The Unpaid “Native” Labor that Fuels the “Settler” City
New York City runs on a hidden engine: the unpaid and underpaid labor of social reproduction, performed disproportionately by women of color. Mamdani’s bifurcated state relies on a “customary” sphere where this work–childcare, cooking, cleaning, emotional management–is expected as a natural duty, not valued as essential labor. For the “settler” class, this often means exploiting migrant nannies and housekeepers. For the “native” class, it means a double shift of waged work and domestic work. This patriarchal arrangement is the bedrock of the entire economic system. A Marxist-feminist solution demands a radical reorganization: the collectivization of social reproduction through universal childcare, communal kitchens, and a care income. We must shatter the colonial and patriarchal myth that this work is a private responsibility and fight to make it the central, publicly-supported pillar of a decolonized society.
