As I understand it: mothering is simply care labour; motherhood, an institution of private property. So, the fundamental question thrown up by both Heti and zuchinno could be formulated as follows: does (1.) automatically make you (2.)? Conversely, does doing (2.) entail having (1.)? Is momming identical to being a mom? If not, why not? Should momradeliness simply be comradeliness (but then, comradeliness vis-a-vis whom)? Does it only apply to persons who happen to have procreated – or legally adopted – progeny? Or is pulling one’s weight with regard to the so-called reproductive labours of life the only meaningful definition of comrade in the first place? Can a comrade be called a comrade if they are not a momrade? What, in that case, of people like my late mother, a sometimes-left activist who had children, owns legal papers to prove it, but does scant caring- or reproductive labour for those children, let alone for the movement?
For the past two years, writer and dance music historian Tim Lawrence has been an unusually clear and uncompromising voice in support of Palestine, speaking out publicly about Israel’s genocide in Gaza at a time when many in dance culture have stayed silent.
In this interview, he discusses his journey from a Zionist upbringing to anti-Zionist activism, the backlash he has faced since October 7, the influence of Edward Said, and the connection he sees between protest movements and the dancefloor.
I hopped out of my bed because I needed to pee, and my left leg just collapsed under me and I fell to the floor. I couldn’t even break the fall with my left arm because it wasn’t working either. I tried to hop back up again, and I couldn’t. I realized I had “fallen and I can’t get up!”
It was this point I thought, “Oh shit, I’m having a stroke!