Marxism and Bodies

[Marta Russell]

>At 11:21 PM -0800 1/11/03, Thomas Seay wrote:
>>However, so-called "real socialism" replicated the fordist factory 
>>system and implemented taylorism in a race with capitalism.  As a 
>>result, it ended up being as bad, if not worse, than the capitalist 
>>system it was competing against.
>
>All industrializing societies then adopted what is often called the 
>"Fordist" factory system.  However, did the "Fordist" factory system 
>directly determine, for instance, whether or not the disabled were 
>confined at home or in institutions, denied mobility, due to lack of 
>sidewalks, buildings, restrooms, public and private means of 
>transportation, etc. that were wheelchair-accessible?  Not so 
>simple. We need to have comparative empirical studies of the 
>conditions of the disabled to see relative weights of causal 
>factors: the general level of economic development; the organization 
>of production ("Fordist" or otherwise); family structures; space for 
>autonomous social movements; ideology; etc.

Through this part of history it is fairly clear that disabled people 
were mostly segregated in both capitalist and socialist nations into 
institutions for the deaf, mentally retarded, blind, etc. There were 
workshops set up, sheltered workshops for the blind to make mops and 
brooms, for instance to sell to the federal government. Ironically 
FDR, himself a wheelchair user, passed this legislation. In USSR I 
don't know if the equivilent sheltered workshop was apart of it or 
not, but there appears to be no integration (civil rights and barrier 
removal) models until the 1970s.  Rehabilitation was the big thing 
after WWI in the US due to returning vets who had impairments but it 
only worked for those who could produce at a fast enough rate to 
satisfy an employer, there was (and is economic discrimination which 
kept many of them out of mainstream employment.) And I must mention 
that the rich disabled seemed to do better - a job was waiting sort 
of thing - if they were not institutionalized. Their parents tended 
to shuffle them off to institutions as a matter of course as well.


>
>*****   from the December 27, 2001 edition - 
>http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1227/p6s3-woeu.html
>
>Disabled Russians gain mobility, visibility
>
>snip

The US and Brit activists have been working in cahoots with Russian 
counterparts to get disabled people more politically organized there.

Marta

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