BURY THE CORPSE OF COLONIALISM: THE REVOLUTIONARY FEMINIST CONFERENCE OF 1949

The 1949 Asian Women’s Conference and its influence on feminist internationalism around the world

 
 
“An urgent, passionate, and erudite intervention that decolonizes the standard history of
the origins of global feminism.”
— Kristen Ghodsee, author of "Second World, Second Sex: Socialist Women's Activism and Global Solidarity during the Cold War"
“This is nothing short of a breakthrough for the study of imperialism, and of
feminism.”
— Manu Karuka, author of "Empire's Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad"
 
 

On International Women’s Day, 2023, University of California Press releases Elisabeth Armstrong’s third book called Bury the Corpse of Colonialism: The Revolutionary Feminist Conference of 1949. This book provides an intimate look at the 1949 Asian Women’s Conference, the movements it drew from, and how it shaped feminist anticolonial movements around the world.

In 1949, revolutionary activists from Asia hosted a conference in Beijing that gathered together their comrades from around the world. The Asian Women’s Conference developed a new political strategy, demanding that women from occupying colonial nations contest imperialism with the same dedication as women whose countries were occupied. Bury the Corpse of Colonialism tells the remarkable story of how these bold activists constructed a blueprint for anti-imperialist feminist internationalism and shows how movements create a revolutionary theory over time and through struggle. This galvanizing book traces the vital attributes at the heart of internationalist solidarity for women’s emancipation in a world structured around militarism, capitalism, patriarchy, and the seeming impossibility of justice.

 
 
 

Junaina Muhammed, “Women in Korai Field,” 2021

 
 
“Elisabeth Armstrong has dug deep into a seam of hidden history to unearth the story of
brave women from Vietnam to the Ivory Coast who met in Beijing in 1949 and then went
home—at great risk—to break the chains of servitude.”
— Vijay Prashad, author of "Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism"
 
 
“A riveting tale of feminist organizing that spans the globe. Capacious yet intimate, this
book brings to life women from buried photos and takes us along on their journeys for
justice, with lasting insights for all.”
— Suzy Kim, author of "Among Women across Worlds: North Korea in the Global Cold War"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elisabeth Armstrong is a Professor in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. She’s written three books on the praxis of organizing. Her forthcoming book, Bury the Corpse of Colonialism: The Revolutionary Feminist Conference in 1949, (University of California Press, 2023), is about the leadership of revolutionary women from anticolonial movements around the world. Her book about leftist feminist organizing in India is called Gender and Neoliberalism: The All India Democratic Women’s Association and Globalization Politics (2013), and one addresses the US context of feminist organizing called The Retreat from Organization: US Feminism Reconceptualized (2002). She is a member of the feminist collective of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, and on the editorial board of Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism & Kohl: a Journal for Body and Gender Research.