Marxism, Motherhood, and How the Left’s Anti-Family Agenda Dooms Future Generations
Slava Jalili
Abstract
This essay critiques the contemporary left for promoting cultural and political narratives that, intentionally or not, undermine the Marxist commitment to family, collective flourishing, and the reproduction of future generations. Slava Jalili argues that trends such as the rise of the “DINK” economy, the growing preference for pets over children, and pervasive doomerism are not expressions of liberation but symptoms of capitalist precarity and alienation. These developments, he contends, reflect economic pressures that make family formation increasingly difficult, while segments of the left mistakenly embrace them as progressive choices. Drawing on Marxist theory, Jalili maintains that motherhood, family-building, and revolutionary participation are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing. He calls for a socialist politics that rejects pessimism, restores the family as a core social unit, and fights for the material conditions — universal childcare, healthcare, education, and economic stability — that allow women to be both workers and mothers. The essay concludes that reclaiming the family is essential to constructing a robust, future-oriented socialist movement.
Keywords
Marxism, women, reproduction, social reproduction, family, alienation, social relations, nuclear family, education, childcare, Slava Jalili
