DPAC protest outside BBC Portland Place September 2 2013

Disabled activists from grassroots campaigns Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Black Triangle and Mental Health Resistance Network have occupied the BBC building in London to protest against the role the media are playing in worsening attitudes towards disabled people and a complete failure to give space to the realities of what this government are doing to disabled people.

Ironically just last week the BBC reported on a research report by Scope which highlighted how things have got worse for disabled people since the Paralympics, but the BBC themselves have contributed to this situation by a lack of balanced or accurate reporting. In fact their coverage of the research angered disabled people by spectacularly failing to draw any links between the worsening conditions disabled people are facing and government policy.

Despite the fact that Iain Duncan Smith has been pulled up before the Work and Pensions Select Committee for misrepresentation and manipulation of figures and statistics, the BBC continues to report information released by the DWP as fact.

This resulted in a situation over Easter weekend where disabled people, about to face an austerity armageddon with benefits and income essential for their survival brutally slashed away, also had to contend with national media coverage that encouraged a view of us as benefit scroungers and cheats. It has since been proven that information released by the DWP ahead of the changes in April such as the figures for all of those who had supposedly stopped ineligible claims for incapacity benefit due to the tightening up of the benefit system, were misrepresentations with no basis in evidence. Just the smallest amount of research would have revealed to the BBC that they were about to report lies as objective fact. In addition to the misrepresented figures and statistics which the BBC promoted, further weight was given to the government’s propaganda by the succession of government ministers who were then given air time to continue to peddle their falsheoods. Where people were invited on to present an alternative view, they were non-disabled people from national charities. Firstly these people do not represent us, and secondly there are many more informed disabled campaigners who could have exposed the lies and misrepresentations.

Time and again the government and front bench Ministers have lied to justify policies which are causing the deaths of disabled people. Only last week the Disability News Service has had to raise formal complaints against the DWP press office for deliberately presenting false information about the level of spending on disability in the UK. Meanwhile the situation in the UK has gained international notoriety. The UN are currently in the UK to investigate and report on what the UK is doing through its housing policies. Solidarity protests outside the British Embassy have been organised by supporters in Canada.

Yet time and again the BBC have not only failed to report on what is happening but to contribute to public ignorance of what is going and to inflame hostility with questions such as “Why can’t disabled people take their fair share?” It is well evidenced that disabled people are bearing the brunt of austerity measures with those with the highest level of support need being hit nineteen times harder than the average citizen. To even put the question why can’t we take our fair share is damaging and in contempt of disabled people’s basic rights to be treated with respect and free from hostility.

For more information please contact Rosa Wilkinson on 07505144371.

Notes for editors:
1) Disabled People Against Cuts was set up in October 2010 to oppose the government attacks on disabled people. Our week of action last year highlighted the hypocrisy of Atos’ sponsorship of the Paralympic Games and culminated in a protest of 700 people outside Atos headquarters and the occupation of the DWP building by disabled activists and a guide dog for 2 1/2 hours. We are now in the middle of our week of action for 2013: Reclaiming Our Futures, which is focused on the wide range of attacks that are pushing back disabled people’s rights be decades.
2) DPAC report on DWP abuse of statistics: http://www.scribd.com/doc/149776210/DPAC-Report-on-DWP-Abuse-of-Statistics-Final-22-June-2013
3) http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/08/ministers-silent-after-being-caught-pulling-lies-out-of-thin-air/
4) Campaign for a Fair Society: how the cuts are targeting disabled people revealed the extent to which austerity is disproportionately impacting on disabled people

- See more at: http://dpac.uk.net/2013/09/for-immmediate-release-dpac-do-the-bbc/#sthash.jHB28XZ0.dpuf

Join the free coach from Rugby to the massive TUC demo in London on 20th Oct

Come to London and make your voice heard. The local Unite trade union have put on a free coach to London at 7.30am from outside the Town Hall on Sat 20th Oct, to ensure as many local people as possible can protest against the cuts. Please contact rugbyagainstthecuts@gmail.com and we will pass your details onto the organisers of the coach.

Unemployed or need support find out about unite and its Community Membership

Support the Public Sector Pension Strike – 10th May 2012

30th Nov Strike Demo

PCS, UCU and Unite will be on strike on Thursday 10th May, in protest at the government’s ongoing attempt to slash public sector pensions in order to pay for the bank bailouts.

In Birmingham, there will be lefletting on Hospital Way, at the QE Hospital from 12noon, followed by a joint strike rally from 1pm.
The rally will be held in Lecture Theatre Room 101, Haworth Building, University of Birmingham (see the flyer for a map).

Coaches are running from around the midlands, and are free. Solidarity delegates from student & community groups are welcomed, but priority will be given to PCS, UCU and Unite members.

Coaches:
Birmingham – Town Hall, Victoria Square. Midlands TUC 0121 643 4342
Worcester – Elgar statue by Guild Hall. Steve 07545 838 690
Dudley, Merry Hill, Stourbridge, Halesowen. Dudley TUC 07795 410 261
Telford, Wolverhampton. Debbie 07881 823 211
Coventry – Tile Hill, Spon End, City Centre. Ian 0773 664 6554

Fair pensions for all – don’t make teachers, nurses and public sector workers pay for the bankers’ crisis

NHS Privatisation- A guide to the Tory and Lib Dems plans

This video explains how the government's NHS White paper will result in the privatisation of the majority of the NHS. The government has no mandate to do this. Please contact Mark Pawsey Rugby's Tory MP by calling 01788 579 499, writing to Mark Pawsey MP, Albert Buildings, 2 Castle Mews, Rugby CV21 2XL or by emailing mark.pawsey.mp@parliament.uk

Also contact, Rugby Lib Dems leader Jerry Roodhouse and demand the Libs drop their support for the plans.
 jerry.roodhouse@rugby.gov.uk

RUGBY ANTI-CUTS PROTESTERS JOIN CAMPAIGN AGAINST WELFARE REFORM BILL

 Last Friday, members of Rugby Against the Cuts joined campaigners from across Warwickshire to protest against the Welfare Reform Bill which is going through Parliament this very week.  “This Bill is trying to make the poor and disabled pay for an economic crisis they did not cause,” Rugby Against the Cuts spokesperson Pete McLaren claimed today.  “A number of us from Rugby, including members of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) and the Green Party, joined the protest outside the Constituency Office of Leamington MP Chris White.  It is his Government which is pushing through these attacks on the Welfare State,” he continued, “and protest organisers ‘Disabled People Against Cuts’ targeted Leamington because it is a Tory marginal.”

“In the event, Chris White cancelled the planned surgery, so we gave in a long letter detailing the adverse effects of the Welfare Bill, including:

• Introduction of Universal Credit which will bring compulsory workfare and caps on housing benefit and other payments, leading to increased poverty and homelessness.
• Moving people from Incapacity Benefit to Employment Support Allowance through punitive and unfair compulsory work capability assessments which are carried out by Atos, a ‘private for-profit’ company who are declaring that those who need 24-hour support, and those with terminal cancer, are ‘fit for work’ in order to meet government targets and reduce disabled peoples’ income drastically
• The introduction of a much stricter sanctions regime with the loss of benefits for up to 3 years, a risk particularly to people with learning disabilities or mental health needs who find it difficult to cope with the demands of looking for work at the same time as having little prospect of finding any.
• Replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) with Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) with the explicit aim of cutting entitlement by 20%.”

 “The Welfare Reform Bill that Chris White and other Tory and Lib Dem MPs support has suffered a number of defeats in the House of Lords recently as people begin to realize just how draconian these cuts will be.  Whilst these cuts are being forced onto the poorest and most vulnerable, the richest people, whose banking friends helped cause the economic crisis, are actually seeing their wealth rise,” he concluded.

NOTES

§  Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) can be contacted at www.dpac.uk.net/

• Rugby Against the Cuts was set up by local trade unionists and political activists on September 22^nd.  Officers were elected as above
• Rugby Against the Cuts meets on the second Thursday of every month, 7.30pm, at the Three Horse Shoes, Rugby
• Rugby Against the Cuts can be contacted on 07881 520626, at rugbyagainstthecuts@googlemail.com, or through our web site at http://rugbyagainstthecuts.blogspot.com 

  

 

PROTEST AT LEAMINGTON TORY MP OFFICES FRIDAY 20TH JAN AT 1PM - DEFEND THE SICK AND DISABLED FROM TORY AND LIB DEM ATTACKS!

The Tories and Lib Dem Government was defeated in the Lords last week on cuts to benefits for people with cancer and also general time limits to claim benefit – the CONDEM government intend to ignore this hindrance and go ahead with their plans anyway  – its clear this government needs to be put on the spot for such callous action.

Being disabled or seriously ill is not a life style choice unlike owning a yacht or having your home done up at the tax payers expense

Please bring your banners and placards and tell your friends to support this West Midlands protest organised by Disabled People Against Cuts.

As the Tories discuss arbitrarily removing 20% of disabled people from Disability Living Allowance and plan to finalise the introduction of Universal Credit which will lead to massive increases in poverty and homelessness please join us to tell Tory MP Chris White in his very marginal constituency what we think of the Condems policies. Please invite anyone else you know who would like to join us in a protest in Leamington Spa.

JOIN US TO PROTEST AGAINST CUTS TO DISABLED PEOPLE’S BENEFITS AND SERVICES AND THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR NHS ON WHICH ALL OF US WHO ARE NOT MILLIONAIRE POLITICIANS RELY.

SAY “NO” TO THE WELFARE REFORM BILL,THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR WELFARE STATE AND “NO” TO WORKFARE

What Cuts do Disabled People Face?

▼Closure of the Independent Living Fund supporting those with high support needs, proving that the government’s rhetoric of supporting disabled people is as empty as their souls

▼Movement from Incapacity Benefit to Employment Support Allowance through punitive and unfair compulsory Work Capability Assessments carried out by Atos, a private for-profit company who are declaring those who need 24-hour support and those with terminal cancer ‘fit for work’ in order to meet government targets and reduce disabled peoples’ income drastically

▼VAT increases and benefit rates linked to CPI not RPI which is likely to cost disabled people an extra £800 per annum.

▼Cuts to social care budgets, cuts to housing support, cuts to Access to Work programme (helping disabled people with any equipment they might need to compete on an equal basis with non disabled employees), constant attacks on disabled peoples’ integrity by the Tories and others suggesting we’re not really disabled but ‘just pretending’ to get meagre benefits which they’re going to abolish anyway.

Where – LEAMINGTON SPA, WARWICKSHIRE

At CHRIS WHITE, MP’s office, 43a CLEMENS STREET, OLD TOWN,  CV31 2DP, not far from railway station.

When – Friday, JANUARY 20^th, meet outside constituency office at 1pm.

www.dpac.uk.net,   mail@dpac.uk.net, http://twitter.com/Dis_PPL_Protest