The Marxist perspective

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The Marxist perspective

• Men make their own history, but they do not make
  it just as they please they do not make it under
  circumstances chosen by themselves
• (Marx, 1852/1950 154)
• At Marx's grave, Engels asserted that his
  friends great discovery was that mankind must
  first of all eat, drink, have shelter and
  clothing, and therefore work before it can pursue
  politics, science, art, religion etc. (Engels,
  1883/1972 603)

2
Capitalism and inequality

• The capitalist economic system is predicated upon
  unequal relationships between
• the bourgeoisie (the ruling class), who own the
  means of production (the materials we need to
  produce, factories, machines, etc.)
• and the proletariat (the working classes), who
  work the means of production.

3
To understand the oppression of the disabled is
to understand

• (1) The changing economic contribution of the
  disabled
• (2) Surplus army of labour
• (3) The disability industry

4
(1) The changing economic contribution of the
disabled

• Disablement is caused by an oppressive relations
  of power between those who own, and those who
  work, the means of production, the field, the
  factory, etc. (UPIAS 1976 Abberley 1987, 1996).
• People not deemed as economically useful to the
  furtherance of capitalism who are not vital
  members of the proletariat - are kept out of the
  way, segregated.
• The operation of the labour market in the
  nineteenth century effectively depressed
  handicapped people of all kinds to the bottom of
  the market.
• (Morris, 1969 9)

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When the disabled can contribute to the economic
system they live under they are less excluded,
less oppressed

• By the 1890's, the population of Britain was
  increasingly urban and the employment of the
  majority was industrial, rather than rural. The
  blind and the deaf growing up in slowly changing
  scattered rural communities had more easily been
  absorbed into the work and life of those
  societies without the need for special provision.
  The environment of an industrial society was
  however different.
• (Topliss, 1979, p. 11)

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(2) The surplus army of labour Who gains from
disablement?

• In times of boom or need capitalism must have a
  surplus army of labour, e.g. The Second World War
• Abberley, (1987, p.10)
• the main and consistent beneficiary must be
  identified as the present social order, or more
  accurately, capitalism.

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(3) The disability industry

• The production of the category disability is no
  different from the production of motor cars or
  hamburgers. Each has an industry Each has a
  workforce which has a vested interest in
  producing their product in particular ways and
  exerting as much control over the process of
  production as possible.
• (Oliver, 1999 2)

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(1) The Marxist perspective is overly
deterministic

• Barton and Tomlinson (1984, p.65) the post war
  approach to educating children diagnosed as
  having special needs is motivated by
  benevolent humanitarianism which in practice
  translates as, doing good to individual
  children.

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(2) It overlooks attitudes and culture

• The social construction of disability
• Disability is about culture and attitudes
  (Shakespeare, 1994).
• It overlooks labels and their consequences
  (Booth, 1985)

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Disability and liberation Two perspective

• Marxist
• Change the economic system
• Disabled people to take control of their lives
  disability services for the disabled, by the
  disabled

• Humanist
• Change attitudes and culture
• Ensure that services for disabled people are
  empowering and inclusive

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References

• Abberley, P. (1987) The concept of oppression and
  the development of a social theory of disability,
  Disability, Handicap and Society, Vol. 2, No. 1,
  pp. 5-19.
• Abberley, P. (1996) Work, Utopia and impairment,
  Disability Society Emerging Issues and
  Insights, In L. Barton (Ed.) (London Addison
  Wesley Longman Limited)
• Barton, L. and Tomlinson, S. (Eds) (1984) Special
  Education and Social Interests (Beckenham, Croom
  Helm).
• Booth, T. (1985) Labels and their consequences,
  In D. Lane B. Stratford (Eds) Current
  Approaches to Downs Syndrome (London Holt,
  Rinehart Winston)
• Engels, F. (1883/1972) Speech at the Graveside of
  Karl Marx, in Robert C. Tucker (Ed) The Marx
  Engels Reader (W.W. Norton, New York)

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• Marx, K. (1852/1950) On Tradition, Personality,
  and Class-Forces, in S. Hook (Ed.) Marx-Engels
  Selected Works Vol. 1 (Moscow Foreign Language
  Publishing House)
• Morris, P. (1969) Put Away (London Routledge)
• Oliver, M. (1999) Capitalism, disability and
  ideology A materialist critique of the
  Normalization principle, in, R. J. Flynn R. A.
  Lemay (Eds) A Quarter-Century of Normalization
  and Social Role Valorization Evolution and
  Impact (Ottawa University of Ottawa Press)
• Shakespeare, T. (1999) Art and lies?
  Representations of disability on film, In M.
  Corker S. French (Eds) Disability Discourse
  (Philadelphia Open University Press)
• Topliss, E. (1979) Provision for the disabled
  (Oxford Blackwell)
• UPIAS. (1976) Fundamental Principles of
  Disability. Union of the Physically Impaired
  Against Segregation London