Reddit mentions of Women, Race and Class (Women's Press Classics)

There are two points here which seem to conflict but I think are both true at the same time.

1. Focus is needed
   
   Have you ever worked in any of these kinds of groups? Well I have and I will tell you that maintaining focus is crucial to success. Groups which allow themselves to take on every "issue" that bothers it's membership don't get anywhere because they are incredibly unfocused. In fact there is a strong tendency (at least in the radical left where I hang out) to want to do all the things all the time. it just doesn't work.
   
   The fact is that groups with different targets which are allied with each other and work together when needed, are the strongest type, in general. This isn't to say that they must ignore other struggles. In fact they ought to take the concerns and work of other specific groups into consideration, because in all likelihood there are members of that group in their organization. (I hope that sentance makes sense. I mean there will be queers in the union and women in the civil rights organizatin, etc.)
   
   Feminists have developed a theoretical framework known as Intersectionalision (and here ) which attempts to recognize the impacts of different forces (the "big three" being gender, race and class, but also disability, immigration status etc) on people's lives. Organizations which take this model into account typically address a wide range of issues, but again, some sort of focus will have to be maintained.
   
   
   
2. Focus drops as organizations become more powerful
   
   A generation ago, the Black Panther Party's Ten Point Plan outlined what I would say would be a fairly ambitious and far ranging set of goals. In the real world they ran medical clinics, gave away clothing, dealt with crime, and ran an extensive free school lunch program. Unfortunately, because of the revolutionary nature of the BPP they were heavily targetted by a campaign of disruption and espionage led by the FBI.
   
   If you read history of different liberation movements, you do find that eventually, the successful ones start out with a specific focus and tend towards addressing more and more concerns as power and memebrship rises. This was true of the feminist movement, the civilrights/black liberation movements, and also historically the union movement (the Big Three I mentioned above.) If you are really interested in learning about this aspect of history (which is way more fucking amazing that you would imagine, I guarentee it) you should start with A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.
   
   However, at this point, if not well before it, these groups will be facing severe repression from those opposed. It has often been really, really brutal. And this has been the limiting factor. I would suggest that if you are my generation (born in the 70s or after) and you live in western europe, you have likely never seen a movement like any of these I have described. It is well, well worth looking into if you are at all interested. An amazing history.
   
   If you want to get more into specific organizations and their difficulties and successes in integrating this kind of thought, you might then try Women, Race and Class by Angela Davis, who writes about black women in the early feminist movements and women in the abolitionists movement.