Wages for Housework: The Marxist-Feminist Case for Basic Income

• Autores: Almaz Zelleke
• Localización: Política y sociedad, ISSN-e 1988-3129, ISSN 1130-8001, Vol. 59, Nº. 2, 2022
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.5209/poso.78022
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Salario por trabajo doméstico: el argumentario marxista-feminista a favor de la renta básica
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    Este artículo explora la crítica marxista-feminista al capitalismo del Colectivo Feminista Internacional (CFI) de los años 70 y su campaña Wages for Housework (Salarios por Trabajo Doméstico). Las teóricas de este movimiento, entre las que se encuentran Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Selma James, Silvia Federici, Marie Mies y Claudia von Werlhof, combinan las perspectivas marxista y feminista para articular una crítica convincente del capitalismo, diseñada para unir a toda la clase trabajadora, incluyendo a los trabajadores asalariados y no asalariados. A pesar del eslogan aparentemente más acotado del movimiento, la demanda de esta campaña era un argumento implícito para una renta básica incondicional, individual y universal. Al igual que otros precedentes históricos de los movimientos contemporáneos por la renta básica, la campaña de Wages for Housework no tuvo éxito en la consecución de su objetivo político. A pesar de su fracaso, su identificación de las amas de casa no asalariadas como trabajadoras, su extensión del concepto de ama de casa a los trabajadores precarios de la economía globalizada y su identificación de las deficiencias estratégicas de los principales movimientos obreros y feministas son fundamentales para contextualizar los debates contemporáneos sobre la renta básica, y para el desarrollo de estrategias exitosas para los movimientos contemporáneos de la clase trabajadora.

  • English

    This article explores the Marxist-feminist critique of capitalism of the International Feminist Collective (IFC) of the1970s and its Wages for Housework (WfH) campaign. WfH theorists, including Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Selma James, Silvia Federici, Marie Mies and Claudia von Werlhof, combine Marxist and feminist perspectives to articulate a compelling critique of capitalism designed to unite the entire working class, including both waged and unwaged workers. I argue that, despite the movement’s seemingly narrower slogan, the WfH demand was an implicit argument for an unconditional, individual, and universal basic income. Like other historical precedents of contemporary basic income movements, the WfH campaign was unsuccessful in achieving its policy goal. Despite its failure, its identification of unwaged housewives as workers, its extension of the concept of the housewife to precarious workers in the globalized economy, and its identification of the strategic deficiencies of mainstream working class and feminist movements are critical to contextualizing contemporary debates on basic income and to the development of successful strategies for contemporary working class movements.

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