Authors: Camille Barbagallo and Nicholas Beuret
Issue 15: Winter 2012: Care Work and the Commons edited by Silvia Federici and Camille Barbagallo
We wrote the following article almost two years ago, when the global economic crisis had in many ways just begun, as had the intensification of the neo-liberal program of ‘austerity’ in Britain. Stuart Hall has recently argued that the current conjuncture must be seen as an intensification and continuation of the neoliberal project. While questions remain as to the ‘sustainability’ of neo-liberalism in the long term, we certainly agree that in relation to children and childcare as well as the (dis)location of women, it is very much a case of a continued onslaught. Unfortunately, many of the regressive processes and possible outcomes we describe in the article have come to pass or are currently being implemented. In the last two years in Britain, the number of unemployed women has reached over one million, the highest since 1988.