A broad number of movements come under the banner of “social justice”, to challenge oppression and strive for a better, fairer world. In ink and pixels this is all well and good, but when activists get together at book fairs, gatherings, demos etc. all kinds of deep-rooted prejudices bubble up. Not enough is being done to challenge judgemental behaviour against those who don't fit into the mould of “normal”.

It's easy to get sucked into a “scene”. If you have a mental blueprint that activists dress a certain way, listen to certain bands, smoke spliffs etc., it's possible to feel wary of those you regard as “more straight” and it goes without saying that this is a barrier to new activists. However, what about those times when you meet an activist who isn't calm, educated and articulate and has unusual body language? All too often, these people are laughed at, excluded and treated with hostility.

A generation ago, society had eccentrics. Now, thanks to the efforts of psychiatrists, we have people with “mental disorders” and the number of disorders grows each year. People who worry about state surveillance are labelled “Paranoid”, those who argue passionately against injustice and have a head full of facts and figures are “Deluded” and suffering from “Thought Disorder” and those full of dreams and visions of a better world are “Psychotic”. Meanwhile, kids who prefer to explore their surroundings and chatter (as thousands of years of evolution prepared them to do) instead of sitting still listening to teachers are labelled as “suffering from ADHD” and drugged. Government consultation documents on mental health claim that “10% of children suffer from mental disorders” and that more measures need to be put in place to “identify and treat them early”. Mental health is a growing industry and drug companies reap the profits, while experimenting on animals and people.

Psychiatry no longer classifies those who fancy others of the same gender as mentally disordered, because in most parts of the world, society has moved on from that. However, an increasing number of people who talk out of turn, behave in an “embarrassing” way or are seen as a nuisance are declared ill, labelled with mental disorders, hospitalised and drugged against their will. People diagnosed with real, physical illnesses have the right to choose what treatment they have and even reject it altogether, even for potentially fatal conditions like cancer. Those diagnosed with mental “illness” have no such rights and can be detained indefinitely, purely because a psychiatrist and a second-opinion psychiatrist, psychologist or social worker label them and detain them under the Mental Health Act. Challenging such decisions is a long and complicated legal process.

There's no such thing as “mental illness”. Illness is physical; it has symptoms that can be objectively observed and tested for. Yet doctors who become psychiatrists use a manual of behavioural “symptoms” and a tick-box approach to label people and commit them to a system in which they have few rights and can be stigmatised for life. Activists who enter the mental health system can get little support from family, friends and fellow activists; a far cry from the warm solidarity experienced by those locked up in conventional prisons.

I'm calling on social justice activists to: REALISE that not everybody is a stereotype articulate educated person with a dry sense of humour and a calm disposition; some of us are confused, obsessive, angry and don't quite understand the social rules of body language. We have an equal right to have our say, (though it's fair enough to stop any one person dominating a meeting or disrupting a demo; that's only teamwork.) QUESTION your prejudices and the dominant social ideology that put them there. MAKE ALLOWANCES for those who come across as different and treat them with respect rather than acting like the state and dismissing them as embarrassing. GET AWARE about the oppressive nature of psychiatry and CHALLENGE it's false assumptions. FIGHT the enforced hospitalisation and drugging of people labelled with mental disorders.

If you'd like to engage with us in debate, find out more and/or spread the word, please take a look at www.blue-panthers-party.com We're also on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and members attend a variety of events such as Anarchist Bookfairs. We're a young and growing group, please support us. Thanks for reading.