Surplus Manifesto: Health Communism; Life & Death Under Capitalism / Beatrice Adler-Bolton

Death Panel co-host and disability justice advocate Beatrice Adler-Bolton returns to the podcast to discuss their new book Health Communism: A Surplus Manifesto, co-authored with Artie Vierkant and published through Verso Books. Health Communism “offers an overview of life and death under capitalism and argues for a new global left politics aimed at severing the ties between capital and one of its primary tools: health.”

Throughout this 90 minute interview, Beatrice and I build on our last discussion in March (during which we discussed the “sociological production of the end of the pandemic”), incorporating concepts outlined in Health Communism. Key among those are defining the “surplus” class or population(s), in which, under the economic valuation of life under capitalism, whole populations are relegated to a regime of “extractive abandonment” — “the process by which these populations are made profitable to capital”, and a “means by which the state constructs “health” culturally, politically, and institutionally.”

Health Communism is a call to arms; a manifesto for those deemed “surplus” under the political economy of global capitalism. It is a history lesson, drawing on the social, economic, and political forces throughout the development of capitalism and the modern nation-state to commodify health, care, illness, and disability. Along with outlining the concepts and forces that have defined who is “deserving” of care under this regime, Beatrice and Artie draw on potent and revolutionary struggles that provide vital lessons in realizing health communism and “a radical politics of solidarity.” Because, “it is,” as they state, “not necessarily the case that we are all sick. But none of us is well.”

BIO:

Beatrice Adler-Bolton is a blind/low vision and chronically ill artist, writer, and disability justice advocate. Beatrice studies radical patient groups and the capitalist political economy of health as an independent researcher and is earning a master's in Disability Studies at CUNY. She is the co-host of the Death Panel podcast with Artie Vierkant and Phil Rocco. Beatrice’s first book, called Health Communism: A surplus manifesto, co-authored with Artie Vierkant, will be published by Verso Books in the US and UK in October 2022. 

Episode Notes:

Order a copy of Health Communism from Verso, or from Bookshop.

Listen and subscribe to Death Panel.

Learn more about Beatrice and her work at her website, and follow on Twitter @realLandsEnd

The song featured is “Deneb” by Nick Vander from the album Kodama (Nowaki’s Selection), used with permission by the artist.