Why do we need a lump of money? Reflections on Crisis and Struggles around Reproductive Labour.

Abstract

The paper discusses basic income in the context of feminist political ecology using the concepts of reproductive labor, both performed by people and by nature. In the first part we elaborate on Wages for Housework campaign as a forerunner of the idea of basic income. The campaign inscribed the concept of income into intersectional relation between patriarchy and capitalism what was a key element of its revolutionary dimension. In the second part we analyze three different social struggles in order to create a ground for further reflections over the legitimacy such tools (and resolutions) as basic income. On the one hand the paper highlights some elements of the crisis of social reproduction, brought and further deepen by neoliberal reforms in Poland over the 25 years. On the other hand, it speaks to the issues of ecological crisis which needs to be taken into account in every anti-capitalist theory or strategy. Thus, the article aims to investigate if the wage demands for both reproductive and productive labor are still relevant in the era of neoliberal capitalism.