Revolutionary Witchcraft

Whenever the word "witch" is uttered, we conjure up a memory of "the burning times" when people were being accused of witchcraft and tortured by feverish villagers of 16-17th century Europe. It was an era of heightened paranoia, religious persecution, intense misogyny, and colonisation. This was the dawn of capitalism, as the former system of feudalism was gradually replaced with something more "liberal". Power struggles between monarchs and politicians caused riots, massacres, and sieges. Witches were scapegoats for all of the turmoil, as the wealthy could point a finger "look over there!" and shift the blame. The witch represented an enemy of the state, a cause of mass terror, an invader from the infernal realm. Those accused were usually poor elderly single women. Socially discardable, having outlived their usefulness, the accused witches were easy targets of popular violence.

The development of capitalism meant that former peasants became landless workers, who flocked to the cities to sell their labour. Industrialisation meant there was less need for agricultural workers, but more need for factory workers. Men, women, and children all went to the factories to work, under the threat of starvation and exposure to the elements. Whereas peasant were more or less the property of their feudal lords, kept like slaves in cottages on the vast manor estates, the urban workforce lived in shanty towns, free to sell themselves to any boss who would employ them. Witchcraft accusations were made against those abandoned widows who rotted away in rural destitution. 

The dehumanisation of women under capitalism reduced their value in society to providers of free childcare and domestic work, to be bought and sold as sex objects. They were considered the property of their husbands. Anything that belonged to the woman became the legal property of the husband. He had full financial control over his wife. Disobedient women were legally beaten and subdued by their husbands. Women could not hold public office or be members of a jury. A single woman could own property in her own name, and had financial autonomy with any wealth she had inherited. This is what made single women dangerous, especially if they banded together in solidarity. This is where the idea of a coven of witches comes from. 

Street violence and protests foreshadowed a Civil War in 17th century England. It was a conflict between the feudal aristocracy supporting the absolute power of the king, and the rising capitalist class supporting parliamentary power. The amount of men killed in battle left many widows who became easy targets of witchcraft accusations. Women with land and property had the power and confidence to speak their minds, but the pressure of the puritanical church threatened them with damnation for their disobedience. A woman who is independent is a danger to society, to the church and state. This is why women began adopting the "witch" title in the 20th century. It was our way of saying yes, we are a danger to the oppressive power structure. We are a threat to the patriarchy. We aren't going to lie down and take it anymore.