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5 - Revolutionary Women’s Praxis to Bury Colonialism, 1945–1949

from Part I - Activists, Intellectuals, and Movements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2025

Anaheed Al-Hardan
Affiliation:
Howard University
Julian Go
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Summary

This chapter examines revolutionary women’s activities over the years of 1948 and 1949, when revolutionary women across the colonized world developed a shared conjunctural analysis of colonialism and built a solidarity durable enough to allow them to imagine independence without imperialism and without patriarchy. Scaffolded by the Women’s International Democratic Federation, they held international meetings in Budapest, Hungary in 1948 and Beijing, PRC in 1949 with leftist and communist women from every continent in the world with American-led financial capitalism and European colonial occupation at the top of their agenda. The scale of their analytic reach fostered a nimble response to regional specificities and allowed women in their localities to develop creative responses on the local levels of their organizing. Together, their analysis and political organization built a revolutionary praxis that built the future even as it buried the past.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

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