PRESS CONFERENCE MONDAY OCTOBER 27TH

8.30AM aLEXANDRA SUITE ROYAL NATIONAL HOTEL bEDFORD WAY lONDON WC1. HODG.



Disabled people are embarking on three days of protest against the largest
charities in Britain on oCT 27 / 28 / 29 October in London.

DAN will be asking the largest Charities to cease their operations and let
disabled people control their own destiny.

DAN would like to stress that it will deploy tactics of NON VIOLENT civil
disobedience and street theatre to "Dish out the Dirt" on these institutions.

"These charities are not run by us and not controlled by us yet they claim to
speak for us” says a DAN spokesperson.

DAN's message to them is to move over and let disabled people talk and
advocate to the government directly for the rights that disabled people need.

“We say to them that despite the messages you put out about disabled people
being powerless and needing your help we are powerful and its time for you to
go.” The DAN spokesman says “Charities have become the major stumbling block
to disabled people's freedom running many of the institutions that segregate us
from mainstream society."

Whilst local and national disabled led organisations struggle to make ends
meet national charities often pay executives £100,000 a year plus.

Disability Rights campaigners are also concerned that when it comes to
talking to government the charities are often willing to sell out disabled people.
Disabled People and their organisations should be talking to government not the
un elected unaccountable charities who have a vested interest in denying our
freedom.



For a full press briefing pack please call 0121 247 4424

Or email freeourpeople@b...

CALL 0793 033 7863 mobile on the days.

10 reasons why charities have to go

1. We can speak for ourselves. Disabled people prove time and again that we
can speak for ourselves. We are our own best advocates. We have created
democratic organisations controlled and run by disabled people. Despite this
Charities remain run and controlled by non disabled people and often don't even employ
disabled people. The big charities have had 50 or more years to empower us so
why haven't they. Why do we still need them to speak for us?


2. Give us the money cut out the middleman. Charities are a major block to
disabled people and their organisations receiving direct public support.
Charities not only take the public's money but also actively compete against
organisations run and controlled by disabled people to take national and
local government money. Whilst disabled led organisations struggle some charities
have millions of pounds sitting in vaults doing nothing. Isn't it about time
for the public to donate to the real struggle for disability rights?


3. They are part of the problem not the solution. Charities claim falsely to
speak for us. They also actively advocate for things that disabled people
don't want. Charities are the main owners of the institutions that we are
desperately trying to get rid of. Our segregation in this country is run by
charities. Because they never valued our input they will always get it wrong. Charities
employ full time lobbyists who whisper in secret in Ministers ears. Its time
for an open campaign led by accountable disabled people.


4. Who are the great and the good? Who do they think they are? Most charities
are spearheaded by the great and the good. People far removed from the
discrimination that disabled people experience. They are unelected and
unaccountable. Their motivation seems to be driven more by image than commitment.


Worst of all it is these very spongers who decide how the cake is cut up when
it comes to dishing out the cash the public gives. What gives them the right?
Are they so arrogant to believe because they once were famous or are vaguely
related to the queen that it entitles them to be experts on disabled people
and our struggle?



5. Impairment specific causes create division and unfair, unequal
competition. Most charities advocate for single impairment groups each one trying to
outdo the other in raising funds. The successful ones with more money can spend
more money in making money whilst the unsuccessful ones struggle. The richer the
charity the more lobbyists it can employ to whisper in the governments ear at
free lunches paid for by the donating public. This is a crazy way to
distribute the resources needed to create an equal society.


6. We are not in control. Whilst the Charities are around it means disabled
people are not in control of our own destiny, our campaigns, and our lives.
The experience of many disabled people who sit on committees who attend
meetings overloaded by people from the charities is that they have no idea that their
very presence is oppressive and demeaning to disabled people. Our voice is
lost in their confused and incoherent message.


7. They send out the wrong message. What messages does all this send out?
Disabled people cannot organise, cannot deal with money, cannot speak, cannot
think, cannot be trusted, cannot work. In fact we are so pathetic that we can't
even beg for ourselves. Until the charities are out of our lives out of our
campaigns this message will persist.


8. Our bills not their sell-outs. Charities are driven by money not issues.
Charities sold out disabled people when they gave the Disability
Discrimination Act the thumbs up. Charities act as a buffer for any government to turn to
when our demands are not met or when they need a compromise too far. There is
always someone unelected, unaccountable in a charity who will praise the
government whatever. So long as the money and peerages roll in.


9. Our urgency not their pace. Disabled people who directly experience
discrimination have a greater sense of urgency than the great and the good in
charge of charities. Charities are directly responsible for the slow pace of
change in improving the lives of disabled people.



10. Work with us not for us. This does not mean disabled people do not want
to work with non disabled people on the campaign for equality. The opposite is
true. What we don't want is non disabled people to work with non disabled
people on our campaign. So join us in our campaign. Give disabled people your
support and your cash. Lets build alliances between other campaigns for justice
andequality lets build alliances with the big social movements. We've grown up
as a disabled people's movement its just that some people don't realise it
yet!!!!



DAN PRESS BRIEFING

10 things you should ask charities.



1. How much money do you have? Ask about their reserves and capital.



2. How many institutions do you run? Ask them about special education, how
many children in care how many people in "so called independent living schemes".



3. What is your position on cross impairment issues. How do you ensure that
people who haven’t got a big charity get a piece of the pie a piece of the
action.



4. Why don't you support DAN or BCODP financially?



5. Why do you compete for Local Authority and National Government contracts
against disabled led organisations?



6. Why don't you employ disabled people yet get paid to advise others on
employing disabled people?



7. Why doesn't your constitution state that only disabled people can sit on
your board?



8. Why can't you trust disabled led organisations to speak for disabled
people?



9. What are you saying behind closed doors to Ministers?



10. What is your relationship to the National Centre for Independent Living
and the British Council of Disabled People? Why do are you not part of these
oganisations?



10 things the public can do to support us



1. Stop giving to the large disability charities. The more you give the more
they cut us out.



2. Tell your MP to talk to organisations run by disabled people if the want
to know what to do. Ask you MP to support the Disabled Persons Rights
andFreedom Bill


3. Get organisations (unions, churches, clubs, etc). you belong to support
the Disabled People's Rights and Freedom Bill. Send your letters, emails etc.
to the

DAN NATIONAL OFFICE

30 Hayward Rd.

Whetstone, London,

N20. 0HA.

Email:- andy.gill@f...



4. You could also send cheques payable to DAN to the above address to help
disabled people campaign for themselves.



5. Join us send your contact details to the above address. Offer what you've
got in money time, experience or all of it.



6. Spread the word and tell your friends.



7. Wise up. Ask the DAN National office for more details of their campaign.



8. Make contact with you nearest local disabled led organisation and offer
them support. For more information on this contact the British Council of
Disabled People at Litchurch Plaza

Litchurch Lane

Derby

DE24. 8AA.

01332295551

www.bcodp.org.uk



DISHING THE DIRT ON MENCAP
Its like this…… Its Saturday Night and my friends are going to the disco.

I want to go but I can’t.

My mom won’t let me.

My dad won’t let me.

My carer won’t let me.

I am 46 years old.

And I can’t go to the disco.



Its Saturday Night and I want to go to the disco.

I want to go but I can’t.

My mom has kept my benefits.

My dad won’t phone a taxi

My carer doesn’t care.

I am 46 years old.

And I can’t go to the disco.



Its still Saturday Night and no one wants me to go to the disco

I want to go but I can’t.

My mom has bought off Mencap

My dad’s paid off the government

My carer won’t consent

I am 46 years old

And I can’t go to the disco.



Its like this……. every Saturday of every week in every town in Britain for
people with learning disabilities. All we want to do is go to the disco, be
with
their friends, have a drink and maybe if they get lucky have a snog.



Why is it too much to ask? Why won’t Mom, Dad and the carer make it happen?
Why are they allowed to get away with keeping me, locked up at home while they
go out, keeping my money and spending it whilst they go out, spending my money
on the taxi that takes them out. Why do I have to live like this?

What does it have to do with Mencap and the Government?



Turn Over.











Mencap was set up to work with carers and people with learning disabilities.



Mencap show they prefer to work with carers, listen to carers and act for
carers first and people with learning disabilities second.



Mencap don’t think we can speak for ourselves. One of Mencap’s chief
executives thought we couldn’t organise ourselves because animals couldn’t organise
themselves and because children couldn’t organise themselves. I am 46 years
old. You can see what Mencap thinks of me.



What’s it go to do with the government?



Mencap are telling the government that the mental incapacity bill will be
good for people with learning disabilities. That it’s ok for my mom and dad and
carer to speak for me, to act in my best interest, to make decisions for me
even if it is a decision I don’t agree with, even though everyone knows these
same people have abused me all my life. Stole my life and stole my money. Stopped
me from going to the disco on a Saturday night. Stopped me from being with my
friends or having a drink.



Its time to get wise. You know what’s true. You’ve seen it in the papers. You
’ve seen it on the tele. People with learning disabilities get a bad deal. We
get a bad deal at home, in care homes, off rich organisations and their
overpaid workers who are paid too much to tell people what we should have but what
we don’t want.



Its time to get real. We want to be free. We want a real choice of where to
live, who we live with, what relationships we choose, where to work, where to
have fun. You can’t keep us locked up like this forever. You can’t let the
government make the wrong decision because they listened to Mencap and not to
me and people like me.



Send this to your MP to show you are concerned about what Mencap says about
me and what has always happened to me.

FREE OUR PEOPLE .



DISHING THE DIRT ON THE R.N.I.D.



THEY STEAL OUR VOICE; THEY STEAL OUR CASH;

THEY LOCK US AWAY.

RNID (otherwise known as Really Not Interested in the Deaf)



The Royal National Institute for Deaf People is basically a million-pound
charity that is strangely unpopular with the very people it claims to serve.



For example, the Government recently recognised British Sign Language (BSL)
as a language in its own right. The RNID showed very little interest in the
5-year BSL recognition campaign, which was led by community based BSL users,
until BSL was finally recognised and the Government put up £1 million for bidding.



Suddenly, they were ‘experts’, despite being led by hearing people who can’t
sign! The RNID with their wealth of resources are actively bidding against
the deaf campaigners and their organisations for the government's money despite
being asked not to.



We want rights, not charity. We don’t want to see ‘Deaf Pounds’ going
straight into the pockets of the RNID’s fat cats. If they couldn't support the
campaign why should they get the cash?

This is typical of how these charities operate.



SLOW TO ADVOCATE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE

BUT QUICK TO TAKE RESOURCES AWAY FROM THE PEOPLE.



Their Chief Executive is hearing which sends a clear message to Deaf People
and the wider world that they (deaf people) are not capable of running their
organisation. Deaf people say that they are ready and willing to take over the
organisation and work with the disability movement for concrete change.

If they seriously want to advise the government on employing deaf people they
could start with themselves.



The RNID is the main culprit for keeping Deaf people locked in ‘care homes’
that they have set up all over the UK. Until the RNID is GOT RID OF deaf
people will not have the chance of full inclusion into our society.



Despite all this the RNID is still whispering in the ear of government and is
recognised by this government as a leading advisor.



We call on the government to listen to Deaf People

not the RNID



We call on the RNID to get our of out lives.



DISHING THE DIRT ON THE R.N.I.B.



BLIND PEOPLE CAN'T EVEN BEG

THEY NEED A DOG TO DO IT FOR THEM

Despite demands from disabled people, the RNIB continues to raise money by
using patronising and negative imagery and language about visually impaired
people.



PRICING FREEDOM OUT OF THE MARKET

Rather than demand that private businesses and public bodies make their
information accessible to disabled people as is required by the Disability
Discrimination Act it has developed a monopoly on essential equipment for
Blind people and then charges some of the poorest members of our society
extortionate prices. All this is done with money that the public donates and with the
full blessing of this government.



These so called services include;

Provision of long canes, brailing and transcription devices.



By doing this the RNIB is falsely inflating the price of making information
accessible and limiting the availability of such information.



STILL LOCKING US AWAY

Hypocritically, the RNIB claims to be in favour of inclusive education
whereby disabled children and young people learn alongside their non-disabled peers.
In fact, the RNIB runs many segregated schools, colleges and other
residential institutions, again at a fat profit falsely claiming that disabled people
need to go to such places!



RNIB SAYS BLIND PEOPLE ARE UNEMPLOYABLE

According to its own figures, 92% of RNIB staff are not disabled people. None
of its senior managers are disabled people either. Although it claims that a
majority of its Executive Council are disabled people, almost all of those on
this unpaid body are hand picked and appointed by the non-disabled people paid
to run the RNIB. Is this democratic accountability to disabled people? NO.



DIVIDE AND MISRULE

Despite all the above the RNIB employs full time lobbyists to talk to the
government. These lobbyists are unelected and unaccountable and by working in
isolation play nicely into the governments divide and conquer strategy. on
our behalf. Not surprisingly the RNIB has a history of dividing the disabled p
eople's movement being one of the first to welcome the very flawed Disability
Discrimination Act. By arguing from an impairment specific standpoint they are
the original creators of a damaging beauty contest between disabled people with
different impairments.



DAN says:



1. The RNIB should hand over all of it's resources to the democratic control
of disabled people.

2. It should announce the immediate planned closure of all of its segregated
facilities and support disabled people to live independently in the
community.

3. It should hand over all its lobbying resources to disabled people's
organisations to campaign for fully comprehensive, enforceable
anti-discrimination legislation based on the social model of disability and
support DAN's Rights and Freedoms Bill.

4. It should announce a five- year plan to hand over all its resources to
disabled led cross impairment organisations and wind up its affairs.

5. It should immediately stop using negative, offensive and patronising
language and imagery to portray disabled people and it should not beg on our
behalf without our permission.





DISHING THE DIRT ON SCOPE



THEY KEEP US APART AND LOCK US AWAY

Residential Institutions

a.. Disabled people have the right to live in their own homes with the
support
that they require, not residential institutions. During the financial year
2000/1, SCOPE received £11,545,000 from local government to run
"non-community based" residential services. They spent £11,456,000 running these services,
meaning that they made a net profit of £89,000 from the incarceration of
disabled people in residential homes. In 2003 SCOPE still run 17 residential
institutions in England and Wales, incarcerating up to 367 disabled people.


Education

a.. Disabled children have the right to be educated in a mainstream classroom
alongside non-disabled children. Scope deny this right to over 350 disabled
children every year by running 6 segregated 'special' schools. Source: Changing
Society by Chris Davies) and 1 college.


THEY PRESIDE OVER ABUSE

a.. Cases of child abuse are not uncommon in segregated schools, including
those run by Scope. For example, in November 1997 Scope announced that
Hawksworth Hall School at Guiseley near Leeds would close due to "falling numbers".
However in the preceding 5 years several cases of abuse were reported to the
police. Parents of 5 of these children attempted to sue SCOPE - their solicitor
announced that children "were thumped, force fed, made to walk upstairs and held
in chairs between 1990 and 1995". He went on to confirm that "Scope had
agreed that the incidents took place, and now they are not admitting
liability…" (Source: Bradford local press, 22nd October 1998).


NO JOBS NO HOPE AT SCOPE



· Scope say: "Many employers still favour non-disabled applicants over
disabled people. This happens for a variety of reasons ranging from fear or
prejudice to misunderstandings about people’s abilities or the supposed costs
of employing a disabled person." (Source: SCOPE - An Introduction to
Disability Issues) Currently a mere 3.1% of Scope's employees are disabled people
(Source: ReadyWillingAble.com Feb 2003), thus reflecting their own fear and
prejudice.



DISHING THE DIRT ON LEONARD CHESHIRE



Leonard Cheshire decides when you eat what you eat, who wipes your arse and
when.

CHOICE OR HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE?



Leonard Cheshire decides who you can see, when you can see them, who your
friends are and are not, if you can go out when you can go out and who you can go
out with.

FREEDOM OR INCARCERATION?



Leonard Cheshire has a budget of approximately 100 million pounds most of
which comes from our taxes. Local Authorities pay £35,000 + for each person
incarcerated.

CHARITY OR BIG BUSINESS?



Leonard Cheshire residents get a budget of £50 per year for clothing and £15
a week to spend. Their Directors are on £75,000 a year.



Leonard Cheshire is using its financial muscle to move into the "Independent
Living Market" After years of incarcerating us now it wants to stop disabled
people creating their own solutions.

WHO ARE THE EXPERTS?



Leonard Cheshire residents often are not allowed to have any privacy. They
are brainwashed and scared and see their appalling situation as their only
choice. Hardly anyone leaves a Cheshire home except in a box. Those that do tell of
the repeated human rights abuse and indignity suffered in their homes.

NO VOICE NO CHOICE!



INSTITUTIONS ARE NOT SOLUTIONS

THERE IS A BETTER WAY………OUR WAY!



Worldwide Leonard Cheshire is responsible for hiding away millions of
disabled people in awful situations. DAN believes that institutions are no longer
solutions for disabled people if they ever were.



DAN believes that all disabled people regardless of their impairment or
situation should be given the right to remain and fully participate in the
communities they live.



DAN believes that the way to ensure and protect that right is through the
funding of the independent living movement, run by disabled people
themselves.



DAN believes that if funding was redirected from institutions like Leonard
Cheshire we could create the support disabled people need to live in the
community as opposed to locking them away.



Who do you think has the answer? …….

Disabled people or high paid professionals that for years have locked us
away?



Where do you want to live? ……

Behind the walls of a Cheshire home where you are open and vulnerable to all
forms of abuse or in your community.



What do you want to support? ……..

Disabled people solving their own problems and living independently or
disabled people being brainwashed into thinking that removing themselves from the
community is safe?



What kind of society do you want?…….

One that keeps disabled people away from you or one that is inclusive of all?



SUPPORT DAN FREE OUR PEOPLE!



SAY NO TO LEONARD CHESHIRE