The European Forum of Left Feminists held its 8th annual conference in 1993 on the theme of the gender dimensions of nationalism and racism in Europe. This book grew on the conference's deliberations and gives particular attention to the situation in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia and the Former Yugoslavia. In their introduction, the editors argue that women often play important symbolic roles in nationalist and racialised narratives whilst men tend to be constructed as the group's representatives and agents. As symbols of their ethnic or national group women are seen as targets for protection by their group or as targets for violation by the other group, but in either case they are assumed to be vulnerable and denied access to power. Nevertheless, women within Europe have attempted to combat racism and nationalism, one example of this being the Servian women's groups who tried to use their pre-conflict networks to work for peace. In buildingtheir coalitions women also need to explore their differences, for example the unspoken privileges of being white rather than coloured. The book is entitled Crossfires to reflect the way women are so often caught in the crossfire of ethnic conflict yet are also at cross-purposes in that they are trapped on different sides of those conflicts. They are here being encouraged to set about producing their own \"crossfires\" by building networks across ethnic divisions and reaching beyond the symbolic role of guardians of the race so often assigned to them by sexist ideology.