Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle (Common Notions) - Softcover

Federici, Silvia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1604863331 ISBN 13: 9781604863338

Publisher: PM Press, 2012

Synopsis

Written between 1975 and the present, the essays collected in this volume represent years of research and theorizing on questions of social reproduction and the consequences of globalization. Originally inspired by Federici's organizational work in the Wages for Housework movement, the topics discussed include the international restructuring of reproductive work and its effects on the sexual division of labor, the globalization of care work and sex work, the crisis of elder care, and the development of affective labor. Both a brief history of the international feminist movement and a contemporary critique of capitalism, these writings continue the investigation of the economic roots of violence against women.

About this title

About the Author

Silvia Federici is a feminist activist, a writer, and a teacher. She is the author of Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation, the editor of Enduring Western Civilization: The Construction of the Concept of Western Civilization and Its "Others,” and the coeditor of A Thousand Flowers: Social Struggles Against Structural Adjustment in African Universities. She is a cofounder of the International Feminist Collective and the Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa and a former professor of international studies, women's studies, and political philosophy at Hofstra University. She lives in New York City.

Review

"Finally we have a volume that collects the many essays that over a period of four decades Silvia Federici has written on the question of social reproduction and women's struggles on this terrain. While providing a powerful history of the changes in the organization of reproductive labor, Revolution at Point Zero documents the development of Federici's thought on some of the most important questions of our time: globalization, gender relations, the construction of new commons."  —Mariarosa Dalla Costa, coauthor, Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community

"In this edited collection several key analytical highlights stand out. The first is the insight that unwaged work—in the home and the colonies—is the foundation of capitalism." —Red Pepper magazine (November 2012)

"We, women, are all housewives, Wages for Housework said — not to embrace that work but to denounce it, to argue against the role capitalism reserves for women even if some manage to escape it in its most literal form. It’s also a great opening display of Federici’s style, the sort of humorless humor of an enraged intellect, delivering blows through punch lines: More smiles? More money." —n+1

"Revolution is essential reading for anyone interested in feminist history, labor studies, Marxism and everyone reckoning with the social forces at work in today’s crisis-wracked, austerity-hungry capitalism." —Fiona Jeffries, Science & Society

"Revolution at Point Zero will be of interest to anyone concerned with feminist history. But much more than that, this is a collection of essays that speaks to our present condition and how change can happen. In so doing, thought and action are not separated but constantly woven together in an inspiring and unwavering commitment to bringing about a better world." —Emma Dowling, Feminist Review

"Silvia Federici’s work on gender and primitive accumulation . . . brought a new energy to materialist feminism before and after the crisis had once again made the reproduction of life a central question for anti-capitalist debate." —Marina Vishmidt, Journal of Cultural Economy

Edition details

• Publisher: PM Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1604863331
• ISBN 13: 9781604863338
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208