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Jessie Street: Activism Without Discrimination

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The Transnational Activist

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements ((PSHSM))

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Abstract

This chapter explores the transnational career of the Australian activist Jessie Street. From the 1920s until the 1960s, Street worked tirelessly in the international networks of feminist, peace, and anti-colonial activism, respectively. As such, her career registered many of the transformations in transnational activists’ methods and objectives—and also their contradictions. Although commanding respect across both sides of the Iron Curtain, Street could not resolve Cold War divisions in the feminist and peace movements. Most notably, her advocacy for Australian Indigenous peoples’ rights drew on resources from anti-colonial liberation struggles, but Street never fully shed the maternalist premise for ‘protection’ of Indigenous peoples that was first forged in a colonial childhood.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Karen Offen, European Feminisms 1700–1950: A Political History, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000, pp. 386–387.

  2. 2.

    Jessie Street , ‘Sketches of Paris,’ 1945, Papers of Lady Jessie Street, MS 2683/4/1334-1337, National Library of Australia (hereafter cited as Street Papers).

  3. 3.

    Works about Street include Peter Sekuless, Jessie Street: A Rewarding but Unrewarded Life, St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1978; Lenore Coltheart , ‘Citizens of the World: Jessie Street and International Feminism’, Hecate, vol. 31, no. 1, 2005, pp. 182–195; and the essays collected in Heather Radi, ed., Jessie Street: Documents and Essays, Sydney: Women’s Redress Press, 1990.

  4. 4.

    David Thelen, ‘The Nation and Beyond: Transnational Perspectives on United States History,’ The Journal of American History, vol. 86, no. 3, 1999, pp. 965–975.

  5. 5.

    Marilyn Lake, ‘Nationalist Historiography, Feminist Scholarship, and the Promise and Problems of New Transnational Histories: The Australian Case’, Journal of Women’s History, vol. 19, no. 1, 2007, pp. 180–186.

  6. 6.

    Ian Tyrrell, ‘Reflections on the Transnational Turn in United States History: Theory and Practice’, Journal of Global History, vol. 4, no. 3, 2009, pp. 453–474; For examples of this, see Glenda Sluga, Internationalism in the Age of Nationalism, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013; Bryan S. Turner, ‘Cosmopolitan Virtue, Globalization and Patriotism’, Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 19, no. 1–2, 2002, pp. 45–63; Craig Calhoun , ‘The Class Consciousness of Frequent Travelers: Toward a Critique of Actually Existing Cosmopolitanism,’ South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 101, no. 4, 2002, pp. 869–897.

  7. 7.

    Penny Russell, ‘Jessie Street and International Feminism’, in Radi 1990, pp. 181–191; Coltheart , ‘Citizens of the World.’

  8. 8.

    Sidney Tarrow , The New Transnational Activism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 42.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., p. 25.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., p. 29.

  11. 11.

    Heather Radi, ‘Street, Jessie Mary,’ Australian Dictionary of Biography, available [online]: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/street-jessie-mary-11789 [Access Date 18 March 2016].

  12. 12.

    Zora Simic , ‘“Mrs Street—Now There’s a Subject:” Historicising Jessie Street.’ Australian Feminist Studies, vol. 20, no. 48, 2005, pp. 296–297.

  13. 13.

    Jessie Street and Lenore Coltheart , Jessie Street: A Revised Autobiography, Armadale: Federation Press, 2004, p. 26.

  14. 14.

    For European perspectives, see Leila J. Rupp, ‘Constructing Internationalism : The Case of Transnational Women’s Organizations, 1888–1945,’ The American Historical Review, 1994, pp. 1571–1600; on Commonwealth feminist networks, see Angela Woollacott, ‘Inventing Commonwealth and Pan-Pacific Feminisms: Australian Women’s Internationalist Activism in the 1920–30s,’ in Globalizing Feminisms, 1789–1945, Karen Offen, ed., London : Routledge, 2010, pp. 217–231.

  15. 15.

    Russell, ‘Jessie Street and International Feminism ,’ p. 182.

  16. 16.

    Radi, ‘Street, Jessie Mary’.

  17. 17.

    Lake, Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1999, Chap. 7.

  18. 18.

    Lake, ‘From Self-Determination Via Protection to Equality Via Non-Discrimination: Defining Women’s Rights at the League of Nations and the United Nations ,’ in Women’s Rights and Human Rights: International Historical Perspectives, Katie Holmes, Patricia Grimshaw, and Marilyn Lake, eds., Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001, pp. 254–271.

  19. 19.

    Lake, ‘Jessie Street and “feminist chauvinism,”’ in Jessie Street: Documents and Essays, p. 21.

  20. 20.

    Barbara Bush, ‘Feminising Empire? British Women’s Activist Networks in Defending and Challenging Empire from 1918 to Decolonisation,’ Women’s History Review, vol. 25, no. 4, 2016, p. 508.

  21. 21.

    Street, ‘A Call to Capitanists [sic],’ ca. 1932–1933, Street Papers, MS 2683/7; for Street’s later account of her early interest in socialism, see Street and Coltheart, Jessie Street: A Revised Autobiography, pp. 80–81.

  22. 22.

    For an account of Street’s visits to the Soviet Union , see Coltheart, ‘Jessie Street and the Soviet Union,’ in Political Tourists: Travellers from Australia to the Soviet Union in the 1920–1940s, Sheila Fitzpatrick and Carolyn Rasmussen, eds., Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2008, pp. 277–300.

  23. 23.

    Street, ‘The Position of Women in the U.S.S.R. as I found it in 1938,’ n.d. Street Papers, MS 2683/3/1168-75.

  24. 24.

    ‘World Broadcast From Moscow ,’ 1950, Street Papers, MS 2683/7.

  25. 25.

    For a classic account of the ‘fellow travelers,’ see David Caute, The Fellow-Travellers, London: Quartet Books, 1977.

  26. 26.

    Street to the Sydney Morning Herald, 4 June 1946, Street Papers, MS 2683/7/60.

  27. 27.

    Coltheart , ‘Jessie Street and the Soviet Union’; this is similar to Caute’s argument about British fellow travellers.

  28. 28.

    E.P. Thompson, Beyond the Frontier: the Politics of a Failed Mission, Bulgaria 1944, Rendlesham: Merlin, 1997, p. 56.

  29. 29.

    Lydia Kislova to Street, 2 May 1942, Street Papers, MS 2683/7/45.

  30. 30.

    Street to Kislova, 10 August 1942, Street Papers, MS 2683/7/48–49.

  31. 31.

    Untitled, 1945, Street Papers, MS 2683/4/1343-49.

  32. 32.

    Street, ‘International Conference in Defence of Children’, n.d., Street Papers, MS 2683/4/1124-25.

  33. 33.

    Sluga, Internationalism in the Age of Nationalism, pp. 89–90.

  34. 34.

    Devaki Jain, Women, Development, and the UN: A Sixty-Year Quest for Equality and Justice, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005, pp. 16–18.

  35. 35.

    Henk te Velde, ‘Political Transfer: An Introduction,’ European Review of History, vol. 12, no. 2, 2005, pp. 205–221.

  36. 36.

    Lake, Getting Equal, pp. 190–194.

  37. 37.

    Jain, Women, Development, and the UN, pp. 12–15.

  38. 38.

    Untitled, 13 May 1945, Street Papers, MS 2683/5/201-2.

  39. 39.

    Glenda Sluga and Sunil Amrith, ‘New Histories of the United Nations,’ Journal of World History, vol. 19, no. 3, 2008, pp. 268–269.

  40. 40.

    ‘B.B.C. Broadcast by Mrs. Jessie Street ,’ 1945, Street Papers, MS 2683/5/217-19; Mark Mazower details the process whereby, elsewhere, ‘formalist’ aspirations for the UN and its rights agenda gave way to hopes for its effectiveness as a ‘moral’ force. See Mark Mazower, ‘The Strange Triumph of Human Rights, 1933–1950,’ The Historical Journal, vol. 47, no. 2, 2004, pp. 379–398.

  41. 41.

    On the CSW, see Helen Laville, Cold War Women: The International Activities of American Women’s Organisations, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002, pp. 113–114; ‘“Woolly, Half-Baked and Impractical?” British Responses to the Commission on the Status of Women and the Convention on the Political Rights of Women 1946–67,’ Twentieth Century British History, vol. 23, no. 4, 2012, pp. 473–495; Laura Reanda, ‘The Commission on the Status of Women,’ in The United Nations and Human Rights: A Critical Appraisal, Philip Alston, ed., Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1992, pp. 268–269.

  42. 42.

    Russell, ‘Jessie Street and International Feminism,’ p. 189.

  43. 43.

    Laura Reanda, ‘The Commission on the Status of Women,’ in The United Nations and Human Rights: A Critical Appraisal, Philip Alston, ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992, pp. 300–301.

  44. 44.

    Ben Chifley to Jessie Street , 14 April 1949, Street Papers, MS 2683/5/147; Street to Herbert Evatt, 19 December 1947, Street Papers, MS 2683/5/88-89. Also see Sekuless for the role of the public service and women’s organisations in influencing Street’s removal from the CSW: Sekuless, Jessie Street, p. 140.

  45. 45.

    Muriel Tribe to Jessie Street, 3 October 1951, Street Papers, MS 2683/3/464; Street to Tribe, 22 October 1951, Street Papers, MS 2683/3/465.

  46. 46.

    See Street’s correspondence with Labor Party figures, 1946, Street Papers, MS 2683/6/37-55.

  47. 47.

    Sekuless, Jessie Street, pp. 146–155.

  48. 48.

    Offen, European Feminisms, p. 387.

  49. 49.

    Lawrence S Wittner, Resisting the Bomb: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, 1954–1970, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997, p. 88.

  50. 50.

    Francisca de Haan , ‘Continuing Cold War Paradigms in Western Historiography of Transnational Women’s Organisations: The Case of the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF),’ Women’s History Review, vol. 19, no. 4, 2010, pp. 547–573; Melanie Ilic, ‘Soviet Women, Cultural Exchange and the Women’s International Democratic Federation,’ in Reassessing Cold War Europe, Sari Autio-Sarasmo and Katalin Miklóssy, eds., London: Routledge, 2011, pp. 157–174.

  51. 51.

    Phillip Deery, ‘The Dove Flies East: Whitehall, Warsaw and the 1950 World Peace Congress,’ Australian Journal of Politics and History, vol. 48, no. 4, 2002, pp. 449–468.

  52. 52.

    De Haan, ‘Eugénie Cotton, Pak Chong-ae, and Claudia Jones: Rethinking Transnational Feminism and International Politics,’ Journal of Women’s History, vol. 25, no. 4, 2013, p. 180.

  53. 53.

    Paula F. Pfeffer, ‘“A Whisper in the Assembly of Nations:” United States ’ Participation in the International Movement for Women’s Rights from the League of Nations to the United Nations ,’ Women’s Studies International Forum, vol. 8, no. 5, 1985, pp. 466–467.

  54. 54.

    ‘Minutes of Council Meeting of World Woman’s Party,’ 4 January 1953, Street Papers, MS 2683/3/1309d.

  55. 55.

    Alice Paul to Street, 10 April 1951, Street Papers, MS 2683/3/462; Paul to Street, n.d., Street Papers, MS 2683/3/470; Paul to Street, 17 May 1952, Street Papers, MS 2683/3/475.

  56. 56.

    Street to Paul, 6 October 1953, Street Papers, MS 2683/3/485-6.

  57. 57.

    ‘Seminar on the Status of Women: report,’ 1956, Street Papers, MS 2683/3/1389.

  58. 58.

    G. Fenoaltea and Jean Laffitte to Street, 28 September 1950, Street Papers, MS 2683/4/25.

  59. 59.

    Mary Jennison to Laffitte, 13 October 1950, Street, Papers, MS 2683/4/34.

  60. 60.

    Street, ‘Report of a Visit to Canada,’ Street Papers, MS 2683/4/1357-61.

  61. 61.

    Street to Rev. Willard Brewing , 2 November 1950, Street Papers, MS 2683/4/37.

  62. 62.

    Letter, 4 October 1950, Street Papers, MS 2683/4/26-28.

  63. 63.

    Street to Jean Laffitte , 12 September 1950, Street Papers, MS 2683/4/24.

  64. 64.

    Street, ‘United Nations and the World Peace Council,’ 22 February 1951, Street Papers, MS 2683/4/478-83.

  65. 65.

    Samuel Moyn , The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History, Cambridge: The Belknap Press, 2010, Chap. 2.

  66. 66.

    Deery, ‘The Dove Flies East.’

  67. 67.

    Street to Harold Holt , 19 November 1950, Street Papers, MS 2683/4/50.

  68. 68.

    See correspondence, Street Papers, MS 2683/4/89-109.

  69. 69.

    Isabelle Blume to Street, 21 February 1956, Street Papers, MS 2683/4/258-59.

  70. 70.

    Street to Blume, 28 February 1956, Street Papers, MS 2683/4/260-61.

  71. 71.

    Gertrude Bussey and Margaret Tims, Pioneers for Peace: Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom 1915–1965, London: WILPF British Section, 1980, p. 196.

  72. 72.

    Sluga, Internationalism in the Age of Nationalism, pp. 122–125.

  73. 73.

    Street, unaddressed circular, n.d., Street Papers, MS 2683/4/195.

  74. 74.

    Street, ‘My Impression of China,’ 7 October 1954, 1390, Street Papers, MS 2683/4/1385-90.

  75. 75.

    Untitled, ca. 1964, Street Papers, MS 2683/4/1409-14.

  76. 76.

    Jain, Women, Development, and the UN, pp. 27–28.

  77. 77.

    Moyn , The Last Utopia, pp. 84–85.

  78. 78.

    Chandra Talpante Mohanty , ‘Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,’ Feminist Review, vol. 30, 1988, pp. 61–88; Antoinette Burton, ‘Thinking Beyond the Boundaries: Empire, Feminism and the Domains of Feminism,’ Social History, vol. 26, no. 1, 2001, pp. 60–71.

  79. 79.

    Thomas Fox-Pitt to Anthony Wedgwood Benn, 11 June 1956, Street Papers, MS 2683/3/518.

  80. 80.

    Street, ‘Domestic Jurisdiction and the United Nations Charter,’ Street Papers, MS 2683/5/517-8.

  81. 81.

    Street, ‘Woman – Internationally Seen’, 10 December 1963, Street Papers, MS 2683/5/524-33.

  82. 82.

    Street, ‘Domestic Jurisdiction and the United Nations Charter,’ ca. 1960, Street Papers, MS 2683/5/517-18.

  83. 83.

    See Roland Burke, ‘From Individual Rights to National Development: The First UN International Conference on Human Rights, Tehran, 1968,’ Journal of World History, vol. 19, no. 3, 2008, pp. 275–296; Arvonne S. Fraser, ‘The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (the Women’s Convention),’ in Women, Politics, and the United Nations, Anne Winslow, ed., Westport: Greenwood Press, 1995, pp. 77–94; Reanda, ‘The Commission on the Status of Women,’ pp. 289–291.

  84. 84.

    Street to Lakshmi Menon , 30 December 1960, Street Papers, MS 2683/5/181.

  85. 85.

    ‘The Return of Lady Jessie Street,’ The Argus, 13 December 1956; Sekuless, Jessie Street, pp. 165–166.

  86. 86.

    ‘Press Statement made by Lady Jessie Street on her return to Australia,’ Street Papers, MS 2683/4/1444.

  87. 87.

    ‘The Return of Lady Jessie Street,’ The Argus, 13 December 1956, p. 1.

  88. 88.

    Sekuless, Jessie Street, pp. 163–189.

  89. 89.

    Lake, ‘Citizenship as Non-Discrimination: Acceptance or Assimilationism? Political Logic and Emotional Investment in Campaigns for Aboriginal Rights in Australia, 1940 to 1970,’ Gender and History, vol. 13, no. 3, 2001, p. 567.

  90. 90.

    Street, ‘Visit to Alma Ata and Tashkent ,’ June 1958, Street Papers, MS 2683/7.

  91. 91.

    Leila J. Rupp and Verta Taylor, ‘Forging Feminist Identity in an International Movement: A Collective Identity Approach to Twentieth-Century Feminism,’ Signs, vol. 24, no. 2, 1999, pp. 363–386.

  92. 92.

    Street, ‘Visit to Alma Ata and Tashkent .’

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  1. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Chloe Ward

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  1. Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Stefan Berger

  2. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Sean Scalmer

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Ward, C. (2018). Jessie Street: Activism Without Discrimination. In: Berger, S., Scalmer, S. (eds) The Transnational Activist. Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66206-0_9

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