The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe

ISBN-13: 9781350348165 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022 / 384 str.

Ellen Clifford

Opis

Winner of the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing Award 2021 In 2016, a United Nations report found the UK government culpable for 'grave and systematic violations' of disabled people's rights. Since then, driven by the Tory government's obsessive drive to slash public spending whilst scapegoating the most disadvantaged in society, the situation for disabled people in Britain has continued to deteriorate. Punitive welfare regimes, the removal of essential support and services, and an ideological regime that seeks to deny disability has resulted in a situation described by the UN as a 'human catastrophe'. In this searing account, Ellen Clifford - an activist who has been at the heart of resistance against the war on disabled people - reveals precisely how and why this state of affairs has come about. From spineless political opposition to self-interested disability charities, rightwing ideological myopia to the media demonization of benefits claimants, a shocking picture emerges of how the government of the fifth-richest country in the world has been able to marginalize disabled people with near-impunity. Even so, and despite austerity biting ever deeper, the fightback has begun, with a vibrant movement of disabled activists and their supporters determined to hold the government to account - the slogan 'Nothing About Us Without Us' has never been so apt. As this book so powerfully demonstrates, if Britain is to stand any chance of being a just and equitable society, their battle is one we should all be fighting.

Spis treści

Part I Hidden in Plain Sight: the social context for the war on disabled people 1 1. Who are disabled people? 2. Justifiable exclusion: attitudes and othering of disabled people 3. From asylums to independent living: disabled people on the edge of society Part II Targeting Disabled People: retrogressive legislation and policy since 2010 4. Welfare ‘reform’ 5. Independent living cuts Part III Human Catastrophe: the impact of austerity and welfare reform 6. The human cost 7. Re-segregating society 8. Political fallout Part IV Understanding the Welfare War: why disabled people are under attack 9. A story of ideology and incompetence 10. Collaborators Part V Fighting Back: the rise of resistance 11. Forefront of the fightback 12. Concluding thoughts: where do we go from here?