Next Wednesday 7th September sees the start of the Paralympics in Rio. And the day before the event, on Tuesday 6th, Salford will see some direct action against a mystery company as part of a DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) nationwide #RightsNotGames week of action against the conditions being forced on disabled people in this country.
Dennis Queen, of MDPAC (Manchester Disabled People Against Cuts) stresses that the action isn't a protest against the Paralympics but is using the spectacular to draw attention to cuts being imposed by the Government and implemented by private companies and Salford City Council.
"The Government is pushing the cuts over to the councils to make them" says Dennis "For instance, for our care packages we have to be re-assessed every year, and, if we receive care at home, pretty much everyone is facing a reduction of their package.
"The only people who seem not to be losing packages are people who are getting steadily more ill" he adds "People only needing care since these cuts were made are getting a pitiful amount - you're looking at people who might need twelve hours a day who are getting half an hour, or an hour's care here and there. It's not adequate. There is an organisation in Salford that is contributing directly to cuts. We would like to talk to them and would like them to stop. So we will be paying them a small visit."
The group is keeping under wraps which company it actually is and what will be happening but when DPAC does protest it really does protest – ranging from chaining wheelchairs to block access to the Tory Conference last October (see here) to marching on the ATOS PIP Asessment centre in Salford in July (see here).
"At the end of last year the UK became the first country in the world to be investigated by the United Nations for grave and systematic violations of disabled people's rights" states DPAC "This is as a direct result of the disproportionate impact of austerity on disabled people and ideological attacks waged by the Tory Government that have seen disabled people and the poorest members of society hit by cut after cut after cut."
The sentiment is underlined by Dennis' own experience... "Care packages are shrinking" he says "And that means that people who rely on PA [personal assistant] support, like myself, are having their care reduced which enabled them to stay in their own homes."
Dennis explains that behind the cuts are the motives of profit, in the same way that educational, health and other public services are being privatised. He calls it the `warehousing of disabled people'...
"We've been fighting since the 70s to stop the institutionalisation of our people in homes and we are now seeing that rise at a rate that is completely unacceptable, because people are being left with no choice due to cuts" he explains "They would rather have us all incarcerated because they make more money like that. I've got my carer who gets paid directly and there's no profit made by anyone – that's no use to private business, which would prefer to have us in a position where we are warehoused so we can generate profit for them.
"The cuts seems very clear, that it's money being taken out of ordinary citizens' hands and put into businesses, which are also doing the business of making the cuts" he adds "If they had a cartoon it would show the Government coming up and saying `Those people over there; I want some of their money', and then just passing it over. That seems to be what's happening and that is central to the theme of the action... hopefully it's going to be welcomed by our colleagues in Salford."
The MDPAC action takes place on Tuesday 6th September meeting at 1pm Salford Central train station
For further details on the protest see the Facebook event page MDPAC #RightsNotGames - click here
For further details on DPAC #rightsnotgames nationwide action - click here
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