On Thursday 25 of October at 7 pm Six chairs books and guest-host Hedvika Janečko will run its ninth twice monthly Open Reading Group – Clap when you want to! – which is an invitation to read ahead, collectively discuss and support dear bodies of women, of the earthly and the technological, and seek the joy of learning the planetary together. This time readings are dedicated to unpaid housework, denaturalization of concept of work and discussing reformist futures without it.
Neither a manifestation of women’s love nor a result of women’s nature, women’s work in the household and outside of it must be understood in relations of power and expropriation. This idea was central to the Wages for Housework Campaign, launched by the International Feminist Collective back in Italy in 1972. According to one of its main organizer, a feminist activist and scholar, Silvia Federici, the struggle for wages constituted a struggle unambiguously and directly against women‘s role. From a related, autonomous Marxist perspective, Kathy Weeks moves from the idea of denaturalizing women’s work to denaturalizing work altogether. Based on the texts of both of these influential feminist writers, let’s explore the meaning of work, its impact on our everyday lives and a horizon of reformist and revolutionary possibility.
READINGS AND MATERIALS:
Silvia Federici’s Wages Against Housework (1975) and Introduction and the third chapter of Kathi Weeks’ book The Problem With Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics and Postwork Imaginaries (2011).
Materials will be in English. Conversations might swing between Lithuanian/ English depending on participants’ mood and preferences.
TO SIGN-UP AND RECEIVE MATERIALS, please write to info@sixchairsbooks.lt; space is very very limited, but, if necessary we can move around the KAH building.
The session will take place at the bookstore (Kauno Menininkų Namai / V. Putvinskio 56, Kaunas) from 6 to 8 pm. It is free and fresh beverages are provided.
CLAP IF YOU WANT TO!
