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Extractivism: Violence, Gender and Patriarchy

Extractivism is a very violent, disruptive form of accumulation – there is increasing repression, murder of activists, the destruction of livelihoods, of peoples’ knowledge, of our environments and health, our food systems, controlling what we eat, knowledge production, the violence of GMOs and their expansion etc.

Patriarchy is a central part of the extractivist process and it has to be placed at the centre of the extractivist debate. Both are very violent, both kill. Extractivism sees people as “surplus” – surplus in the logic of production but NOT surplus in the logic of consumption and reproduction. The costs of environmental and health damages linked to extractivism are externalised and carried by communities but women carry the burden in the care economy and in reproduction.