Hidden Struggles: Black women\u27s activism and black masculinity

Julia Sudbury looks at the complexity and the differences between the lives of black women and those of black men

(Re)constructing Multiracial Blackness: Women\u27s activism, difference and collective identity in Britain

This article analyses the (re)construction of black identity as a multiracial signifier shared by African, Asian and Caribbean women in Britain, from the framework of recent social movement theory. The collective identity approach calls attention to naming as a strategic element of collective action, but has overlooked the experiences of black women at the intersection of multiple systems of oppression. A focus on the process of constructing black womanhood allows us to move beyond static and unidimensional notions of identity to question how and why gendered racialized boundaries are created and maintained. I argue that multiracial blackness should be viewed as an oppositional identity, strategically invoked by black women activists in order to mobilize collective action. Drawing on everyday theorizing by black women, the article examines the shift from the policing of authenticity claims, to a more open and fluid collectivity, and suggests that explicit interrogations of identity are a prerequisite for effective and sustainable alliances between divers movement participants

En-gendering anti-racism: Towards a politics of social transformation

As we approach the new millennium, African, Asian and Caribbean activists in Britain appear to be poised at the proverbial fork in the road. Do we march into a future marked by a pluralism of ethnicities, identities and interests? Or do we continue to hark bak to the golden days of black struggle -- when the movement was united in deed, action and purpose -- in the frail hope that outdated or failed notions of black unity will be revitalized? The need for a new strategy for anti-racist struggle is evident. Increasing social stratification in black communities and the emergence of Afro-Saxon conservatives and Asian millionaires mock the idea that the colour of one\u27s skin will determine the content of one\u27s politics. The rise of new faces of racism, especially Islamophobia, suggests the need for a more sophisticated and encompassing anti-oppressive language. And the failure of certain forms of state anti-racism, such as occurred at Burnage, invites us to re-assess understandings of where we are, where we need to go and how to get there, the terms of the debate as so far stated may in fact be too narrow and unimaginative to answer the challenge

Celling Black Bodies: Black Women in the Global Prison Industrial Complex

The 1980s and 1990s have witnessed an explosion in the population of women prisoners in Europe, North America, and Australasia, accompanied by a boom in prison construction. This article argues that this new pattern of women\u27s incarceration has been forged by three overlapping phenomena. The first is the fundamental shift in the role of the state that has occurred as a result of neo-liberal globalization. The second and related phenomenon is the emergence and subsequent global expansion of what has been labelled a \u27prison industrial complex\u27 made up of an intricate web of relations between state penal institutions, politicians and profit-driven prison corporations. The third is the emergence of a US-led global war on drugs which is symbiotically related and mutually constituted by the transnational trade in criminalized drugs. These new regimes of accumulation and discipline, I argue, build on older systems of racist and patriarchal exploitation to ensure the super-exploitation of black women within the global prison industrial complex. The article calls for a new anti-racist feminist analysis that explores how the complex matrix of race, class, gender and nationality meshes with contemporary globalized geo-political and economic realities. The prison industrial complex plays a critical role in sustaining the viability of the new global economy and black women are increasingly becoming the raw material that fuels its expansion and profitability. The article seeks to reveal the profitable synergies between drug enforcement, the prison industry, international financial institutions, media and politicians that are sending women to prison in ever increasing numbers

Other kinds of dreams : black women's organisations and the politics of transformation

Sociological accounts of political activism in African Caribbean and Asian communities in Britain have largely overlooked the role of black women as agents and have contributed toward an image of passivity, apathy and exclusion. This thesis examines the black women's organisations which have emerged since the early 1970s. Drawing on unpublished materials from over 30 organisations, participant observation at conferences and meetings and semi-structured interviews with 25 women activists. the thesis provides evidence that black women have been highly politically active despite immense barriers, both internal and external to their communities. This thesis explores the relevance of theoretical insights on identity formation, diversity and difference to black women's organising. I argue that black women's organisations have used a variety of strategies to manage the tension between the desire for a nuanced and differentiated notion of black womanhood and the need for political unity. In so arguing, I explore recent attacks on the term 'black', and identify a number of strengths in its continuing usage as a political and cultural definition. I also explore the extent to which increasing social stratification within black communities has the potential to undermine this unity and to create incompatible personal and organisational goals. Finally, I examine coalition building between black women and black men, white women and the labour movement. I identify a number of barriers to effective partnership but argue that there are a range of recent developments which may open up the possibility of building coalitions for social transformation. In conclusion, I argue that black women have formed independent organisations on the basis of a broad-based and visionary politics of transformation which has a number of unifying elements. These factors form the basis of a strategic unity which they have forged across differences of ethnicity, religion, nationality, class and sexuality