Bernadette Cattanéo
{{Short description|French trade unionist and communist activist (1899–1963)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bernadette Cattanéo
| image = Bernadette CATTANEO(g) - aout 1936 (cropped 2023).jpg
| alt = A smiling woman with glasses in a patterned dress with a dark belt sitting in front of a wood door and some shelving.
| caption = Cattanéo in 1936
| birth_name = Bernadette Le Loarer
| birth_date = February 25, 1899
| birth_place = Brélévenez, Côtes-d'Armor, France
| death_date = September 22, 1963
| death_place = La Penne-sur-Huveaune, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
| occupation = {{hlist|Trade unionist|communist activist|newspaper editor|magazine co-founder}}
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse = {{marriage|Jean-Baptiste Cattanéo|1922}}
| children = 2
}}
Bernadette Cattanéo ({{nee}} 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. Cattanéo also held various roles of importance within the Confédération générale du travail unitaire (CGTU) and the French Communist Party (PCF).
Early life
Bernadette Le Loarer was born in Brélévenez, Côtes-d'Armor, February 25, 1899. {{cite web |title=Fonds Bernadette Cattanéo |url=https://francearchives.fr/findingaid/05821be3668f28d2a639b0bb6bf04fef27e5a400 |website=FranceArchives |access-date=10 January 2023 |language=fr}} 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.{{cite web |last1=Lemarquis |first1=René |last2=Pennetier |first2=Claude |title=CATTANÉO Bernadette (née LE LOARER Marie, Bernadette) |url=https://maitron.fr/spip.php?article18996 |website=maitron.fr/ |publisher=Maitron/Editions de l'Atelier |access-date=9 January 2023 |language=fr |date=2 December 2017}} They married on October 10, 1922 and had two children.
Career
File:MNelken-BCattaneo-LLangevin-WLandy-MRabate.jpg, Wanda Landy, Margarita Nelken, and Maria Rabaté (l-r) celebrating the victory of the Popular Front in Spain in 1936, under the auspices of the Women's Committee]]
At the end of 1923, Cattanéo joined the French Communist Party,{{cite book | year = 2004 | title = Violence, Guerre, Révolution: L'exemple Communiste | publisher = L'AGE D'HOMME | isbn = 978-2-8251-1942-6 | oclc = 1107010227 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bfRASTZnaY4C&pg=PA129 |language=fr}} with an interest in issues affecting women. 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.
After a reorganization of the PCF, she directed its 35th department and was a member of the party's women's commission. At the same time, she joined the women's commission of the CGTU, of which she was appointed secretary in 1929, and joined the confederal office in November 1931.{{cite web |title=Fonds Bernadette Cattanéo |url=https://francearchives.fr/fr/findingaid/05821be3668f28d2a639b0bb6bf04fef27e5a400 |website=FranceArchives |access-date=9 January 2023 |language=fr}} During this time, she was on the editorial board of L'Ouvrière. She traveled in France and Europe between 1925 and 1936 to follow the strikes organized by the CGTU.{{cite web |title=Cartes postales du fonds Bernadette Cattanéo. Projet : Correspondances militantes. |url=https://transcrire.huma-num.fr/scripto/14/15958/media |website=transcrire.huma-num.fr |access-date=9 January 2023 |language=fr}}
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. She traveled there eleven times. Georgi Dimitrov made her responsible for setting up the World Committee of Women Against War and Fascism in 1934. In this coordinated development, she was secretary of the International Women's Organizations' Joint Coordination Committee, where she represented the PCF and the CGTU{{cite book|first1=Alicia|last1=León y Barella|first2=Rossana|last2=Vaccaro|chapter=Construire/Déconstruire/Reconstruire la mémoire de Bernadette Cattanéo|title=Genre de l'archive. Constitution et transmission des mémoires militantes|publisher=CODHOS Editions|date=March 2017|url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01806996/document|page=46 |language=fr}} and associated with Gabrielle Duchêne and Maria Rabaté, herself a communist leader.{{cite book | year = 2004 | title = FEMINISMES ET NAZISME | publisher = Odile Jacob | page = 153 | isbn = 978-2-7381-7114-6 | oclc = 1350415309 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=viq7AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA153 |language=fr}} The magazine {{lang|fr|Femmes dans l'action mondiale|italics=yes}} (Women in Global Action) was created in this connection and was managed by these three women.{{cite book | title = Les Communistes Et la Lutte Pour la Paix |year=1988 | publisher = L'AGE D'HOMME | pages = 89– | isbn = 978-2-8251-3406-1 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZBLSbBk6awC&pg=PA89 |language=fr}}
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, where she coordinated a number of resistance initiatives.{{cite book|first1=Bernard |last1=Pudal|first2=Claude |last2=Pennetier|title=Le souffle d'octobre 1917|location=Ivry-sur-Seine|publisher=éditions de l'Atelier|date=2 March 2017|isbn=9782708245198|language=fr}} She returned to Paris in June 1944 and discontinued all her political activities. She nevertheless maintained contact with former communist figures such as {{ill|Albert Vassart|fr}} and Angelo Tasca.
Death and legacy
Bernadette Cattanéo died in La Penne-sur-Huveaune, Bouches-du-Rhône, September 22, 1963.
Her papers are held by the Humathèque, on the Condorcet Campus.{{cite web |title=Calames |url=http://www.calames.abes.fr/pub/condorcet.aspx#details?id=FileId-3029 |website=www.calames.abes.fr |access-date=8 January 2023 |language=fr-FR}}{{cite web |last1=Rouvrais |first1=Alexandre |title=Humathèque Condorcet |url=https://www.campus-condorcet.fr/fr/pour-la-recherche/humatheque-condorcet |website=Campus Condorcet |access-date=8 January 2023 |language=fr-FR}}
References
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Category:People from Côtes-d'Armor
Category:French trade unionists
Category:French Communist Party members
Category:French women trade unionists
Category:French newspaper editors