Tag: Female Revolutionaries

Magda Portal

Published August 19, 2022 by Amy Weitzman

Magda PORTAL (1900–1989) was a Peruvian socialist poet and leader of the Aprista social democratic party (APRA). She contributed to the Peruvian literary movement of the early 1900s, which advocated for indigenismo, anti-imperialism, women’s rights, and property rights. The movement was inspired by other liberation movements, such as the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) and Argentina’s University Reform Movement (1918). Her poetry incorporates romanticism with overtly socialist messages. Additionally, she wrote extensively about her own experiences, particularly exclusion from male-dominated politics.

Portal is notable as a founder of APRA, one of the oldest political parties in Latin America. With her influence, it became the first Peruvian political party to recruit women. However, she abandoned it when it shifted to the ideological center. She wrote her only novel, La Trampa, to represent her negative experiences with the party before joining Peru’s Communist Party. Although she is renowned for being a woman in leftist spheres, her writings on other issues are significant. One example of her socialist poetry is “Proletarian Song.” Its vivid imagery of manual labor expresses the necessity of class reform. Her poetry often advocated for indigenous people’s integration into the state and society as well. Furthermore, she valued unity. Her correspondence reveals her desire for Latin American unity against the imperialist United States. She saw the Mexican Revolution as the model that all Latin American countries should follow, in order to not only protect individual rights domestically, but also create ideological unity across the region.

FURTHER READING

Portal, Magda. “Magda Portal Papers,” November 29, 1913. University of Texas Libraries.

Weaver, Kathleen. Peruvian Rebel: The World of Magda Portal, with a Selection of Her Poems. Illustrated edition. University Park (Pa.): Penn State University Press, 2011.

Portal, Magda, and Daniel R. Reedy. Hope and the Sea by Magda Portal. Translated by Kathleen Weaver. Dulzorada, 2021.

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Sarojini Naidu

Published May 16, 2022 by Rush Lee

Sarojini NAIDU (1879-1949) was an Indian freedom fighter, poet, and good friend of Mahatma Gandhi. Her primary focus was advocating for India’s emancipation from British colonial rule. She proscribed to Gandhi’s method of Satyagraha and participated in the Quit India Movement. Like Gandhi, she opposed Partition and advocated for the secularism of Indian as well as Hindu-Muslim unity. She succeeded Gandhi as the President of the Indian National Congress and later became the first Governor if the United Provinces.

Naidu’s advocated heavily for women’s emancipation, providing a feminist perspective from Partition-era India. After working for women’s suffrage in London, she articulated that women’s freedom and agency were essential to the independence movement. She tailored her arguments to satisfy both men and women, using poetic rhetoric to convince people of women’s capability and importance.

Further reading

Shekhani, Ummekulsoom. “Sarojini Naidu-The Forgotten Orator of India.” Rhetoric Review 36, no. 2 (2017): 139–150.

Naidu, Sarojini. Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu. Third edition. G.A. Natesan, Madras, 1919.

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Jahanara Imam

Jahanara Imam

Published May 16, 2022 by Rush Lee

Jahanara IMAM (1929-1994) was a Bangladeshi nationalist writer and political activist with a focus on shedding light on the atrocities committed during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.

Jahanara’s eldest son Rumi joined the resistance movement, yet she was anxious about his fate. She kept a diary detailing the buildup of the conflict between West and East Pakistan, the martial law instituted on March 25th, the burning of buildings, and the shootings of civilians. She includes a conversation with her and Rumi discussing the potential outcome of deliberations between Yahya Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as well as the nationalist sentiments from the resistance movement. Her diary becomes an essential publication in understanding the toils of the independence movement so much so that she earns the title of “Shaheed Janani,” which means “Mother of Martyrs.”

FURTHER READING

McDermott, Rachel Fell, Leonard A. Gordon, Ainslie T. Embree, Frances W. Pritchett, and Dennis Dalton, eds. “BANGLADESH: Independence and Controversies Over the Fruits of Freedom.” In Sources of Indian Traditions: Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, 3rd ed., 852–857. Columbia University Press, 2014.

Imam, Jahanara. Of Blood and Fire: The Untold Story of Bangladesh’s War of Independence. South Asia Books, 1998.

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Yamakawa Kikue

Published April 29, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson

YAMAKAWA Kikue (1890-1980) was a renowned socialist, activist, and advisor to the Sekirankai throughout 1921. Born to a prominent family of former samurai, she attended a women’s academy, where she formulated her progressive philosophy. Through encounters with socialist literature, the hypocrisies of capitalist society, and her future husband and founder of the Japanese Communist Party, Yamakawa Hitoshi, Yamakawa Kikue cultivated a belief in the necessity of socialist revolution to attain freedom which transferred to her work with the Sekirankai.

In Mikiso Hane’s Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, Yamakawa’s unique perspective emerges within her memoir. Via descriptions of her formative experiences, she demonstrates a desire to denounce labor abuses and the governmental oppression of women through a cooperative organization. Hence, even without being active in the Sekirankai’s political demonstrations, she engaged with the group through a unified desire to acquire female liberties by overthrowing capitalism. Therefore, despite her eventual disappointment with the Sekirankai’s dissolution, Yamakawa’s revolutionary views influenced the socialist ideology of the collective, which demonstrates feminine resistance throughout the modern period of Japan.

FURTHER READING

Hane, Mikiso. 1998. “The Sekirankai.” In Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, 161–74. University of California Press.

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Hashiura Haruko and the Photographic Legacy of Protest

Published April 29, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson

Hashiura Haruko at the Second May Day Protest, 1921

HASHIURA Haruko (1898-1975) was one of the pivotal figures of the Sekirankai. While not a prominent leader of the small feminist collective, she is recognized for her acts of protest with the group, especially for her work in the second May Day Protest. Moreover, as she was born to a family of active socialists, she learned at an early age about socialist principles despite later embracing a nihilist perspective later in life.

Detailed in her testimonies within Mikiso Hane’s Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, Hashiura was famously photographed at the age of 23 while being arrested for participating in the socialist demonstration and assaulting a police officer. Depicting her with confidence and composure, this photograph was published by the Yomiuri Shinbun, which rallied members of the left and represented the power evoked by the Sekirankai. While Hashiura died displeased with the success of her photo, her writings indicate that she utilized the abuse and struggles she encountered to advocate for feminist reform.

FURTHER READING

Hane, Mikiso. 1998. “The Sekirankai.” In Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, 131–38. University of California Press.

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The Sekirankai

Published April 29, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson

The Sekirankai (1921), or Red Wave Society, was a Japanese women’s-rights organization born from leftist members of a Japanese newspaper group called the Seito circle. Established explicitly by Sakai Magara, Hashirura Haruko, Kutsumi Fusako, and Akizuki Shizue, these socialist figures assembled the group as a response to the Taisho government’s misogynistic policies, censorship, and increased militarism. Moreover, with the assistance of various political connections to the Japanese Communist Party and prominent advisors, Yamakawa Kikue and Itō Noe, the organization pushed for a reformist transformation of the Japanese government.

Overall, the Sekirankai is notable for its political rallies in support of feminism and its position as the first women’s socialist organization. Throughout 1921, the association participated in a variety of seminars, leftist book distributions, and public demonstrations, such as the prominent May Day Protest. However, following a surge in imprisonment and assassination of the leadership, the group eventually disbanded only six months after its inception. Regardless, the Sekirankai remains an organization that demonstrates the origins of organized female political resistance and reformist ideology within the Taisho period.

FURTHER READING

Hartley, Barbara. 2020. “Sakai Magara: Activist Girl of Early Twentieth Century Japan.” Girlhood Studies 13 (2): 103–18. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2020.130209.

Hane, Mikiso. 1998. “The Sekirankai.” In Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, 125-27. University of California Press.

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Kaneko Fumiko and Anarchism in the Meiji Restoration

Published April 1, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson

KANEKO Fumiko (1903-1926) was a political activist who advocated for an anarchist approach to Japanese society in response to the Meiji Restoration. Born out of wedlock to an impoverished mother and unrecognized by her father, Kaneko encountered the hardships of society very early in life, which eventually led her towards nihilism. However, even though these disadvantages could solely rationalize her anarchist perspective, her emigration to Korea and experience witnessing the mistreatment of Korean servants altered her stance on government and Japanese society.

Within interrogation records translated in Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, Kaneko describes her initial endorsement of socialist policies and eventual criticism of the system. With frequent criticism of the upper-class and the emperor system, Kaneko became known as a thinker who embraced the futility of life and denounced all people’s greed and hypocrisy. Therefore, even though Kaneko was eventually imprisoned for her controversial opinions and ultimately committed suicide at age 23, her political perspectives remain markers of the disillusionment with the parliamentary government of the Meiji Era.

FURTHER READING

Hane, Mikiso. 1998. Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan. University of California Press.

Theodore, William, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E Tiedemann. 2005. “Socialism and the Left.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition. Vol. 2. New York: Columbia University Press.

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