FOR THE International Day of Disabled people I have been asked to write about the last 10 years of co-founding and being involved with Disabled People Against Cuts and to talk about some of the high and low points.

To be honest no-one set out with the idea of forming a national campaign group for disabled people’s human rights — all we’d originally planned was a march to protest against the Tories’ vicious austerity cuts at their annual conference in Birmingham but there didn’t seem to be any other organisation or group around at that time that was working to stop these attacks so Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) filled the void.

For me personally the high points have been to do with all of the amazing and dedicated activists I have met over the past 10 years, plus our numerous peaceful direct actions to draw attention to the issues we’ve faced and make sure we could not be ignored. 

Taking direct action is extremely empowering and even failed ventures like our attempt to occupy Westminster Abbey grounds, which it seems couldn’t be allowed as they belong to the Queen, help movement-building so are of importance. 

On several occasions we have almost managed to storm Parliament during PMQs and certainly those attempts could not be ignored by MPs and government. 

It has been rewarding to help give such a powerful voice to disabled people, who are often ignored and excluded.

Outside of London another highlight action which I personally unfortunately missed was our day out to Iain Duncan Smith’s wife’s home near Milton Keynes to deliver an eviction notice. 

Everyone seemed to really enjoy their day out on this country estate-type gaff. 

There were tennis courts, picnic places and lots of sheep, I believe, and at one time there was a video taken by an activist ally but unfortunately YouTube removed this after a complaint.

Our trip to Hoylake in 2015 to help unseat the vile Esther McVey as part of our Revenge Tour was also fun. 

Of course we had to be careful not to alienate voters so decided against any traffic chaos and instead spent some of our time at the local Conservative club as well as leafleting lampposts and bus stops.

Also for me personally I feel a great sense of satisfaction when someone tells me that being part of DPAC saved their lives and helped to give them a purpose to continue living. 

Another high point naturally was forcing Atos, the first firm involved with work capability assessments, to give up its lucrative contract due to our continuous direct actions both at its offices around the country and at its recruitment fares. 

Students joined us by driving their recruitment teams off campuses. 

We took great delight watching their share prices plummet, although sadly it still holds many of the contracts for the discredited personal independence payment (PIP) assessments.

It has been clear from the ideological attacks we’ve faced over the last 10 years and especially policies put in place during the pandemic that our lives are held by the government to be of lesser worth then the lives of those who can more easily generate the creation of profits to maintain capitalism, yet we believe that all life should be treated as having equal value.  

We have also over the past 10 years struggled even with many of those groups and organisations which claim to be left-wing and progressive to have disabled people’s access needs met — especially when these have cost more money. 

Excuses such as “We get this room free and can’t afford to pay for a ground floor room wheelchair users can also use,” “We have no money to pay for British Sign Language,” “We can’t make the stage accessible it would cost too much” have rung out frequently and as a result many disabled people have remained marginalised from more mainstream events and campaigns against the mounting numbers of cuts we face. 

However on a more positive note today we are having a joint event with the People’s Assembly and have worked successfully with The World Transformed this year and both now seem to be more accommodating to our needs. This hopefully is an indication of real progress which we can build on.

The lowest points of course have not just been the failure of many groups to include us but more poignantly the numerous avoidable deaths of disabled people at the hands of the DWP and its failing assessments and savage imposition of benefit sanctions. 

There are so many innocent lives that have been tragically lost that it is impossible to name all of the victims of austerity. 

Victims too are the families and children left behind to mourn these tragic lost lives and to try to fight for justice. 

Our campaign to save the independent living fund (ILF) had high and low points. 

The ILF of course wasn’t perfect and many disabled people had to pay over £100 a week towards their care funded through it. 

Having to pay for care at the point of need is not acceptable, but the ILF was at least a national service with no postcode lottery.

A major high point was when the first court case was won and the government had to retreat on its closure plans. 

But sadly in the end with no support from the main official opposition party the Tories were able to close this scheme in June 2015.

The unexpected death of another co-founder, Debbie Jolly, was also a low point for me but she has left a lasting legacy with our joint work together with our research team leading to the unprecedented UN investigation into the British government. 

Britain will always be the first country in the world to be investigated in this way, which is a disgrace and the findings that disabled people’s human rights were being gravely and systematically eroded proved beyond any doubt that disabled people were being truthful and not exaggerating the impact of cuts in any way. 

It was the UN disability committee saying this and no longer just us. While we always knew the UN could not force the government to behave differently — and of course it hasn’t — being able to shame them in this way gave us all a sense of pride.