Marxism Day School Series hosted by the Boston International Socialist Organization
Marxism and Feminism
Sunday, 9/15, 1pm
Epiphany School 154 Centre St Dorchester Ctr, MA 02124
Next to Shawmut Station on the red line
Childcare will be provided.
We are in a political moment where a new generation of feminists are seeking out and leading around an inter-sectional perspective on feminism and realize that you can’t talk about gender without talking about race and class and other forms of oppression. From recent exposure of the sterilization of women in California state prisons to the attack on Marissa Alexander, a black woman sent to prison for defending herself against domestic violence, there is an urgency for activists to develop an analysis of how these forms of oppression are directly connected and work to fight against them.
Angela Davis, a powerful leader and activist in the black power movement, is the author of the widely read Marxist text, Women, Race and Class. The book starts with the legacy of slavery and how slavery shaped the womanhood of black women and lays out the history of Black feminism and the struggle for liberation, dealing with the suffrage movement, the socialist movement and ideas around reproductive rights and housework. While social movements in US history have made some huge gains for women and people of color, women and black women in particular continue to face the deep oppression built into this system while at the same time leading today's struggles around public education and to raise the minimum wage. The analysis of women's oppression and the lessons from history are essential for the development of an inter-sectional approach today.
With the 40 year neoliberal attack, we have seen the ruling class restructure the economy in ways that we have never seen before in history It is up to activists today to figure out how neoliberalism is affecting the oppression we face and what it means for our struggles against capitalism. Join the International Socialist Organization as we explore the rich history of black feminism, the need for reproductive justice, the development of Marxism and social reproduction theory and an understanding of how neoliberalism maintains its global strength through economic policy and gender oppression. The struggle for liberation today lies in the further development of social reproduction theory as a central part of the Marxist method for figuring out how our experiences relate to these ideas, and contribute to the development of a strategy to fight the racist, sexist neoliberal attack on the working class.
Part 1: Black Feminism, Marxism, and Reproduction
Part 2: Social Reproduction and Neoliberalism
Sharon Smith, Domestic Labor and Women's Opression
Supplemental Readings:
- Sylvia Federici, A Feminist Critique of Marx
- Sue Ferguson, Canadian Contributions to Social Reproduction Feminism, Race and Embodied Labor
For more information: contact@bostonsocialism.org