Challenging Militarism, Climate Change, and Human Nature: Revolutionary Mothering and A Politics of Responsibility

Our ability to address urgent threats to our existence like climate change and nuclear weapons is hampered and undermined by questionable assumptions about "human nature" that underlie much political thought and action. In the book Revolutionary Mothering, an anthology by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, China Martens, Mai’a Williams, and Loretta J. Ross, women of color start from the interdependence of the child and the mothering person to propose a very different perspective on human experience and the interface between individuals and institutions. Mothering and revolution are messy – there are no pat formulas or fixed paradigms. The authors propose a politics of necessity and responsibility, emphasizing needs rather than rights: "There will be no liberation without us knowing how to depend on each other, how to be encumbered with and responsible for each other."

Judith Deutsch is a columnist for Canadian Dimension Magazine, former president of Science for Peace, and a psychoanalyst by profession. Suggested reading: Judith’s March 1 article in The Bullet: http://socialistproject.ca/bullet/1376.php