Marxism and Disability Network (MDN)
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marxdisability.bsky.social
Marxism and Disability Network (MDN)
@marxdisability.bsky.social
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Study and engagement network with a particular focus on Disability Politics & Marxism(s). We hold monthly talks. To join the mailing list, check out our contact page: https://marxismdisability.wordpress.com/Contact
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marxdisability.bsky.social
Our next monthly event will take place on Tue, 8th July from 6:30pm BST

'Ability Capitalism: The Constitutive Role of Law in Market Constructions of Disability' - Clare Williams
#Marxism #Disability
The Zoom link will be shared on the MDN mailing list
marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2025/06/09/j...
Taking markets to be specifically legal institutions, this paper explores the constitutive role of law in constructions of disability under capitalism. I draw on the works of Marx, Polanyi, Russell, and Malhotra to suggest that disability, as a key market rationality determining the state-market boundary, is constructed through processes of legal coding or commodification. The law not only sets the foundations for markets, but predistributes rights and interests that shape actor preferences, acting as a fulcrum for balancing the conflicting demands of capital and, for example, labour. In the process, disability emerges as a keystone concept that can shift the fulcrum one way or the other, revealing and concealing standard and non-standard employment relations respectively and creating inequalities and oppressions in the process. I take insights from the “Great Homeworking Experiment” of the pandemic to explore what happens when background labour market assumptions are shifted and ask whether the legal duty to provide reasonable adjustments was impacted. By positing that mandatory homeworking during the pandemic might have shifted both employer and state preferences that feed into underlying efficiency calculations, alternative challenges to the ongoing disability employment and pay gaps are suggested that focus on decommodification rather than (legal) rights. What emerges is a theory of ability capitalism, or the constitutive role of law in capitalist market constructions of disability, that has the potential to reorient how we understand disability and respond to intractable inequalities. While developed in the context of the labour market, I suggest that ability capitalism can also be glimpsed in property (housing) and capital (debt) markets, and a “work in progress” session could include thinking through how and where we might glimpse the constitutive role of law in constructions of disability beyond labour, and which decommodification strategies might emerge as a result. Bio: Following my PhD (2019, University of London), I received funding for an ESRC-SeNSS Postdoc exploring how we do, talk, and think about law, economy and society. I joined Kent Law School as a lecturer in 2022 and my research explores an Economic Sociology of Law, as well as disability and social justice, legal design, and research methods. More recently, my empirical research into the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and remote working on disabled people’s labour market inclusion has led to the development of my theory of Ability Capitalism; that is, the constitutive role of law in market constructions of disability.
June 15, 2025 at 3:58 PM
marxdisability.bsky.social
3rd June 2025 (6:30pm BST), panel event 'Disablement in the Socialist World'

Shu Wan – ‘Making the Deaf Useful: The Policies of Deafness in 1950s China’
marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2025/05/12/j...
#Marxism #Disability
June 2025: Shu Wan – ‘Making the Deaf Useful: The Policies of Deafness in 1950s China’ Abstract: Based on rarely referenced historical newspapers and state archives, this essay examines the nascent socialist state’s human resources of making deaf people useful in the 1950s. The essay includes sections regarding the communist government’s agendas of furthering literacy and vocational education for deaf youth and adults, organizing the deaf population, and developing deaf medicine. In terms of the shortage of deaf education in China before 1949, the communist government nationalized existing private deaf schools and established many new ones for deaf youth in the early and mid- 1950s. In the name of “welfare,” deaf adults were also given vocational training and job opportunities in factories, which represents the state’s concern about making all people self-sufficient under the communist regime. Furthermore, the inauguration of Society of Welfare for the Deaf and Dumb in China (“Zhongguo longyaren fuli hui”) in 1956 and proliferation of local branches in subsequent years indicated the communist government’s efforts to take institutional control over the deaf people. Moreover, the Chinese government also pathologized deafness as a disease by developing the relevant therapy and technology. Through these measures, the nascent socialist state managed to mobilize the deaf population and make them useful as a communist miracle. Bio: Shu Wan is currently matriculated as a doctoral student in history at the University at Buffalo
May 20, 2025 at 12:20 PM
marxdisability.bsky.social
3rd June 2025 (6:30pm BST), panel event 'Disablement in the Socialist World'

Luke Beesley – “But for them it is not a question of rights. The political struggle is won”: Disability in socialist Cuba through British Marxists’ eyes

marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2025/05/12/j...
#Marxism #Disability
June 2025: Luke Beesley – “But for them it is not a question of rights. The political struggle is won”: Disability in socialist Cuba through British Marxists’ eyes Abstract: The internationalisation of disability politics is, generally, treated as an elite affair; involving cosmopolitan policy wonks, large (somewhat distant) federations of national activist groups, or ‘rights tourists’ – whose experience in developed nations allowed them to become leaders of under-developed national movements. Less appreciated are bi-lateral relationships between activist groups; which provided movements’ grassroots with opportunities for comparative analysis of shared struggles, and critical reflection on liberation strategies. This presentation analyses one instance of such a relationship, a study of disablement in socialist Cuba conducted by members of Britain’s Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS), and facilitated by the Havana Branch of the Associacion Cubana de Limitados Fisicos Motores (ACLFIM – Association of Mobility Impaired Cubans), to whom the Cuban state had devolved much of the provision of specialist disability services. The Marxist dominated British group were both excited and troubled by their empirical findings. By democratising disability services and putting them in the hands of disabled Cubans, the island had effectively removed antagonistic contradictions between helpers and helped. The results of this had not, however, prevented many forms of disablism – including segregation, medicalisation, institutionalisation, and poor urban access – from being widespread in Cuban society. These findings problematised UPIAS’s original definition of disability oppression – which it had characterised as a ‘by-product’ of capitalist labour processes and national welfare economies (factors largely absent in Cuba’s political economy). I indicate how UPIAS’s conceptualisation of capitalism’s role in disablement broadened in response to the Cuban experience, becoming more sensitive to global regimes of accumulation and nation building projects in capitalist international orders. For the Cuban case, this facilitated a nuanced account of the role of imperialism in structuring disablement. For the British situation, it encouraged UPIAS members to engage more closely than hitherto with the rapidly changing composition of British capitalism. Bio: Luke Beesley teaches Political Science at the University of Manchester, and is a Doctoral Candidate at the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics at the University of Brighton. His work reconstructs Marxist theory developed in historical Disabled People’s Movements, and applies these to contemporary political and philosophical debates. He is a Fellow of the UK’s Association of Higher Education, and a qualified archivist.
May 18, 2025 at 10:11 PM
marxdisability.bsky.social
Tue 6th May 2025, 6:30pm BST - panel event with two presentations

'Neurosocialism: Why being neurodivergent necessitates socialist solutions' - Matthew Rosza
marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2025/04/17/m...

#DisabilitySky #Marxism #MarxismDisability
Abstract: I’d like to explain why neurodivergent people need to be anticapitalists. I’ve alluded to this in previous articles (https://www.salon.com/2017/11/25/im-a-liberal-because-im-autistic/), but as right-wing autistic people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel try to associate neurodiversity with capitalism, it is essential to have a pushback from neurodivergent anticapitalists. I hope to deliver a speech to this effect. Bio: Matthew Rozsa has been a professional journalist for more than 13 years. Currently he is writing a book for Beacon Press, “Neurosocialism,” which argues that autistic people like the author struggle under capitalism, and explains how neurosocialism – the distinct anticapitalist perspective one develops by living as a neurodiverse individual – can be an important organizing principle for the left. He obtained his Bachelor’s in History from Bard College in 2006 (graduating in only three years) and a Master’s in History from Rutgers University-Newark in 2012 (graduating in only a year-and-a-half). He was ABD in Lehigh University’s PhD program in history until his adviser, John Pettegrew, passed away from cancer.
April 19, 2025 at 5:02 PM
marxdisability.bsky.social
Tuesday, 6th May, 6:30pm (BST) – panel event with two presentations

Bernardo Paci: “Past in the present” or “future in the present”? Temporality, cultural representations of autism, and the social division of labour
marxismdisability.wordpress.com/bernardo-pac...
Abstract: In recent years, the growing presence and visibility of autistic people in the global workforce has driven the production of new cultural representations of autism. However, such representations do not homogeneously apply to all autistic workers. Along the lines of the social division of labour, two distinct and opposed depictions emerge. On the one hand, the image of the neurodivergent as a “savage” and as a “child” – elaborated throughout modern Western philosophical thought and still informing many psychiatric representations – is reactivated and repurposed to represent autistic workers employed in unskilled and low-skilled jobs. This depiction casts them as “past in the present”, “atavistic” beings in need of tutelage to develop as “modern” subjects and workers, subjected to a sort of “civilising mission” (the “neurotypical man’s burden”, to paraphrase Kipling). On the other hand, autistic workers employed in high-skilled jobs – especially in IT – are increasingly depicted as “future in the present”. The neoliberal capture of the neurodivergence paradigm frames it as just another difference within diversity management: stereotypes thus fuel the economic valorisation of the neurodivergent labour power. The autistic worker is said to enjoy repetitive tasks, focus for hours without breaks, remain instinctively loyal to their company, and so on. These stereotypes create a “machinic” depiction of autistic workers: quasi-cyborgian or robotic, closer to computers than humans (hence their perceived excellence in IT), a representation that enables hyper-exploitation. At the same time, this dual representation risks deepening divisions among such workers, complicating their self-recognition as a group and hindering their political organisation. In fact, both representations de-politicise autistic workers, casting them as “non-contemporary”. It is thus necessary for autistic workers to contest these stereotypes both in their content and in their divisive effects, articulating a politics of alliances to counter the strategies of hyper-exploitation targeting them. Bio: Bernardo Paci (Fiesole, 1993) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Naples “Federico II”. He is a member of the Group of Critical Theory of Society at the University of Milan-Bicocca. His research focuses on the intersection of critical theory, postcolonial studies, and global intellectual history. His latest publication within disability studies is the article Autistici laboriosi, autistici pericolosi. Neurodivergenze mostruose e dove trovarle [Labouring Autistic People, Dangerous Autistic People: Monstruous Neurodivergences and Where to Find Them].
April 14, 2025 at 11:13 AM
marxdisability.bsky.social
Since January 2023, the MDN has held monthly online events in the form of presentations, discussions and reading group sessions.
Alongside these, the network intends to facilitate other
contributions to debates in #Marxism and #Disability. If you have proposals and ideas, email us!
The Marxism and Disability Network is a study and engagement network supported by Historical Materialism; with the aim of deepening Marxist analyses of disablement as a capitalist social relation, and informing disability liberation projects through the application of Marxist insights. Since January 2023, the MDN has held monthly online events in the form of presentations, discussions, and reading group sessions. Alongside these, the network intends to facilitate other contributions to debates in Marxism and Disability. If you have proposals and ideas, please email us. MDN’s video recordings are available via HM’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@historical_materialism_journal/playlists Twitter: @MarxDisability Email: marxismdisability@gmail.com Website: marxismdisability.wordpress.com Join the MDN JISC mailing list via the Contact page on the website. Supported by Historical Materialism
February 24, 2025 at 9:51 AM
marxdisability.bsky.social
Interested in learning about and contributing to discussions regarding disability, disablement & Marxism(s)?

Join MDN's mailing list! You can do so via this link: jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-j...

#SocialistSunday #Disability #DisabledTwitter #Marxism #DisabilityMarxism #MarxistMonday
Marxism & Disability Network banner with the writing written in white on a black background, with yellow in the corners
February 16, 2025 at 12:22 PM
marxdisability.bsky.social
This coming Tuesday (3rd Dec) 6:30-8:00pm GMT!

'The Politics of Disablement and Precarious Work in Contemporary UK'
Ioana Cerasella Chis will give an overview of her recently completed doctoral research project

The abstract can be found here marxismdisability.wordpress.com/2024/11/20/d... #Marxism
December 2024 – Ioana Cerasella Chis: The Politics of Disablement and Precarious Work in Contemporary UK November 20, 2024by ICC, posted in Monthly talks, Uncategorized Abstract: This talk serves as an attempt at providing an overview of The Politics of Disablement and Precarious Work: Prefiguring a Non-Productivist Future [1] doctoral research project and its analysis/findings. Thus, I will discuss the contemporary context of waged and unwaged work in the UK, with a focus on the role of structural disablement and the total institution of work in the oppression and exploitation of people who identify as/are disabled, neurodivergent, chronically ill, having impairments, and/or experiencing mental distress. The talk is informed by a series of interviews and diary entries produced by twenty-seven research participants – all of whom were, at the time, precarious workers subjected to disablement [2]. Thus, I start this presentation by offering an overview of the theoretical and political approaches adopted in the project – namely, a synthesis between the UPIAS-inspired social model of disability and post-’68, anti-productivist Marxisms, which I call ‘the collective-materialist approach to disabling capitalism’ [3]. Then, I explore the neoliberal context of disablement and (waged and unwaged) work in the UK, with reference to the state, employers, and other socio-political actors. Six broad spheres of activity [4] highlighted in the project will be briefly explored: waged work, unwaged work for the state and ‘professionals’, navigating the individual model of disability in everyday interpersonal relations, assistance work, subversion work and collective self-activity, and activities conducive to rest. In relation to these spheres, I argue that a top-down and bottom-up struggle over work and its transfer is ongoing (as part of the social reality of living through disabling capitalism). Brief insights into the stories produced by the research participants will be shared, as they illustrate the ways in which they navigated, negotiated, and negated (waged and unwaged) work in their everyday lives. Matters related to rest [5], social security, social reproduction [6], and alternatives to capitalist social relations will also be discussed in the latter part of the presentation (and, hopefully, in the Q&A). I will conclude by arguing that any critiques of and collective mobilisations against-and-beyond capitalism ought to be underpinned by a critique of productivism and disablement, and vice versa.
November 30, 2024 at 3:06 PM
marxdisability.bsky.social
To watch our previous video-recorded events (MDN talks; the reading group sessions are made available only to MDN mailing list subscribers), please visit our playlist on YouTube
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
The Nov. event's video recording will be uploaded soon
#Marxism #Disability
Printscreen with 6 of the 15 video recordings of the MDN, on the youtube playlist
November 27, 2024 at 12:26 PM