Sakiko Sugawa
On reproductive labor
Reproductive labor (work that reproduces ourselves daily and maintains our environment, such as cooking, cleaning, washing, raising children, caring elders etc) is the most fundamental, essential labor for human survival. Yet it is undervalued and people who perform it are unjustly exploited. While joining the present day struggle led by migrant domestic workers that demands just treatment for their work, the center also aims to work towards the future that is governed by the logic of reproductive labor, and where people who perform it determine what to be produced, and how.
The presentation and conversation with Sakiko Sugawa will revolve around the newly founded Center for Reproductive Labor.
Sakiko Sugawa is one of the founding members of Social Kitchen, Accompany Collective, and Center for Reproductive Labor. Through her research on reproductive labor, Sakiko has befriended with courageous migrant domestic workers who have taught her brutal impact of neoliberalism both at personal and global levels, importance of reclaiming materialist, internationalist feminism, power of reproductive labor, and radical solidarity based on friendships. With these lessons in mind, Sakiko together with collaborators has been developing ideas and actions that support migrant domestic workers’ struggles and challenge the position of reproductive labor. Sakiko was a fellow at St Paul St Gallery (Auckland, 2014) and Queens Museum (New York, 2015-2016). She has co-authored the book “Co-Revolutionary Praxis: accompaniment as a strategy for working together” (2016).
