The Mysteries of Reproduction: Arlen Austin on Lotta Femminista and Invisible Labor

Описание: In this episode of the Organic Filaments Network, we speak with Arlen Austin—editor, translator, and researcher—about his collaborative work with Leopoldina Fortunati, Mariarosa Dalla Costa, and Silvia Federici, and his role in recovering the political and theoretical legacies of Lotta Femminista.

The conversation traces the intellectual and organizational ruptures opened by the Wages for Housework movement, the significance of Fortunati’s The Arcana of Reproduction, and the broader struggles to name, politicize, and refuse reproductive labor. Arlen discusses the relationship between reproduction and value, cybernetics and household command, eugenics and pro-natalist fascism, algorithmic labor, translation as political work, and the complexities of editing militant theory across time.

We explore how the feminist critiques of reproduction offered by Lotta Femminista challenged Marxist orthodoxy, exposed capital’s reliance on unwaged labor, and redefined the home as a terrain of class struggle.

00:00 – Intro
01:32 – Arlen’s collaboration with Fortunati, Federici, and Dalla Costa
05:12 – What is The Arcana of Reproduction?
10:45 – Fortunati’s theory of surplus and media as reproductive command
16:08 – Dalla Costa, the social factory, and refusing the family
20:51 – Feminist responses to eugenics and population control
27:34 – Reproduction and cybernetics: command in the household
32:16 – Translation as political labor and historical reactivation
38:03 – Love, refusal, and the violence behind care
44:10 – Reproductive labor and algorithmic capture
50:29 – Reframing Marx: value, invisibility, and antagonism
57:20 – What Fortunati offers the present moment
1:01:00 – Outro and reflection on feminist continuity

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