Radical childcare collectives: Putting care to work for political resistance

Childcare collectives have been organizing around the country in most major cities for the past several years. Their most immediate goal is to provide childcare for local social justice organizations. They are volunteer-based collectives organizing at the local level; however, many are part of a national group, the Intergalactic Conspiracy of Childcare Collectives (ICCC). Through participant-observation of an ICCC annual meeting and interviews with childcare collective members and childcare collective stakeholders, this thesis seeks to understand how and why childcare collectives organize. The research indicates that by performing carework at political meetings, events, and protests, childcare collectives build more inclusive and sustainable social movements. This thesis explores how the practices, policies, and principals of childcare collectives turn carework from an exploited and devalued labor, into a form of political organizing that confronts and challenges patriarchy, neoliberalism, and capitalism.