Direct action ‘will put stake through the heart’ of government scapegoating of disabled people

Disabled activists have pledged to use direct action protests to “put a stake through the heart” of the idea that disabled people can be used as scapegoats and “whipping boys” in the run-up to general elections.

At an emergency meeting of at least 100 activists on Sunday, organised by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), there were repeated pledges to fight the government’s “fundamental” assaults on their rights.

The meeting was called after the prime minister announced a series of reforms that are set to weaken the social security safety net, with his speech described by one disabled writer as designed to “drip feed a nation with an extremely ableist rhetoric intended to radicalise, scapegoat and ostracise” (see separate story).

Rishi Sunak announced plans for new cuts to personal independence payment, a faster rollout of universal credit to disabled people – despite serious concerns about the potential threat to the “safety and well-being” of disabled people – and an end to what he called a “sicknote culture”, as well as other reforms.

Sunday’s online meeting of activists heard that most of these reforms would only be introduced if the Conservatives won power at the next general election, which is almost certain to take place within the next six months.

DPAC – including some of those activists at the meeting – and other grassroots groups of disabled people have now been fighting successive Conservative-led governments over successive waves of austerity cuts for the last 14 years.

But they vowed this week to continue that fight.

As well as discussions of direct action, the meeting considered possible legal action that could derail some of the government’s planned legislation, particularly with a general election imminent.

Andy Greene, a member of DPAC’s national steering group, said: “When it comes to direct action, I think we really need to start upping our game.

“I think we need to put a stake through the heart of this idea that you can constantly come back to us as the whipping boy at the run-up to an election and talk about making our lives smaller and smaller again every single time as a vote-winner.

“I am sick of being used, being tied to a post, and being whipped for votes for election run-ins.

“Direct action needs to drive these arguments back into the dark because we cannot keep putting up with it.

“We are re-emerging as a mass movement, and direct action has always been the cutting edge of our movement.”

Ellen Clifford, a member of DPAC’s national steering group and award-winning author of The War on Disabled People, said: “What we really need is some direct action.”

She said Conservative politicians were “trying to win the next election by directly attacking disabled people”.

She added: “We need to show them what we think of them.”

John McDonnell, Labour’s former shadow chancellor and a long-standing DPAC member, told the meeting: “I think the scale of this attack is worse than in 2010 now.

“I think it has gone beyond that because this is much more fundamental an assault on basic rights for disabled people, and that’s why DPAC was founded [in 2010].

“We are a resistance movement, and we resist attacks, and in resisting those attacks we give a vision and hope for the future.

“I am worried about people being scared and anxious about this attack, because of the scale of it, but to balance that out we are within six months maximum of a general election.”

He said he believed the government would be able to introduce very few of the reforms Sunak announced before the election.

McDonnell said that if disabled people managed to make the government’s proposals “a general election issue” they would “defeat most of this and we will come out of that much stronger” and be positioned to secure stronger commitments from an incoming Labour government.

He said he did not believe many people – particularly within parliament – realised the scale of the attack on disabled people.

He committed himself and his staff to supporting efforts to oppose the reforms, including through parliamentary questions, early day motions, debates and events within parliament.

He added: “We have to get back to direct action as well. We have to get back onto the streets.”

Clifford also called for efforts to build campaigning networks “to pull people together”.

She said: “There are people who are rightly really scared about what this means.”

She said efforts should be made to reassure people where the government’s changes will not be introduced immediately, and where existing claimants will not be impacted.

As well as DPAC activists, others at the meeting included representatives from the disabled women’s organisation WinVisible, Inclusion London, and DPAC Northern Ireland, and union activists from PCS, Unite Community and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Natasha Hirst, NUJ president and a long-standing disabled activist, told the meeting that she was leading on the union’s work to support journalists to improve how they report on disability and social policy.

She said: “I know that there’s an awful lot of reporting at the moment that is absolutely abhorrent, that is appalling, and I’m working really hard with my colleagues to try to educate journalists.”

She said she was also keen to put together information that would show activists how to challenge poor reporting.

The meeting also heard of other ways that disabled people could fight back against the government’s reforms, including writing to MPs and mainstream media, contributing to local radio discussions, and posting on social media.

DPAC’s Paula Peters, who chaired the meeting, said afterwards that the mood had been “determined and angry” and that those who attended were “determined to organise, determined to mobilise, and determined to fight back”.

She said: “We have had 14 years of fighting successive governments, and we’ve got to continue to resist the draconian attacks and continue to fight for social justice and for our human rights. There’s no choice.

“There are loads of ways that disabled people can support these campaigns, and we urge everyone, however they can, to join in with whatever they feel comfortable doing, because there is strength in numbers, and we’re stronger together.”

Claire Glasman, from WinVisible, who also attended, said the meeting showed that “everyone is determined to resist this attack on our benefit rights”.

She said: “In WinVisible, many of us are living with mental distress due to abuse, rape, war and other trauma.

“We are asylum-seekers, refugee, immigrant and UK-born women, and some of us are LGBTQI+.

“In the face of Rishi Sunak scapegoating sick and disabled people; the government wanting to give the DWP surveillance powers on the bank accounts of 22 million claimants, including pensioners; and the passing of the Rwanda bill, effectively ending the right to seek asylum and protection in the UK, we are more determined than ever to fight for our survival.”

She also said there were concerns that the government planned to privatise the fit note system, and she called on the British Medical Association to oppose any such plans, which would lead to “profiteer companies” making decisions, as with the “brutal disability benefit assessments” that have been carried out by Maximus, Atos and Capita.

*Anyone who wishes to be involved in DPAC’s work to oppose the government’s attacks on disabled people should email [email protected]

Picture: A DPAC protest in Westminster last month

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