“RED CLARA”

Hokitika Guardian, 26 June 1933, Page 7

“RED CLARA”

THE LATE FRAU ZETKIN. MOSCOW, June 22. Three hundred thousand workers attended the funeral of Frau Zetkin. The body lay 'in state" at the ..Trade Union House and later was cremated. The ashes were immured in the walls of the Kremlin in the presence of Stalin, Molotov, and other leaders. Lenin's widow delivered an oration.

Frau Clara Zetkin, known as "Red Clara,” who was in her seventyseventh year, presided at the opening session of the Reichstag on August 3U of last year, by virtue of- the provision in the standing orders that the oldest member of the Reichstag shall preside until the President of the Chamber is | chosen. She was then infirm and nearly blind, and had to be carried to tlio Speaker’s chair by two women Communists. She began her address by saying: “I would like to demand the impeachment of Pi’esident von Hindenburg, but it would be useless, because it would be like sending the devil to his grandmother.” She spoke for 45 minutes, slowly and with difficulty, frequently pausing to wipe the perspiration from her forehead. She denounced the Government (then led by Herr Franz von Papen) as the “tool of the capitalists,” and said she hoped to live to open the German Soviet Congress. The House listened in frigid silence, save for the Communists, who greeted her with cries of “Red Front!” The Nazis were held in check by Herr Hitler, who had commanded that they set an example in discipline and give the Chancellor no excuse for enforcing the dissolution decree. Hitler’s hour had not then struck, though at that session the first Nazi Speaker (Captain Goering, now in the Ministry; was elected.

Frau Zetkin was one of the leading members of the Communist party in Germany, and was formerly secretary of the Communist (Third) International, founded by Lenin in 1919. She was born in 1857 and educated at the University of Paris. After teaching for some time she became editor of the journal “Gleiclilieit” (Equality), the Social Democrat’s! women’s organ. She lived for many years in South Russia, and had been a member of the Communist party since it foundation, and a memebr of the Reichstag since 1920.