Black women can often fall between the gaps between feminist groups and the labour movement, but groups such as BARAC and Southall Black Sisters are campaigning and organising on their own terms, sharing knowledge, tools and resources to over come barriers to participation.

Black women – defied as people from the African and Asian diasporas – face a double whammy of race and gender discrimination in the labour market, are often held back in the lowest grades on the lowest-pay and are disproportionately targeted when it comes to job cuts. Yet they are grossly underrepresented in the formal structures of civil society and the labour movement, encountering multiple barriers to their participation in trade unions, political parties and campaigning organisations – including feminist groups.

Before the financial crisis, many black women were already primary carers holding down two or three jobs just to make ends meet, typically low paid or under zero hours contracts. But austerity measures are amplifying both racism and sexism in Britain. Because the public sector is the biggest employer of black women, we have had to contend with job cuts impacting disproportionately on both gender and race. In one London borough, black women made up five per cent of the workforce but 23 per cent of the redundancies. Frozen and capped pay and increased pensions contributions has meant a pay cut in real terms. At least one in five Caribbean women is unemployed compared to one in 14 white women, and research has shown that black people stay unemployed for longer than their white counterparts.

Black people live in the most deprived geographical areas, and many of these areas have had the deepest cuts to valuable local services, from play schemes, libraries and youth centres to interpretation services, training centres, women’s refuges and race monitoring units. Meanwhile, the scrapping of the educational maintenance allowance (EMA) has led to more financial hardship for black families and the tripling of university tuition fees has put up further obstacles to higher education. This is all against the backdrop of anti-migrant scaremongering by not just the likes of UKIP but the mainstream political parties too.

So there are many incentives for black women to organise, but the problem is that feminist organisations and women’s groups have never felt very inclusive and can be dominated by white women who are not interested in black women’s concerns. We fall between the gaps, as some feminists assume we can be involved in the black organisations that white women can’t, or else we’re expected to separate being black and a woman to be involved. If we want to take up a place on a women’s committee and a black members’ committee we are perceived to be ‘greedy’ – few people recognise that we want to be involved in both because we need to have a voice in both structures in order to counter the double discrimination we face.

However, black women have always been and will always be survivors, and we have formed our own informal and formal networks and campaigns. Organisations like Southall Black Sisters have worked for decades to challenge domestic and gender-related violence; Black Women in the Arts promotes creative black women; Black Feminists provides a space for black women to come together and campaign; and there are many other groups that are founded by and run by black women like singing group My Heart Sings, which provides a space for women of any colour to come together, and UK Black Pride which was founded and is led by black women.

I co-founded Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC UK), a coalition of black, public and voluntary sector workers, trade unionists, community organisations, service users and individuals, because I knew that austerity measures that were to come under the Tory and Lib Dem coalition would have devastating consequences for black communities and workers.

From the beginning, we placed a particular focus on the double impact of the impending government cuts on black women and young black people. Black women are also at the forefront of campaigning against the multiple discrimination and disadvantage experienced by black men. BARAC supports many family justice campaigns, which are predominantly led by black women family members who have been forced to put their own lives on hold as they fight for justice for those who have been killed at the hands of the police or state. Many of these women did not set out to be activists but were forced to become activists in order to pursue justice.

The Labour party could learn much about community engagement from organisations like BARAC and others, but at the moment there is a clear disconnect. BARAC does have individual Labour MPs who work with us and have supported our campaigns, but we are not currently involved with any Labour groups. A number of BARAC activists have stood as candidates in local elections but not for Labour or any of the main parties. In order to try and bridge the gap, Labour needs to open up a dialogue with black groups and commit to addressing some of the issues that they campaign on. Party representatives need to be visible in local communities, not just when there is an election on. The only time I ever see local councillors is when they are canvassing for votes! For black women to be attracted to Labour party activism, the party must be willing to support our grassroots campaigns in the spaces we have created too.

If it is hard for a black woman to be involved in women’s organisations, then it is even more difficult to be involved in the wider labour movement. For black women who are busy providing for their families is it any wonder that there is no time let alone energy left in the day to then go and battle with the white, straight and male dominated labour movement? It’s essential that labour (and feminist) organisations acknowledge the discrimination and disadvantage black women experience and welcome the ideas, experiences, skills and talents we bring.

We know from the trade union movement that people are more likely to engage if they see others like them who are involved. The first step is to identify why black women are not participating in their groups or movements and then to put in place an action plan. This may involve taking these organisations to the communities that black women live and work in; campaigning in partnership with black (women’s) organisations on local issues; producing literature aimed at black women and published in different languages; running training programmes on equality awareness for unions and other organisations; or allowing for flexible schedules that take into account work, religious and family commitments.

I am also in favour of taking positive action such as ring fencing positions to ensure places are taken up in the labour movement by underrepresented groups (although it doesn’t protect people against the backlash which inevitably comes with positive action and is not a magic cure for underrepresentation,  especially in leadership roles). For example, the TUC Race Relations Committee has an election category just for black women with four seats. This doesn’t mean that black women can’t stand in the general category but it ensures a minimum number of black women. Ring fencing could be accompanied by advertising vacancies and positions in the black press and on websites accessed by black women, and providing speakers to come and talk to black women’s organisations about these opportunities. Our experience is that often people don’t put themselves forward because they were not asked. Simply being invited and encouraged can give confidence to black women and help generate interest.

There seems to be an unwritten expectation on black activists that they must work twice as hard and achieve twice as much as their white counterparts to be supported to stand for leadership positions, so one of the things I do is encourage other black women (and men) to stand up and put themselves forward. A few years ago I designed a workshop for black trade union members titled ‘participating in elections and policy making’. The aim of it was to provide black members with the knowledge, support, tools and resources to empower them to stand for election with confidence and to influence union policy by submitting motions. Knowledge is power – and when we empower ourselves we give empowerment to others.

I’m inspired every day by my sisters who fight oppression, sexism, racism, injustice and threats to our human rights here in the UK and globally. Throughout history there have been black women leading the way, from Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad, to Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement, Claudia Jones, Mary Prince and many more. Along with a group of other campaigners, I recently succeeded in keeping Mary Seacole on the national curriculum when Michael Gove sought to remove her and others and replace them with more white male historical figures. Despite the odds stacked up against us, these ‘herstories’ give us inspiration and empower us to keep on keeping.

This is an extract from our publication ‘Riding the New Wave – Feminism and the Labour Party’ which you can download here.