Black Women and Europe 1992

Abstract

This one-day seminar was held at the London Women's Centre, on 24 February 1991. It was organized by the Women's and Equality Units of Camden, Hackney, Haringey and Islington Councils. Some two hundred women (mostly of ethnic origin) were in attendance, drawn from voluntary and statutory organizations from all over Britain. In the past eighteen months all types of interest groups in Britain and in Europe have woken up to the implications of Europe 1992. Black, migrant and refugee organizations across Europe and Britain have come together to fight racism, discriminatory internal controls and to have the rights of non-European Community nationals upheld on an equal basis with other European nationals. Campaigns such as European Action for Racial Equality and Social Justice have been established to develop a network across Europe. Following a meeting with grass-roots workers and European migrant representatives in Hackney, a Migrant Forum was launched in Brussels in November 1990 with funding from the European Commission. The Campaign Against Racist Laws (CARL) has produced a Charter of European Community Rights in wide circulation. The established women's organizations in Britain and in Europe have not been idle either. In September 1990 The European Women's Lobby was launched in Brussels. In Britain, its 'wing', the National Association of Women's Organizations (NAWO) was also established. It covers one hundred organizations and five million women of whom the vast majority are white middle-class professionals. The community groups and organizations set up to redress injustices to the black community have given little space to the perspectives and concerns of black women. Nor have the white-dominated women's movements served their interests any better. Their preoccupations have centred around gender issues of most concern to white middle-class women. Officials responsible for social policy in Britain and in Europe have also excluded black women. Valerie Amos, in her opening address, pointed out that neither the Equal Opportunities