Our Tradition: Black Woman's Manifesto

05 Black Woman’s Manifesto by the Third World Women’s Alliance (1970)


Introduction by Gayle Lynch

Racism and capitalism have trampled the potential of black people in this country and thwarted their self-determination. Initially the physical characteristics of those of African descent were used to fit blacks into the lowest niche in the capitalist hierarchy - that of maintenance. Therefore, black women and men of today do not encourage division by extending physical characteristics to serve as a criterion for a social hierarchy. If the potential of the black woman is seen mainly as a supportive role for the black man, then the black woman becomes an object to be utilized by another human being. Her potential stagnates and she cannot begin to think in terms of self-determination for herself and all black people. It is not right that her existence should be validated only by the existence of the black man.

The black woman is demanding a new set of female definitions and a recognition of herself of a citizen, companion and confidant, not a matriarchal villain or a step stool baby-maker. Role integration advocates the complementary recognition of man and woman, not the competitive recognition of same.[113]

Role integration encourages a broader mental and emotional growth in black women and men as they share the responsibility of working towards liberation. Neither of them should be relegated to a narrow experience in life. Neither of them should have their potentiality for self-determination controlled and predetermined by the opposite sex. That is a type of slavery that will not deliver us as a people. That is a form of bondage which is an integral part of the racist and capitalist system which black women and black men must work to oppose and overthrow.

Black Woman's Manifesto

Third World Women's Alliance

The Third World Women's Alliance (TWWA) was a revolutionary organization of women of color active from 1968 to 1980[1] aimed at ending capitalism, racism, imperialism, and sexism. The TWWA was one of the earliest groups advocating an intersectional approach to women's oppression.
The Third World Women’s Alliance was founded in New York City in the summer of 1970.[2] Its origins lay in women's activism in Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In December 1968, Black women in SNCC formed a Black women's liberation committee, but early in 1970, the women decided to expand their membership beyond SNCC and renamed their group the Black Women's Alliance.[3] In the Summer of 1970, the Black Women's Alliance joined with revolutionary Puerto Rican women activists to create the Third World Women’s Alliance.[4] A second chapter in Oakland/San Francisco formed in 1971.
The main focus of the Third World Women's Alliance was to unite women of color in struggle against racism, imperialism, and sexism, as the banner of their newspaper Triple Jeopardy (1971-1975) proclaimed.[3] The Third World Women's Alliance stressed the ideological connections between capitalist exploitation, global imperialism, and oppression of women of color.

The Alliance had many strategies to attack the threats of racism, imperialism, and sexism. A statement in the first issue of Triple Jeopardy proclaimed "the struggle against racism and imperialism must be waged simultaneously with the struggle for women's liberation" by "a strong independent socialist women's group."[5]