Primitive Accumulation and the Contemporary Critique of Capitalist Patriarchy

Silvia Federici is a highly renowned Italian autonomist Marxist theorist and an important contemporary representative of feminism. However, research on autonomism within Chinese academic circles is mainly limited to the famous Italian left-wing thinkers Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, among others, neglecting the most important theoretical branch of the autonomist school—autonomist feminism, which has had a significant impact on contemporary Western left-wing currents such as autonomism and feminism. As a core representative of autonomist feminism, Federici has not received the attention she deserves from Chinese academia. In fact, it is Federici who extended Marx’s analysis of primitive accumulation to issues such as women’s social status and the reproduction of labor power. Federici emphasizes the importance of the famous witch hunt of the 16th–17th centuries in promoting capitalist development, arguing that it was the foundation for the emergence and development of capitalism and wage labor: the violent persecution of witches (often midwives or wise women) in Europe and the New World, along with the slave trade, played a role no less significant than colonization and the enclosure dispossession of European peasants. Federici regards the violent aspect of primitive accumulation as a main feature of every stage of capitalist globalization and as a necessary condition for the prosperity of neoliberal capitalism. Therefore, exploring the relationship between capital’s primitive accumulation and the witch hunt from Federici’s autonomist feminist perspective has important theoretical value and practical significance for critiquing capitalist patriarchy and challenging neoliberal globalization.

西尔维娅·费德里西（Silvia Federici）是极富盛名的意大利自治主义的马克思主义理论家，也是女性主义在当代的重要代表人物。然而，自治主义在我国学界的研究主要局限于意大利著名左翼思想家安东尼奥·奈格里（Antonio Negri）与迈克尔·哈特（Michael Hardt）等人，忽略了自治主义流派最重要的理论分支——自治主义的女性主义（Autonomist Feminism），后者对自治主义、女性主义等当代西方左翼思潮产生了重要影响。作为自治主义的女性主义的核心代表人物，费德里西并没有得到我国学术界应有的关注。实际上，正是费德里西将马克思对原始积累的分析扩展到对女性的社会地位和劳动力的再生产等问题的探讨上。费德里西强调了16—17世纪著名的猎巫（Witch Hunt）运动对促进资本主义发展的重要性，认为它是资本主义和雇佣劳动产生与发展的基础：在欧洲和新大陆对女巫（通常是助产士或智慧女性）的暴力迫害以及奴隶贸易，所起的作用不亚于殖民化和对欧洲农民的圈地剥夺。费德里西将原始积累的暴力方面视为资本主义全球化每个阶段的主要特征，更是新自由主义的资本主义繁荣的必要条件。因此，从费德里西的自治主义的女性主义视角探讨资本的原始积累与猎巫运动的关系，对于批判资本主义父权制和挑战新自由主义全球化具有重要的理论价值和现实意义。

I. Italian Autonomist Marxism and Feminist Theory and Practice

一、意大利自治主义的马克思主义与女性主义的理论和实践

The autonomist movement emerged during the period of great upheaval, transformation, and readjustment in the world from the 1960s to the 1970s. At that time, major developed capitalist economies successively encountered a “stagflation crisis,” Fordism faced unprecedented challenges, the post-Fordist model of flexible capital accumulation was rising, and capital accumulation showed a tendency to transcend the factory walls of Fordism and expand into all areas of social life. In addition, the international communist movement suffered major setbacks, leading Western left-wing intellectuals to generally doubt traditional class politics and the organizational model of Leninist parties, to seek new revolutionary subjects, and to attempt to explore new revolutionary paths outside the orthodoxy of the Third International. [1]1 The Third International, also known as the Communist International (Comintern), was an international organization of communist parties founded by Lenin in 1919 and dissolved in 1943. It promoted revolutionary Marxism and coordinated communist activities worldwide. At the same time, the Black resistance movement, left-wing student movements, the second-wave feminist movement, and the anti-war movement surged, converging into a wave of resistance against capitalism. The greatest characteristic of these new social movements was that the revolutionary subject was no longer the traditional male industrial worker, but rather diverse, pluralistic social subjects who had broken away from organizations such as political parties and trade unions and possessed varying degrees of autonomy.

自治主义运动兴起于1960年代至1970年代的世界大动荡、大变革和大调整时期。当时，主要发达资本主义经济体先后遭遇“滞涨危机”，福特主义面临空前挑战，后福特主义的资本弹性积累模式方兴未艾，资本积累有超越福特制工厂的围墙向社会生活的全部领域拓展之势。此外，国际共产主义运动遭遇巨大挫折，使得西方左翼知识分子普遍怀疑传统的阶级政治和列宁式政党的组织模式，开始寻找新的革命主体，并试图在第三国际的正统之外探寻新的革命路径。与此同时，黑人反抗运动、左翼学生运动、第二波女性主义运动和反战运动风起云涌，汇合成反抗资本主义的浪潮，这些新社会运动的最大特征就是革命主体已经不再是传统的男性产业工人，而是差异性的、多元化的社会主体，他们脱离了政党和工会等组织，具有不同程度的自主性。

(A) Core Views of Italian Autonomist Marxism

（一）意大利自治主义的马克思主义的核心观点

Faced with the dual changes in capitalism’s growth model and the revolutionary subject, Italian autonomist Marxism began to rise. Autonomism originated from workerism, with thinkers such as Raniero Panzieri and Mario Tronti as its initial theoretical representatives. The Italian workers’ movement from the outset exhibited spontaneous characteristics detached from the formal organizations of traditional political parties and trade unions. Early autonomism emphasized the subjectivity and autonomy of the working class, highlighting the antagonistic contradiction between labor and capital. Starting from the logic of “the subjective priority of the worker” and antagonism, autonomism critiqued the objectivist interpretive model of political economy. Negri’s new interpretation of Marx’s theory of profit represents the ideological tendency of this school. He opposes understanding the theory of profit as an objective economic law of a historical-determinist nature, instead viewing profit as a pole of political force in class antagonism, excavating the antagonism between the subjectivity of the working class and the subjectivity of capital represented by the theory of profit. Negri points out: “The theory of the subjectivity of the working class and of the proletariat is both the premise of the theory of profit and the necessary result of its development, that is, in opposition to the fact that all surplus labor is extorted, objectified, and socialized, and that at the same time capital, as a class and as the control over exploitation, achieves its own unity.” Based on this, Negri regards the theory of profit as part of the theory of surplus value. Profit is not only the equalization of surplus value but also the socialization of surplus value in the circulation process. Surplus value originates from capital’s unpaid appropriation of surplus labor, centrally embodying the antagonistic contradiction between labor and capital in the sphere of production. However, although surplus value is generated in the sphere of production, it can only be realized in the sphere of circulation. The law of profit is the manifestation of the law of surplus value in the circulation link. Through circulation, surplus value is socialized and capital is transformed into social capital. Capital incorporates the entire society into the process of capital valorization, and all social groups become objects of capital’s expropriation. This indicates that the antagonistic contradiction between labor and capital also exists in the sphere of circulation.

面对资本主义的增长模式与革命主体的双重变化，意大利自治主义的马克思主义开始兴起。自治主义起源于工人主义，拉涅罗·潘谢里（Raniero Panzieri）、马里奥·特龙蒂（Mario Tronti）等思想家是其最初的理论代表。意大利工人运动一开始就呈现出游离于传统政党和工会的正规组织之外的自发性特征，早期自治主义强调工人阶级的主体性和自主性，突出劳动与资本的对抗性矛盾。从“工人的主体优先性”和对抗性逻辑出发，自治主义批判了政治经济学的客体性解读模式，奈格里对马克思利润理论的全新解读代表了这一流派的思想倾向。他反对将利润理论理解为历史决定论性质的客观经济规律，而是将利润视为阶级对抗中政治力量的一极，发掘工人阶级的主体性与利润理论所代表的资本主体性之间的对抗。奈格里指出：“关于工人阶级的主体性以及无产阶级的理论既是利润理论的前提，又是其发展的必然结果，即与所有的剩余劳动被勒索、对象化和社会化，以及与此同时资本作为一个阶级和对剥削的控制实现了自身的统一这一事实相对抗。”基于此，奈格里将利润理论看作是剩余价值论的一部分，利润不仅是剩余价值的均值化，更是流通过程中剩余价值的社会化。剩余价值来源于资本对剩余劳动的无偿占有，集中体现了生产领域中劳动与资本的对抗性矛盾。但是，剩余价值虽然产生于生产领域，却只能在流通领域中实现，利润规律就是剩余价值规律在流通环节的表现。通过流通，剩余价值社会化并使得资本转化为社会资本，资本将整个社会纳入资本增殖过程，一切社会群体都成为资本的剥夺对象。这表明，流通领域同样存在着劳动与资本的对抗性矛盾。

Through this reinterpretation of the theory of profit, Negri in fact elucidates the following core views of autonomism: First, capital accumulation transcends the factory production process, permeates all social life, and society is the factory; the “social factory” is the most important characteristic of late capitalism. Second, labor is not limited to wage labor in the factory but needs to be redefined within antagonistic power relations. Third, all social groups are expropriated by capital, so the revolutionary subject is no longer limited to the male industrial worker but should encompass all social groups; they are pluralistic and heterogeneous, that is, the so-called “social worker.” Negri and Hardt point out: “The most important general phenomenon manifested by the transformation of labor we have witnessed in recent years is what we call the transition to the factory-society. The factory is no longer the paradigmatic place or concentration of labor or production; the labor process has crossed the high walls of the factory and spread throughout the entire society.” This means that society becomes an extension of the factory, organized like a factory. In the circulation link beyond production, capital absorbs all social elements, causing social relations and relations of production to gradually merge into one. All social life and all human activities become sources for capital to realize valorization. “Capitalist relations of production are expanding to absorb all aspects of social production and reproduction, that is, the entire sphere of life.” All social life is absorbed by capital, making work and life, production and reproduction, productive and non-productive labor difficult to distinguish, which will completely change the definition of production. “Production is becoming ‘the production of humans by humans,’ thus the activity of producing life forms.” Production is no longer material production but the production and reproduction of human life forms and social relations, that is, “biopolitical production.”

通过对利润理论的重新解读，奈格里事实上阐明了自治主义的如下核心观点：第一，资本积累超越于工厂生产过程之外，弥漫于一切社会生活之中，社会即工厂，“社会工厂”是晚期资本主义的最重要特征；第二，劳动并不局限于工厂中的雇佣劳动，而是需要在对抗性的权力关系中被重新定义；第三，一切社会群体都受到资本的剥夺，因而革命主体不再局限于男性产业工人，而应该是一切社会群体，他们是多元的、异质的，即所谓的“社会工人”。奈格里和哈特指出：“我们在近些年见证的劳动转变所表现出的最为重要的普遍现象就是我们所称的向工厂社会（factory-society）的过渡。工厂不再是劳动或生产的范式性场所或集中地了；劳动过程已经越出了工厂的高墙，并蔓延至整个社会。”这意味着社会成为工厂的延伸，整个社会像工厂一样被组织起来，在生产以外的流通环节，资本吸纳全部社会要素，使得社会关系与生产关系逐渐合二为一，全部社会生活和一切人类活动都成为资本实现价值增殖的来源。“资本主义生产关系正在扩张，以吸纳各方面的社会生产与再生产，即整个生活范畴。”全部社会生活被资本吸纳，工作与生活、生产与再生产、生产性与非生产性的劳动变得难以区分，这将彻底改变生产的定义。“生产正成为‘人生产人的’，从而生产生命形式的活动。”生产已经不再是物质生产，而是人的生命形式和社会关系的生产与再生产，也就是“生命政治生产”。

(B) Theory and Practice of Italian Autonomist Feminism

（二）意大利自治主义的女性主义的理论和实践

Italian autonomist feminism is the most important theoretical branch of the autonomist Marxist school. It generally agrees with the core views of autonomism and has had a tremendous theoretical impact on the autonomist movement. Feminist scholars such as Federici, Maria Rosa Dalla Costa, Selma James, and Leopoldina Fortunati are important theoretical representatives. Their most significant theoretical contribution is the political-economic analysis of domestic labor using the autonomist theoretical framework.

意大利自治主义的女性主义是自治主义的马克思主义流派中最重要的理论分支，它从总体上认同自治主义的核心观点，并对自治主义运动产生了巨大的理论影响。费德里西、玛丽亚·科斯塔（Maria Rosa Dalla Costa）、塞尔玛·詹姆斯（Selma James）、莱奥波尔迪娜·福尔图纳蒂（Leopardine Fortunati）等女性主义学者都是重要的理论代表，她们最重要的理论贡献就是用自治主义的理论框架对家务劳动进行了政治经济学分析。

First, the autonomist feminism represented by Federici redefines labor, incorporating women’s domestic labor into the category of labor. Autonomism emphasizes the primacy of the subject and the logic of antagonism, holding that “the concept of labor is not fixed but is defined historically through antagonism.” Redefining labor is itself part of social antagonism and is the basis on which autonomist feminism analyzes the power-antagonism relations of gender oppression. It opposes limiting labor to the wage labor of male industrial workers, because this ignores the domestic labor that women perform within the household. Federici points out: “In *Capital*, Marx did not recognize that the reproduction of labor-power makes women’s unpaid domestic labor—such as cooking, washing, raising children, and sexual activity—an indispensable part.” Capitalism must constantly reproduce the conditions of its own existence. The special commodity of labor-power is continuously consumed in production, and it can be reproduced only through the consumption of means of subsistence. But means of subsistence cannot be consumed directly: clothes must be washed, food must be cooked, houses must be kept clean. All of this entails women’s unpaid domestic labor. Domestic labor is a crucial pillar of capitalist reproduction and therefore ought to be regarded as labor.

首先，以费德里西为代表的自治主义的女性主义重新定义了劳动，将女性的家务劳动纳入劳动范畴。自治主义强调主体优先性和对抗性逻辑，认为“劳动的概念并非固定不变的，而是在历史上通过对抗而得到定义的”。重新定义劳动就是社会对抗的一部分，也是自治主义的女性主义分析性别压迫的权力对抗关系的基础。它反对将劳动局限于男性产业工人的雇佣劳动，因为这忽略了女性在家庭内承担的家务劳动。费德里西指出：“在《资本论》中，马克思尚未认识到劳动力再生产使得女性的无偿家务劳动，如烹饪、洗衣、养育子女、性生活成为必不可少的一部分。”资本主义必须不断再生产自身的存在条件，劳动力这种特殊商品在生产中被不断耗费，必须通过对生活资料的消费，才能保证其不断地被再生产出来。但是，生活资料不能被直接消费，衣服要洗，食物要烹饪，房屋要保持清洁，这些都蕴含着女性无偿的家务劳动，家务劳动是资本主义再生产的重要支柱，因而应当被视作劳动。

Second, autonomist feminism develops the theory of the “social factory,” analyzing the relationship between domestic labor and capital accumulation, and treating the household as the core of the social factory and women who perform domestic labor as social workers with revolutionary potential. Dalla Costa points out: “In the wage, domestic labor not only has use value but also plays an extremely critical role in the production of surplus value.” Capital accumulation extends beyond the factory; the household is an important component of the social factory. The production of surplus value depends not only on wage labor but even more on women’s domestic labor, because domestic labor produces the special commodity of labor-power. The value of labor-power is formed through women’s unpaid domestic labor. Hence the wage conceals not only the surplus labor of male workers but also the unpaid labor of domestic workers; women are subjected to capital’s unpaid exploitation within the household. Moreover, domestic labor is also productive labor. Fortunati argues: “The reproduction process is a value-forming process; domestic labor is productive work.” Thus, treating domestic labor as a source of capital accumulation and as productive labor is a major consensus within autonomist feminism. Women as domestic workers are the social workers of the social factory and therefore become a new revolutionary subject in feminist struggle. James points out: “The strategy of feminist class struggle is based on the unwaged woman in the home. Whether or not she works outside for a wage, the labor she performs for the production and reproduction of the working class exhausts her and weakens her capacity to resist—she does not even have time.” In short, unpaid domestic labor subjects women to a specific gender division of labor and is the economic root of gender oppression. Capital accumulation originates from women’s unpaid labor within the household. The antagonistic contradiction between capital and labor also exists within the household. Women possess enormous revolutionary potential and will play an important role in the struggle against capitalism.

其次，自治主义的女性主义发展了“社会工厂”理论，分析了家务劳动与资本积累的关系，将家庭看作是社会工厂的核心，将承担家务劳动的女性看作是具有革命潜能的社会工人。科斯塔指出：“在工资中，家务劳动不仅具有使用价值，对剩余价值生产也起到了极为关键的作用。”资本的积累是超越于工厂之外的，家庭就是社会工厂的重要组成部分，剩余价值的生产不仅依赖雇佣劳动，更依赖女性的家务劳动，因为家务劳动生产劳动力这种特殊商品。劳动力的价值形成于女性无偿的家务劳动，因而工资不仅掩盖了男性工人的剩余劳动，也掩盖了家务劳动者的无酬劳动，女性在家庭之中受到资本的无偿剥削。此外，家务劳动也是生产性的劳动，福尔图纳蒂认为：“再生产过程是一个价值形成的过程，家务劳动是生产性的工作。”可见，将家务劳动看作资本积累的来源和生产性的劳动是自治主义的女性主义的一大共识，女性作为家务劳动者就是社会工厂中的社会工人，也因此成为女性主义斗争中新的革命主体。詹姆斯指出：“女性主义阶级斗争的策略是基于家庭中未拿工资的女性。无论是否在外工作挣钱，她为工人阶级生产和再生产的劳动都使她疲惫不堪，削弱了她的抗争能力——她甚至没有时间。”总之，无偿的家务劳动使得女性受制于特定的性别分工，是性别压迫的经济根源，资本积累来源于女性家庭内的无酬劳动，家庭中也存在着资本与劳动的对抗性矛盾，女性也具备巨大的革命潜能，在反抗资本主义斗争将发挥重要作用。

Based on the above core views, Dalla Costa, Federici, Brigitte Galtier, and James, representing feminist groups in Italy, the United States, France, and Britain respectively, established the International Feminist Collective. Subsequently, they launched the “Wages for Housework” movement in Padua and London. Over the next five years, feminists in multiple cities in North America and Europe responded in succession, sparking a movement against capitalism and patriarchy in nearly all advanced capitalist countries, which to some extent influenced the entire trajectory of feminism. Federici was the spiritual leader of this movement. In 1975 she published the movement’s theoretical manifesto, *Wages for Housework*. She states: “If we look at wages for housework from a political perspective and struggle for them, it will bring about a revolution in our lives and in our social rights as women.” This indicates that wages for housework are not merely an economic compensation but also have political significance. The political purpose of this movement is to expose the patriarchal nature of capitalism, to make people recognize the important role of women’s domestic labor in capital accumulation, and thereby to open a second front alongside the class struggle of industrial workers, in order to disrupt the reproduction order of capitalism.

基于上述核心观点，科斯塔、费德里西、布丽吉特·加尔蒂埃（Brigitte Galtier）和詹姆斯分别代表意大利、美国、法国和英国的女性主义团体，成立了“国际女性主义者集体组织”（The International Feminist Collective），随后在帕多瓦和伦敦发起了“家务劳动工资”（Wages for Housework）运动。在接下来的五年里，北美和欧洲多个城市的女性主义者群起响应，在几乎所有的发达资本主义国家掀起了一场反对资本主义和父权制的运动，在某种程度上影响了整个女性主义的走向。费德里西就是这一运动的精神领袖，她在1975年发表了该运动的理论宣言《为家务劳动争取工资》。她指出：“如果我们从政治角度来看家务劳动的工资并为之奋斗，将会给我们的生活和我们作为女性的社会权利带来一场革命。”这表明，家务劳动的工资并不仅仅是经济性的补偿，而且还具有政治意义。这一运动的政治目的就在于揭露资本主义的父权制本质，让人们认识到女性的家务劳动对资本积累的重要作用，从而在产业工人的阶级斗争之外开辟第二战场，以扰乱资本主义的再生产秩序。

In summary, the rise of autonomist Marxism and its feminist current is the theoretical root of Federici’s thought on primitive accumulation. Federici played an important role in the autonomist feminist movement, and the “Wages for Housework” movement represents her earliest and most central theoretical demands. However, the early theoretical practice of autonomist feminism also had certain problems, which drove Federici to further investigate the intrinsic relationship between gender and capital, and between primitive accumulation and capitalist patriarchy.

综上所述，自治主义的马克思主义及其女性主义流派的兴起是费德里西原始积累思想的理论根源。费德里西在自治主义的女性主义运动中发挥了重要作用，“家务劳动工资”运动则代表了她早期最核心的理论诉求。然而，自治主义的女性主义早期的理论实践也存在着一定的问题，这推动着费德里西进一步深入研究性别与资本、原始积累与资本主义父权制的内在关联。

II. The Innovation of Federici’s Critical Theory: The Witch-Hunt, the Mechanism of Primitive Accumulation, and the Wage Patriarchy

二、费德里西批判理论的创新：猎巫运动、原始积累机制与工资父权制

The 1970s were only the germination period of Federici’s feminist theory. At this stage her thought still lacked originality and was mainly attached to the autonomist feminist current. It was only after the 1980s that Federici’s theoretical research entered its mature period. At that time, the global left-wing movement was in retreat, neoliberalism was making a comeback, flexible accumulation or elastic accumulation had become the mainstream of capital accumulation, and the “Wages for Housework” movement led by Federici and other autonomist feminists also faced enormous challenges. As David Harvey points out, flexible accumulation has made “gender relations far more complex, while at the same time the use of female labor has become far more extensive. For the same reason, the social foundations of the ideologies of enterprise, patriarchy, and private property have been strengthened.” [2]2 David Harvey, *The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change* (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990), p. 172. [Translator’s note: The English text of the quotation has been adapted from the original source to match the sense of the Chinese translation cited by the authors.] In this context, women began to participate more in flexible wage labor, especially accounting for a large proportion in the tertiary sector. However, this did not bring about women’s liberation; on the contrary, it strengthened patriarchy, making gender relations more complex, and the direction of feminist struggle therefore changed. Moreover, neoliberalism marketized areas that had previously been non-marketized. The rise of the domestic service industry turned a large amount of domestic labor into wage labor in advanced capitalist countries, and the slogan “Wages for Housework” risked becoming an accomplice of neoliberalism. Within the autonomist current, the “Wages for Housework” movement was also questioned. Negri and Hardt point out: “The wage for the family keeps control of the family firmly in the hands of the male wage earner, and perpetuates false notions about what labor is productive and what is not. As the distinction between productive labor and reproductive labor gradually fades, the legitimacy of the family wage also fades.” [3]3 Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, *Empire* (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), p. 275. [Translator’s note: The English text of the quotation has been adapted from the original source to match the sense of the Chinese translation cited by the authors.] In their view, wages for housework would solidify the gender division of labor and strengthen male control. Since capitalism has already become the social factory, there is no longer a distinction between production time and reproduction time, and the significance of struggling for wages for housework has ceased to exist.

1970年代只是费德里西女性主义理论的萌芽期，她的思想在这一阶段还缺乏独创性，主要是依附于自治主义的女性主义流派。1980年代以后，费德里西的理论研究才进入成熟期。当时，全球左翼运动退潮，新自由主义卷土重来，灵活积累或弹性积累成了资本积累的主流，费德里西等自治主义的女性主义者所领导的“家务劳动工资”运动也面临巨大挑战。正如大卫·哈维（David Harvey）所指出的，灵活积累使得“性别关系变得更为复杂得多，同时，借助于女性劳动力也变得更加广泛得多。由于同样的原因，企业主义、父权制和私有制的意识形态的社会基础已经增强了。”在这种背景下，女性开始更多地参与弹性的雇佣劳动，尤其在第三产业中占比很大。然而，这并没有带来女性的解放，反而加强了父权制，使得性别关系变得更为复杂，女性主义的斗争方向也因此发生了变化。此外，新自由主义使得原来没有市场化的领域如今全面市场化了，家政服务业的兴起让大量家务劳动在发达资本主义国家成为雇佣劳动，“为家务劳动争取工资”的口号有沦为新自由主义的同谋的危险。在自治主义流派内部，“家务劳动工资”运动也受到了质疑。奈格里和哈特指出：“家庭的报酬使家庭的控制牢固地保持在男性报酬获得者手中，而且使关于什么样的劳动是生产性的、什么不是的错误概念长期存在。随着生产劳动与再生产劳动的区分慢慢淡去，家庭报酬的合法性也在淡化。”在他们看来，家务劳动的工资会固化性别分工，且会强化男性的控制力。既然资本主义已经成为了社会工厂，也就没有了生产时间与再生产时间的区别，为家务劳动争取工资的意义已经不复存在。

Federici also recognized that the theories and movements of early autonomist feminism had defects, and that in the face of the latest changes in capitalism it was necessary to initiate entirely new theoretical innovations: “I decided in the late 1970s to begin studying the history of women during the transition to capitalism… and in 2004 published *Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation*.” This work is a story of the origins of capitalist patriarchy, a further development of the autonomist feminist method, which constructs women as a degraded, subordinate Other. In this book, Federici devotes herself to studying the relationship between gender oppression and the structural transformation of capitalism, analyzing how the roots of capitalist accumulation are inseparable from the conquest of women. Federici points out: “Costa and James demonstrated the possibility of transcending the dichotomy between patriarchy and class, and endowed patriarchy with a specific historical content. They also opened the way for reinterpreting the history of capitalism and class struggle from a feminist perspective.” Federici highly affirms the theoretical contributions of Costa and James, believing that her own theoretical work is a further extension along their path. Federici points out that it is necessary to reanalyze the relationship between capital accumulation and women’s oppression from the perspective of the history of capitalist development, thereby providing a more concrete historical perspective on gender oppression. To this end, Federici analyzes the origins of capitalism—the primitive accumulation of capital. She points out: “It is precisely because of the need to analyze the history of capitalist development from a gender perspective that we must re-examine Marx’s theory of primitive accumulation; thus we find that the 16th and 17th centuries, when witch-hunting was prevalent, coincided with the devaluation of women’s labor and the gendering of labor by capitalism.” In short, *Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation* analyzes the end of European feudalism and the rise of capitalism, demonstrating how the consolidation of the capitalist system depended on the conquest of women, the enslavement of Black and Indigenous people, and the exploitation of colonies. This book is Federici’s most important representative work, her in-depth exploration of the nature of capitalism and the roots of gender inequality in modern society.

费德里西也意识到早期自治主义的女性主义的理论与运动都存在缺陷，面对资本主义的最新变化必须开启全新的理论创新：“我在1970年代末决定开始研究向资本主义过渡时期的女性历史……并于2004年出版了《凯列班与女巫：妇女、身体与原始积累》一书。”这部著作是关于资本主义父权制起源的故事，是对自治主义的女性主义方法的进一步发展，它将女性建构为被贬低的、从属的他者。在这部著作里，费德里西致力于研究性别压迫与资本主义结构性转型的关系，分析了资本主义积累的根源与对女性的征服是如何密不可分的。费德里西指出：“科斯塔和詹姆斯表明了超越父权制与阶级之间二分法的可能性，并赋予父权制特定的历史内涵。她们还为从女性主义的视角重新解释资本主义和阶级斗争的历史开辟了道路。”费德里西高度肯定了科斯塔和詹姆斯的理论贡献，认为自己的理论工作就是沿着她们的道路进一步拓展。费德里西指出，必须从资本主义发展史的角度重新分析资本积累与女性受压迫的关系，从而为性别压迫提供一个更为具体的历史视角。为此，费德里希分析了资本主义的起源——资本的原始积累。她指出：“正是因为需要从性别观点来分析资本主义的发展史，才要重新审视马克思关于原始积累的理论，因此我们发现盛行捕杀女巫的16、17世纪恰逢女性劳动被贬低、资本主义以性别划分劳动的时代。”总之，《凯列班与女巫：妇女、身体与原始积累》一书分析了欧洲封建制度的终结和资本主义的兴起，展示了资本主义制度的巩固如何依赖于对女性的征服、对黑人和土著人的奴役以及对殖民地的剥削。这本书是费德里西最重要的代表作，是她对资本主义本质和现代社会性别不平等根源的深入探索。

As is well known, Marx made classic expositions on the primitive accumulation of capital and wage labor in *Capital*. He believed that primitive accumulation is the “prehistory” of capitalism, playing an important role in the birth of the capitalist mode of production. Marx initially used the concept of primitive accumulation to explain the transition from feudalism to capitalism in England, pointing out: “So-called primitive accumulation is nothing else than the historical process of divorcing the producer from the means of production.” The formation of capitalism depends on creating a landless working class; the primitive accumulation of capital is the process by which capitalists, through naked violent means, forcibly expropriate the means of production of laborers, turning them into proletarians. In Federici’s view, Marx’s analysis of primitive accumulation was not conducted from a gender perspective. However, the transition from the feudal system to the capitalist mode of production involved a large-scale reorganization of social relations, accompanied by large-scale, state-organized persecution of women. In this process, women’s labor was devalued, and patriarchy was gradually established. The secret of primitive accumulation lies hidden in the witch-hunt movement directed against women; witch-hunting occurred almost simultaneously with colonization and the enclosure movement. Although there was no strict legal definition at the time that a witch constituted a specific crime, once a woman was accused of being a witch, she would suffer cruel punishment and be persecuted to death. Bourgeois historical narratives, however, describe the victims as social failures, depoliticizing the persecution and deliberately ignoring and covering up the fact that hundreds of thousands of women were cruelly persecuted in early capitalism. Federici believes that traditional Marxist historians have not studied this history much because they consider it unrelated to class struggle. In fact, the witch-hunt movement not only deepened the division between men and women but also had great significance for the emergence of the capitalist mode of production and the formation of the proletariat. Federici’s analysis of the relationship between the witch-hunt movement and capitalist primitive accumulation unfolds from the following two aspects.

众所周知，马克思在《资本论》中作出了关于资本原始积累和雇佣劳动的经典论述，他认为原始积累是资本主义的“史前史”，在资本主义生产方式诞生的过程中发挥了重要作用。马克思最初用原始积累概念来解释英国从封建主义向资本主义的过渡，他指出：“所谓原始积累只不过是生产者和生产资料分离的历史过程。”资本主义的形成有赖于创造一个失去土地的工人阶级；资本的原始积累就是资本家通过赤裸裸的暴力手段强制剥夺劳动者的生产资料、使之变成无产者的过程。在费德里西看来，马克思对原始积累的分析不是在性别视角下进行的。然而，封建制度向资本主义生产模式的转变涉及到对社会关系的大规模重组，伴随着大规模以国家为单位的对女性的有组织的迫害行为，在这一过程中，女性的劳动被贬低，父权制逐步建立起来。资本原始积累的秘密就隐藏在针对女性的猎巫运动之中，猎巫与殖民、圈地运动几乎同时发生。当时虽然没有严格的法律界定女巫一定是一种具体的罪行，不过一个女性一旦被指控为女巫，就将遭到残忍的刑罚，并被迫害致死。资产阶级的历史叙事却把受害者描述为社会失败者，将迫害去政治化，有意忽视并掩盖了资本主义早期有几十万女性被残忍迫害的事实。费德里西认为，传统的马克思主义史学家对这段历史研究不多，因为他们认为其与阶级斗争无关。事实上，猎巫运动不仅加深了男性与女性的分裂，更对资本主义生产方式的产生和无产阶级的形成具有重大意义。费德里西对猎巫运动与资本主义原始积累之间关系的分析是从以下两个方面展开的。

First, the witch-hunt movement during the period of primitive accumulation was the starting point of the capitalist gender division of labor. It excluded women from waged labor, caused the separation of production and reproduction, and established a patriarchy based on wages. Federici points out: “My description of primitive accumulation includes many historical phenomena that previous studies have not analyzed, but they are extremely important for capitalist accumulation. These include: (1) the development of a new sexual division of labor that subordinated women’s labor and reproductive functions to the reproduction of the labor force; (2) the establishment of a new patriarchal order that excluded women from paid work, making them subordinate to men; (3) the mechanization of the proletarian body, transforming women into machines for producing new workers. Most importantly, I place the 16th- and 17th-century witch-hunt at the center of the analysis of primitive accumulation.” In Federici’s view, primitive accumulation not only separated the means of production from the laborers but also separated material production from the reproduction of the labor force. The witch-hunt movement demonized women, stripped certain work traditionally done by women from the sphere of waged labor, and separated the private sphere from the public sphere. This socio-economic reorganization, by utilizing and systematizing organizational structures associated with male authority, reinforced women’s subordinate status. The witch-hunt movement defined women as irrational, providing a rationale for excluding them from the wage system while legitimizing their exploitation. In all societies centered on production, production and reproduction were unified, but the development of capitalism caused production and reproduction to separate, leading to a gender differentiation between them. Under these conditions, only marketized production was seen as value creation, while invisible labor reproduction was naturalized and labeled as women’s work. Women were also excluded from waged labor; even when they participated in waged labor, their average wages were much lower than men’s. The emergence of the full-time housewife further enabled men to control women’s labor through wages, while making women more dependent on men. In short, capitalism used wages and the market as means to legitimize unpaid labor, completely separating commodity production from labor reproduction, ultimately turning women into absent shadow laborers. Thus, capitalism fell into a cycle: the devaluation of women’s reproductive labor → the devaluation of women’s status → the devaluation of labor power → the devaluation of waged wage labor → the devaluation of the male working class.

首先，原始积累时期的猎巫运动是资本主义性别分工的起点，它将女性排斥在有薪劳动之外，造成了生产与再生产的分离，建立了基于工资的父权制。费德里西指出：“我对原始积累的描述包括许多以往的研究所没有分析的历史现象，但它们对资本主义积累极其重要。其中包括：(1)一种新的性别分工的发展使女性的劳动和再生产功能服从于劳动力的再生产；(2)一种新的父权制秩序的确立将女性排除在有酬工作之外，使她们从属于男性；(3)无产阶级身体的机械化将女性转变为生产新工人的机器。最重要的是，我把16和17世纪的猎巫置于原始积累分析的中心。”在费德里西看来，原始积累不仅使生产资料与劳动者分离，还使物质生产与劳动力再生产分离。猎巫运动将女性妖魔化，将传统上由女性从事的某些工作从有偿劳动领域剥离出去，并将私人领域与公共领域分开，这种社会经济的重组通过利用与男性权威有关的组织结构并将其系统化，强化了女性的从属地位。猎巫运动将女性定义为非理性的，这就为将她们排除出工资制提供了合理依据，同时将对她们的剥削合法化。在所有以生产为核心的社会中，生产与再生产都是统一的，但是资本主义的发展使得生产与再生产分离，并出现了生产与再生产的性别分化。在这种情况下，只有市场化生产才被看作是价值创造，而不可见的劳动力再生产则被自然化，被贴上了女性劳动的标签。女性同时也被排除在有薪劳动之外，即使参与有薪劳动，平均工资也比男性低很多。全职太太的出现更是使男性可以通过工资掌控女性劳动，同时使得女性更加依附于男性。总之，资本主义利用工资和市场作为使无报酬劳动合法化的手段，将商品生产与劳动力再生产彻底分离，最终导致女性成为不在场的影子劳动者。这样，资本主义就陷入了一种循环：女性再生产劳动的贬值——女性地位的贬值——劳动力的贬值——有薪的雇佣劳动的贬值——男性工人阶级的贬值。

Second, the witch-hunt movement in the process of primitive accumulation bound women to reproductive functions, depriving them of control over their own bodies. Federici points out: “The witch-hunt turned abortion and all forms of contraception into crimes against humanity, thereby giving the state control over the main source of labor power—women’s bodies.” Women’s bodies are the means of production for the reproduction of labor power. Capital and state power control women’s bodies in order to make women’s childbearing—this form of reproduction—conform to the necessary conditions of economic rationality. The witch-hunt movement treated abortion, infanticide, and sexual deviance as the core of witch trials, accusing witches of destroying the reproductive capacity of humans and nature. Many witches were midwives or doctors who possessed knowledge about childbirth; they were persecuted to prevent women from monopolizing reproductive knowledge and to strip them of control over their bodies. Furthermore, the witch-hunt movement normalized sexual behavior, prohibiting all non-productive sexual acts, thereby making sex entirely serve the capitalist reproduction of labor power. In this process, women were essentially reduced to machines for producing new workers, becoming part of a new capitalist “patriarchy of the wage”—men received wages in the sphere of production and thus gained power, while women were confined to the sphere of reproduction without wages and thus had to be controlled. The “patriarchy of the wage” regulated women’s reproduction, bodies, and sexuality, placing them under state control and converting them into economic resources. From then on, women could no longer freely control their own bodies; under violent oppression, their bodies became machines for the reproduction of labor power, entirely serving capital accumulation.

其次，原始积累过程中的猎巫运动使得女性被绑缚于再生产职能中，无法掌握自己的身体。费德里西指出：“猎巫将堕胎和一切形式的避孕视为反人类罪，从而使国家控制了劳动力的主要来源——女性的身体”，而女性的身体是劳动力再生产的生产资料，资本与国家权力对女性身体的掌控，目的是使女性生育这种再生产符合经济理性的必要条件。猎巫运动将堕胎杀婴和性变态作为女巫审判的核心，把女巫指控为破坏人与自然的生殖能力的人，而很多女巫是助产士或医生，她们掌握了关于生育的知识，迫害她们是为了防止女性对再生产知识的垄断，让她们失去对身体的掌控权。此外，猎巫运动将性行为规范化，非生产性的性行为被一律禁止，这使得性完全服务于资本主义的劳动力再生产。在这一过程中，女性基本上沦为生产新工人的机器，成为资本主义的新型“工资父权制”（the patriarchy of the wage）的一部分——男性在生产领域获得工资，因而获得权力；而女性被控制在再生产领域且没有工资，所以不得不被控制。“工资父权制”规范了女性的再生产、身体和性，将之置于国家的掌控之下，并转换为经济资源。从此，女性无法自由掌控自己的身体，她们的身体在暴力压迫下成为劳动力再生产的机器，彻底服务于资本积累。

In summary, analyzing the roots of women’s oppression from the perspective of the history of capitalist development is an important theoretical innovation by Federici. Through her examination of the witch-hunt movement during the period of primitive accumulation, Federici elucidates that patriarchy is inherent in the origin and development of capitalism. Primitive accumulation not only caused the separation of laborers from the means of production but also brought about the separation of production from reproduction, and the separation of reproducers (women) from the means of reproduction (their bodies), ultimately establishing the “patriarchy of the wage.” Capital’s expropriation of women’s unpaid reproductive labor only began after the witch-hunt movement in the period of primitive accumulation.

综上所述，从资本主义发展史的视角来分析女性受压迫的根源是费德里西的重要理论创新。通过对原始积累时期猎巫运动的考察，费德里西阐明了父权制是内在于资本主义起源和发展之中的，原始积累不仅造成了劳动者与生产资料的分离，更造成了生产与再生产的分离、再生产者（女性）与再生产资料（身体）的分离，最终建立了“工资父权制”。资本对女性无偿的再生产劳动的剥夺正是在原始积累时期的猎巫运动后才开始的。

III. The Deepening of Federici’s Critical Theory: New Changes and New Critiques of Contemporary Capitalism

三、费德里西批判理论的深化：当代资本主义的新变化与新批判

Federici’s analysis of primitive accumulation and witch-hunts is not only historically significant but also practically relevant, because the globalization of neoliberalism has brought about a new round of primitive accumulation, accompanied by the rise of a contemporary new type of witch-hunt movement. In the mid-1980s, Federici went to the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria as a contract teacher, which gave her the opportunity to witness the destruction of traditional modes of production in Third World countries by neoliberal globalization and the sharp decline in women’s status. Federici witnessed how the austerity programs imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on “debtor nations” plunged Nigeria into a severe debt crisis, and international capital consortiums forced Nigeria to carry out neoliberal reforms aligned with Western capital interests. For a time, Nigeria became a replica of England during the period of primitive accumulation: large-scale “enclosure movements” and waves of land privatization began, and peasants lost their land and became proletarians. This left women, who depended on the land for their livelihood, with no support, causing their status to plummet sharply. Misogyny and hatred of women became frequent, and the witch-hunt movement seemed to reappear, with neoliberalism being the root cause of the recurrence of primitive accumulation. In this context, a movement of women resisting the new type of patriarchy emerged in Nigeria. To suppress women’s revolution, organized violence by capital against women made a comeback. This shows that primitive accumulation and witch-hunts are far from over; they are once again sweeping across the globe in the contemporary era. Federici points out: “In this context, my research on capitalist transformation took on a completely new meaning. In Nigeria, I realized that resistance to structural transformation was part of a long history of resistance to land privatization and ‘enclosure’… This can be traced back to the origins of capitalism in 16th-century Europe and the United States. … The first feminist organization in Nigeria also helped me better understand how women, in defending their resources, rejected the new type of patriarchy promoted by the World Bank.” The experience in Nigeria greatly changed Federici’s thinking, giving her research on primitive accumulation a completely new theoretical significance.

费德里西对原始积累与猎巫的分析不仅具有历史意义，更具有现实意义，因为新自由主义的全球化带来了新一轮的原始积累，并伴随着当代新型猎巫运动的兴起。1980年代中期，费德里西前往尼日利亚的哈考特港大学（University of Port Harcourt）担任合同制教师，使得她有机会目睹新自由主义全球化对第三世界国家传统生产方式的破坏以及女性地位的大幅下降。费德里西见证了世界银行和国际货币基金组织对“债务国”实施的紧缩计划使得尼日利亚陷入了严重的债务危机，国际资本财团也迫使尼日利亚进行符合西方资本利益的新自由主义改革。一时间，尼日利亚成为了原始积累时期的英国的翻版，大规模的“圈地运动”和土地私有化浪潮开始兴起，农民失去土地沦为无产者。这使得仰赖土地为生的女性无所依靠，地位急剧下降，厌女或仇女现象频发，猎巫运动仿佛再度重现，而新自由主义就是资本原始积累重演的根源。在这种背景下，尼日利亚出现了女性反抗新型父权制的运动。而为了镇压女性的革命，资本针对女性有组织的暴力卷土重来。这表明，原始积累和猎巫远远没有终结，它在当代再度席卷全球。费德里西指出：“在这种背景下，我对资本主义转型的研究有了全新的意义。在尼日利亚，我意识到对结构转型的反抗是长期以来反抗土地私有化和‘圈地’的一部分……这可以追溯到16世纪欧洲和美国资本主义的起源。……尼日利亚的第一个女性主义组织也让我更好地了解到，女性为捍卫自己的资源如何拒绝世界银行推行的新型父权制。”尼日利亚的经历大大改变了费德里西的思路，使得她对原始积累的研究具有了全新的理论意义。

First, Federici recognizes that primitive accumulation is not the starting point of capitalism but a mechanism inherent in capitalism, one that will accompany the entire process of capitalist development. In Federici’s view, according to the traditional Marxist perspective, the violent expropriation mechanism of primitive accumulation would disappear once capitalism matured, and capital would enter a phase of productive accumulation based on the extraction of surplus value. In this process, it would bring about a tremendous liberation of productive forces, laying the foundation for entering a higher stage of communist society. However, the accumulation model of capitalism is far more primitive and violent than imagined; its violent expropriation of wealth and its continuous degradation of women’s status can never be terminated. Federici points out that primitive accumulation “is a phenomenon that always constitutes capitalist relations, forever recurring, ‘part of the ongoing process of capitalist accumulation,’ and ‘always occurs simultaneously with its expansion.’” Primitive accumulation is not prior to capital accumulation but is a foundational mechanism inherent in the structure of capital accumulation; capital accumulation is always accompanied by the violence of primitive accumulation.

首先，费德里西认识到原始积累不是资本主义的起点，而是内在于资本主义的一种机制，它将永远伴随着资本主义发展的全过程。在费德里西看来，按照传统的马克思主义的观点，原始积累的暴力剥夺机制在资本主义成熟之后就会消失，资本会进入基于剩余价值剥削的生产性积累阶段，在此过程中带来生产力的巨大解放，为进入更高阶段的共产主义社会奠定基础。然而，资本主义的积累模式远比想象的更为原始和暴力，它对财富的暴力性剥夺和对女性地位的不断贬低是永远不可能终止的。费德里西指出，原始积累“是一种始终构成资本主义关系的现象，永远反复出现，‘是资本主义积累持续过程的一部分’，并且‘总是与其扩张同时发生’”。原始积累并不是先于资本积累，而是内在于资本积累结构之中的基础性机制,资本积累始终伴随着原始积累的暴力。

Second, Federici reconstructs the relationship between capital accumulation and women’s domestic labor by means of the mechanism of primitive accumulation. Federici divides capital accumulation into two types: one is productive accumulation (exploitation), and the other is primitive accumulation, termed non-productive accumulation or “accumulation by dispossession,” which targets forms of labor other than wage labor, including women’s domestic labor. On this point, Federici integrates multiple theoretical resources from Rosa Luxemburg and David Harvey. Luxemburg, grounding her analysis in the imbalance between the proletariat as producers and as consumers, points out: “Surplus value can be realized neither by the workers nor by the capitalists, but only by those social strata or social structures that belong to non-capitalist modes of production.” Capitalism is a system that cannot be self-sufficient; it cannot complete accumulation by relying solely on the pure production process. Expanded reproduction can produce surplus value, but as long as effective demand is insufficient, capitalism cannot realize surplus value, and the system will eventually collapse. Therefore, capitalism must rely on the “mechanism of primitive accumulation” to achieve violent control, appropriation, and dispossession externalized from the production process. It is a new form of slavery that cannot survive without an “outside.” Harvey also points out: “Capitalism does indeed require something ‘external to itself’ in order to accumulate. … Drawing on the discourse of current postmodern political theory, we can say that capitalism must and constantly creates its own ‘other.’” In the era of new imperialism, accumulation by dispossession is a more important and dominant mode of accumulation than expanded reproduction (exploitative accumulation). Federici further points out: “Reproduction is expelled from the sphere of economic relations and deceptively downgraded to the ‘private,’ ‘personal,’ ‘external’ sphere of capital accumulation, especially the ‘female’ sphere, rendering it invisible work and naturalizing exploitation. It is also the basis for establishing a new gender division of labor and a new form of family organization, subordinating women to men and further distinguishing women from men socially and psychologically.” In sum, in Federici’s view, the mechanism of primitive accumulation means turning women’s domestic labor into an externality of capital exploitation, placing it outside the sphere of the public economy and making it an object of capital’s direct violent dispossession bypassing the production process. This conceals capital’s accumulative dispossession, rendering women’s domestic labor invisible and hidden labor. As an externality of capital accumulation, women’s domestic labor has the same value as colonies or public lands that have not been privatized; capital can only achieve accumulation through continuous uncompensated encroachment and plunder of the external.

其次，费德里西借助原始积累机制重构了资本积累与女性家务劳动的关系。费德里西将资本积累划分为两类，一类是生产性积累（剥削），另一类是被称为非生产性积累或“剥夺性积累”的原始积累，它针对的是除了雇佣劳动之外的其他劳动形式，包括女性的家务劳动。关于这一点，费德里西整合了罗莎·卢森堡（Rosa Luxemburg）与哈维的多重理论资源。卢森堡立足于作为生产者与作为消费者的无产阶级的不平衡性，她指出：“剩余价值既不能由工人，也不能由资本家来实现，而是由那种属于非资本主义生产方式的社会阶层或社会结构来实现的。”资本主义是一个无法自足的体系，不可能依靠纯粹的生产过程完成积累。扩大再生产能够生产剩余价值，但是只要有效需求不足，资本主义就无法实现剩余价值，最后体系就会崩溃。因此，资本主义必须依靠“原始积累机制”实现外化于生产过程的暴力控制、占有和剥夺，它是一种新型奴隶制，没有“外部”就无法生存。哈维也指出：“资本主义的确需要‘外在于自身’的某物以实现积累。……借助当前后现代政治理论的话语，我们可以说资本主义必须并且经常创造它自己的‘他者’。”而在新帝国主义时代，剥夺性积累是比扩大再生产（剥削性积累）更为重要的主导性积累方式。费德里西进一步指出：“再生产被驱逐出经济关系的领域，并欺骗性地降级到资本积累的‘私人’‘个人’‘外部’，尤其是‘女性’领域，使其成为无形的工作，并使剥削自然化。它也是建立新的性别分工和新的家庭组织的基础，使女性服从于男性，并进一步在社会和心理上区分女性和男性。”总之，在费德里西看来，原始积累机制意味着将女性的家务劳动变成资本剥削的外部，使之处于公共经济领域之外，成为资本绕过生产过程直接进行暴力剥夺的对象，这掩盖了资本的剥夺性积累，使得女性的家务劳动成为不可见的隐形劳动。女性的家务劳动作为资本积累的外部表现，与殖民地或没有私有化的公共土地具有同等价值，资本只有不断地无偿侵占和掠夺外部才能实现积累。

Third, Federici argues that the witch-hunt has always been an inseparable component of the mechanism of primitive accumulation, emerging alongside it, and its most important function is to control women’s bodies. “With the development of capitalism, it is not only common lands that need to be enclosed; so too do bodies. However, this process differs for men and women, just as it differs for those destined for enslavement and those subjected to other forms of forced labor, including wage labor.” Primitive accumulation requires a continuous “enclosure movement” on women’s bodies, taming them into machines for the reproduction of labor power. The contemporary neoliberal witch-hunt aims to re-strengthen control over women’s bodies, expand the labor market, and lower the price of labor power. The new round of structural adjustment in capitalism also includes the dismantling of the welfare state and the financialization of reproduction, depriving women’s reproduction of welfare guarantees and plunging them into debt crises and mortgage crises. All of this once again deprives women of bodily autonomy, forcing them to passively submit to the reproductive order of capitalism. At the same time, in the service industry, women’s bodies are constantly inspected, from appearance to attitude; cosmetic surgery and dieting are enforced in many cases—these are all “enclosures” of women’s bodies.

再次，费德里西认为猎巫运动始终是原始积累机制不可分割的组成部分，与之相伴而生，其最重要的职能就是控制女性的身体。“随着资本主义的发展，不仅需要对公地进行圈地，身体也是如此。但是，这一过程对男人和女人来说是不同的，就像那些注定要被奴役和那些遭受其他形式强迫劳动（包括有偿劳动）的人也有所不同一样。”原始积累需要不断地对女性的身体展开“圈地运动”，使其被驯服，成为劳动力再生产的机器。当代新自由主义的猎巫运动就是为了再度强化对女性身体的控制，扩大劳动力市场，降低劳动力的价格。资本主义的新一轮结构性调整还包括了福利国家的瓦解和再生产的金融化，使得女性的再生产失去福利保障，陷入了债务危机和抵押危机。这一切都再度使得女性失去身体的自主权，不得不被动服从于资本主义的再生产秩序。同时，在服务行业，女性的身体时刻遭到检查，从外表到态度都受到关注，整形手术和节食在很多情形下被强制执行，这些都是对女性身体的“圈地”。

Finally, Federici believes that women are a natural force of resistance against the mechanism of primitive accumulation, which is why capitalist states continuously launch witch-hunts to suppress women’s resistance. Federici points out: “Today, in the face of new processes of primitive accumulation, women are the main social force hindering the complete commercialization of nature. Women are the world’s self-sufficient peasants. In Africa, despite attempts by the World Bank and other institutions to persuade them to shift their activities toward other cash crops, women still produce 80% of the food people consume.” In Federici’s view, women naturally resist neoliberalism. Women in the Third World unite to resist the hijacking of land and agriculture by capital, build farmland irrigation facilities, restore many public lands, and improve the natural environment damaged by capital. These actions make women the greatest potential disruptive force against the neoliberal mechanism of primitive accumulation, inevitably incurring capital’s hostility. Hence, violence against women and organized misogynistic and woman-hating rhetoric and behavior are rampant in Third World countries. Their essence is not gender contradiction but class contradiction—capital attempts to suppress the entire proletariat by suppressing women, ultimately ensuring the smooth implementation of the neoliberal project.

最后，费德里西认为，女性是原始积累机制天然的反抗力量，这使得资本主义国家不断发动猎巫运动以镇压女性的抵抗。费德里西指出：“今天，面对原始积累的新过程，女性是阻碍自然完全商业化的主要社会力量。女性是世界上自给自足的农民。在非洲，尽管世界银行和其他机构试图说服她们将其活动转向其他经济作物，但她们生产的粮食仍占人们消费的80%。”在费德里西看来，女性会天然地抵制新自由主义，第三世界的女性联合起来反抗土地和农业被资本绑架，修建农田水利设施，恢复了很多公共性土地,并且改善了被资本破坏的自然环境。这些举动使得女性成为新自由主义原始积累机制最大的潜在破坏力量，必然招致资本的仇视。故而，针对女性的暴力和有组织的厌女、仇女言论与行为在第三世界国家甚嚣尘上，其本质不是性别矛盾，而是阶级矛盾，是资本试图通过镇压女性来镇压整个无产阶级，最终保障新自由主义的计划可以顺利推行。

In summary, Federici endows the historical study of primitive accumulation with contemporary significance, identifying the permanence of the mechanism of primitive accumulation and the close relationship between the witch-hunt and this mechanism. Federici also points out that capital accumulation always requires an “outside”; all externalities under non-capitalist relations of production are objects of capital’s dispossession, and women’s domestic labor is precisely such an externality. Hence, capital’s mechanism of primitive accumulation is necessarily patriarchal.

综上所述，费德里西赋予了原始积累的历史研究以现实意义，指认了原始积累机制的永恒性以及猎巫运动与原始积累机制的密切关系。费德里西还指出，资本积累永远需要一个“外部”，一切非资本主义生产关系下的外部都是资本的剥夺对象，女性的家务劳动就是这样的外部，因而资本的原始积累机制必然是父权制。

IV. Conclusion: The Contemporary Effects of Federici’s Critical Theory

四、结语：费德里西批判理论的当代效应

As an anti-capitalist theorist and activist, Federici has devoted her life to the feminist and socialist cause, advancing the theory and practice of autonomist Marxism and autonomist feminism, and exerting a profound influence on contemporary critical theory.

作为一位反资本主义的理论家和活动家，费德里西毕生致力于女性主义和社会主义事业，推动了自治主义的马克思主义以及自治主义的女性主义的理论与实践，对当代批判理论产生了深远影响。

First, Federici has, to a certain extent, developed a Marxist feminist theory of gender. The exposition of primitive accumulation and the violent rise of capitalism is the core of Federici’s thought, describing the process of transition from pre-capitalist to capitalist modes of production. Federici argues that primitive accumulation is a destructive, regressive process that has had terrible consequences not only for women but also for countries subjected to capitalist colonial rule. By analyzing the centuries-long torment and persecution of women and their bodies by capital in Europe and its colonies, Federici provides a compelling case for the gendered nature of early primitive accumulation. The widespread inequalities in modern society show that even in contemporary neoliberal capitalist societies, these problems have not been fundamentally resolved. The recognition of the importance of the relationship between reproduction, domestic labor, and capital accumulation allows Federici to develop a new understanding of the history of capitalist development and class struggle. Drawing extensively on Marx’s discussion of the labor theory of value and primitive accumulation in *Capital*, she explores how women’s labor is transformed into a specific capitalist form, which she argues is crucial to the reproduction of the capitalist system. Building on Marxist theory, Federici presents her views on the role of reproductive labor in primitive accumulation and capitalist development. In Federici’s historical analysis of primitive accumulation and the logic of capitalist expansion, gender, race, and class occupy a prominent position. Federici adheres to the Marxist analytical framework, treating colonization and patriarchy (Western, white, male) as dual instruments of capital accumulation. Therefore, in a certain sense, Federici’s critical analysis of capitalist society is both feminist and Marxist in nature.

首先，费德里西在一定程度上发展了马克思主义的女性主义性别理论。关于原始积累与资本主义暴力崛起的论述是费德里西思想的核心，它描述了前资本主义生产方式向资本主义生产方式转变的过程。费德里西认为，原始积累是一个破坏性的倒退过程，它不仅给女性带来了可怕的后果，也给遭受资本主义殖民统治的国家带来了可怕的后果。费德里西通过分析资本在欧洲及其殖民地对女性及其身体长达几个世纪的摧残和迫害，为早期原始积累的性别化本质提供了令人信服的案例。现代社会普遍存在的不平等表明，即使在当代新自由主义的资本主义社会，这些问题也没有得到根本解决。对再生产、家务劳动与资本积累之间关系的重要性的认知，使得费德里西对资本主义发展和阶级斗争的历史有了新的理解。她大量借鉴了马克思《资本论》中关于劳动价值论和原始积累的论述来探究女性劳动是如何转变为一种特殊的资本主义形式的，她认为这对资本主义制度的再生产至关重要。在马克思主义理论的基础上，费德里西就再生产劳动在原始积累和资本主义发展中的作用提出了她的观点。而在费德里西对原始积累和资本主义扩张逻辑的历史分析中，性别、种族和阶级占据了突出的位置。费德里西坚持马克思主义的分析框架，把殖民化和父权制（西方、白人、男性）视为资本积累的双重工具。因此，从一定意义上讲，费德里西对资本主义社会的批判性分析在性质上既是女性主义的，也是马克思主义的。

Second, the “Wages for Housework” movement led by Federici exposed the relationship between capital accumulation and women’s domestic labor, drawing theoretical attention to labor beyond wage labor, and became the most widespread and far-reaching movement in the history of Marxist feminism. In Federici’s view, feminism based on classical Marxism tends to reduce women to female workers, making it easy for gender issues to be obscured by class issues, while radical feminism, though highlighting the power relations of gender oppression, regards the patriarchal structure as operating independently beyond class. The domestic labor theory transcends both at once, because the relationship between domestic labor and capital accumulation highlights both gender issues and class issues, achieving a genuine marriage of Marxism and feminism.

其次，费德里西领导的“家务劳动工资”运动揭露了资本积累与女性家务劳动的关系，引起了理论界对于雇佣劳动之外的其他劳动的重视，成为马克思主义的女性主义史上影响最广泛和最深远的运动。在费德里西看来，基于经典马克思主义的女性主义倾向于将女性化约为女性工人的做法，容易使性别问题被阶级问题掩盖起来，而激进女性主义虽然突出了性别压迫的权力关系，却认为父权制结构是超越阶级独立运转的。家务劳动理论则同时超越了二者，因为家务劳动与资本积累的关系既突出了性别问题，又突出了阶级问题，实现了马克思主义与女性主义的真正联姻。

Third, Federici’s analysis of the mechanism of primitive accumulation fully demonstrates the relationship between patriarchy and capitalism and provides historical facts to support it. In Federici’s view, capitalism originated in the organized persecution of women; the violent witch-hunt movement [11]11 The witch-hunt movement refers to the large-scale persecution of women accused of witchcraft in early modern Europe (roughly 15th–18th centuries), which Federici interprets as a key mechanism in the primitive accumulation of capital. enabled and fixed the gender division of labor in which men undertake paid labor and women undertake unpaid labor. In the era of primitive accumulation, the bourgeoisie enforced the wage-labor system by suppressing women, intensifying control and discipline over the body, making gender inequality an important precondition for class inequality. Since primitive accumulation never ceases, capitalism’s devaluation of women’s status is also difficult to terminate, indicating that patriarchy is an essential feature of capitalism.

再次，费德里西对原始积累机制的分析，充分论证了父权制与资本主义的关系，并为此提供了历史事实的支撑。在费德里西看来，资本主义就起源于对女性有组织的迫害，暴力的猎巫运动使得男性承担有偿劳动、女性承担无偿劳动的性别分工格局得以形成并固定。在原始积累时代，资产阶级通过镇压女性来推行雇佣劳动制度，加大对身体的控制和规训，使得性别不平等成为阶级不平等的重要前提。由于原始积累永远不会停止，资本主义对女性地位的贬低也很难终止，这说明父权制是资本主义的本质特征。

Finally, Federici opened up a new field of critique of capitalism. She elaborated that, besides productive accumulation, capitalism also possesses unproductive accumulation, and this mode of accumulation has increasingly become mainstream in the neoliberal era. For example, Negri and Hardt were deeply influenced by her, arguing that contemporary late capitalism is a continuation of primitive accumulation, with capital absorbing all externalities and achieving accumulation by expropriating the “common.” [12]12 “The common” (il comune) is a concept in the work of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, referring to shared social and natural resources that capital seeks to enclose and privatize. The British Marxist scholar Christian Fuchs’s theory of “digital labor” is derived from the domestic labor analyzed by Federici; he points out: “Housework is a form of internal colonization of capitalism and an ongoing form of primitive accumulation.” [13]13 Christian Fuchs, *Digital Labour and Karl Marx* (New York: Routledge, 2014), p. 104. Fuchs also holds that digital labor on social platforms is also expropriated without compensation by capital, just like domestic labor, indicating that digital capitalism still continues the mechanism of primitive accumulation of capital. The contemporary revival of “social reproduction theory” in the United States has also been influenced by Federici. This theory holds that the reproduction of the working class is external to wage labor and exploitation; it is spread across all social fields—families, schools, shopping malls, entertainment venues, hospitals, public transportation, prisons, etc.—and the value created by this social reproduction is invisible and expropriated without compensation by capital. Social reproduction theory redefines the relationship between exploitation (usually associated with class) and oppression (usually associated with gender and race); the mechanism of oppression is a reflection of the mechanism of primitive accumulation.

最后，费德里西开辟了资本主义批判的新领域。她阐述了资本主义除了生产性积累之外还存在着非生产性积累，并且这种积累方式在新自由主义时代日益成为主流。例如，奈格里和哈特就深受其影响，认为当代晚期资本主义是原始积累的延续，资本将一切外部统统吸纳进来，通过剥夺“共同性”实现积累。英国著名的马克思主义学者克里斯蒂安·福克斯（Christian Fuchs）的“数字劳动”理论则脱胎于费德里西所分析的家务劳动，他指出：“家务工作是资本主义的一种内在殖民和不断发展的原始积累形式。”福克斯还认为，社交平台上的数字劳动也和家务劳动一样被资本无偿剥夺，这说明数字资本主义依然延续了资本的原始积累机制。当代美国“社会再生产理论”的复兴也受到了费德里西的影响，该理论认为，工人阶级的再生产是外在于雇佣劳动和剥削的，它遍布在家庭、学校、购物中心、娱乐场所、医院、公共交通、监狱等全部社会领域，而这种社会再生产创造的价值是不可见的并被资本无偿剥夺了。社会再生产理论重新定义了剥削(通常与阶级相关)与压迫(通常与性别、种族相关)之间的关系，压迫机制就是原始积累机制的反映。

In summary, as a Marxist feminist theorist and activist with outstanding theoretical contributions and far-reaching influence, Federici deserves more attention. Her critique of capitalist patriarchy from the perspective of primitive accumulation and witch-hunts merits deeper reflection and discussion.

综上所述，作为一位理论贡献卓著、影响深远的马克思主义的女性主义理论家和活动家，费德里西理应得到更多的关注，她从原始积累与猎巫的视角对资本主义父权制的批判值得更深入的反思与探讨。

(This article is a phased result of the Central University Basic Scientific Research Business Fee Special Fund Project “Research on the Value Guidance and Gender Justice Construction of a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind.”)

（本文系中央高校基本科研业务费专项资金资助项目“人类命运共同体的价值引领与性别正义建构研究”的阶段性成果）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心