CHINA MILLS IN CONVERSATION WITH GARGI BHATTACHARYYA

China Mills’ new book No More Deaths by Welfare exposes the lethal mechanics of Britain’s social security system that has been weaponised against the very people it claims to support, and how people are beginning to imagine a new society, refusing the confines of a welfare system built on shame.

China Mills connects the dots between the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the arms trade, the immigration system, and colonial extraction. In doing so, she traces the dark history of a department rooted in state-sanctioned policing of who is (and is not) deemed deserving.

But it is more than a chronicle of harm. Drawing on over a decade of activism led by disabled people and bereaved families, and from police abolitionists, the book delves into the power of collective imagination, healing shame, and refusing ‘perfect victim’ narratives. From direct action on the streets to the quiet, powerful mutual aid practised from bed, the book is a call to action not only to build solidarity and power against state violence but also to imagine, practice, and build welfare justice.

We are delighted that we can welcome China to Housmans to discuss her vital, urgant work. China Mills is Head of Research at Healing Justice Ldn, where she created and leads the Deaths by Welfare Project. She is part of the Stigma Free Futures design team at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and was previously an academic, researching austerity, poverty, state violence and corporate violence, mental health and suicide. She is the author of Decolonizing Global Mental Health and is published in The Lancet, Critical Social Policy and Transcultural Psychiatry. She currently lives in Manchester, UK. 

Joining her in conversation we are delighted to welcome back our old friend Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya, Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre, Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL and author of We, The Heartbroken (Hajar Press, 2023) & The Futures of Racial Capitalism (Polity) among other titles.

The two will talk for around 45 minutes to an hour, followed by an open discussion with the audience.

As always, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com, and a free ticket will be made available.

If you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier, or arrange for delivery, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com.

Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00.