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Feminist organising and community work: a response to Hilary Barker, 'Recapturing Sisterhood' in CSP Issue 16

We wish to make a contribution to the debate raised in the above article. Our response is influenced by the way we read and discussed the article and the way we work. We are both white lesbians who grew up working class and are now in middle class jobs. We are both able-bodied. One of us has been involved in paid community work with women for 14 years, and the other 7 years. Some of that experience has been in feminist settings, eg Women’s Aid and some in very formally structured settings, eg local authority departments. large voluntary organisations. We have worked as grass-roots community workers and as officers with wider policy and training responsibilities. Both of us have been, and continue to be, involved in a range of women’s organisations and networks outside of paid work. Our politics are based on a realisation that the oppression of women by men, black