From virtual reality to actual rights

As a performer, he wrote one of the anthems of the disability movement. Now, says Alan Holdsworth, it's time to get off Twitter and Facebook and on the streets

The fundamental job of a government is to protect all of its citizens. Its duty is to not discriminate on disability, monetary status, race, gender or sexuality but to be fair and just. In doing this it is evident that it has to consider that all its citizens are deserving of being called a human being and accorded the very basic freedoms that are inextricably tied to that condition. These are the right to shelter, food, life and freedom from fear.

For the last 30 or 40 years many of us have fought for choices and rights for disabled people. These choices and these rights are not extraordinary or special.

They are the rights to a decent appropriate education, a chance to make a contribution to our society and to be respected and valued. They are the rights to live in society not outside it. They are the rights for an opportunity to lift ourselves out of poverty and to not be a burden on families or anyone else, and the right not to beg for basic needs like going to the toilet.

Our rights to live in the community are being challenged as the Government announces they are taking financial support away without any plan to replace it. By attacking us, disabled people, through cuts and threats they create division rather than a nation which respects and protects all.

It is time for resistance on a scale never seen before, led by disabled people. It’s time for the talking to stop and the walking to start.

We need to use Facebook, Twitter and other social media to organize mass protests.

But we need to translate the social network to the street and actual not virtual non-violent protests.

We need to get out of our individual organizations. In times like these we need to put aside our long-held grievances and personal issues and work together to defend our freedom. Successful campaigns are never won by one group but by people working together towards a commonly agreed goal.

We need money and resources to run a successful and coordinated campaign.

We need money to pay organizers, bring people together to coordinate parliamentary and lobbying efforts, support direct action, create events and publicity. Then we need a coordinated lobby of parliament, direct action and protests on the streets, a coordinated media and publicity campaign and an administrative section to pull it all together.

It’s time to stop waiting for someone else to do this whether they should or not. It is my firm belief that only disabled people can save the situation and transform society for themselves.