Red Medicine

Jess Thorne returns to the podcast to discuss workers' self-management – from the Lucas Plan of the 1970s to Yugoslavian workers' councils. She explains how workers have challenged the idea that innovation only happens thanks to top-down management structures and asks what worker autonomy offers in the face of current political problems.Jess Thorne is a trade union organiser who has spent the last two years assisting health care assistants with a rebanding campaign. She is also a labour historian and has contributed to journals such as European History Quarterly, Labour History Review and History Workshop Journal.Tickets for Festival of the Oppressed 2025: https://revsoc21.uk/festival2025/Jess' report on workers' self management: https://autonomy.work/portfolio/worker-led-innovation/  SUPPORT: www.buymeacoffee.com/redmedicineSoundtrack by Mark PilkingtonTwitter: @red_medicine__www.redmedicine.substack.com/

Abby Kluchin and Patrick Blanchfield dive into the impactful work of D. W. Winnicott, a cornerstone of British psychoanalysis. They explore how WWII influenced his theories and the evolution of maternal roles in psychoanalysis. The conversation highlights how negative emotions can foster creativity, contrasting Winnicott's views with traditional psychoanalytic perspectives. They also discuss the complexities of caregiving and its societal undervaluation, all while shedding light on the emotional dynamics between parents and children and how these insights are relevant today.

Erik Baker, a Harvard lecturer and Senior Editor of The Drift, joins to unravel the intricate relationship between entrepreneurialism and pop psychology. He discusses the historical roots of the entrepreneurial spirit, tracing its evolution from spiritualism to modern self-help. Topics like the link between anti-psychiatry movements and entrepreneurship, as well as how crises drive innovative thinking, are explored. Baker emphasizes the need for collaborative solutions in today’s economic landscape, highlighting the shift from individual success to collective welfare.

Emily Callaci, a History Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, delves into the fascinating origins of the Wages for Housework movement. She highlights five key women, including Selma James and Silvia Federici, who championed recognition for unpaid domestic labor. The discussion covers the movement's resurgence in contemporary feminism, especially during the pandemic, and critiques mainstream narratives. Callaci also explores the intersections of race, class, and caregiving in activism, revealing the timeless struggles women face within economic systems.

Ellen Clifford contextualizes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – often referred to as the assisted dying or assisted suicide bill – within the long history of eugenic politics and welfare reform.Ellen Clifford is a disabled activist and writer. She is on the National Steering Group for Disabled People Against Cuts and is the author of The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe. SUPPORT: www.buymeacoffee.com/redmedicineSoundtrack by Mark PilkingtonTwitter: @red_medicine__www.redmedicine.substack.com/

Peter Apps and Anna Stec discuss the Grenfell Tower fire, placing the incident in a longer political history of deregulation and privatisation as well as the ongoing dangers caused by the toxic nature of the fire. Peter Apps is a journalist who has covered the housing sector for Inside Housing and other publications for over 10 years. He has reported extensively on the Grenfell Tower fire, authoring a book on the topic titled Show Me The Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen. Anna Stec is Professor of Fire Chemistry and Toxicity at the University of Central Lancashire and has published extensively on the topic. Anna was also an expert witness the Grenfell Tower Enquiry.  SUPPORT: www.buymeacoffee.com/redmedicineSoundtrack by Mark PilkingtonTwitter: @red_medicine__www.redmedicine.substack.com/

Callum Cant joins the podcast to explain 'workers inquiry', a form of research that places the working class as its centre and protagonist. He explains how it differs from other forms of theoretical work and why its so essential for building a militant working class. Callum Cant is a Senior Lecturer in Management at Essex Business School, he is the author of Riding for Deliveroo: Resistance in the New Economy and the co-author of Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labour Powering AI, with James Muldoon and Mark Graham. He is an editor at the publication Notes from Below and the host of the forthcoming Notes from Below Podcast.  SUPPORT: www.buymeacoffee.com/redmedicineSoundtrack by Mark PilkingtonTwitter: @red_medicine__www.redmedicine.substack.com/

Alyssa Battistoni, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Barnard College and co-author of A Planet to Win, dives into the ideology surrounding care work. She challenges the economic undervaluation of care roles and the implications for predominantly female caregivers. Discussion highlights the disconnect between care costs and low wages, advocating for a reevaluation of how society values reproductive labor. Battistoni examines the intersections of identity, class, and gender in labor dynamics, revealing complexities that shape workers' realities in a capitalist framework.

John Pring documents the history of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), specifically how this department has inflicted 30 years of violence and austerity on sick and disabled people in Britain. John Pring is founder and editor of the news agency Disability News Service. He is co-creator of the Deaths by Welfare timeline, and co-editor and specialist advisor on the award-winning Museum of Austerity project. He has written for mainstream publications including the Guardian, Observer, Daily Mirror and Private Eye, and was associate producer on the award-winning Dispatches documentary, The Truth About Disability Benefits. He is the author of Longcare Survivors: The Biography of a Care Scandal.  Earlier this year, Pluto Press published his most recent book, The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence. SUPPORT: www.buymeacoffee.com/redmedicineSoundtrack by Mark PilkingtonTwitter: @red_medicine__www.redmedicine.substack.com/

George Severs provides a history of HIV/AIDS in England, paying close attention to the various political and social formations that emerged to address the harms of the virus, which were compounded by institutional homophobia and state abandonment. Dr George Severs is a historian of HIV/AIDS, sexual violence and sexual health in modern Britain. He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Geneva Graduate Institute in Switzerland where he is working on a history of sexual health and race. He is the author of Radical Acts: HIV/AIDS Activism in Late Twentieth-Century England.  SUPPORT: www.buymeacoffee.com/redmedicineSoundtrack by Mark PilkingtonTwitter: @red_medicine__www.redmedicine.substack.com/