Crippen Cartoons cartoons at the cutting edge of disability

At an online emergency meeting organised by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), there was a call to fight the government’s “fundamental” assaults on disabled people’s rights.

At the meeting, over a hundred “determined and angry” disabled activists pledged to use direct action protests to “put a stake through the heart” of the idea that disabled people can be used as scapegoats in the run-up to general elections.

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”.

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 (see previous blog post).

Disabled activists, including DAN, DPAC and other grassroots groups of disabled people, have been fighting successive Conservative-led governments over repeated austerity cuts for the last 14 years, vowed to continue that fight, 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’ and talk about us as a vote-winner … Direct Action needs to drive these arguments back into the dark … We are re-emerging as a mass movement, and Direct Action has always been the cutting edge of our movement.”

Ellen Clifford, another member of DPAC’s national steering group and award-winning author of The War on Disabled People, told the meeting:

“What we really need is some direct action … Conservative politicians are trying to win the next election by directly attacking disabled people … We need to show them what we think of them.”

John McDonnell, Labour’s former shadow chancellor and a long-standing DPAC member, also spoke at 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.

“We have to get back to Direct Action as well. We have to get back onto the streets!”

McDonnell added that 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.

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.

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

“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 them.

Read more about DPAC’s emergency meeting in Disability News Service (DNS)

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

A large crowd of angry disabled activists are gathered to protest over the plans outlined by Rishi Sunak. These involve more changes to the benefits systems, the privatisation of the ‘sick note’ system, and more penalties aimed at people experiencing mental illness. The protestors are carrying banners with an image of Sunak on them, along with a large red cross across his face. Slogans include ‘Don’t vote for this man’, No 1 Enemy of disabled people and ‘Guilty of removing our safety net’. On the ground are copies of Disability News Service with ‘Direct action planned to confront Sunak’ and ‘Tory’s plan to privatise sick note system’. Large pictures of Sunak are piled in the centre and have been set alight as part of the protest.