton Sinclair and Sherwood Anderson.
It called on "the hand and brain workers in all parties, the trade unions of all tendencies, the peasants and members of the middle classes, the youth and women."
[6] In 1939 the committee's letterhead showed Henri Barbusse as Founder, Romain Rolland as Honorary President, and Francis Jourdain as secretary general.
The council included Paul Langevin, Jean Longuet and André Malraux of France, Sir Norman Angell of England, Heinrich Mann of Germany, Harry F. Ward, Sherwood Anderson and John dos Passos of the United States and A.
[9] British Sponsors of the women's committee included non-Communists such as Charlotte Despard, Sylvia Pankhurst,[b] Ellen Wilkinson, Vera Brittain and Storm Jameson.
[19] Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) organized a large rally at the Olympia hall in London in June 1934.
When the BUF staged another demonstration of 3,000 Fascists in Hyde Park, London on 9 September 1934, Strachey's committee organized a major counter-demonstration by 20,000 anti-Fascists.
Its target audience were "thinking" women who were interested in world affairs and social issues, although it included some articles on domestic subjects.
[2] Most of the American pacifists who supported the League understood its close connection to the Communists and goal of protecting Soviet Russia, but were willing to tolerate this given the growing risk of war.
[27] Ella Reeve Bloor (1862-1951) of the American Communist Party attended the women's congress in Paris in 1934 and was elected to the World Committee.
She became a member of the National Executive Committee of the American League Against War and Fascism, and in this role tried to bring together the labor and pacifist movements.
[28] Clara Shavelson Lemlich was an organizer for the American League Against War and Fascism who often spoke against nuclear weapons and the arms race.
