WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, FdCA, Il Cantiere #16: ECO-FEMINISM. Resistances for a horizon of eco-social justice - M. GIULIA COSTANZO TALARICO[1] (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The capitalist productive growth has caused incalculable damage to the

environment through the exploitation of natural resources, many studies have
denounced the irreversible dangers of this production model. It is no coincidence
that, in recent years, we have witnessed unprecedented environmental
catastrophes, such as the fires in the Amazon, in Siberia and in Italy, and in
South Africa, tragedies caused by man which, in addition to destroying the green
lungs of the world, have also caused the highest increase in CO2 emissions. ----
In this context, the coronavirus pandemic is another consequence of the severe
loss of biodiversity caused largely by agribusiness.
As the Intergovernmental Platform on Science and Policy on Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Services (IPBES) points out, biodiversity loss and the emergence of
zoonotic diseases lead to an increased risk of infectious disease transmission.
As Vandana Shiva states in an article published in March 2020 on her blog:

"Diseases move from nonhuman animals to human animals as we destroy the habitats
and homes of wildlife, violate species integrity by manipulating animals on
factory farms, and genetically engineer plants with viral promoters and
antibiotic resistance markers. ".

        The coronavirus marks a serious health crisis, but the concept of crisis
made its appearance in international debates several decades earlier, with
references to different areas: global economic crisis, humanitarian crisis,
health crisis, ecological crisis (climate change), agri-food crisis , etc. The
coronavirus crisis is just one example of the problems faced by a system that
seems destined for crisis, which is actually a structural crisis caused by a
specific economic system (Costanzo Talarico, 2020). This crisis is presented as a
strategic way of neo-liberal capitalist accumulation to be able to act with
neo-liberal policies of structural adjustment through the concept of "emergency".
Indeed, the use of the term "emergency" and, therefore, of fear, function as a
device of power to limit rights in exchange for security (Useche Aldana, 2008).
In this context, we understand that the fracture caused by the economic model in
question is not limited to the environmental sphere, but is also reflected in the
social and cultural aspects, causing a fracture on several levels due to the
inequalities caused
       The crisis of the crisis is reflected as a "capital-life" conflict,
because it represents a biocidal system that causes structural inequalities and
environmental devastation (Pérez Orozco, 2017). In this sense, Ramón Grosfoguel
(2016) underlines that the crisis refers to a crisis of civilization of a system
built through a society that has given centrality to wild accumulation and which
translates into an unequal redistribution of work and wealth and in an intrinsic
violence necessary for the optimization of profits (Costanzo Talarico, 2020).
As we have previously pointed out, the different crises are a consequence of the
same system, therefore it is essential to analyze the structural aspects at the
root in order to understand their complexity. If we wanted to represent the
capitalist system with a mythological image, we could visualize it as the monster
Hydra of Lerna, a polycephalic snake whose number of heads could vary from a
minimum of three to ten thousand. According to legend, by decapitating one head,
the Hydra had the ability to regenerate three more. This metaphor highlights the
need to address the various problems by considering the lowest common
denominator: even if there are many faces, the basis of the system is the same
and the solutions to be studied must take this factor into account. Indeed,
phenomena such as the colonial division of labour, the sexual division of labor
and the exploitation of nature as natural capital are part of the same system.
Current extractivist policies take neither territories nor the communities that
inhabit them into account; their only goal is to maximize the benefits that can
be obtained from the deprivation of resources considered as means of production.
Vandana Shiva (2006) describes the values of the neoliberal system as a "culture
of death", which possesses an intrinsic violence capable of manipulating nature
and societies to produce profit and power. The last decade of the 20th century
saw an increase in peasant and environmental protests, but above all in
demonstrations by women engaged in the fight against environmental impacts. The
participation of women in agricultural and environmental activism around the
world has increased, helping to promote an eco-feminist perspective on these
issues (Costanzo Talarico, 2020). Historically, women's knowledge has been
canceled and ignored to give priority to the presumed productivity of men,
favoring the scientific knowledge developed mainly by men of the upper middle
class. Male violence is intrinsic to the neo-liberal system and, therefore, the
elaboration of alternative projects must necessarily include equality between all
beings, as well as respect for nature. For all these reasons, we wish to
underline the importance of an eco-feminist approach in the visibility of
sustainable alternatives capable of maintaining agro-biodiversity through resilience.
It is a socio-ecological project, in which women play a fundamental role,
claiming agro-ecological proposals that contain inclusive values and contribute
to models of social and territorial justice, as well as allowing food
sovereignty, highlighting the importance of a dialogue between the eco-feminist
perspective and agro-ecology and emphasizing the role of women in social
reproduction.
As Vandana Shiva observes in Who Really Feeds the World (2016), it is women, and
especially women of the Global South, who play a crucial role in supporting local
agri-food systems, protecting seeds and ancestral knowledge. In this sense, women
are responsible for reproducing life in peasant communities through the essential
role of feeding, caring for people, animals and territories (Papucio de Vidal, 2014).
       The numerous and varied ways of resisting and of constructing alternative
proposals suggest not to speak of eco-feminism, but of eco-feminisms, which allow
for a dialogue between different epistemologies, such as rural and urban, which
come together to oppose a system violent and predatory. In this way, both in
rural and urban areas, eco-feminisms promote the recovery of essential aspects of
cultural identities that the neo-liberal system is crushing (traditional recipes,
rural knowledge, barter, etc.) and, d' on the other hand, the protection of the
territory and common goods (Costanzo Talarico, 2020).

The last decade of the 20th century saw an increase in peasant and environmental
protests, but above all in demonstrations by women engaged in the fight against
environmental impact.

      Eco-feminisms, in general, denounce the fact that in less than two
centuries capitalism has managed to devastate the biodiversity of our planet and
to extinguish more animal species than in the entire history of humanity and, at
the same time, has strengthened a patriarchal system that perversely abuses
women. Globally, ecofeminism emphasizes that women are the main victims of
environmental deterioration caused by climate change and socio-environmental
conflicts. Man-made environmental disasters, such as desertification,
deforestation or loss of biodiversity, particularly affect women in the global
South, who find it difficult to get food, clean water or take care of their
daughters, sons and other people. elderly or dependent. It is also women who
suffer the greatest violence, sexual assaults and rapes when multinationals
plunder the territories of the global South. In this way, the female body and
nature have a common struggle: the one to free themselves from patriarchal
domination and violence, especially when extractivism has declared war on people
who disagree with their logic (Costanzo Talarico, 2020).
 From an eco-feminist perspective, the false autonomy of the system is denounced
and it is emphasized that the capitalist economy underestimates the time
necessary for daily social reproduction. Therefore, ecofeminism as an
intellectual project proposes the transformation of reality by breaking the
patriarchal dichotomous thought structure (society-nature,
production-reproduction, rational-irrational, home-market) by building an
alternative perspective (Costanzo Talarico, 2020) which puts center life and care.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CONSTANZO TALARICO, MG. (2020), «Miradas desde la economía feminista y el
ecofeminismo.Pensar soluciones locales para problemas globales», Informe del
estado de Sevilla en 2020; Construir un relato propio o morir intentándolo, (pp.
20-27). En Pavón Losada J, Euronaturas, Sevilla,

FEDERICI, S. (2017), Caliban and the witch. Women, body and original
accumulation, Madrid, Traficantes de Sueños.

GROSFOGUEL, R. (2016), «From «economic extractivism» to «epistemic extractivism»
and «ontological extractivism»: a destructive way of knowing, being and being in
the world», Tabula Rasa, nº 24, Colombia, pp. 123-143.

PAPUCIO DE VIDAL, S. (2014), «Women and Food, an Approach from the Ecofeminist
Perspective», in Siliprandi E. and Zuluaga G.P. (coords.), Gender, agroecology
and food sovereignty, Barcelona, Icaria editorial.

PÉREZ OROZCO, A. (2017), Feminist subversion of the economy. Contributions to a
debate on the capital-life conflict, Madrid, Traficantes de Sueños.

SHIVA, V., (2006), Manifesto for a Democracy of the Earth, Justice,
sustainability and peace, Barcelona, Paidós.

SHIVA, V., (2016), Who really feeds the world?, Madrid, Captain Swing Books.

SPLINDARI E., ZULUAGA G. P., (2014), Gender, agroecology and food sovereignty:
ecofeminist perspectives, Barcelona, Icaria.

USECHE ALDANA, O. (2008), «Fear, security and resistance: fear as a political
articulation of negativity», (pp.1-26). In Polis Revista Latinoamericana, nº 19,
Society and Public Policy Research Center (CISPO),

ZULUAGA G. P. (2014), «Ecofeminisms: Potentialities and limitations», Gender,
agroecology and food sovereignty: ecofeminist perspectives (pp. 67-92). In E.
Siliprandi and G. P. Zuluaga (coords.), Barcelona, Icaria.

note

[1]Lo scritto compare sul n. 10, March 2023, from La Brecha: analysis of the
economic and social situation, CGT-in/Formation. The text is available in Spanish
at the following link
https://in-formacioncgt.info/la-brecha-10-ecofeminismo-resistencias-para-un-horizonte-de-justicia-eco-social/
Mgiulia Costanzo Talarico is part of the EcoEcoFem Research Group. Pablo de
Olavide University, Seville

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