Featured letter: disabled workers want our voices heard, not charity

Disabled rights campaigners outside the Supreme Court hearing on seven bedroom tax cases, 9.11.16, photo Amalia (Click to enlarge)

James Collett, Socialist Party disabled people and carers group

I'd like to thank John Gillman and the editors of the Socialist for making an audio version of the paper available at socialistparty.org.uk.

This is an essential step forward in our paper's mission to give a collective voice to the working class, and to bring the real news to everyone who is ignored, isolated, slandered and oppressed by capitalism and the big business-controlled mainstream media.

Disabled workers do not want charity; we do not want the patronage of royals and rich celebrities: we want our voices to be heard in society, and for society to be changed by the power of our collective strength.

It is the profit-driven system that disables us, that values people according to their ability to function like machines for the enrichment of the big bankers and industrialists. And it is that same system which attempts to divide working class people by blaming minorities for the crisis in our public services - really caused by cuts and privatisation.

Malcolm X said: "You can't have capitalism without racism," and the same is true of discrimination against disabled people.

To fight prejudice we must fight the rigged system in whose interest prejudice works. To do that we must be organised as a class, with not one person excluded from participating in the struggle for a socialist society which will allow everyone to fulfil his or her potential, not as a machine or commodity but as a human being.

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.

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