On Continuity and Exceptionality in Our Present Crisis: A Conversation with Silvia Federici

Selina Gallo-Cruz, Chelsea Renea Morton

Capitalism Nature Socialism, November 2024

Selina Gallo-Cruz

Sociology Department

Advocacy and Activism

Colonialism

Conflict

Crime & Violence

Gender and Sex

Latin America & the Caribbean

Middle East & North Africa

United States

Capitalism Nature Socialism

Selina Gallo-Cruz

On 2 May of 2024, we spoke via Zoom call with sociologist and critical historian of violence against women, Silvia Federici, author of “Caliban and the Witch,” among many other critical works on our present global crises – from the genocidal war against Palestine to women in welfare in the United States.

The conversation took us from the depths of her despair about the ongoing wars against the world’s most vulnerable peoples to the resilient hopes sowed by women in commons in Nigeria and Argentina. Silvia shared her reflections on the human experiences that have shaped her scholarship, the continuities of capitalist discipline observed in her early advocacy, and how she makes sense of today’s compounding global crises.