Capitalism and Disability: Selected Writings by Marta Russell Hardcover – 6 August 2019
by Marta Russell (Author), Keith Rosenthal (Editor)
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This book comprises a collection of groundbreaking writings by Marta Russell on the nature of disability and oppression under capitalism.
Spread out over many years and many different publications, the late author and activist Marta Russell wrote a number of groundbreaking and insightful essays on the nature of disability and oppression under capitalism. In this volume, Russell's various essays are brought together in one place in order to provide a useful and expansive resource to those interested in better understanding the ways in which the modern phenomenon of disability is shaped by capitalist economic and social relations.
The essays range in analysis from the theoretical to the topical, including but not limited to:
The emergence of disability as a 'human category' rooted in the rise of industrial capitalism and the transformation of the conditions of work, family, and society corresponding thereto
A critique of the shortcomings of a purely 'civil rights approach' to addressing the persistence of disability oppression in the economic sphere, with a particular focus on the legacy of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
An examination of the changing position of disabled people within the overall system of capitalist production utilising the Marxist economic concepts of the reserve army of the unemployed, the labor theory of value, and the exploitation of wage-labor
The effects of neoliberal capitalist policies on the living conditions and social position of disabled people as it pertains to welfare, income assistance, health care, and other social security programs
Imperialism and war as a factor in the further oppression and immiseration of disabled people within the United States and globally
And the need to build unity against the divisive tendencies which hide the common economic interest shared between disabled people a
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Capitalism and Disability: Selected Writings by Marta Russell
Marta Russell, Keith Rosenthal (Editor)
4.45
316 ratings52 reviews
This book comprises a collection of groundbreaking writings by Marta Russell on the nature of disability and oppression under capitalism.
Spread out over many years and many different publications, the late author and activist Marta Russell wrote a number of groundbreaking and insightful essays on the nature of disability and oppression under capitalism. In this volume, Russell’s various essays are brought together in one place in order to provide a useful and expansive resource to those interested in better understanding the ways in which the modern phenomenon of disability is shaped by capitalist economic and social relations. The essays range in analysis from the theoretical to the topical, including but not limited to: the emergence of disability as a “human category” rooted in the rise of industrial capitalism and the transformation of the conditions of work, family, and society corresponding thereto; a critique of the shortcomings of a purely “civil rights approach” to addressing the persistence of disability oppression in the economic sphere, with a particular focus on the legacy of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; an examination of the changing position of disabled people within the overall system of capitalist production utilizing the Marxist economic concepts of the reserve army of the unemployed, the labor theory of value, and the exploitation of wage-labor; the effects of neoliberal capitalist policies on the living conditions and social position of disabled people as it pertains to welfare, income assistance, health care, and other social security programs; imperialism and war as a factor in the further oppression and immiseration of disabled people within the United States and globally; and the need to build unity against the divisive tendencies which hide the common economic interest shared between disabled people and the often highly-exploited direct care workers who provide services to the former.
GenresDisabilityNonfictionPoliticsEssaysSocial JusticeEconomicsDisability Studies
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228 pages, Paperback
First published August 6, 2019
Marta Russell (December 20, 1951 – December 15, 2013) was an American writer and disability rights activist. Her book, Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract published in 1998 by Common Courage Press analyzes the relationship between disability, social Darwinism, and economic austerity under capitalism. Her political views, which she described as "left, not liberal," informed her writing on topics such as healthcare, the prison-industrial complex, physician-assisted suicide, poverty, ableism, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
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spicy mayo
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September 18, 2022
cannot be pro disability rights w/o being anti-capitalist. the common conception of disability is defined thru a capitalist lens—to be disabled ultimately means to be unable to work. if you cannot work, be a “productive” member of society, then your value is worth less. ADA was basically a sham. these essays laid bare the inequities and oppressive nature of our current laws, economic system and national political motivations over the last 50 years or so. as long as we continue to value profit over human life, people with disabilities may always end up at the bottom of the barrel. essential read imo!!!!!
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ash | spaceyreads
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December 28, 2021
Capitalism and Disability is a collection of essays from late activist Marta Russell. The collection outlines six areas in which Russell writes about disability - the political economy, civil rights, incarceration, social security, crisis, and death. In each section is a selection of her essays which are picked out by Keith Rosenthal. While the essays range from being written from 1998 to 2005, Rosenthal feels that it’s still theoretically relevant and data from then is quite similar to data today, which is also saying something about the state of disability rights today.
Russell asserts that you cannot fight for disability rights without being anti-capitalist, as these two ideologies are inherently incompatible. She centers her analysis around capitalistic ideals and explains how capitalism continues to oppress disabled people. First, she lays out how disability is continuously defined (with changes throughout the years) under capitalism, ie. through the lens of productivity. She maps out how the current economy depends on having a small subset of the population unemployed, to keep labor costs low. Because that is needed, capitalism then develops ways to control the unemployed population:
"As Christian Parenti explains in Lockdown America, capitalism, the creator of poverty, simultaneously needs and is threatened by the poor. In order to manage and contain its surplus populations and poorest cities, American capitalism has developed paramilitary forms of segregation, containment, and repression."
She then dives into areas of incarceration, social security, crisis, and death where disabled people are still being oppressed. Regarding incarceration, jails in some jurisdictions have become the primary treatment provider for people with mental illness and there is a disproportionate amount of disabled people in the system. This is shocking. She explains how prisons take away rights and care, as well as exacerbate existing disabilities or mental health issues.
In her essay Dollars and Death, she makes the case that there is a direct link between legalising physician-assisted suicide and efforts to reduce healthcare spending. At the same time assisted suicide is legalised, there were changes in policy that reduced funding, limited access to medicine, all in face of a persistent lack of addressing the lack of quality services that promote autonomy like nursing homes. It was horrible to read her analysis, which makes sense - in the face of a life lacking autonomy, care, facing homelessness, pain, and loss of dignity, is it then easier and cheaper to die? The latter is definitely true for some countries, which have not hidden their true intentions to legalise assisted suicide.
Capitalism uses social Darwinism - the concept that it's natural for the biologically unfit (or certain races) to be weeded out, such that we continue to 'purify' the population - to continue to resolve responsibility for creating an unequal system that leaves people to die. Ultimately, capitalism doesn’t not ‘naturally’ weed out people who are ‘good for nothings’ or ‘bad blood’. On the contrary, it concentrates power under the hands of our new feudal lords and continues to oppress marginalised groups.
“Most dangerously, Social Darwinist conditioning has paved the way for decision-making classes to successfully put the spin on welfare that it is the failure of the individual - not the economic system that benefits the few at the expense of the many. The critical link is that the capitalist market economy produces a negative social outcome: by fixating on the accumulation of money it produces social casualties.”
Russell's voice is impassioned and shows a life worth of experience fighting for disability rights. I'd recommend it as a foundational text for everyone to start understanding disability rights.
Some quotes below:
“Income and wealth disparities are greater today than at any time since information was first collected in 1947. - Michael Parenti”
“Unwitting, the labor movement contributed to the ethics that propelled anti-humanistic eugenics. If work defines human worth and work is the central criterion for human validation, then the worker has their pride and the capitalist has their labor to exploit, two sides of the same paradigm.”
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Nhi
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January 19, 2021
Impassioned and brimmed with invaluable analysis of the violence inflicted on disabled peoples by capitalism. A little difficult to get through, I will need to revisit this book to better comprehend the economics portions. Regardless, I IMPLORE everyone to become more cognizant of disability justice.
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Jessica
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June 4, 2020
Really fantastic. Could have gone in more depth about how disability and racism are entwined. There was some discussion but less analysis on that aspect than I'd have liked. Still, highly recommend.
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alexis
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June 1, 2022
The first half of this book feels like a must read general primer on disability politics in the US, as well as a very useful, if slightly repetitive, introduction to Marxism. The back half is more about specific Bush-era policies, which is understandable given when these essays were written, but definitely lacks an analysis on the intersection of race and disability - the chapter on Hurricane Katrina is the most obvious.
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Ai Miller
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February 18, 2020
This was a fascinating collection that really made me chew on questions about possibilities for solidarity and also how we frame possibilities for disabled people around work in particular. Russell was clear and accessible in her writing, even when explaining Marxist theory--I borderline understand Marx now! I think I would have liked a little more context around some of the later pieces; though I appreciated the titles and the sites of original publication at the end, I think having them accompany the pieces would have helped with some context (as a person who was 15 at the end of the Bush administration, and therefore too young to really remember a lot that was happening in the early 2000s, I needed just a touch more background on some of those policy decisions.)
Regardless, I think some of the essays are definitely good for teaching, even as editor Keith Rosenthal resisted them as being read outside of the larger collection (not that I think he opposes it exactly, just that the construction of the book he makes clear is deliberately meant to be read as a whole.) It's clear that Russell's thought on the place of disabled people as a permanent unemployed class is critical in examining the ADA's employment enactments, and serves as a jumping off point for larger questions (especially around international solidarity, which Russell does not address very clearly in these pieces but which I think is a natural next step to consider after reading her work.) I definitely recommend reading this, especially if you are unfamiliar with what life after the passage of the ADA is like, and how the Supreme Court really stripped down what was possible under that law in the name of protecting business (that chapter in particular was deeply enraging!)
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Jaclyn Foster
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January 29, 2020
This is very good as far as capitalism goes, but it tends to use race & civil rights as an analogy rather than really engaging the intersections of race and disability. I’d recommend reading in conjunction with Nirmala Erevelles, Sins Invalid, and Jasbir Puar for a more well-rounded look at disability justice.
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Sarah Cavar
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November 29, 2020
An excellent, if slightly dated, introductory text.
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Connie
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April 13, 2020
Some really nice essays, written in a succinct and accessible writing style. I particularly enjoyed the (admittedly harrowing) chapter about euthanasia and its roots in social Darwinism. I appreciated Russell's clear conclusions on nuanced, complex issues.
Shout-out to Haymarket for the free e-book!
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Erin Crane
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February 3, 2022
This was pretty informative. It was repetitive at times even with a lot of the repeated sections of text across essays taken out. But that’s the nature of an essay collection by someone who writes on the same topic.
I think now this book could be criticized for not being intersectional enough - but I think most of her writing is from the 80s and 90s, so that’s not shocking.
Takeaways:
1) Because capitalism insists on a certain level of unemployment, and people with disabilities are less likely to be employed because of the inconvenience/cost of accommodating them, people with disabilities are disproportionately represented in the unemployed. This is in the nature of capitalism itself.
2) Many ADA protections are ineffective or have been watered down (at least at the time she was writing). She finds anti-discrimination laws to be too weak to help.
3) Discrimination cases bring in this Catch 22 situation where the worker needs to be disabled enough to be accommodated but not so disabled that they can’t work. But they have to be too disabled to work in order to get aid while seeing their discrimination case through.
Quotes:
In contrast, we take the view that disability is a socially created category derived from labor relations, a product of the exploitative economic structure of capitalist society: one which creates (and then oppresses) the so-called disabled body as one of the conditions that allow the capitalist class to accumulate wealth.
If workers were provided with a federal social safety net that adequately protected them through unemployment, sickness, disability, and old age, then business would have less control over the workforce because labor would gain a stronger position from which to negotiate their conditions of employment, such as fair wages and safe working conditions.
If one is not disabled because one’s condition is “correctable” with medication, wheelchairs, prostheses, hearing aids, insulin, etc., how can one expect to receive a reasonable accommodation which depends on being defined as “disabled”? [referring to the watering down of ADA protections]
… it will be the unspoken argument for assisted suicide—cost containment—that will ensure the eventual passage of laws legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Are people who seek assisted suicide choosing death or being cornered into it by inadequate national disability policy, a lack of quality long-term and palliative care that, in their absence, makes life so unbearable that death seems preferable to life?
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Brian
5.0 out of 5 stars Concise and Poignant
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 12 May 2022
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Capitalism & Disability is as infuriating as it is informative. I implore you to read this book to begin to understand the maddening reality of being an under/unemployed person with disabilities (whether or not Neoliberal society deems you disabled, or not.) As it is a collection of individual writings, it can be repetitive- these truths bare repeating. I do wish it was available as an audiobook for those who have trouble reading.
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