Health Communism

A Surplus Manifesto

By: Beatrice Adler-Bolton, Artie Vierkant

Narrated by: Sarah Welborn

A searing analysis of health and illness under capitalism from hosts of the hit podcast Death Panel

Written by cohosts of the hit Death Panel podcast and longtime disability justice and healthcare activists Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Artie, Health Communism first examines how capital has instrumentalized health, disability, madness, and illness to create a class seen as "surplus," regarded as a fiscal and social burden. Demarcating the healthy from the surplus, the worker from the "unfit" to work, the authors argue, serves not only to undermine solidarity but to mark whole populations for extraction by the industries that have emerged to manage and contain this "surplus" population. Health Communism then looks to the grave threat capital poses to global public health, and at the rare movements around the world that have successfully challenged the extractive economy of health.

Ultimately, Adler-Bolton and Vierkant argue, we will not succeed in defeating capitalism until we sever health from capital. To do this will require a radical new politics of solidarity that centers the surplus, built on an understanding that we must not base the value of human life on one's willingness or ability to be productive within the current political economy. Capital, it turns out, only fears health.

©2022 Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Artie Vierkant (P)2022 Tantor

Excellent

The dive in the American pharmaceutical industry was wild. The entire book was tremendously eye opening

Captivating

I gave 5 stars on all categories as I feel this book gives a compelling but logical thesis and verifies the claims with well sourced and research documentation. I would recommend this book to any healthcare professional who needs to be reminded of their Doctoral Oaths.

Important

One of the most important and meaningful books I’ve read in years. I know audible is a capitalism project but at least you can read this sorta thing on here.

incisive, foundational ideas for understanding capitalism and fighting back

i have seen no one else articulate this level of mind-expanding revolutionary thought. combining disability justice, anti-capitalist class consciousness, and a deep respect for the reader; this text is deeply under-appreciated and should be lauded as outlining our only way forward in a world which continues to abandon us while extracting profit from our very existence. the reversal of burden to identify capital as the parasite on our disabled and debilitated bodies is a spring of fresh water in a world where victim-blaming and DARVO routinely occur on a global scale. a fantastic text.

required reading

for everyone, but especially for the disabled. when we are selected by capital to be monetized, harmed, and forgotten, we urgently must seek an alternative.