Bernadette Cattanéo | |
---|---|
![]() Cattanéo, 1936 | |
Born | Bernadette Le Loarer February 25, 1899 Brélévenez,
Côtes-d'Armor, France |
Died | September 22, 1963
La Penne-sur-Huveaune,
Bouches-du-Rhône, France |
Occupations |
|
Spouse |
Jean-Baptiste Cattanéo
(
m. 1922) |
Children | 2 |
Bernadette Cattanéo ( née Le Loarer; February 25, 1899 – September 22, 1963) was a French trade unionist and communist activist, as well as a newspaper editor and magazine co-founder. She is remembered as the secretary general of the World Committee Against War and Fascism. [1] Cattanéo also held various roles of importance within the Confédération générale du travail unitaire (CGTU) and the French Communist Party (PCF).
Bernadette Le Loarer was born in Brélévenez, Côtes-d'Armor, February 25, 1899. [1] Her parents were Jean Marie Le Loarer, a railwayman, and Marie Ollivier, an illiterate peasant. Her family was Breton-speaking and Catholic but it was a teacher who awakened Cattaneo to socialist ideas. She trained as a seamstress before going to Paris in 1919 to do several odd jobs. There, she met Jean-Baptiste Cattanéo who, like her, was a pharmacy employee. [2] They married on October 10, 1922 and had two children.
At the end of 1923, Cattanéo joined the French Communist Party, [3] with an interest in issues affecting women. [2] She was fired from her job in a pharmacy for having organized a strike with her husband and found employment as editor of the newspaper La Nouvelle Vie Ouvrière in April 1925. [2]
After a reorganization of the PCF, she directed its 35th department and was a member of the party's women's commission. [2] At the same time, she joined the women's commission of the CGTU, of which she was appointed secretary in 1929, [2] and joined the confederal office [3] in November 1931. [4] During this time, she was on the editorial board of L'Ouvrière. [2] She traveled in France and Europe between 1925 and 1936 to follow the strikes organized by the CGTU. [5]
Cattanéo was also active internationally since she took part in the fourth congress of Profintern on April 5, 1928 in the USSR where she met Joseph Stalin. [2] She traveled there eleven times. Georgi Dimitrov made her responsible for setting up the World Committee of Women Against War and Fascism in 1934. [2] In this coordinated development, she was secretary of the International Women's Organizations' Joint Coordination Committee, where she represented the PCF and the CGTU [6] and associated with Gabrielle Duchêne and Maria Rabaté, herself a communist leader. [7] The magazine Femmes dans l'action mondiale (Women in Global Action) was created in this connection and was managed by these three women. [8]
When World War II broke out, she opposed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, left the PCF and in late 1941 moved to Moissac in France's Zone libre, [2] where she coordinated a number of resistance initiatives. [9] She returned to Paris in June 1944 and discontinued all her political activities. [2] She nevertheless maintained contact with former communist figures such as Albert Vassart and Angelo Tasca. [9]
Bernadette Cattanéo died in La Penne-sur-Huveaune, Bouches-du-Rhône, September 22, 1963. [1]
Her papers are held by the Grand Équipement Documentaire, on the Condorcet Campus. [10] [11]
Bernadette Cattanéo | |
---|---|
![]() Cattanéo, 1936 | |
Born | Bernadette Le Loarer February 25, 1899 Brélévenez,
Côtes-d'Armor, France |
Died | September 22, 1963
La Penne-sur-Huveaune,
Bouches-du-Rhône, France |
Occupations |
|
Spouse |
Jean-Baptiste Cattanéo
(
m. 1922) |
Children | 2 |
Bernadette Cattanéo ( née Le Loarer; February 25, 1899 – September 22, 1963) was a French trade unionist and communist activist, as well as a newspaper editor and magazine co-founder. She is remembered as the secretary general of the World Committee Against War and Fascism. [1] Cattanéo also held various roles of importance within the Confédération générale du travail unitaire (CGTU) and the French Communist Party (PCF).
Bernadette Le Loarer was born in Brélévenez, Côtes-d'Armor, February 25, 1899. [1] Her parents were Jean Marie Le Loarer, a railwayman, and Marie Ollivier, an illiterate peasant. Her family was Breton-speaking and Catholic but it was a teacher who awakened Cattaneo to socialist ideas. She trained as a seamstress before going to Paris in 1919 to do several odd jobs. There, she met Jean-Baptiste Cattanéo who, like her, was a pharmacy employee. [2] They married on October 10, 1922 and had two children.
At the end of 1923, Cattanéo joined the French Communist Party, [3] with an interest in issues affecting women. [2] She was fired from her job in a pharmacy for having organized a strike with her husband and found employment as editor of the newspaper La Nouvelle Vie Ouvrière in April 1925. [2]
After a reorganization of the PCF, she directed its 35th department and was a member of the party's women's commission. [2] At the same time, she joined the women's commission of the CGTU, of which she was appointed secretary in 1929, [2] and joined the confederal office [3] in November 1931. [4] During this time, she was on the editorial board of L'Ouvrière. [2] She traveled in France and Europe between 1925 and 1936 to follow the strikes organized by the CGTU. [5]
Cattanéo was also active internationally since she took part in the fourth congress of Profintern on April 5, 1928 in the USSR where she met Joseph Stalin. [2] She traveled there eleven times. Georgi Dimitrov made her responsible for setting up the World Committee of Women Against War and Fascism in 1934. [2] In this coordinated development, she was secretary of the International Women's Organizations' Joint Coordination Committee, where she represented the PCF and the CGTU [6] and associated with Gabrielle Duchêne and Maria Rabaté, herself a communist leader. [7] The magazine Femmes dans l'action mondiale (Women in Global Action) was created in this connection and was managed by these three women. [8]
When World War II broke out, she opposed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, left the PCF and in late 1941 moved to Moissac in France's Zone libre, [2] where she coordinated a number of resistance initiatives. [9] She returned to Paris in June 1944 and discontinued all her political activities. [2] She nevertheless maintained contact with former communist figures such as Albert Vassart and Angelo Tasca. [9]
Bernadette Cattanéo died in La Penne-sur-Huveaune, Bouches-du-Rhône, September 22, 1963. [1]
Her papers are held by the Grand Équipement Documentaire, on the Condorcet Campus. [10] [11]