New politics, new voice

From her perspective as a contemporary campaigner, Ruth Patrick wants to challenge the views of her fellow Disability Now columnist Mike Oliver

In September’s Disability Now, Mike Oliver compared the new politics of disability with the disabled people’s movement of the 1970s. While the movement of old was genuinely emancipatory and bold, he criticised the new politics that has emerged in response to recent governments’ assault on the welfare state. Disabled people are today portraying themselves as tragic victims; vulnerable, dependent and requiring special treatment.

I quite profoundly disagree with his assessment of the state of the so-called “new” politics of disability. Where he sees much to critique and even bemoan in the activities of Broken of Britain and the like, I instead see plenty to celebrate and embrace. For me, the activities of Broken of Britain, which sit alongside ongoing direct action campaigns and local protest groups, are demonstrative of a re-energised disability politics that is spreading across Britain.

As the politicians desert us, marches, lobbies of parliament, protests outside ATOS assessment centres and witty and insightful blogs all serve to challenge the reform agenda pursued by the coalition Government.

The use of social media – of Facebook, blogs, and Twitter – is also empowering – allowing disabled people to make their voices heard. With the explosion of social media campaigning activities more and more disabled people are now able to speak for themselves.

Broken of is – to me at least – an ironic title, designed to vividly and humorously question the labels and rhetoric which the Government so blithely employs to describe and stigmatise benefit claimants and disabled people. Those who blog as “diary of a benefit scrounger” and “benefit scrounging scum” are not accepting or internalising the Government’s depiction of the supposed mass of undeserving poor. Rather, they are exposing the great gap between the Government propaganda and the lived reality of being a disabled person in the 21st century.

Yes, in these blogs and accounts disabled people do often talk about living with impairment(s) and I wonder if this too isn’t something which Mike Oliver and others from the “old movement” are not terribly keen on. By describing how it feels to cope with excruciating pain, endless hospital appointments or hearing voices it could be said that disabled people are in danger of returning to a personal tragedy model of disability which over-emphasises impairment and neglects societal barriers. But this is not the case. Talking about one’s impairments can be empowering and enabling, and can also offer insight to others – both disabled and non-disabled.

Mike Oliver concluded that he doesn’t particularly like the way the new politics of disability makes him feel about himself. Again, I’m afraid he and I will have to disagree here. The new politics makes me feel pretty damn good as a disabled person engaged and energised by a broader struggle to challenge the regressive reforming activities of the Coalition. Long may the Broken of Britain continue.