The alternative is xenofeminist accelerationism – xenofeminist acceleration seeks to dismantle capitalism through uncontrollable acceleration beyond its limits while also reshaping the ways technology is used.

One way in which structural change is called for can be seen through xenofeminism’s accelerationism. There are multiple versions of and stances on accelerationism but, broadly, accelerationism seeks to dismantle structures through accelerating them beyond their own limits, accelerating the process to the point of destruction (see, for example, Deleuze and Guattari, 1983 [1972], p. 239). The 2013 Accelerate Manifesto by Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek (2013), for example, calls for, in part, the accelerated use of technology with the aim of creating machines to do all the work in society, thereby creating a post-work, post-capitalist world. Post-capitalism is a critical feminist aim, as exemplified by the vast number of feminist critiques of capitalism itself.6 The Xenofeminist Manifesto was written, in part, as a feminist response to accelerationism, thus taking and centring post-capitalism as a feminist project while seeking to show the ways in which feminist interventions are needed in accelerationism itself (Piasecka, 2016). Xenofeminism, like many strands of accelerationism, is post-capitalist in its aims. However, being dedicated to a feminist ethics, it is more intersectional than much of accelerationist theory, explicitly noting the need to consider all human needs, including differences such as ‘race, ability, economic standing, and geographical position’ (Laboria Cuboniks, 2015, Zero 0×00, Parity 0×0F). Thus, similar to the Accelerate Manifesto, the Xenofeminist Manifesto states: ‘no more futureless repetition on the treadmill of capital, no more submission to the drudgery of labour’ (ibid., Zero 0×00). However, unlike the Accelerate Manifesto, the Xenofeminist Manifesto does consider the special role women often play in terms of labour, continuing: ‘no more submission to the drudgery of labour productive and reproductive alike’ (ibid.). Xenofeminism thus takes an intersectional approach to accelerationism, arguing that the universal is made out of the particular and is not built from above but built up from the bottom (ibid., Parity 0×0F). Xenofeminism, like accelerationism, is both anti- and post-capitalist (ibid., Trap 0×0A). As per the Accelerate Manifesto, xenofeminism aims to move beyond the rigid constructions of current left politics and leftist in-fighting. Instead, ‘Xenofeminism seeks to construct a coalitional politics, a politics without the infection of purity’ (ibid., Parity 0×10). Thus, ‘XF seizes alienation as an impetus to generate new worlds. We are all alienated—but have we ever been otherwise?’ (ibid., Zero 0×01). Instead of lamenting alienation, from work and more broadly, xenofeminism celebrates it. Thus, xenofeminism states that ‘the construction of freedom involves not less but more alienation’, for ‘it is through, and not despite, our alienated condition that we can free ourselves from the muck of immediacy’, this referring, in part, to the future possibility (and now) of machines doing many of the immediate, manual, domestic and potentially reproductive labour tasks (ibid.). Xenofeminism is not purely ‘tech-positive’, however. Xenofeminism also notes the dark sides to technology and the ways in which it has been used ‘in the exclusive interests of capital, which, by design, only benefits the few’ (ibid., Interrupt 0×08). However, the manifesto remains positive about the possible futures of technology, noting that there are ‘radical opportunities afforded by developing (and alienating) forms of technological mediation’ (ibid.). The Xenofeminist Manifesto notes that, although there is an ongoing problem around accessibility, ‘digital tools have never been more widely available or more sensitive to appropriation than they are today’ (ibid.). Xenofeminism, therefore, not only wants to accelerate technology into the post-capitalist world but seeks also to appropriate technology and make it feminist. The dark sides of technology and the ways it has been used up until now do not make technology’s use futile. Rather, the xenofeminists note the need to politicise the techno. Technology, to the xenofeminists, is a tool for revolution: ‘XF seeks to strategically deploy existing technologies to re-engineer the world’ (ibid., Zero 0×02). Thus, they note that ‘the real emancipatory potential of technology remains unrealized’, due to the capitalist ways it has thus far been used (ibid., Zero 0×03). Xenofeminism, therefore, is motivated by the gender blindness of accelerationism but also goes further than accelerationism. As noted above, xenofeminism also takes inspiration from feminist theories of technology, particularly those that see technology as a potential tool for social change (see, for example, Haraway, 2001 [1984]). Xenofeminsim advocates for an activist interest to be taken in technologies at all levels, from ‘domestic labour-saving devices’ (Hester, 2018b, p. 8), to the use of technology to ‘combat unequal access to reproductive and pharmaceutical tools’, to technology’s use in ‘combat[ing] environmental cataclysm, economic instability, as well as dangerous forms of unpaid/underpaid labour’ (Laboria Cuboniks, 2015, Zero 0×03). Thus, xenofeminism not only wants to create a post-capitalist world but also seeks to create a more just world within our technomaterial reality. Xenofeminism laments the early days of cyberfeminism when technology was seen as a key way of ‘generating solidarity among marginalised groups’ (ibid., Carry 0×13), noting that technology, now, is having a more negative gendered impact, from social media harassment to issues around identity policing, power relations and gender norms in self-representation in the online culture of images (ibid., Carry 0×13, Zero 0×00). However, the xenofeminists do not believe that such a turn renders cyberfeminism a thing of the past; rather, they declare that ‘the situation requires a feminism at ease with computation’ (ibid., Interrupt 0×07, Carry 0×13). Thus, xenofeminism is more than just trying to deal with the gendered structures and outcomes of technology; it is about urging ‘feminists to equip themselves with the skills to redeploy existing technologies and invent novel cognitive and material tools in the service of common ends’ (ibid., Interrupt 0×07). This reutilisation of technology will not be easy but will, rather, take time, be a process, requiring ‘a feminism sensitive to the insidious return to old power structures, yet savvy enough to know how to exploit the potential’ (ibid., Carry 0×13). Thus, states the manifesto, ‘our future requires depetrification. Xenofeminism is not a bid for revolution, but a wager on the long game of history, demanding imagination, dexterity and persistence’ (ibid., Zero 0×00).