Capitalist fantasy cracks, cracks. If capitalism wanted to seduce it with its promises of equality and well-being, it has given way to an increasingly authoritarian, ultra-machist, more conservative and more racist neoliberal project. Therefore, the conflict between life and capital has intensified. Among other things, they are commercialising life, concentrating transnational powers and privatising public heritage. Although the Basque Country as an “oasis” says that “we are not in crisis”, in our country we are rooted in the crisis of social reproduction.

We're immersed in a fascinating mission to stand up to capitalism and build alternatives. We have to have a class perspective to avoid superficial changes at the center of all our struggles. With regard to class, it is time to overcome the traditional understanding of capitalism. It is more than an economic system and we cannot leave social reproduction out of the economic perspective. The structural subordinations used by capitalism must be taken into account. In other words, class is not only situated in the conflict between capital and employment, but is also related to other relationships, race, gender or origin, outside the regulated economy. There is much more at stake than the exploitation of employment. We cannot, therefore, organise resistance only from the point of view of paid work. We must think in an articulate way all the economic processes that sustain lives.

For all these reasons, the working class is broad and complex: housewives working as musutruk; unemployed; precarious or employed of services, schools, care, agriculture, offices*; both in civil society, in the associations of neighbors, in the reception movements of migrants, in the culture... As we saw on the feminist strike, they're motors of class struggle.

Care allows for dignified and stimulating lives. Precisely, these life support works are the key to the feminist transition that we are driving. The labor movement must start from the struggles around social reproduction. For example, conflicts in feminized sectors such as nursing homes, cleaners or school canteens, the struggles of household employees, health workers, those carrying out public education, farmers, land defense, the right to housing... Even though capitalism regards these reproductions as secondary, we cannot accept this playing field as emancipation movements.

For all these reasons, on 1 May, our great cry is directed at domestic workers. They suffer the violent consequences of the conflict between life and capital. The care work is carried out in a situation of total exploitation in our society, and only the privileges take us away from them. That is why we must ask ourselves and the institutions that design public policies.

The redistribution of care tasks between women* and men is not a strategic objective of Basque institutions. By no means. Instead of promoting the right to care in a universal way, they drive a fully familiar model. They know that, in the model that we have extended among people, to meet people's needs, by default, the family takes care of them. The institutions “fix” in an insufficient, sexist and mercantilist way the care tasks entrusted to them. In addition, they mainly use subcontractors. As regards home care, the free work of female* family members is replaced by the work of female* immigrants. If that were not enough, we are not prepared to pay these jobs in a dignified manner.

On the eve of the elections, we demand political responsibility to dignify the situation of the thousands of domestic workers in precarious conditions. The data speaks for itself: More than 90 per cent of CAPV household employees are women* and more than half are immigrants. 25% work without a contract and most are internal (internal) workers. The disappearance of various public services has led to an increase in this sector.

Therefore, recalling the demands of the 8M feminist strike, we must begin to think about how to distribute the tasks of care, also in the Feminist Movement: what part of the tasks of care we will make available to the market, what public institutions and what community or networks of mutual support. Above all, we must reflect on the points of encounter and the hybrids that we want to create between these areas. The objective is clear, collectivization and democratization of care tasks.

We will fight, as the first of May, for a decent and livable life for all citizens, also for the rest of the year. Feminists know very well that capitalism cannot put lives at the centre, so we say loud and clear: Take away the capital, redistribute the care tasks!

GORA BORROKA FEMINIST!

LONG LIVE THE WORKING STRUGGLE!

Euskal Herria, May 2019

EUSKAL HERRIKO BILGUNE FEMINIST

This review article has been posted by URL0 and we have brought it to ARGIA thanks to the CC-by-sa license.