Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto

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Jo Littler is a professor of social analysis and cultural politics at City, University of London, and the author of Left Feminisms: Conversations on the Personal and the Political , published in March 2023 For this reason, we believe that any feminism that claims to be anti-capitalist needs to fight the sectoral, bureaucratic leaderships of the workers’ movement that maintain an arbitrary separation between the economic demands of wage earners and the democratic demands of the broader masses—this separation is beneficial to capitalism. But it also means fighting the (equally bureaucratic and sectoral) leaderships of the social movements that, denying the social power of the concentrated sectors of the working class in the struggle against capitalism, try to subjugate these democratic struggles to a limited reformist perspective, which in the context of the crisis is becoming increasingly utopian. Without subscribing to any economistic or class reductionist (trade unionistic) version of Marxism, we must object to this postulate. We agree with the authors that the working class is not limited to those who work “in factories or mines.” The working class includes all those who work “in the fields and in private homes; in offices, hotels, and restaurants; in hospitals, nurseries, and schools; in the public sector and in civil society—the precariat, the unemployed, and those who receive no pay in return for their work.”

Since 2015, massive women’s mobilizations have taken place, and in this framework an increasingly active minority has begun to recognize that gender inequality cannot be analyzed separately from the global inequality created by capitalism. This idea is gaining in popularity, but it still doesn’t have an unambiguous definition. More often than not, most forms of feminism that consider themselves “anti-capitalist” only target the worst aspects of neoliberal policies without proposing to get rid of the entire system. What is becoming clear, however, is the inability of neoliberal feminism to respond to the problems and demands of the majority of women. Even more so, neoliberal feminism is complicit in legitimizing the system by propagating the idea that it is enough to place women in positions of power inside capitalist democracies, that is, including them in the management of exploitation. [3] Corporate feminism is particularly aimed at women managers, who indeed benefit from neoliberalism, at the expense of the majority of other women, especially the ones who are poor, immigrants and racialized. The latter have to work in poor conditions, for example to educate the children and do the housework of the same women managers who delegate this care work to them. We mention the example of Argentina because it is one of the places where the women’s mobilizations were largest in recent years (Ni una menos, the Green Wave). For that reason it is cited by the authors of the manifesto as an inspiring example.

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Tithi Bhattacharya, another key signatory of the feminism for the 99% manifesto, has expanded on social reproduction theory within the context of gender, providing a marxist analysis of gender disparate divisions of labor as an integral part of the capitalist mode of production. [7] Specifically, Bhattacharya suggests that the unpaid acts of childbirth, child-rearing, and domestic duties are themselves acts of productive labor, acted within an as exploitative context consistent with marxist labor theory. [7] A key point, is that these acts are disparately the role of women. [7] Nancy Fraser is one of the most creative social philosophers and critical theorists of her generation. Cornel West We believe, in contrast, that the immediate task of anti-capitalist feminism is to clearly differentiate our allies from our enemies. The Women’s Strike: A Bridge Between Identity Politics and Class Politics?

a b Hooks, Bell (2015). Feminism is for everybody: passionate politics (Seconded.). New York. ISBN 9781138821590. OCLC 887450667. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link)That’s what we both hate about fiction, or at least crappy fiction — it purports to provide occasions for thinking through complex issues, but really it has predetermined the positions, stuffed a narrative full of false choices, and hooked you on them, rendering you less able to see out, to get out.

Unlike in mathematics, an addition in politics can sometimes result in subtraction. This can be seen not only in Sanders’ campaign but also in Argentina, where, under the auspices of the Vatican, a large part of the progressive, center-left and center-right opposition has united in a “Front for All” against President Macri’s right-wing government. In both cases, as in many other countries, this is an attempt to subordinate the feminist movement to petty bourgeois or bourgeois political parties (including even imperialist parties or religious ones!), parties that will strive to maintain the capitalist system, against and despite the interests of women. [4] Evans, Dayna. "On March 8, Women Will Go on Strike". The Cut. Archived from the original on 25 March 2018 . Retrieved 24 October 2018.This is a contradiction that was incubated during the decades of neoliberalism, but it was only brought to light by the new economic crisis that began in 2008—which was not as severe as the crash of 1929, but has been going on for more than a decade—as elements of social crisis developed, alongside the growing illegitimacy of the political regimes themselves. This situation pushed the new wave of feminism forward, expressing a discontent that goes beyond what the current demands reveal. Almost All of Us Oppose Neoliberalism, but Who Are the Anti-Capitalists? The withdrawal of paid labour hits the capitalist in the form of permanently lost profits. The withdrawal of unpaid reproductive labour is less straightforward. If the labour takes the form of care for vulnerable others such as children or elderly relatives, withdrawal may not be an acceptable option. In the case of labour that isn’t a matter of life and death—washing up or vacuuming—the woman will either do it later, or someone else will. Or no one will, and the house will get slightly messier. At best, a husband or boyfriend might be shamed into doing something the woman normally does. The capitalist doesn’t suffer, or even notice. From this starting point, the manifesto says that an “anticapitalist feminism has become thinkable today, in part because the credibility of political elites is collapsing worldwide.” The authors propose challenging the feminism embodied by Hillary Clinton from the left: “In the vacuum produced by liberalism’s decline, we have a chance to build another feminism” (emphasis ours, since we will return to this word later). They attempt to “mark out the road that must be traveled to reach a just society,” explaining “why our movement must become a feminism for the 99%.” Agreements, Disagreements and What Goes Unnamed The title of the book refers to the slogan “We are the 99%” from the 2011 “Occupy Wall Street” protests against capitalist, that highlighted the strong inequalities between the elite (the 1%) and the rest of the population (the 99%). The 1% stands for the richest women who benefit from liberal feminism, at the expense of the majority of women, the 99%, for whom the authors’ feminism is fighting. They show particular solidarity with women are also oppressed by other power systems apart from the gender one: racialized women, poor women, lesbian women, transgender women, Indigenous women, disabled women, migrant women, etc. Therefore, the manifesto clearly calls for the convergence of struggles. Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser ... have collaborated and written what is effectively a prospective programme for the global women's movement, a feminist manifesto for the 99%. Socialism Today

This manifesto is a brief for the second path, a course we deem both necessary and feasible. An anticapitalist feminism has become thinkable today, in part because the credibility of political elites is collapsing worldwide. The casualties include not only the center-left and center-right parties that promoted neoliberalism—now despised remnants of their former selves—but also their Sandberg- style corporate feminist allies, whose “progressive” veneer has lost its shine. Liberal feminism met its waterloo in the US presidential election of 2016, when the much-ballyhooed candidacy of Hillary Clinton failed to excite women voters. And for good reason: Clinton personified the deepening disconnect between elite women’s ascension to high office and improvements in the lives of the vast majority. Our Manifesto is a brief for the second path. What makes an anti-capitalist feminism thinkable today is the political dimension of the present crisis: the erosion of elite credibility throughout the world, affecting not only the centrist neoliberal parties but also their Sandberg-style corporate-feminist allies. This was the feminism that foundered in the us presidential election of 2016, when the ‘historic’ candidacy of Hillary Clinton failed to elicit the enthusiasm of women voters. For good reason: Clinton personified the disconnect between elite women’s ascension to high office and improvements in the lives of the vast majority.Feminism for the 99% refuses to seek or provide for a middle ground that would merely feed into the systemic causes it wishes to free itself from. It avoids centrist compromises and rejects the notion that the two seemingly opposing viewpoints of conservativism and liberalism, which in actuality serve and seek to maintain the same status quo, are the only options. Instead it poses the questions we need to ask about the kind of world we want to build such as, “Where will we draw the line delimiting economy from society, society from nature, production from reproduction, and work from family? How will we use the social surplus we collectively produce? And who, exactly, will decide these matters?” From three of the organizers of the International Women’s Strike: a manifesto for when “leaning in” is not enough