Report on Disablity Benefit Reforms demo

Swanner | 15.02.2006 13:51 | Liverpool

the opposition to the Govt's plans to cut/ reform Incapacity benefit (and
in the future others) is growing, join it!

A report on the Sheffield Welfare Action (SWAN) demo against disability benefit cuts/reforms in Sheffield on Feb 4th

No Cuts/Challenge the IB reforms!

Despite being called at very short notice, a committed group of disabled claimants, activists, and allies attended the demo, which was called to challenge the Gov’ts plans to cut/reform disability benefits. After, some exhilarating sounds from Sheffield Samba, which helped draw the crowds, They heard speeches from Green Party member Richard who is a disabled claimant who challenged the Gov’t to assist in providing real jobs for those who want to work as his experience of looking for suitable work was pretty negative. The next speaker, Colin, spoke about the history of the disabled people's movement and specifically about the Disabled Action Network(DAN) its history and how it would respond to these reforms. The last speaker, a founder member of Swan spoke assionately about the need for a group such as SWAN: it was necessary to counter the myths about welfare, he said this was just the start of a long battle and expressed his hope that hope that the rest of the social movements would get on board. The reality behind these myths were drove home by the giant placards which identified the many myths about IB and which was much read and commented on by members of the public who stopped to read it. SWAN gave away over 400 flyers, (which were not binned) and took addresses and contacts from lots of folk who are not online, etc. A message of support was also read out from Lancashire Association of Trade Union Councils (LATUC) who held a solidarity demo In Preston.

SWAN will be having another (National) demo in Sheffield in about two months time, and certainly more stalls and there are plans for a national network Contact us below) Many big disabled charities want to work with us as do Trade Unions, Faith Groups, etc, (though we are fiercely independent), and many self help groups and individuals have contacted us for advice and support. As well as our campaign work, responding to the gov’ts green paper, etc, we will be hosting a major benefit concert, street theatre and more lobbies/protests, why not get involved?

Resources:

excellent balanced summary of the changes here.