Interviewer: Why do you think that a critique of capitalism from the point of view of reproduction is necessary?
Silvia Federici: Because it allows us to rethink capitalism as a whole. When you look at the question of reproduction you see something fundamental about the capitalist organisation of work. You see that capitalism is forced, as a system, to devalue reproductive work. You see that in the history of capitalism, certain patterns are continuously returning. Both slavery and the devaluation of women’s work are materially rooted in the capitalist need to reduce the cost of producing the working class. Capitalism needs to cut the cost of producing life, producing work or producing labour-power to a minimum. In the same way as capitalism appropriates the natural world for nothing it also appropriates the work of the people it enslaves and women’s domestic work. The moment we understand that, then we have to take an anti-capitalist perspective, because we see that sexism and racism are structural elements and a structural necessity of a capitalist system. We cannot have capitalism without some form of racism or some form of sexism. That is why, no matter what kind of struggle we are involved in, we need to begin to create an alternative to capitalism.