Do Progressives spend enough time challenging the multiple oppressions that disabled people face?

Have we spent enough time understanding the frameworks that disabled activists use to comprehend

the world and guide their action?

And have we properly considered how an understanding of the issues of disabled people could give

us a deeper understanding of capitalism itself?

My guest today thinks he answered to all of these questions is no, so it could be a challenging

conversation I'm joined by Ellen Clifford.

Welcome to the show, Ellen.

Thank you, Michael.

We should begin with a congratulations because Ellen's recent book has just won the

Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing.

The war on disabled people, capitalism, welfare and the making of a human catastrophe is that

most of our conversation today will be based upon.

I want to start with the basics.

What is disability and why should our audience become familiar with this concept of the social

model of disability?

So I think most of what most people think they know about disability is actually wrong.

So for disabled people who are politicised and part of the disabled people's movement,

for us disability is actually the oppression that people living with impairments or illnesses

or differences experience.

So it's an oppression that society imposes on top of the existing pain or distress that

we might already live with.

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