Silvia Federici is an Italian-American feminist, professor, and writer, whose work within political movements has vastly shaped the landscape for radicals, anti-capitalists and anti-authoritarians today.
She is best known for her book, Caliban and the Witch, which challenged the work of Karl Marx, and brought attention to the lasting societal effects and historical roots of the Witch Hunt and the role of religion in the domination and subjugation of women and their autonomy.
Sylvia’s work in the 1970’s with the Wages for Housework movement, put the unpaid work by women in domestic sphere received at the forefront of the feminist movement and highlighted the gendered, classist, and racist nature of their work. More recently, her ideas around The Commons have laid a foundation for the critique of modern capitalist societies and the importance of communalism in radical, feminist, and anti-capitalist struggles.