Capitalism and Disability

Selected Writings by Marta Russell

Marta Russell, Keith Rosenthal

• Publisher: Haymarket Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781608466863
• eBook ISBN: 9781608467167
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism
• Index: Social Sciences

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.

Index

Abberley, Paul, 64

ADA Amendments Act, ix

ADAPT, vii, viii, 9, 10, 177

Adkins, Janet, 149

Administration on Aging, 151

affirmative action, 20, 30, 32, 43–46, 56, 65, 142, 174

Afghanistan, 130, 175

Africa, 84

Age Discrimination Act, 65

AIDS, 95, 145

Aid to Families with Dependent Children, 58

Alabama, 58, 164

Albertsons, Inc. v. Kirkingburg, 53, 65, 77

Allen, Robert, 168

American Association of People with Disabilities, 116, 199

American Association of Retired Persons, 129

American Banking Association, 16

American Bar Association, 51

Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law, 51, 63

American Civil Liberties Union, vii–viii

American Economic Association, 69

American Enterprise Institute, 127–29

American Public Transit Association, 9

Americans with Disabilities Act, 23–24, 63, 116, 185

backlash to, 41–47, 50–54

Bush administration and, 128

Business Week on, 33

civil rights model and, 21

court cases and, 37–39, 46, 51–54, 64–65, 75–80, 101, 142

handicapitalism and, 81, 84

Iraq and, 122

limitations of, ix, 32, 61–65, 70–72

prisons and, 94

reasonable accommodations and, 15–16, 24, 64, 78

Republicans and, 111

text of, 184

wages and, 30

Wal-Mart and, 37–39

American Trucking Associations, 54, 78

Amin, Samir, 67, 72

Arizona, 38

Ar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Editor’s Preface
• Introduction: Capitalism and the Disability Rights Movement Marta Russell and Ravi Malhotra
• I. The Political Economy of Disability
• II. Civil Rights and Retreats
• III. Disability Incarcerated
• IV. The Social Security Complex
• V. Beyond Ramps
• VI. Body Politics: The Missing Link
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix: Current Disability Statistics
• Endnotes
• Index
• Back Cover