Antoinette Konikow
Encyclopedia
Antoinette F. Buchholz Konikow (1869 - 1946) was an American physician
, feminist, and radical political activist. Konikow is best remembered as one of the pioneers of the American birth control
movement and as a founding member of the Communist Party of America, forerunner of the Communist Party, USA. Expelled from the Communist Party as a supporter of Leon Trotsky
in the fall of 1928, Konikow went on to become a founder of the Communist League of America
, the main Trotskyist organization in the United States. Konikow's 1923 book, Voluntary Motherhood, is regarded as a seminal work in the history of 20th Century American feminism.
, the daughter of Theodor Buchholz and Rosa Kuhner Buchholz, both of whom were ethnic Jews. She attended secondary school in Odessa in the Ukraine
before emigrating to Zurich, Switzerland to attend the university there. She married a fellow student, Moses J. Konikow , in Zurich in 1891.
While in Switzerland
, Konikow joined the Emancipation of Labor group headed by Georgii Plekhanov.
The Konikows subsequently came to America in 1893. Antoinette attended Tufts University
, near Boston, from which she graduated with honors in 1902 with a medical degree. The couple had two children, Edith Rose Konikow (b. 1904) and William Morris Konikow (b. 1906) before divorcing in 1908.
She remained a practicing medical doctor in Boston up through the 1930s.
(SLP) in 1893 and writing and speaking on the organization's behalf. She was a delegate to the organization's 1896 National Convention at which it determined to establish the dual union to the American Federation of Labor
, the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance
.
Konikow also worked closely with the Boston Workman's Circle (Yiddish: אַרבעטער־רינג, Arbeter Ring), a socialist Jewish social aid organization. In order to participate in the organization, Konikow learned Yiddish, one of five languages which she learned in her lifetime.
She was expelled from the SLP in 1897 for her opposition for what she believed the narrow and dogmatic policies of the organization.
Konikow later joined the Socialist Party of America
. She was a delegate to the organization's 1908 National Convention, and was later instrumental in the establishment of several Socialist Sunday Schools
, institutions designed to train working class children in socialist principles and ethics as an alternative to religious instruction.
When the Socialist Party split at its 1919 Emergency National Convention
, Konikow cast her lot with the Communist Party of America (CPA), in which the radical foreign language federations
of the old SP played a large role. Konikow participated as a delegate to the founding convention of the CPA in Chicago in September 1919. Shortly after the conclusion of the convention, Konikow was chosen by the governing Central Executive Committee as the organization's first District Organizer for its Boston District.
Konikow was also active in the Communist Party's "aboveground" activities in this period, serving as chair of the New England
Division of the National Defense Committee, a party organization dedicated to raising funds to pay for its legal defense needs.
Konikow was a delegate to the second convention of the Workers Party of America
, successor to the underground Communist Party of America, held in New York City
from December 24 to 26, 1922.
In 1924, Konikow stood as the Workers Party's candidate for U.S. Senate from Massachusetts
.
Konikow was also deeply committed to the cause of birth control
, a taboo topic in this era. She was a member of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, one of the leading birth control organizations of the day. In the mid-1920s, she and her son-in-law, Joseph Vanzler
(a.k.a. John G. Wright), jointly developed an inexpensive spermicidal jelly
, the formula of which she shared with officials in the Soviet Union
when she visited there as a birth control specialist in 1926.
While in the USSR, Konikow was won over to the political ideas of Leon Trotsky
, then embroiled in a bitter factional dispute with the leadership of the Russian Communist Party headed by Joseph Stalin
and Nikolai Bukharin. From 1927, Konikow was open in her support with the program of the United Opposition
of Trotsky with Grigorii Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev
in the USSR. This did not lead to her immediate removal from the party, however, only to the loss of her position as an instructor in the local party training school.
Konikow was expelled from the Communist Party headed by Executive Secretary Jay Lovestone
in November 1928 as a Trotskyist. Upon her expulsion, she formed a tiny group in Boston calling itself the Independent Communist League. This group later merged with the Communist League of America
headed by James P. Cannon
, Martin Abern
, and Max Shachtman
at the time of its formation later that same year. She remained active in this movement until her death, contributing frequently to the party press on women's issues.
At the convention establishing the Socialist Workers Party
in January 1938, Konikow was named an honorary member of its governing National Committee.
Konikow's 1923 book, Voluntary Motherhood, is regarded as a seminal work in the history of 20th Century American feminism.
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, feminist, and radical political activist. Konikow is best remembered as one of the pioneers of the American birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
movement and as a founding member of the Communist Party of America, forerunner of the Communist Party, USA. Expelled from the Communist Party as a supporter of Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
in the fall of 1928, Konikow went on to become a founder of the Communist League of America
Communist League of America
The Communist League of America was founded by James P. Cannon, Max Shachtman and Martin Abern late in 1928 after their expulsion from the Communist Party USA for Trotskyism. The CLA was the United States section of Leon Trotsky's International Left Opposition and initially positioned itself as...
, the main Trotskyist organization in the United States. Konikow's 1923 book, Voluntary Motherhood, is regarded as a seminal work in the history of 20th Century American feminism.
Early years
Antoinette F. Buchholz was born on November 11, 1869, in the Russian empireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, the daughter of Theodor Buchholz and Rosa Kuhner Buchholz, both of whom were ethnic Jews. She attended secondary school in Odessa in the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
before emigrating to Zurich, Switzerland to attend the university there. She married a fellow student, Moses J. Konikow , in Zurich in 1891.
While in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Konikow joined the Emancipation of Labor group headed by Georgii Plekhanov.
The Konikows subsequently came to America in 1893. Antoinette attended Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
, near Boston, from which she graduated with honors in 1902 with a medical degree. The couple had two children, Edith Rose Konikow (b. 1904) and William Morris Konikow (b. 1906) before divorcing in 1908.
She remained a practicing medical doctor in Boston up through the 1930s.
Political career
Antoinette Konikow was politically active from an early age, joining the Socialist Labor Party of AmericaSocialist Labor Party of America
The Socialist Labor Party of America , established in 1876 as the Workingmen's Party, is the oldest socialist political party in the United States and the second oldest socialist party in the world. Originally known as the Workingmen's Party of America, the party changed its name in 1877 and has...
(SLP) in 1893 and writing and speaking on the organization's behalf. She was a delegate to the organization's 1896 National Convention at which it determined to establish the dual union to the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
, the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance
Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance
The Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance - commonly abbreviated STLA or ST&LA - was a revolutionary socialist labor union in the United States closely linked to the Socialist Labor Party , which existed from 1895 until becoming a part of the Industrial Workers of the World at its founding in 1905.The...
.
Konikow also worked closely with the Boston Workman's Circle (Yiddish: אַרבעטער־רינג, Arbeter Ring), a socialist Jewish social aid organization. In order to participate in the organization, Konikow learned Yiddish, one of five languages which she learned in her lifetime.
She was expelled from the SLP in 1897 for her opposition for what she believed the narrow and dogmatic policies of the organization.
Konikow later joined the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
. She was a delegate to the organization's 1908 National Convention, and was later instrumental in the establishment of several Socialist Sunday Schools
Socialist Sunday Schools
Socialist Sunday Schools were set up as an alternative to Christian Sunday Schools in the United Kingdom. They arose in response to a feeling as to the inadequacy of the orthodox Sunday Schools as a training ground for the children of socialists and of the need for some organised and systematic...
, institutions designed to train working class children in socialist principles and ethics as an alternative to religious instruction.
When the Socialist Party split at its 1919 Emergency National Convention
1919 Emergency National Convention
The 1919 Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party of America was held in Chicago from August 30 to September 5, 1919. It was a seminal gathering in the history of American radicalism, marked by the bolting of the party's organized left wing to establish the Communist Labor Party of...
, Konikow cast her lot with the Communist Party of America (CPA), in which the radical foreign language federations
Language federation
Language Federations were formed in the late 19th and early 20th century by immigrants to the United States, primarily from Eastern and Southern Europe, who shared a commitment to some form of socialist politics...
of the old SP played a large role. Konikow participated as a delegate to the founding convention of the CPA in Chicago in September 1919. Shortly after the conclusion of the convention, Konikow was chosen by the governing Central Executive Committee as the organization's first District Organizer for its Boston District.
Konikow was also active in the Communist Party's "aboveground" activities in this period, serving as chair of the New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
Division of the National Defense Committee, a party organization dedicated to raising funds to pay for its legal defense needs.
Konikow was a delegate to the second convention of the Workers Party of America
Workers Party of America
The Workers Party of America was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from the last days of 1921 until the middle of 1929. As a legal political party the Workers Party accepted affiliation from independent socialist groups such as the African Blood Brotherhood,...
, successor to the underground Communist Party of America, held in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
from December 24 to 26, 1922.
In 1924, Konikow stood as the Workers Party's candidate for U.S. Senate from Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
Konikow was also deeply committed to the cause of birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
, a taboo topic in this era. She was a member of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, one of the leading birth control organizations of the day. In the mid-1920s, she and her son-in-law, Joseph Vanzler
Joseph Vanzler
Joseph "Usick" Vanzler , best known by the pseudonym "John G. Wright," was a Jewish-American radical political activist and translator...
(a.k.a. John G. Wright), jointly developed an inexpensive spermicidal jelly
Spermicide
Spermicide is a contraceptive substance that eradicates sperm, inserted vaginally prior to intercourse to prevent pregnancy. As a contraceptive, spermicide may be used alone. However, the pregnancy rate experienced by couples using only spermicide is higher than that of couples using other methods...
, the formula of which she shared with officials in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
when she visited there as a birth control specialist in 1926.
While in the USSR, Konikow was won over to the political ideas of Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
, then embroiled in a bitter factional dispute with the leadership of the Russian Communist Party headed by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and Nikolai Bukharin. From 1927, Konikow was open in her support with the program of the United Opposition
United Opposition
The United Opposition was a group formed in the All-Union Communist Party in 1926 by Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev in opposition to Joseph Stalin...
of Trotsky with Grigorii Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev
Lev Kamenev
Lev Borisovich Kamenev , born Rozenfeld , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. He was briefly head of state of the new republic in 1917, and from 1923-24 the acting Premier in the last year of Lenin's life....
in the USSR. This did not lead to her immediate removal from the party, however, only to the loss of her position as an instructor in the local party training school.
Konikow was expelled from the Communist Party headed by Executive Secretary Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Central Intelligence Agency helper, and foreign policy advisor to the leadership of the AFL-CIO and various unions...
in November 1928 as a Trotskyist. Upon her expulsion, she formed a tiny group in Boston calling itself the Independent Communist League. This group later merged with the Communist League of America
Communist League of America
The Communist League of America was founded by James P. Cannon, Max Shachtman and Martin Abern late in 1928 after their expulsion from the Communist Party USA for Trotskyism. The CLA was the United States section of Leon Trotsky's International Left Opposition and initially positioned itself as...
headed by James P. Cannon
James P. Cannon
James Patrick "Jim" Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.Born on February 11, 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, he joined the Socialist Party of America in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911...
, Martin Abern
Martin Abern
Martin Abern was a Marxist politician who was an important leader of the Communist youth movement of the 1920s as well as a founder of the American Trotskyist movement.-Early years:...
, and Max Shachtman
Max Shachtman
Max Shachtman was an American Marxist theorist. He evolved from being an associate of Leon Trotsky to a social democrat and mentor of senior assistants to AFL-CIO President George Meany.-Beginnings:...
at the time of its formation later that same year. She remained active in this movement until her death, contributing frequently to the party press on women's issues.
At the convention establishing the Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (United States)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...
in January 1938, Konikow was named an honorary member of its governing National Committee.
Death and legacy
Antoinette Konikow died in Boston in 1946.Konikow's 1923 book, Voluntary Motherhood, is regarded as a seminal work in the history of 20th Century American feminism.
Works
- Voluntary Motherhood: A Study of the Physiology and Hygiene of Prevention of Conception. Boston: Buchholz Publishing Co., 1923.
- Physicians' Manual of Birth Control. Boston: Buchholz Publishing Co., 1931.
Further reading
- Wiliam Kruse, "Socialist Sunday School Organizes on National Scale," The Young Socialists’ Magazine [Chicago], v. 12, no. 9 (Sept. 1918). pg. 2.