Witches, Witch-Hunting and Women (Part 2 - New Forms of Capital Accumulation and Witch-Hunting in Our Time) - Silvia Federici
"We are witnessing an escalation of violence against women, especially African-descendant and Native-American women, because 'globalisation' is a process of political recolonisation intended to give capital uncontested control over the world's natural wealth and human labour, and this cannot be achieved without attacking women, who are directly responsible for the reproduction of their communities." In our second and final episode on Witches, Witch-Hunting and Women by Silvia Federici, our attention moves to the second part of the book, which begins with 'Globalisation, Capital Accumulation and Violence Against Women: An International and Historical Perspective' and concludes with 'Witch-Hunting, Globalisation and Feminist Solidarity in Africa Today'. These two brilliant essays lead us into discussions on how mental health systems have been oppressive to and dismissive of women and used to institutionalise, gaslight and punish them for their sexuality. Domestic violence and the punishment of women for leaving the house and working, how the witch-hunts legitimised women's subordination to men and gave control over their reproductive capacity to the state, the institutionalisation and normalisation of violence which started with primitive accumulation, why cops are domestic abusers and don't leave their violent behaviour behind when they finish work. We also tackle themes such as how abuse is weaponised against feminism, how debt crisis, structural adjustments and currency devaluation caused the witch-hunts, dowry murders in India and the resistance against them, Ghanaian witch camps and female solidarity, the capitalist and colonialist causes of the modern day witchhunts and the IMF, World Bank and the inherent violence of 'structural adjustment'. This episode is part of our series on Marxist-feminists. As Mao and Thomas Sankara have said, “Women hold up the other half of the sky.” Red Book Club recognizes that including the voices of nonmen in our studies is not a niche activity, but is in fact an essential step in gaining the most comprehensive view of the material conditions of the past and present that we possibly can; therefore we’ve planned this series to amplify the ideas that nonmen have been bringing to the conversation for centuries. From Federici’s analysis of women as a means of primitive accumulation to Luxemburg’s essay of the benefits of revolution vs the impossibility of reform, each of these works confronts history and the movement for social change through the lens of the experiences of nonmen in society. Follow us on Twitter at @RBCpod and feel free to message us if you need links to companion resources or have any questions. You can also find us on our new site at www.rbcpod.wordpress.com where you can find ebook copies of the works that we're covering and more. If you'd like to join or support the book club, you can find us on Patreon as Red Book Club: https://www.patreon.com/redbookclub including access to our Red Book Club discord server, early access to our episodes and more. Thanks to @NunezKeenan for the intro theme; you can find more of their work here: http://tiny.cc/keenan Thanks to the Craig bot for helping us to record via Discord! And a special thanks to our patrons for their support in helping us to create the podcast. Our logo was designed by Rob, you can find his work on Instagram @roobmmm Outro music: 'Sibere Sibere' and 'Tora Rora Yambi' - Traditional Dagomba Women's Music From Ghana
