What practical conclusions may we now draw for our propaganda

When Clara Zetkin declared, “What practical conclusions may we now draw for our propaganda work among women? The task of this Party Congress must not be to issue detailed practical suggestions, but to draw up general directions for the proletarian women’s movement,” she spoke as a strategist of revolution, a voice that sought to shape not only the struggles of her own day but the battles of generations to come. Her words remind us that the liberation of women could not be won by scattered deeds alone—it required vision, direction, and unity of purpose.

Zetkin understood that revolutions are not built on improvisation, but on principles. Detailed plans shift with time and circumstance, but general directions—clear ideals and unyielding goals—become the compass by which movements endure. For the proletarian women’s movement, this compass was justice, equality, and the destruction of systems that chained women in both factory and home. To focus on the general rather than the fleeting was to build a foundation strong enough to survive the storms of history.

The ancients would have known this wisdom. When Lycurgus set down the laws of Sparta, he gave not detailed decrees for every occasion, but broad principles of discipline, strength, and unity, which guided the city for centuries. So too did Moses lead his people not with endless laws alone, but with commandments that laid the eternal groundwork of a people’s spirit. Zetkin, in her turn, sought to give the women’s movement its own eternal compass, one that could not be overturned by the shifting winds of circumstance.

History gives us luminous proof of her foresight. The suffrage movements across Europe and America often faltered when they fought only for narrow reforms, but gained power when they rooted themselves in a broader vision: that women must be recognized as equals in every sphere of life. Zetkin’s own legacy—her role in founding International Women’s Day—was not a small detail of policy, but a great banner under which millions could gather, each in their own land, each in their own struggle.

Thus, let her teaching endure: in the labor of liberation, do not lose yourself in the fleeting and the minor. Let your eyes rest always on the horizon, where the broad truths of justice and freedom shine. For movements guided by general directions may stumble in detail, yet they rise again; but movements consumed by detail without vision soon wither. Zetkin’s words remind us that the destiny of women, and of all humanity, is forged not by small measures alone, but by great principles that call forth courage, unity, and the strength to endure.