Chronically ill and disabled people took over Parliament Square to demand that the new Labour Party government undo years of damage caused by the Tories. From the DWP to social care via housing and hate crime, the system and its proponents have wilfully marginalised millions of people. Now, those people are demanding their rights back. But will chronically ill and disabled people’s calls be heard?
Disabled people: out again to protest their basic rights
Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) led a coalition of campaign groups in organising the ‘Disabled People Demand’ demo. From 12pm on Thursday 18 July, people gathered on Parliament Square’s green on what was one of the hottest days of the year:
The turnout was one of the largest seen for a DPAC demo since before the pandemic. Over 100 people were present:
Speakers included John McDonnell MP, Ben Sellers from People’s Assembly, and Paula Peters from DPAC:
There was also performances from artists and musicians, and artwork on display:
As DPAC itself said, the overriding thrust of the event was that:
Closing the door on the past doesn’t just mean closing it on the policies of the past – but also on the negative and exclusionary practices of the past too. This day will celebrate our communities survival through austerity, benefit cuts, assessment torture, covid and cost of living crisis – and a reminder that too many of us didn’t survive them.
We have a long history of devising our own solutions to whatever crisis we find ourselves in. That’s why we are taking this opportunity to present our solutions to political decision makers and to the rest of the people in the UK. We are putting what we believe are both possible and achievable out there.
So, there’s no hiding place from them. Nobody can say they didn’t know.
We will use them as a marker to measure the success or failure of the next government.
Various demands
DPAC and its allies have created a template of demands that they want the new Labour Party government to enact. The core demands are:
- Legislate to fully incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) into UK law.
- A “triple lock” on annual benefit rate increases.
- Legal Right to Independent Living with a National Independent Living Service.
- Introduce a national requirement for all new build homes to be accessible and 10% to be wheelchair accessible.
- A right to mainstream education and to education in fluent British Sign Language for Deaf and Disabled students.
- A fully integrated, fully accessible, affordable publicly owned transport system for all.
- A right of disabled access to built and natural environments.
- Introduce mandatory two-week timeframe for reasonable adjustments and an enforcement framework which does not fully depend on an individual.
- An independent public inquiry into the deaths and maltreatment of disabled children and adults incarcerated in mental health institutions.
- Legislate to abolish forced detention and treatment of people on mental health grounds.
- No Assisted Dying.
- Adequate provision of technical aids and equipment, eg. wheelchairs, and adaptive communication aides for people who are nonverbal.
There was a small police presence throughout the afternoon. The Canary noticed ‘blue bibs’ (police liaison officers) asking attendees about when the next demo was going to be. This, as group Netpol has repeatedly warned, standard behaviour from these pretend cops whose job on the ground is intelligence gathering. Fortunately, everyone there was wise to this and kept schtum.
A mixed bag of speakers
The rhetoric coming out of the event on 18 July was a mixed bag. A speaker from the Disability Poverty Campaign Group (DPCG) was there talking about the letter that it had written to Keir Starmer. As the Canary’s Hannah Sharland previously noted, it really didn’t go far enough – in fact, the letter felt like a begging bowl for disabled people, rather than anything ‘demanding’.
Moreover, the speaker from DPCG whose name the Canary missed on 18 July name-dropped Mind – a charity which should not have been anywhere near this kind of event, nor had anything to do with chronically ill and disabled people’s campaigning more broadly – given its historical involvement with the DWP.
This was juxtaposed by the always fiery and passionate Paula Peters – who sent a clear warning to the new Labour government while also remembering allies who had died during the 13 years DPAC had been active for. She said:
Many people are not here today because they did not survive. We will never forget our disabled friends, relatives, activists, and trade unionists. We hold them in our hearts and in our minds today, tomorrow, and always. And we promise this: that we will continue the fight that they began; that we honour them by not mourning them, but my organising, by mobilising, and fighting on for equality and social justice.
The Chronic Collaboration’s Nicola Jeffery spoke of how having a Labour Party government won’t make any difference to chronically ill and disabled people:
We are here because we know that regardless of which political party is in power or what policies they choose to implement, we need a wider societal change in the way that disabled people and chronically ill people are treated…
We have already witnessed the United Nations find our country guilty of grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s civil and human rights and we have seen nothing change.
We have already witnessed the treatment of chronically ill people being described in Parliament as the greatest medical scandal of the 21st century and we have still seen none change. This is not good enough and we as chronically ill people and disabled people demand better. We as chronically ill and disabled people demand more.
We were proud to support @Dis_PPL_Protest and others today at parliament for the #DisabledPeopleDemand – calling on the new Labour government to right so many historical wrongs. Here's our founder @NicolaCJeffery speech. Transcript below 👇 pic.twitter.com/1kgHse5qkG
— @TheChronicCollaboration (@TheChronicColab) July 18, 2024
The ball is in Labour’s court
Now, the ball is in Labour’s court. So far, the signs have not been good. It seems that the party will not treat chronically ill and disabled people much differently to how the Tories did.
What came across from DPAC’s event was that this was far less of a protest than normal. Road blocks were out, and music and art were in. This seemed more of a gathering, less of a demo.
One can only assume that this paring back of tactics by DPAC and others is to give Labour a technical chance to prove they’re not a reincarnation of the Conservative Party and actually start to work with chronically ill and disabled people, instead of torturing and killing them.
It doesn’t sound like a big ask – but based on the historical evidence, it clearly is. Unfortunately, it feels likely that DPAC and others will be back to blocking roads and blockading parliament sooner rather than later.
Hopefully, Labour will prove us wrong.
Featured image and additional images via the Canary
