Virtual Branch Film

How did a group of women activists with varied ideological backgrounds construct several important campaigns against fascism in the interwar period? How did this Women's World Committee against War and Fascism (Comité Mondial des Femmes contre la Guerre et le Fascisme) undertake effective humanitarian and propaganda work and forge extensive transnational links, all the while operating under the control of the Communist International (Comintern)? 

In this Virtual Branch talk Jasmine Calver discusses how women made an activist space for themselves by engaging with sometimes complementary, oftentimes conflicting ideologies, while considering the extent and impact of Comintern control on the group's activism. 

Jasmine Calver is a historian of women’s activist history, focusing on the intersection of feminist, communist, and anti-fascist activism in the interwar period in a transnational framework. Her first monograph, Anti-Fascism, Gender, and International Communism: The Comité Mondial des Femmes contre la Guerre et le Fascisme, 1934 – 1941, was published in November 2022 by Routledge as part of the Fascism and the Far Right series.