Multiple Archives, Multiple Futures: Reexamining the Socialism of "The Combahee River Collective Statement"

Abstract

While contemporary scholars celebrate “The Combahee River Collective Statement” as an early articulation of intersectional theory, little scholarship current exists that takes seriously the authors’ self-identification as socialists. In this paper, I place the erasure of the Combahee River Collective’s identity in three major contexts: citational practices in feminist scholarship, socialist feminism’s resistance to late twentieth century reworkings of what constitutes the “material,” the fall of socialist feminism from its status as the “crowning achievement” of feminism. Rather than argue for its inclusion in socialist feminist archives at the expense of its place in intersectionality, I advocate for the Statement’s inclusion in multiple archives of thought, including and beyond intersectionality and socialist feminism.