Books by Sayak Valencia

Gore Capitalism (Semiotext(e) / Intervention Series)

by Sayak Valencia

An analysis of contemporary violence as the new commodity of today's hyper-consumerist stage of capitalism.
“Death has become the most profitable business in existence.”
—from Gore Capitalism
Written by the Tijuana activist intellectual Sayak Valencia, Gore Capitalism is a crucial essay that posits a decolonial, feminist philosophical approach to the outbreak of violence in Mexico and, more broadly, across the global regions of the Third World. Valencia argues that violence itself has become a product within hyper-consumerist neoliberal capitalism, and that tortured and mutilated bodies have become commodities to be traded and utilized for profit in an age of impunity and governmental austerity.
In a lucid and transgressive voice, Valencia unravels the workings of the politics of death in the context of contemporary networks of hyper-consumption, the ups and downs of capital markets, drug trafficking, narcopower, and the impunity of the neoliberal state. She looks at the global rise of authoritarian governments, the erosion of civil society, the increasing violence against women, the deterioration of human rights, and the transformation of certain cities and regions into depopulated, ghostly settings for war. She offers a trenchant critique of masculinity and gender constructions in Mexico, linking their misogynist force to the booming trade in violence.
This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to analyze the new landscapes of war. It provides novel categories that allow us to deconstruct what is happening, while proposing vital epistemological tools developed in the convulsive Third World border space of Tijuana.

Feminism for the World

by Silvia Federici, Françoise Vergès, Sayak Valencia, Verónica Gago, Zahra Ali, Lola Olufemi, Rama Salla Dieng, Djamila Ribeiro

In the years since #MeToo, misogyny, sexism and gender-based violence have flooded the news and our social media timelines. Anti-privilege politics and intersectionality have entered the mainstream--systematically trolled on one end of the spectrum; embraced, to questionable ends, on the other. But what has this increased visibility entailed, other than the marketisation of the feminist struggle?

Feminism for the World argues that we have been witnessing an erasure of feminism as a long-term tradition, with its many conflicting histories and geographies of struggle elided and forgotten.

In this ground-breaking collection, eight leading international figures of contemporary feminism highlight feminist struggles and traditions from the Global South, presenting feminism as a project that is impossible without international solidarity from the West. In doing so, they revive an authentic internationalism and propose paths for present and future generations.

Authors include Lola Olufemi, Françoise Vergès, Silvia Federici, Verónica Gago, Zahra Ali, Rama Salla Dieng, Sayak Valencia and Djamila Ribeiro. Translated by Fionn Petch and Sophie Lewis.