Where is Our Lysistrata?
The Federation of Women Social Democrats celebrated thirty years of publishing the newspaper Morgonbris in 1934 with events all over the country and took the opportunity within these festivities to make a statement against war and militarism.
In Stockholm, Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata formed an important part of the celebrations.16 At one showing of the play, Federation members occupied the entire Dramaten, the Swedish National Theater. The program began with a separate prologue about the Federation’s battle against war and violence and their fight for freedom and democracy.17 Subsequently, three women discussed their reflections on the performance in Morgonbris under the heading of “Where is Our Lysistrata? Is a Modern Repetition of Lysistrata Conceivable?” The poet Karin Boye answered the question by saying that it was a myth that there was some form of a “woman’s special peacefulness” that crossed class boundaries and stood women apart from supposedly “militarized” men. However, since the sexes played different roles in the mobilization for warfare, her opinion was that women should, as far as possible, show solidarity with one another in opposing all war. They could find the strength to achieve this in embracing the myth and symbol of Lysistrata. Another contributor, the party secretary Hulda Flood, however, was skeptical about the possibility of a joint peace action among women. She opined that during the First World War women had not been asked their opinions about war, but since then many nations had granted women the right to vote. The impact of women’s votes was bound to be diluted, however, by the continuing centrality of men in positions of power throughout the world and the fact that many women relied on men’s political decisions while occupying themselves with the trivial tasks of decorating their homes. However, Flood did think that perhaps concern over the situation in the world today could bring women together and make them conscious of the dangers of war and militarism. Dr. Andrea Andreen, a member of the Swedish Women Left Wing Federation and a Social Democrat, held a more positive view. She considered that men were more taken with the simple weapons of Lysistrata’s times than with those of modern war technology and that modern technology thus was on the side of modern women. In addition, women were now in a position where they had technical assistance that gave them the power of refusing to bear children at times when violence was prevalent.18 The message of the drama Lysistrata, women refusing to make love to men as a protest against war, could in a Swedish context be seen as a political statement and as an explanation of the low birthrate. However, it could also be interpreted as an invitation to women to act against war. That Morgonbris published three such varying opinions of the play and of the role women should take in countering war illustrates the array of opinions prevalent within the Federation. That there was no singular unified standpoint among individual members heightened the ambivalence of the Federation with regard to taking a clear stand on issues of vital importance to Sweden’s national defense.Still, it did not stop women Social Democrats from protesting the existence of war and militarism in the name of Lysistrata, which they did by supporting the collective action entitled “Women's unarmed revolt against war” during the summer of 1935.19 Essentially, the gathering was a protest against both the rearmament of Sweden and plans for building up civil defense. The promoters did not consider that it would be possible to protect civilians in the event of chemical warfare. Therefore, if women unanimously refused to use gas masks and refused to go down into shelters in the event of air attacks, then men would become aware of their responsibility, lay down their weapons, and return to the negotiating tables.
War could, thereby, be prevented.Since war was not imminent in 1935 (at least from Sweden's point of view), the Swedish Women's Left Wing Federation and the Swedish branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom organized an election for a representative women's assembly that would prepare a resolution to be sent to the League of Nations. Approximately 20,000 women took part in this process, and the elected assembly duly demanded of the League of Nations that the adjourned Disarmament Conference should be resummoned and that the League should do everything to secure world peace. A delegation traveled to Geneva to present the resolution to delegates at the next general meeting of the League of Nations and to try to start an international revolt among women against war. The election was not an initiative of the Federation of Women Social Democrats, although Signe Vessman, the president of the Federation, and Kaj Andersson, the editor of Morgonbris, did participate. Other prominent Social Democratic participants included Hulda Flood, Signe Hojer, Ulla Alm [Lindstrom], Alva Myrdal, Herta Wiren, and Disa Vastberg.20
Such protests achieved little, however. In 1936 the government initiated an investigation into civil air defense. The National Air Defense Association and the first voluntary civil air defense associations were also established in Sweden at that time. Laws concerning civil air defense were passed in 1937, and in 1938, the right of disposition law was passed, which allowed municipal authorities to commandeer personnel for civil defense duty in time of need.21 Despite the initial actions against civil defense taken by women's groups, including the Federation, by the late 1930s protests about the appropriateness of civil defense declined. Only a very few women, mostly from the radical Swedish Women's Left Wing Federation, continued to discuss the possibility of individual acts of defiance and protest, such as refusing to dim their lights or covering their windows with dark curtains during air raids.22 It seems that even the more resolute of antimilitary women had quickly (if not quietly) become accustomed to the fact that if war came, no amount of passive or active protest by them would actually stop the bombs from falling.