Reflections on “The Struggle for the Rebel Body”
There is much more to Silvia Federici’s contribution than is included in her two-part Capitalism Nature Socialism article “The Great Caliban.” The simultaneously published book from which this essay is drawn, Caliban and the Witch, should be obligatory reading for anyone interested in ecosocialism and ecofeminism. The publication is also timely with respect to the Vatican’s latest attempt at minimizing Papal responsibility for the mass murder of “witches,” who, as Federici reminds us, were mostly peasant women. Leftist reactions to this Papal disavowal continue to elide the importance of witch hunts in the development of capitalism. So this book merits at least a brief description here to help contextualize my comment on her CNS article.