Critical alliance: Black and white women working together for social justice

We propose that critical alliance is a vital concept for the future of community work in the process of collective action for social justice. As an African-Caribbean woman and a white British woman, we argue that, despite the fact that women are the prime collective force in communities, when they come together in alliance across difference this action is not sustained. Caution and hostility often undermine the process. We use the term alliances of difference as an acknowledgement of the need for more sustained, horizontal forms of relating.