[RSVP for zoom link. Also see your confirm and reminder emails: click "event info"]

Our 2nd session of the Birth Strike reading group is May 30th! It’s not too late to catch up & join us as we talk about universal childcare & reproductive labor! Last session is a panel with the author.

The book is BIRTH STRIKE by Jenny Brown. Use code LABOR on PM Press for 40% off the book--so only $5 for the e-book!

[Catch up reading from Session 1: Pages 1-59]

Session 2: Read pages 60—103

-Chapter 4. Comstockery to the Baby Boom

-Chapter 5. Population Panic to the Baby Bust

-Chapter 6. Longevity: Crisis or Blessing?

-Chapter 7: Immigration: “Instant Adults”

Session 2 Questions

1. What is Social Security and how does it function? What is the relationship between Social Security and social reproduction? The book argues that Social Security is good for women’s freedom. What reasons are given? Do you agree? Could it be improved? How?

2. Productivity per worker has more than doubled in the last fifty years. “If no one were siphoning off the gains in private profits, each worker could support twice as many people as they could in the 1950s.” In 1950s, there were 16 workers to support every one beneficiary of Social Security, and today there are only 3.3 workers. What are the material causes of this? What are the social ramifications?

3. Why do Democrats continue to threaten Social Security? What would the result of the privatization of Social Security be in our country?

4. If your parents or grandparents or other relatives need care, who provides it? If you need care, who provides it? Does anyone in your family (or you) get a Social Security check? If they (you) were without Social Security, who would support them or how would they support themselves?

5. Do you expect to be able to retire?

6. Are we facing a “world with mass starvation” because of our population? Why or why not?

7. Why did the U.S. population begin to drop in the 60s? How many children did your grandparents have, versus your parents (versus you)?

8. Do you think capitalists in the U.S. want people to have more children? Do you think they want immigrants to come to the U.S.?

9. How are immigrant children managed in the U.S.?