Through the lives of three women, RED MATILDAS explores the social and political conditions in Australia during the Great Depression - conditions of massive unemployment, widespread malnutrition and growing militarism at home and abroad - that provoked many people to political activity. For these women, the Communist Party was one of the few avenues then available for political activity. Like all Party members, women were involved in political organising work. The story of their stand against injustice, illustrated by carefully selected archival footage (much of it unavailable since the 1930s), gives a rarely seen 'grass roots' perspective on the turmoil of the Depression - not only on domestic issues affecting women but also on international events leading up to the Second World War.