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Book ClubsIntroduction and Lecture One The Body, Capitalism and the Reproduction of Labor Power Discussion
Hello ladies! It is December 1st. Time to discuss the introduction and the first lecture of Silvia Federici’s Beyond the Periphery of the Skin.
In the introduction, Federici tells us her book is structured around answering four essential questions (I took these questions directly from the text.):
In the intro, Federici says that part one, which contains the three lectures) is about preparing us for the rest of the book and to answer these four essential questions. As I understand it, we need to keep these questions in mind as we read the rest of the book.
Just like in the introduction, Lecture One introduced concepts and people I’ve never heard before. I had to stop reading many times to look up who someone was and what their works were. Foucault was the first in this lecture I needed to look up (I still don’t completely understand his theories on how power works or how that influences how the human body is understood, so I hope we can discuss this in the comments!). Google tells me he was a French philosopher, historian, and political activist who lived from 1926 to 1984.
Later on in the same paragraph, Federici argues the factors that have shaped our bodies the most in capitalist society are the extreme exploitation of our labor and the creation of different forms of work and coercion to get that work. She also says multiple histories (racial, sexual, and generational hierarchies) must be examined to understand how capitalism has harmed humans and the earth. We have to look at the histories of people who were enslaved and colonized, as well as those of waged workers, housewives, and children to truly see how our bodies are viewed and changed to be like efficient, unfeeling machines under a capitalist system and society.
In the 8th paragraph and onwards, she gives a bunch of examples. They’ll be very interesting to discuss in the comments. Federici gave a critical opinion of the creation and implementation of the assembly line process. It was the first time I’ve ever read about the negative aspects of the invention of the assembly line.
In the 14th paragraph, it is talked about how women will always be subject to control in a capitalistic society because they are the ones who create more workers by birthing them. Capitalism can only thrive and accumulate more if there are more workers to accumulate. Capitalism and the accumulation of more more more is what motivated the slave trade and the plantation system.
In the next few paragraphs Jenny Brown’s Birth Strike and Dorthy Roberts’ Killing the Black Body were referenced. Maybe we can read those next for future book clubs.
In the final paragraphs Federici brings up the worldwide decline of the birth rate and why that may be happening. She brings up why some women are choosing to not have children, especially in wealthier countries that have more social safety nets, and why some women choose to have children in less well off countries. Shulamith Firestone and her controversial ideas are brought up about women’s biology being the source of women’s misery and exploitation. Federici disagrees with this and says so. I also don’t agree that our biology is the source of our oppression, men and their psychopathic treatment of us is what I believe is the source of our misery and exploitation. Finally, Federici brings up how we as human beings in a capitalistic system are already too much like machines. I wonder, do y’all think we are becoming more like machines?
I know I typed a lot here, but there is still so much more to discuss that I didn’t write here from the intro and the first lecture! This is the first time I have led a book club discussion, and what I wrote here is my understanding of what I read. I’m no authority on the subject matter. Ladies, please correct my understanding if I misunderstood anything here!
Thanks for giving us a pause, @Tm. Thanks for reminding us that we don’t have to know it all, and that the important part is doing it.
Doing it: it can be simple.
One of the earliest lessons for me in this I learned from this poem by Elsa Gidlow, a lesbian poet, and some kind of witch. Each day, she lights her fire. And each year, she lights the solstice fire from the coals of the old one.
Chains Of Fires
Each dawn, kneeling before my hearth, Placing stick, crossing stick On dry eucalyptus bark Now the larger boughs, the log (With thanks to the tree for its life) Touching the match, waiting for creeping flame. I know myself linked by chains of fire To every woman who has kept a hearth
In the resinous smoke I smell hut and castle and cave, Mansion and hovel. See in the shifting flame my mother And grandmothers out over the world Time through, back to the Paleolithic In rock shelters where flint struck first sparks (Sparks aeons later alive on my hearth) I see mothers , grandmothers back to beginnings, Huddled beside holes in the earth of igloo, tipi, cabin, Guarding the magic no other being has learned, Awed, reverent, before the sacred fire Sharing live coals with the tribe.
For no one owns or can own fire, it ]ends itself. Every hearth-keeper has known this. Hearth-less, lighting one candle in the dark We know it today. Fire lends itself, Serving our life Serving fire.
At Winter solstice, kindling new fire With sparks of the old From black coals of the old, Seeing them glow again, Shuddering with the mystery, We know the terror of rebirth.
Thank you for the above reminders and for sharing that beautiful and powerful poem. Both are simply divine, and I got some goosebumps from the poem!