Feminism For The 99%: A Manifesto

By Corey Devon Arthur

"Feminism For The 99 Percent, A Manifesto," didn't come with parts and pieces of the revolution. Its war cry brings us the entire bag. Authors Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser have collaborated to enlist everyone to stand up against the 1 percent of humanity who controls the majority of resources and oppresses everyone else to do it.

Patriarchy pushes an agenda of total control that corners the masses into surviving or dying by a capitalist code. Capitalism is the catalyst and coin from which all other corruptions are paid for, crafted, and connected. Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser's strategy demands a direct attack on the root of all evil, the money. We've heard the author's call to resist and fight back: "Masses of people around the world are now saying, ‘Basta!’ and are ‘open to thinking outside the box.’”

In the spring of 2018, Huelga feminista, standing more than 5 million strong, shut Spain down. Those feminists would not "accept worse working conditions, nor being paid less than men for the same work." Huelga feminista demands a "just world whose wealth and natural resources are shared by all, and where equality and freedom are premises, not aspirations." These are the new foot soldiers fighting under the banner of a new brand of feminism. A feminism that has outgrown their older sister's shoes.

Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser expose the aggressive nature of the patriarchy. Their manifesto pumps a new type of feminism that "decisively rejects the ‘lean-in dogma’ of liberal feminist like Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. According to Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser, the patriarch philosophy of capitalism disguises itself in feminists like her, to insist that 99% of humanity should be delighted to be oppressed by women.

Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser prunes away the outdated and corrupted forms of feminism: "Feminism for the 99% acknowledges a shameful history and resolves to break decisively with it." Somewhere after the hard fought battles were won by the mothers of feminism some women got it twisted.

For example, carceral feminism began as women pushed back against gender violence. Carceral feminists advocate for harsher laws and sentences to be imposed on those that commit crimes against women. However, they ignore the systemic racism and capitalist components of the criminal justice system that disproportionately mass incarcerates black men.

Liberal Feminism isn’t any better. It elevates a few privileged women to benefit alongside their male counterparts. True, these few women have risen in class. However, it is false to claim that their climb is equality for all. Their collusion with this brand of feminism is nothing more than a covenant with class(ism) and capitalism at the expense of leaving their sisters behind.

They're human, and can be forgiven. Feminism for the 99 Percent shows us the error of their ways. Capitalism is a creature committed to keep consuming for profit and shitting on the people. Hence we can't ever stop shoveling away the bullshit they insist on pushing out. It's nasty work.

Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser's manifesto gets right to it. They cut the capitalism crap out and call out those posing as feminist for the capitalist agenda. Hillary Clinton was at the top of their list. She was clearly the better of two evils during her second presidential run against Trump. However, that did not justify her sanctioning military drone attacks on countries like Libya. Nor, her racist attacks on young black men in America, when she called us super predators. "A feminism that is truly anti racist and anti imperialist must also be anti capitalist," they write.

They gave credibility to the cause. It isn't easy parting with the philosophy of your predecessors. Nor, to pick them apart. Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser did this with humility, but thoroughly. Their manifesto gave no quarters to the liberal or neoliberal feminist way of waging war for the people. They aren't challenging Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Harris to do better. They are demanding they get out the way and let the real feminists save the people and our planet. "We sought to effect a rescue operation and course correction-to reorient feminist struggles in a time of political confusion."

Feminism for the 99 Percent attacks everything foul about humanity in solidarity with all other movements. Previously, feminism was a factionalized movement. Certain feminists focused their efforts on problems that directly affected them, believing that feminism was only a women's issue. They ignored, or in some cases supported, other injustices that didn't directly impact them.

Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser point out the different forms of oppression as a global conglomerate. It's configured in such a way that as soon as one of its apparatuses is attacked, several more are in place to reinforce it. The success of capitalism is its connectivity to all its creatures acting in concert as one to cripple and kill the people.

Feminism for the 99 Percent speaks up for, and directly to, prisoners. It demands a fair criminal justice system devoid of systemic racism that wrongly and disproportionately incarcerates minorities. It pushes back against the cruel and inhuman treatment of those of us who have committed crimes. Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser insist upon healing prisoners as a means of rehabilitation, as opposed to dehumanizing us.

Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser’s feminism calls for a collective collaboration of all movements to win. These women drew up a battle plan that connects every movement committed to crushing capitalism and its cruelties. "Liberal feminism hegemony has begun to crumble, and a new wave of feminist radicalism has emerged from the rubble. A true resolution requires nothing less than an entirely new form of social organization." This means that everyone who has ever been fucked over by the government has a place in the Feminism for the 99% ranks. It doesn't matter how you've been harmed. They are offering the opportunity to be healed in their collective arms.

Feminism for the 99 percent are the words that connect our wounds and makes us one. It bridges us as a world community through empathy, sympathy, and an understanding that none of us can win without the support and arms of each other. The heart of this manifesto is the love for oneself being expressed through the love for all others.

I've personally found Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser brand of feminism useful as means to healing myself and to atone for my crimes. Feminism for the 99 Percent shows every prisoner exactly where they stand in this movement. Feminism for the 99 Percent also points out to me that I'm not alone. There are others who love and are fighting for me. There's a revolution taking place to make me and the world I live in better, regardless if it's in here or out there. This is a call out that no prisoner can walk away from.

Besides calling for a collaborative kind of combat against capitalism, Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser give us a deeper understanding of "People Making, called Care!" "People are the labor force that makes the market move. "A capitalist society harbors a social reproductive contradiction." It causes a "Crisis of care which exhausts women, ravages families, and stretches social energies to their breaking point." Unless we reexamine the value of the women who raised our children and care for our daily needs, we are "All" doomed to a dead end.

As a convicted killer with over a quarter century in prison, I am living proof of everything Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser wrote about care and people making gone wrong. Capitalism contaminated the environment I grew up in. It corrupted and crippled the people who raised me and I grew up with. My mother had to work long hours for an inferior wage to care for me.

25 years ago I embraced revolution as a prisoner through the philosophy of George L. Jackson. In 1971 he died as a prisoner for the revolution. It was a loved-inspired act for the people. My love for the struggle was deepened by my affection for Assata Shakur's pain. She held and protected the life of her unborn child while police bound and beat her in a men's penitentiary in New Jersey during the 70s.

Today, American women took a different kind of whipping from the same system. On June 24th, 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, making it legal for any state that chooses to make a woman's right to exercise free agency over her own body a crime. I stand in solidarity and struggle with you my sisters. Arruzza, Bhattacharya, and Fraser deepens our understanding of the enemy and why we must stand together to resist. It's a must read for every person who has ever been pushed to the bottom no matter how nicely, and dares to scream "Basta! No More!”

Corey Devon Arthur is an incarcerated writer and artist who is part of the Empowerment Avenue Collective, with his work published in venues including, The Marshall Project, Writing Class Radio, The Drift, and Apogee. He will exhibit his art at two galleries in Brooklyn, New York in early 2023. You can check out more of his work at dinartexpression on Instagram, and on Medium.

Book ReviewsMaya SinghalSeptember 29, 2022Feminism For The 99 Percent, Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, Nancy Fraser, Corey Devon Arthur