White Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist and Anti-Imperialist Feminism, c. 1976–1980

Abstract

Despite the overwhelming whiteness of the WLM’s organisational mores and theoretical biases, over the course of the 1970s an increasing number of white feminists were — like their fellow travellers in the broader left — involved in anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-imperialist campaigns. This was largely the result of the increasing profile of the National Front in English electoral politics. This provoked much comment and concern across the radical left, a concern which found its most well-known expression in the popularity of the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism. Anti-racism and anti-fascism — and the two terms were often used interchangeably, despite their different connotations — thus achieved a huge prominence in radical politics, including within white feminist groups. This was the first time that such politics had achieved significant attention within white feminist groupings;¹ the increasing attention paid to race also provided excellent conditions for a renewed interest in imperialism within feminist politics. However, the extent to which this engagement with the politics of anti-racism and anti-imperialism ironically revealed the whiteness of WLM makes such activism particularly illuminating to study.