Freda Yetta Brown (née Lewis; 9 June 1919 – 26 May 2009) was an Australian political activist and feminist who was a member of the

Communist Party of Australia The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian political party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membership and influence having been i ...

and later the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. She is the only Australian woman to have been awarded a

Lenin Peace Prize The International Lenin Peace Prize (russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a pane ...

Biography

Freda Brown was born Freda Yetta Lewis in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. She joined the

in 1936. She worked in her father's signwriting business, before becoming a journalist working for the ''Radio Times'', and then later for various Communist-affiliated trade union papers. She married Bill Brown, an electrician she met at the New Theatre, in 1943. After the Second World War, Brown joined the New Housewives Association, later known as

Union of Australian Women The Union of Australian Women (UAW) is a left-wing women's organisation concerned with local and international issues regarding women's rights, international peace and equality. The UAW was established in Sydney on 31 July 1950 in New South Wal ...

, and ultimately became its president. She was instrumental in the United Nations' celebration of

International Women's Year International Women's Year (IWY) was the name given to 1975 by the United Nations. Since that year March 8 has been celebrated as International Women's Day, and the United Nations Decade for Women, from 1976 to 1985, was also established. Hist ...

in 1975. She was active in the

Women's International Democratic Federation Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) is an international organization with the stated goal of working for women's rights. It was established in 1945 and was most active during the Cold War. It initially focussed on anti-fascism, worl ...

(WIDF), being elected president of the organisation in 1975, a position she held until 1991. Brown was a member of the Central Committee of the

from 1943 to 1971. In 1971, Brown's husband Bill was expelled from the CPA as a member of a faction that remained loyal to the USSR after the 1968

invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

, a move that the party had condemned. Bill and Freda then joined the Soviet-aligned

. On 8 March 2004,

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

, Brown, then 85, was honoured for her work against apartheid by the South African government in a ceremony in Johannesburg to mark the 10th anniversary of the end of

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, in her role as President of the WIDF, she had worked closely with the women's section of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

to bring South African women to Europe, North America and Australia to give testimony of conditions under Apartheid.

References

External links

Obituary
in the

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

, 27 May 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Freda Yetta 1919 births 2009 deaths Australian communists Australian feminists Lenin Peace Prize recipients People from Sydney Australian socialist feminists Communist Party of Australia members