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The politics of humility

With our media profiles as high as ever, Mike Oliver looks back to earlier days of protest and wonders where our sense of pride has gone

Disability once again seems to be back on the political agenda as the coalition Government’s plans for us have attracted a great deal of attention. The last time we had such a place in the sun was some 30 years ago when the then government had similar plans for us.

Our responses then were very different from today. We rejected society’s stereotype that we were tragic victims of unfortunate circumstances and instead we sang of our love for our bodies.

We chanted our demands for choices and rights on the streets. We warned the powerful that if they messed with us we would mess with them.

And we did.

Today it all seems very different and much more muted. We no longer seem to be proud of who we are and instead we are the broken of Britain. We protest in an orderly fashion on the internet or on carefully controlled marches. We ask politely for our benefits and services to be protected.

In fact the “we” is a very different we. Today our spokespeople largely seem to be non-disabled white men, and occasionally women, in suits who reinforce our weakness and vulnerability by speaking on our behalf.

30 years ago we challenged the legitimacy of these non-disabled people to speak on our behalf and we forced our names into the black books of lazy journalists so that when they wrote stories about us, it was us they quoted and not them.

The Government and the big charities love this new politics of course. It enables the Government to divide us into deserving and undeserving despite the fact that they don’t seem to be able to tell us apart. The big charities can smugly accept that they were right all along and that they have to continue looking after us and caring for us though never about us.      

The mass media can continue to ignore us and our issues, and our main ambitions now seem to be getting more disabled people into soaps and more disabled individuals into the latest freak show offering on television. It was all so very different with the old politics when we had specific programmes made about us by us and our allies.

The old disability politics was based on strength and pride. It gave us the social model, anti-discrimination legislation and independent living.

The new disability politics is based upon weakness and vulnerability. It asks for special treatment, protection and dependency. It may be that this is now the right approach for our current situation but only time will tell. One thing I know for certain however; I don’t like the way this new politics makes me feel about myself.

Article out of date

Posted by Peter Lockhart at 03 Sep 11 22:26
There is a new politic growing among disabled people. Campaigns such as the Black Triangle, Disabled People against the Cuts, The Broken of Britain and other more local campaigns such as Islingtons Disabled people against the cuts and Fifes campaign against the charges and cuts are reclaiming the initiative in disability politics. They are people from all walks of life and from different parties and none who are all coming together and making sure the disabled voice is heard loud and clear. They are shouting loudly that we will resist attacks, they are shouting loudly that they will no longer accept being treated as second class citizens, that they will no longer accept disabled facilities being an afterthought, they are saying clearly that they want to be citizens first, they want a full role in society, they want to be treated with dignity and won't accept the attcks by the right wing press, they are saying to all the political parties, Labour, Tory and Lib Dem that they won't be political pawns, they won't just sit back and be called scroungers and shirkers. Their number are swelling and will be heard. No more will we sit back and accept what crumbs are thrown in our direction. This is the new politic of the disabled.

Disorderly Protest and Strident Voices

Posted by George Rees at 03 Sep 11 22:31
We from the Black Triangle Campaign and the Broken of Britain have not been silent, weak nor meek.

We have been battling attempts to silence our voices by Atos Healthcare's solicitors, desperate to preserve their public image in the face of widespread criticism of their implementation of the Government's feared and loathed Work Capability Assessments.

We are set to return to the age of militant disability activism and we are leading the charge.

Join us.

A Partially Correct Analysis

Posted by sasha callaghan at 04 Sep 11 10:16
I have enormous respect for Mike Oliver. His contribution to the Disabled Peoples Movement has been considerable and nothing should diminish that. As to the first element of Mike's analysis of the current situation, I fully accept that as far as much of the mainstream media is concerned the only person who receives a platform seems to be Neil Coyle from the Disability Alliance - a white middle class man who speaks on behalf of a consortium of major charities. Well, no change there. But I do dispute Mike's second assertion. Grass roots campaigns such as Black Triangle, DPAC and Fife CAC have emerged as a response to the crisis and none of them follow 'the politics of humility'.We have organised, occupied and stood up to threats of legal action from Atos and we shall continue to do so. We are using social media,good old fashioned direct action and new initiatives like Disability History Month to fight back against the ConDem Government. And we're using the parts of the media that WILL give us a voice, such as Al Jazeera. Mike is incorrect in implying that we are passive in our response to the most savage attack on disabled people since the 1834 Poor Law; many of us are anything but passive.