No To Homeless Cripples

[trouble]

National Day of Protest Against Welfare & Housing Benefit Cuts - Trafalgar Sq (vid 1)
Originally uploaded by Lisy Babe

Video is of around 30 or so people with a variety of evident & non-evident disabilities protesting in the rain at Trafalgar Square. Visible signs include "STOP!", what appear to be signs of where people are from(?) "Hackney", "Nanigey" "Haringey" "Brent"

Chats are "No to Homeless Cripples!" and "Save our Benefits, Save our Homes!"

See also: Protesters lobby outside Leeds Civic Hall over mental health services cuts

See also: The lack of #solidarity. Oh, wait, that's bitter me. Mustn't be bitter, then no one will stand up for the cripples because they're all so bitter. But as much as I appreciate the outrage over Jody McIntyre's treatment (and I do!), how come the broken of Britain were out supporting students, and yet students stayed home when it came time to stand up for us? {ETA: Not that students and people with disabilities are in any way mutually exclusive terms, nor are students not risking becoming homeless in light of these steep increase in fees and the cuts to support programs and similar things. Thank you for the poke, spiralsheep)

Must have been the rain.

Comments

[spiralsheep]

"Nanigey" should probably be Haringey.

how come the broken of Britain were out supporting students, and yet students stayed home when it came time to stand up for us?

I don't think you intended to imply those two groups are mutually exclusive.

[trouble]

No, I didn't. <3 I will rephrase.

[silveradept]

Well, we're all very good at being divided into our little camps and myopically focusing on our own group's issues, instead of seeing the inter-connections. And students are not traditionally the best group to rely on as allies to help with protests - many of them are sufficiently self-absorbed in their own lives to not fathom helping out others like this.

[trouble]

I shouldn't actually be so bitter. It's not like this isn't a stressful time for students and all that. I just feel so much rage right now. People will die without disability support, and they're standing out there basically alone.

[silveradept]

The sad and unfortunate plight of many of the people in every country - people don't care enough to make sure their fellows survive, in addition to the actively hostile ones who need visiting from the Three Spirits just to get a clue as to how they might be hurting others.

[spiralsheep]

People will die without disability support

I don't know whether to nurden you with this but it's not as if you don't already know in other contexts so....

There are already news stories of suicides by people with mental health issues who've been denied benefits. I know this always happens, and at least it's getting a tiny amount of media attention now, but I expect increasing numbers of vulnerable people will feel forced into suicide as their last coping mechanism. :-(

[spiralsheep]

:-)

[spiralsheep]

* ...to burden you...

SIGH @ TYPO

[trouble]

If I had been by myself and close to a tall building on November 30th, I would have jumped, and that was "just" over massive student loan debt rather than benefits cutoff. It felt like there was no way out at all, and I cannot imagine what it's like for people who are being cut off now from what they need to live, while politicians and national newspapers call them "work shy".

[kaz]

Re: students and disabled people - I think that e.g. quite a few student occupations had "tell the government to oppose welfare cuts" as part of their demands (see for instance this comment by someone at the Cambridge occupation) and some of the student protestors also protested about cuts to disability services. However, this stuff? NOT reported on in the mainstream media.

ETA: should clarify that I'm using very fudgy language because I don't know that much in specifics but I've heard anger that the media are only focussing on the tuition part of their demands from several people involved in the protests.

[spiralsheep]

Yeah, let's just say I've been there too. :-(

[trouble]

Thank you, I appreciate hearing that.

Some of it I know - I've been keeping up on as much of it as I can, and I know there were protests on behalf of better wages and the like for support workers, etc, and the media bias is just massive in this.

[trouble]

♥

[forthwritten]

As someone who's been involved in student occupations and protests, I wouldn't be as quick to call students self-absorbed and selfish as some people. The media are trying to portray students as greedy and only concerned about stuff that will directly affect them when most of the people protesting won't be paying £9000/year in tuition fees. They certainly aren't going to report on the links we're forming with other campaigning groups or the way we see and talk about the cuts as affecting the least powerful in society.

The student anti-cuts group I'm involved with has good links to a group "defending jobs, services, welfare & education against cuts" in the county, and other student groups are forming similar links.

It is bad that there weren't students at the anti-disability cuts actions, but this is a pretty awkward time for arranging student action. Lots of universities' terms ended on Friday, people are trickling home and probably won't have had time to contact anti-cuts groups wherever they are for the break. It's hard to book coaches or otherwise arrange transport if people can't give you a definite answer on whether they'll be there.

Still, it is an issue and I agree that we ought to show much more solidarity with other groups. I'll send round an email to our mailing list and write something for the blog.

[trouble]

♥ Yeah, a lot of that I know, but not everyone does. (Not everyone is ignoring their thesis so they can keep up on twitter, after all. Self: stop ignoring thesis.)

It's just part of a bigger problem that I keep running into again and again, which isn't in some way limited to students or protests or protesters, or this particular round of cuts or anything of that nature. Like, I see a lot of people on the left get really angry about the Deaf man who was also abused by police during the G20 protests in Toronto, and yet I can't get those same people to subtitle their videos - the ones they're allegedly making so that they can reach out to more people on the left to join them in solidarity. What, Deaf people only count when they're making international headlines, and not the rest of the time? (Not that Deaf people are the only ones who need subtitles, which just makes the lack of them more irritating.)

Mostly, at this stage, I'm just tired of feeling like, in general, people with disabilities are standing alone, unless they're needed as pawns to make a political point of some sort, which is just... yeah. It's exhausting. And I'm not so much angry at student groups as I am resigned and so very very tired.

As, I am certain, are all of you. What a shitty time of year to be doing this.

[forthwritten]

♥ back (and yes, thesis is being horribly neglected)

I agree - it's shitty that people with disabilities are only taken noticed of when they're being abused by police and can be used for point-scoring. I've been trying to point out the intersectional issues but I don't know how much people are taking in.

I'm really uneasy with the way these protests are conducted - marching and being kettled for hours is pretty damn inaccessible, not to mention the cost of getting to London and having protests on a weekday. It doesn't help in trying to create an inclusive, open movement.

[trouble]

*nodnodnod* This is something I would love to discuss more with you at length. Perhaps when we are both not up to our neck in alligators?

[forthwritten]

Oh, yes, that would be great! Definitely when the alligators have been subdued.

[kaz]

it's shitty that people with disabilities are only taken noticed of when they're being abused by police and can be used for point-scoring.

One thing I love about the Jody McIntyre thing is that although he could have easily been used like this, the BBC interview has made him important as someone with opinions in his own right (and who royally pwns interviewers, at that.) There's still elements of that but he's being treated as an active participant much more than I'm used to.

...thirding neglect of thesis. >>