"At the International Workers' Congress in Paris, held from July 14 to 20, 1889, the political worker of the German and international labor movement, Clara Zetkin, who had directed the women's proletarian movement in Germany since 1890, gave an important speech on the relationship of women's work and capital and the specificity of women's wages in the capitalist system.Indicating that the issue of women's emancipation is not an isolated issue, she asserted that it is necessary to observe it in the context of a wider social reproduction within which both male and female workers share a common interest and the same enemy.
Clara Zetkin,
Speech at the International Workers' Congress in Paris, July 19, 1889:
"...Workers are completely convinced that the issue of women's emancipation is not isolated, but forms part of a broader social issue. It is completely clear to them that this issue cannot be resolved in today's society without a thorough transformation of society itself
and will continue to be in that position until they achieve economic independence. Work is a key prerequisite for their economic independence. If women are to be transformed into free human beings and equal members of society with men, women's work must not be abolished or limited, except in very exceptional cases.
Working women who strive for social equality in the struggle for their own emancipation do not expect anything from the bourgeois women's movement that supposedly fights for women's rights. It is an edifice built on sand and has no realistic foundation. Women workers are fully convinced that the issue of women's emancipation is not isolated, but is part of a broader social issue. It is completely clear to them that this issue cannot be resolved in today's society without a thorough transformation of society itself. The issue of women's emancipation is a child of the new century, born in the age of machines... The emancipation of women, as well as of all humanity, will only occur within the process of the emancipation of labor from capital. Women, as well as workers, will fully realize their rights only in a socialist society. Bearing this in mind, women who are really interested in their own liberation have no other choice but to join the socialist workers' party, which is the only one fighting for the liberation of labor.
Without the help of men, moreover, often against their will, women came under the banner of socialism...But now they stand under that banner and will remain under it! Under him, they will fight for their emancipation and the recognition of women as equal human beings...
Joining the socialist workers' party, they are ready to share all the burden and all the sacrifices that this struggle brings, but they are also firmly determined to demand all the rights that are rightfully theirs after the victory. As far as sacrifices, obligations and rights are concerned, they demand neither more nor less than their male comrades who were accepted into the ranks of fighters under the same conditions.
