By Dr. Eeva Houtbeckers, eeva.houtbeckers@aalto.fi
I am writing this text from home. I should do more than write this text. But then again, I have been told by the officials that I should stay at home. Still, I cannot escape the feeling that I should be helping, salvaging, conserving, supporting, caring, mending, repairing... Though I can barely write this text. Who is in a position that they can write texts during these times?
When the pandemic was declared in March 2020, I took me some time to realise that I was in shock. It was not as much because of the virus, but because of the frenzy I witnessed. Overwhelmed people trying to make decisions with flickering knowledge. Governments issuing historical restrictions and financial support programs. According to sharp-minded critical thinkers all this was to keep the status quo as intact as possible. But I could not think clearly. My mind was racing with concerns about how to secure food, water and shelter for people I care about, if things get worse. When do we leave from the metropolitan area and try to find a place somewhere else? I was thinking of survival. This is not a drill.
I was thinking all of this while for me many things were fine. Almost overnight my precarious position as a fixed-term funded researcher seemed more secure compared to the people with permanent positions in companies cutting down their expenses. I was able to keep paying our home loan and secure a home, where I could work. I was mentally stable enough to take care of my children. I had money to buy food. Water and electricity were being delivered uninterrupted. We were healthy and safe. Realising this was a reminder of privilege.
Feminism(s) and Degrowth Alliance (Fada)[1] members organised meetings to make sense of the situation. Some of the participants were wrecked since they had worked day and night with communities to ease the quick changes for people in vulnerable position. Some were puzzled. How to go on with anything during times like these? Some were determined to act. Some were in shock like me. Out of this polyphony and many virtual meetings grew the carefully drafted FaDa statement: Collaborative Feminist Degrowth: Pandemic as an Opening for a Care-Full Radical Transformation[2]. Some of us organised and facilitated the meetings, while others skilfully drafted a document that was then released in April 2020[3].
During the process, it was clear that the participants understood the pandemic as "a crisis of the reproduction of life" and "a crisis of care: the work of caring for humans, non-humans, and the shared biosphere". The statement addresses "how can we use this moment to democratically rebuild social organization of labor and care work" by presenting four priorities for "an intentional degrowth informed by a democratic and feminist approach": (1) Towards a Provisioning Economy: Recognize and regenerate social and ecological reproductive capacities; (2) Home as a site of production and reproduction; (3) Towards a Caring Economy. Care Labor and Care Income; (4) Towards a Solidarity Economy.
What is the meaning of this when there is so much to do? Moreover, what do texts do in these times of crisis? In this short piece, I give a personal answer to these questions: The FaDa statement process was my lifeline that spring. Not only it forced me to act, but we acted together. I remembered that I am among the many who feel the pressure to act. Instead of the unequal accumulation on wealth that is accelerated by supporting the status quo, we need mobilisation and transformation for altered relations. But this does not mean transformation sometime in the future. Who can afford to wait that? Not people and Earth others in need right now. Urgent changes are needed to resist astronomical capital accumulation and the destruction of life and life sustaining processes.
Yet, I can barely manage to keep it together during these times, even one year after the declaration of the pandemic. But rest assured, I have no illusions that this could not affect me although I feel safe for now. Precariousness has increased for many and it will keep on increasing - unless we act together.
**
I thank Corinna Dengler for comments.
[1] https://www.degrowth.info/en/feminisms-and-degrowth-alliance-fada
[2] https://www.degrowth.info/en/feminisms-and-degrowth-alliance-fada/collective-research-notebook
[3] https://www.degrowth.info/en/2020/04/feminist-degrowth-collaborative-fada-reflections-on-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-the-politics-of-social-reproduction