In the time since my last post (about a month ago - whoops), I've been reading Feminism for the 99% - A Manifesto by Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser. A very short and quick, yet incredibly insightful, book and something I would recommend any new feminists to read. As a baby leftist, I consider myself incredibly lucky to have my first feminist read be so interdisciplinary and revolutionary. It is a privilege in itself to have to read about theory in order to be radicalized, but I am glad that my first exposures were through this book.
Personally, I greatly appreciated its focus on anti-capitalism, specifically in relation to other modes of oppression. As an environmental activist myself, this manifesto bridged the gap between environmentalists and feminists perfectly: "Primed by its (capitalism's) very logic to degrade nature, instrumentalize public powers, and commandeer unwaged carework, capital periodically destabilizes the very conditions that it - and the rest of us - rely upon to survive. Crisis is hardwired into its DNA" (17). Capitalism, being inherently exploitative, was bound to destroy the Earth and currently is. Furthermore, exploitation assumes an exploiter and an exploited, creating classes that liberal feminists intend to embrace. Referred to as glass-ceiling feminism, this method continues the oppression of women, but this time at the hands of the lucky white women that do break the glass-ceiling. As I've mentioned in a previous post, liberal feminism is hardly feminism, continuing the oppressive nature of capitalism.
With capitalism attacking both the environment and women, a common enemy emerges. In my protest of our economic system, I am fighting for the all the oppressed.