THE ORIGINAL MEANING OF IDENTITY POLITICS
The History & Development of "Identity Politics" by the Combahee River Collective
The establishment of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women in 1961, laid the groundwork for the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966, leading to the creation of the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) in 1973, and then the Combahee River Collective (CRC) in 1974.
The CRC developed their stance, which they called identity politics, because they were sidelined both in the feminist movement and Black nationalist movement, and because their political priorities were devalued in the political organizations they participated in.
In this post, let’s dig deeper into the meaning of identity politics as the CRC intended from their 1977 Statement, which has four sections.
The CRC Statement, Section 1: The Genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism
The Combahee River Collective start their statement by recalling the lineage of their activism to Black women activists who had a gender *and* race analysis: "There have always been Black women activists—some known, like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frances E. W. Harper, Ida B. Wells Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell, and thousands upon thousands unknown—who have had a shared awareness of how their sexual identity combined with their racial identity to make their whole life situation and the focus of their political struggles unique.
They point out specifically that Black, other Third World, and working women have always been in the feminist movement, “but both outside reactionary forces and racism and elitism within the movement itself have served to obscure our participation.”
They then remark on a crucial point: that by looking deeply into their own experiences, Black women can grow their consciousness and build a politics, and that: “Our development must also be tied to the contemporary economic and political position of Black people.”
They end part 1 with explicitly calling out what brought them together, and what they seek to address: “A combined anti-racist and anti-sexist position drew us together initially, and as we developed politically we addressed ourselves to heterosexism and economic oppression under capitalism.”
The CRC Statement, Section 2: What We Believe
In this section, the CRC highlight their observation that: “it is apparent that no other ostensibly progressive movement has ever considered our specific oppression as a priority or worked seriously for the ending of that oppression.”
This led them to developing their stance called identity politics: "This focusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the concept of identity politics. They point out that it is hard to separate race from class and sex oppression: “because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously."
They then emphatically state: "We realize that the liberation of all oppressed peoples necessitates the destruction of the political-economic systems of capitalism and imperialism as well as patriarchy.
We are socialists because we believe that work must be organized for the collective benefit of those who do the work… not for the profit of the bosses."
And yet, they insist, for a socialist revolution to actually bring about the liberation they sought, it would need to also be a feminist and anti-racist revolution, and takes into account “the specific class position of Black women who are generally marginal in the labor force.”
They are “in essential agreement with Marx’s theory” of class struggle, but stress that “his analysis must be extended further in order for us to understand our specific economic situation as Black women.”
The CRC Statement, Section 3: Problems in Organizing Black Feminists
In this section, the CRC emphasize why they split with the National Black Feminist Organization, “since we had serious disagreements with NBFO’s bourgeois-feminist stance and their lack of a clear political focus.”
They also point out that while planning on carrying out projects to organize Black feminists all over the country, they also plan to continue to do political work in coalition with other groups.
The CRC Statement, Section 4: Black Feminist Issues & Projects
Here, they explicitly underline that their politics isn’t one of isolation, but one that is “concerned with any situation that impinges upon the lives of women, Third World and working people.”
Throughout the statement, the Comhabee River Collective repeatedly state their politics as one that is explicitly socialist, coalitional, anti-imperialist, and one that is concerned with the economic conditions and political power of working class Black women, who experience simultaneous oppression due to race, sexuality, and gender.